Do you really think you need "perfect" English to work at international startups or tech companies in the U.S. and Europe?

Do you really think you need "perfect" English to work at international startups or tech companies in the U.S. and Europe?

Many developers believe this, causing them to wait years before applying.

They are told: "first get your C1, then apply."

The reality is much simpler: English is measured by working and communicating, not by a certificate.

Let me share my experience:

When I moved to San Francisco in 2015, I had been studying English for years, but my pronunciation was not perfect.

I had a strong accent and sometimes stumbled over certain words. Because of this, at first, I hesitated a lot before applying to international companies, thinking I wasn't ready.

Eventually, I decided to give it a try.

I applied to FAANG and startups that interested me and had interviews with recruiters who were not native speakers either.

During those calls, I realized something curious: I didn't always understand every word, and they didn't understand me perfectly either.

Still, what really mattered was how I explained my code, reasoned through my decisions, and solved problems in real-time.

I moved on to technical interviews with the development teams.

There, English stopped being a problem: everyone had different accents and spoke in various ways.

What mattered was the ability to collaborate, think aloud, and add value to the team.

In the end, I was hired and now work on an international team with people from India, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

This story is not unique. I see it with many of my students at @engineergame: developers who believe their English is not good enough and end up landing international jobs because what matters is how you communicate and provide value.

In truly global teams, like those in San Francisco or Google:

Imperfect grammar

Different pronunciations

And yet it works perfectly

The key: functional communication > academic perfection

The most ironic part: sometimes the toughest filter comes from local companies or people who are not native speakers either.

You have interviews where you don’t understand the interviewer, and they don’t fully understand you either…

and yet someone decides your English is "not good enough" 😅

The truth: they are not looking for an English teacher.

They are looking for engineers who can think aloud, explain their decisions, and collaborate with others.

If you can do that, you already have the level that matters.

What you do need is to know how to present yourself and communicate your experience to capture interest and pass the initial filters of the recruiter.

Knowing how to share your achievements and your way of working is worth much more than a C1 on paper.

If you want to see how to apply this, comment "improve" and I’ll send you a class with a mind map to better prepare for interviews and stand out even if your English is not perfect.

PS: We need to connect 😉