Moving to Europe from America

Ignore title, currently an associate on the buyside in London. Unfortunately, for IB you will likely require local language skills (even in London languages matter a lot but ofcourse English is fine). Most coverage teams are run out of London (Nordics coverage for example is typically run out of london, with smaller deals going to local banks). PE is generally more flexible from a language perspective (typically PE firms will invest cross border - i.e. Danish/Swedish PE firms will buyout German/French companies etc) but you’re competing with local talent who have done 2 years at a top London bank and eventually move back to their home country in a buyside seat so even this is tough. Unfortunately, finance doesn’t provide a lot of opportunity for international mobility. You’d have far better mobility aiming for large corporates wherever you want to work - FWIW out of the countries you’ve listed Sweden and Germany will by far be the easiest with Switzerland & Denmark being the hardest given visa problems. I’d aim for FAANG/Large Corporates or strategy consulting (potentially get a European MBA which will help quite a bit) - this will be the easiest path.

RE economic opportunity, I’ll say that you’d be shocked at how much lower salaries are in Europe relative to the US. Despite that COL & quality of life IMO is much better, so it really depends if you want a stable (and I’ll say “happy”) life then Europe is definitely an amazing place to be. If you want the same progression & opportunities you have available to you in the US then Europe will not provide this for you, people are generally less ambitious and there is more of a focus on WLB & family life. Frankly, finance is just a much smaller field in Europe take Denmark for example, their are only really 3 investment banks there and virtually 0 US Banks, and the big 4 M&A teams actually (Sweden is more open). You’ll have much more luck doing something like strategic finance, corporate strategy, marketing etc at a startup or large corporate who are more open to internationals.

For me personally, I’m currently based in London and trying to move to Denmark but have had virtually 0 traction, but I have had some luck in recruiting for Sweden.

Let me know if you want to PM and I’ll come off anon.