English Fluency vs Creative Thinking in Agency Hiring
English fluency still does a lot of quiet work in Indian agency hiring. The interview is in English, the portfolio review is in English, the copy test is usually in English, and a candidate who speaks it with ease reads as sharper in the room, whatever the quality of their ideas.
That habit made some sense when most big briefs were English first. It makes less sense now.
Why english fluency became a proxy
For decades much of the most visible work in Indian advertising was written in English and then adapted. Client presentations happened in English, international networks reported in English, and creative department culture formed around people comfortable in it.
Fluency became shorthand for things agencies genuinely wanted: confidence with clients, shared cultural references, the ability to present. Shorthand is efficient. It also filters people out for reasons unrelated to the job.
An interview held in one language tests that language first and the thinking second.
What the work now needs
A growing share of Indian advertising is made for audiences who live in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu and many other languages, on platforms where regional-language content has grown fast. Ideas born in those languages tend to sound truer than ideas translated into them.
A creative who thinks natively in Bhojpuri or Kannada, and who knows what a joke means in a small town, may be worth more on many briefs than one who writes polished English headlines. Hiring that screens for English first will keep missing them.
The counterargument
English remains useful. Many clients still brief and approve in it, and a creative who cannot present or defend their work to a national marketing team will struggle to get it made. Fluency is a real skill, not only a class marker.
The question is order. Agencies can test for thinking first, in whatever language a candidate thinks best in, and then support the presentation skills that can be taught. Reversing that order is how the industry keeps hiring the same kind of person and calling it talent.
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