Dear Rachel,
I'm a buyer interested in moving to Florida for reasons other than work-related. In particular, Miami is appealing, but I'm worried about my lack of background in Hispanic media. I don't speak Spanish and I don't know much about Hispanic media in general. Will that hurt my chances of getting a job? How can I play catch-up?--Florida Floyd

Dear Floyd,
You can find a job and be very successful in Miami without learning Spanish, but Spanish will give you more options and make life easier.

Marlene Kruelle, associate online media director for Definition 6 in Atlanta, worked as a buyer in South Florida without knowing Spanish, and she knows other successful media folks in the area who are monolingual.

“This buyer does not need to be overly concerned about Hispanic media because a media supervisor at the agencies he will interview with is probably already buying the market of Miami,” Kruelle says. “South Florida agencies oversee media buying for many southeast markets -- Miami is only one of those markets.

“However, I highly recommend that he learns more about Hispanic programming and ratings by researching information on media web sites and by speaking with someone who has been buying Hispanic media for several years. By learning how to buy Hispanic media, he will become a more well-rounded media buyer.”

Study the market profiles in the trades for Miami/Fort Lauderdale. NielsenMedia.com has information on TV measurement in Hispanic markets and Arbitron.com has stats on Hispanic radio ratings. Read about programming on the Hispanic network web sites: Telemundo, Univision and TeleFutura, to name just three. MiamiHerald.com has a sister web site called elNuevoHerald.com that has local news and entertainment. It is in Spanish but you could navigate around, and you may pick up some of the language as you do.

“Once the buyer has researched Hispanic broadcasting, I would encourage him to meet with a new colleague who has been buying Hispanic media for several years,” Kruelle says. “The colleague can mentor the buyer about Hispanic novelas, sports, ratings, culture, etc.”

Pat Sklar, president of the Chicago recruiting firm Sklar & Associates, points out that several Miami agencies are willing to hire those without knowledge of Spanish, Crispin and Beber Silverstein among them. However, many Miami agencies do require or prefer Spanish.

Learning Spanish will certainly be helpful as your career progresses and will give you more choices, especially if you intend to stay in the Miami area. After you have shown your worth at your new agency, you could propose that they send you to Spain or Latin America to take intensive Spanish classes for several months, or at least pay for evening Spanish classes.

In fact, if you can afford to take some time off before job hunting or prior to starting your new job, you might consider shouldering the costs yourself. Pleasant cities like Cuernavaca, Mexico, Barcelona, Spain, and Antigua, Guatemala, have dozens of language schools. Spending a vacation learning about the language and culture would be fun and also would look great on your resume.

It would show you are willing to put in some time and money to ensure success in your new environment. And though you won’t necessarily need Spanish at work, it certainly will be very helpful for daily life in Miami. You will find that at many businesses and restaurants, only Spanish is spoken. Knowing it can only enhance your personal and professional life.