Hey all — looking for some perspective from people on the ground in Europe.
For context, I’m an English-only speaking analyst working in capital markets at a European bank in London. My girlfriend is European and I’d love to relocate somewhere in Europe in the near / medium term.
if anything i’m mainly thinking German-speaking regions or the Nordics (assumption has always been that places like France / Italy are basically off the table without the language — but happy to be told I’m wrong!)
Curious to hear from anyone in IB / capital markets across Europe
- How big of a barrier is being English-only speaker really?
- Are there specific cities / teams where it’s more doable and curious to here lifestyle/comps/love to hear more abt your experience!
Any thoughts / experiences would be hugely appreciated — especially from people who’ve made a similar move.
Thanks!
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Language is gonna kill like 95% of opps as speaking the language natively is a hard requirement
Only place that I’m aware of that is more lenient is the Netherlands but it will be a complete uphill battle as the preference for native Dutch speakers is high. The large european markets only hire native speakers from what I’ve seen
thanks, hmm yeah thats makes sense, but do you think there's the London premium?
0 value if you don’t speak the language. The only worthwhile differentiating factor you have as a junior is if you actually speak the language of the country you want to work in.
You’ll get outcompeted by local bankers in MM/regional banks cause they do speak the language and it’s not like the quality of your work is substantially better cause you worked at a BB.
Opportunities with only English as a requirement do exist, but as per the above commenter are few, and you will still be competing against people who speak multiple languages.
Certainly not impossible, just hard. I’d pick up learning something if I was you
Brother just learn the language. If your girlfriend is European + if you have Europeans on your team it will not be hard to practice. Most language learning is passive anyways. So just start by learning grammar and focus on expanding your vocab for the first 2 months. Once you have this, you can then start watching shows, movies and YouTube videos in that language. Podcasts are also a fantastic way to build oral comprehension. Then combined with this you can start speaking in that language with your gf and other people you know. You'd be surprised at how helpful people are. I used this method (not even that committed) and I'm having full conversations in another language in 4 months of learning.
I know you'll have long hours but there will be down time (even for 10 minutes) where you can integrate this. Little and often is better than staying as a stereotypical mono-lingual Brit (esp considering the way Britain is heading).
hahaha great advice, I have been trying to learn Spanish using Anki and grammar textbooks, but I just can't seem to keep consistent. Can't wait till I get to the 2 months space where I can then focus on input consumption
I never bothered with textbooks. To start with I used this thing call « Fraçais par la methode nature » which is “French the natural way”. There’s one for Spanish and Italian as well. And you basically just read through stories and complete exercises that way. Then the audio files for the stories are on YouTube. You should be able to find a pdf download for free on Internet Archive.
Leave Woman and focus on your career in London. Guys are running away from European Satellites to London and then you’re chasing skirt to those offices.
Best deals are concentrated in London + career progress is slower in European offices because lots stay long-term and treat it as a career/less opportunities to move around, hence less seats are emptied. Also, European deals are more regional. For PE/PC you 100% need local language.
P.S. For Nordics not worth it. Very introverted culture and not much to do. Same with German, pure depression Switzerland okayish, but everyone leaves the country in the weekends (perks of being in central Europe)
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