I just got an alert for a VP position at a German mid-market bank (yeah, LinkedIn’s algorithm isn’t the best), and out of curiosity, I started reading the comments. They’re asking for a minimum of 6 years of IB/M&A/CF experience (an expected requirement) and a “Ein mit „sehr gut" abgeschlossenes Studium (mit dem Schwerpunkt Finance, Accounting o. Ä.),” which is basically a 4.0 GPA (people can argue it could be 3.9 or 3.8, but in a top business school, it’s equivalent to a 4.0 in the U.S.). This literally goes against common sense and makes me question if I made the right call coming here instead of the U.S./UK. Like why would you ask for the grades of someone that has been in the tranches for almost a decade? To put it in context, only 1 to 3 out of 50 students doing a finance track at a target university can achieve these grades. Most people with grades like this usually attend Marketing or Entrepreneurship courses.
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It's a filter. In Germany, they do not expect you to check all points of a job ad but you are completely right, 5+ YOE and asking for grades is unusual.
Besides, "sehr gut" (very good) in Germany means your average grade point average is 1.3 or better, in few cases it means 1.5 or better. Also, German grades are generally not really comparable across universities WITHIN Germany, let alone the US. My university GPA in Germany is 1.1 - to get a 1.0 in an exam I have to score at least 95/100 points in every exam in all classes. Now compare this to the UK where 70% is already a first class degree.
Also, converting German grades to US and vice versa is somewhat pointless. Someone with a 4.0 in the US does not necessarily achieve a 1.0 in Germany but I am pretty sure the opposite is true in most cases.
Lastly, I vastly prefer the UK/London too...
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