What kind of finance roles should I go for in Luxembourg?
Hello guys,
I recently received an admit to one of the French Grande Ecoles (HEC, ESSEC, ESCP) for doing a Masters in Management. I will be doing internships after my first year.
I don't see myself working and living in France in the long run. So, I was on the lookout for EU countries proving jobs with only English speaking requirements. I came across Luxembourg and it checks all the boxes.
I want to do internships and possibly convert it to full time offers. As of now, I'm open to Asset Management, Wealth Management, Equity Research, and Corporate Finance roles.
Which companies hires non-EU immigrants with only English speaking requirements?
How is the work culture in Luxembourg? Were you able to have a good work life balance?
Would my Grande Ecole Masters be recognized in Lux? It's ranked among the top 10 programs globally in the Financial Times rankings.
I know this a lot to ask for. But any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
To keep it simple here:
- investment management is mainly mid-back office here. I know someone in this forum might jump on me and talk about fund sales and argue that it is client facing. Fine...
- Private banking - pretty much need a European language, either French, German, Dutch or a Nordic language.
- Corporate finance - Only know one big four corporate finance team that sponsors visa, not hard to find out. Just a warning before hand, if you don't speak French or German, it is less likely to get the small cap M&A/ mid-cap due diligence engagements. You would probably get exposure to some external valuations and lots of audit support valuations. And audit support sucks in the sense that, clients always try to inflate the value and push boundaries as much as possible. Also, there are a bunch of those to be done.
Thank you so much for the meticulous reply. Really appreciate it. I was really considering a career in Luxembourg post-Masters. Mostly because of English speaking opportunities and QOL with a competitive compensation.
I guess I should stay in Paris, do some meaningful internships with BBs and eventually move to London.
Worst case do your first corporate finance internship in Luxembourg. You go to a top 3 GE, I know HEC/ESSEC have good placement of non-french speakers. And yeh, recruit for London SA and spring weeks already in the coming semester (around this September).
You can do internship in Luxembourg with a French student visa, full-time sponsoring is very firm dependent though.
As a rule of thumb French banks (BNP, SocGen, Natixis....) typically only hire French speakers, so focus on the other ones.
-Wealth management/private banking is the main front office function you will find, although there are also mid-back office support teams within. I believe it would be difficult to land due to the linguage limit but not impossible.
-Several opportunities in risk management, fund administration and other back office functions in asset management/private equity with great WLB, but maybe boring or not too challenging.
-Big 4 is also doable, but corporate finance m&a teams are very unlikely.
-Amazon is huge, it sponsors visa and hires a lot from ESCP/ESSEC. The experience can vary a lot and depending on the team it could be intense and challenging or boring.
-All of the above opportunities would provide good WLB as you will mostly only work the 40 hours of your contract (9 to 6) and over time is paid as a full-timer.
There is a handful (or less) of small pe funds with their investment teams that recruits from all the three Grand Ecole you mentioned, but I don't have insights on WLB and can definitely imagine long hours.
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