EU language compulsion to work in IB?
Is it compulsory for a non EU prospect to know a European language to get internships or FT offer in IB UK?
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I know a non EU international who works in London IB and only speaks English
Is it uncommon?
You can survive with English if you are very fluent or native. But I have seen many "fluent" internationals who had such a poor command of the language, they would never make it past the interview stage. Accent is a different story, some people have no problem with it. Some are very offended when they hear certain accents.
Depending on the company any other EU language is a huge plus, especially French, German, Italian, Spanish. But they are not a requirement to find a job in London.
Many EU immigrants to the UK speak two languages fluently, with English being the third or more. Some speak their mother language and English. English proficiency varies wildly in the EU though. Some are terrible, some are better. Pretty much no immigrant is native level fluent, really. (popular combos are ES/PT/EN, EN/DE, DE/CH/EN, SE/FI/EN, NL/FR/EN, etc)
Why would an employer be offended of someone's accent unless that individual is holding grudge to a particular ethnic baground ?
Because some people don't like an accent in a language that is native to the country they are all in. This is less a problem in London, but more outside of larger cities. in the UK, pretty much every immigrant has an accent. This isn't necessarily connected to an ethnicity, but some accents are also hard to understand. Anybody can have an accent, regardless of their ethnicity. I have friends in the UK from France, China, India and Japan and almost nobody can understand their English. Yet, they live peacefully in the UK and life is good for them. These particular people (not everyone from their home nation) have a terrible accent.
Language is an important part of IB, as long as people can understand you, your accent shouldn't be a problem. Also, certain people within an "employer" might be offended by a very foreign accent, not the whole company.
As awful as this sounds I think there is a negative bias towards international students/applicants who have a strong foreign accent. No one will admit it in this day and age of course but I’m yet to meet someone with a very thick foreign accent in the industry. Foreigners of course but their English is impeccable.
Europeans too has got some accent when they speak English, how come there's alot of them in UK working in IBD and not many Asians who are equally competent.
Post brexit, EU prospects are considered as international applicants, will they be treated the same as Asian applicants ?
At the end of the day, it is about what a candidate might bring. A EU candidate might have an accent, but they are also native/fluent in at least another language.
Most international candidates I have met did not only have a poor command of English, they also didn't speak any other languages that were useful for the group they interviewed for. I had no problem with their accent at all.
This doesn't mean that certain other people might have a problem with ethnic minorities and won't hire them, regardless of accent.
Nah i’m a non EU international and am at a US BB in London. Can’t speak a European language but my English is like well above native quite frankly
Did you had an intra co. transfer to London or were you recruited here? Because In US the recruitment process is different.
Simple answer no. Now does it help - in general yes. I would not be too much fixated on this as it's not really something you can change over the course of 3-6-12 months - focus on the rest of your CV (School, work exp, extra curriculars, grades etc.).
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