19 Comments
 

My friend's parents asked the same question when he got an offer. Although, hes an international student so they had an excuse.

 
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I hope it's not a joke because you certainly don't need to know German at Credit Suisse or UBS. You don't need to know how to speak English with a British accept at Rothschild, Barclays Capital, RBS, or HSBC. (Is Lazard British??? somebody confirm).

DB's investment banking position in the US just functions like the Goldmans the Morgans and the Lehmans. It is seentially DB USA Inc.

I mean if you are working in Germany you might need to know German.

The word I know is working in Japan knowing Japanese is almost a must. Working in Singapore/HK knowing Chinese is a plus but there are plenty of people who can't speak a word of Mandarin.

 

Nah, but you need to have been in a frat, and have a thousand meaningless ECs, to work at Douche (pronounced doosh-uh) Bank.

Hope this helps.

 

But even there (in IB) they speak English in all their meetings, so maybe not. In fact someone told me there are a couple of Americans working in IB Frankfurt who can't speak German.

 

Suckermc, it's true that there are i-bankers working in Frankfurt, Germany who can't speak the language. However, they're finding it pretty hard to integrate. It's easier if you're some senior guy, but if you're a monkey, it can be pretty tough... Depends on the proverbial "culture", though...

 

Strictly speaking, no. You don't need to be able to speak German. I know several people at their London office who don't speak it.

However, being able to speak German will give you an edge, particularly if you are interested in their Europrean and German operations.

A lot of the big IBs and other prominant firms (e.g. PE firms) in Europe like to see candidates who are able to speak another modern European language.

 

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