Applying to consulting firms in Hungary without Hungarian

Svetik:

Hello everyone!

I am planning to make a career switch and want to try consulting. There is a high possibility that my personal life will bring me to Hungary. Is it possible to get an offer from major consulting companies in Hungary without the knowledge of Hungarian?

Any information and thoughts will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I couldn't tell you for sure but I just recently interviewed with the Hungarian BCG and went to their office so I can tell you about the impression I got. They started off and conducted the whole interview in Hungarian and I am pretty sure that they speak to each other in Hungarian within the office (this might be a bit annoying to you even if they let you work there). However, their working language is English, especially because every single client they have is a foreign multinational. I was told they have no purely Hungarian clients as those firms could not pay for their services. At the same time, they do keep in touch with the Hungarian contact people of all those multinationals, presumably in Hungarian.

All in all, since the working language is English and they work with foreign firms, you might be able to get a position and even do the job well. However, it might be hard for you to get used to not understanding what your colleagues talk about. You can expect the general business sector people to speak ok English but they will probably pick up their phones in Hungarian and you'll have to initiate the switch from Hungarian to English.

Also, unless you plan to marry someone in Hungary and live your whole life there, I would not encourage you to try to learn Hungarian. It is a beautiful language but one of the hardest to learn. Tons of little rules and exceptions, etc. Also, pretty useless outside of Hungary. And this is coming from a native Hungarian speaker:)