RE: Most useful languages to learn (for IB/PE)?
Hi everyone,
Looking to zone in and decide on what would be the best language to learn to add to my potential in IB/PE recruitment. I've been wanting to do this in general as a side-goal (which would be a longer-term plan).
I would now would like to visit this with the hopes of getting the most upside out of learning a new one. I am also aware I need to get it to a high standard for the likes of IB.
I'm currently deciding between:
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Spanish (Largely popular across Latin America).
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German (more commonality as an English native).
Have heard that MF PE really like candidates with knowledge of European languages (and not so much English only), though this is completely unverified. Unsure on if I should consider French - when searching for previous threads on this, I found a highly negative reception towards French but happy to hear opinions on this too.
Any insights would be super helpful.
Thanks.
Working in one of the financial centers, and during the last 10 years, Spanish is on high demand, especially natives, but not only because the language but for the ability to deal and understand subtle behavior's in South America, Spain, Italy, Greece and part of Middle East.
Bear in mind that Spanish is well spoken in North America.
Super interesting - thanks for your thoughts and adding on the North American usage too. I love Spanish and from a functional perspective, it will take me quite far even in the EU (Portuguese is 90% similar, and of course Spain itself). But recently picked up the idea of German after searching some Linkedin internships and seeing it as a requirement in some Swiss, and of course, Germany-based firms. Looks especially attractive given it's 40% similarity to English.
Coulx you expand on what you mean in the understanding of subtle behaviors and in the ability to detail?
My assumption is you mean learning to a level where you can effectively diagnose & understand social cues, understanding sayings, to ultimately pinpoint their needs/requests best.
Choose Spanish. This question was asked at GS London (although the girl was asking about coding languages) but the trader there responded that Spanish is really useful.
I personally have been learning French out of pure interest but I wish I picked up Spanish lol.
Edit: Wanted to say German would be useful as well but you can’t really go wrong with either languages. I think Spanish is a bit better though
For London, I would say Spanish. I think that German might be more useful because there are such a high concentration of deals in the DACH region, but you also have a large pool of highly qualified candidates from the DACH region. I don't see strong candidates speaking Spanish very often, so I think competition might be lower.
As a native German, I would say that it is very hard to learn and not important in a finance environment. Even though I am working in Germany, I rarely use it in a professional space (but office language is usually German). However, most Germans can speak English and every finance professional is able to speak it. So, if you want to learn a language purely for the language, I would recommend Spanish. If you, however, want to learn more about the German culture, it may be worth learning Germany. In the end, I believe you can only learn German if you are in regular contact with a German. Feel happy to reach out, if you want to get a more detailed view on German
dont learn a language for the sake of “improving” your chances at getting a pe offer/working in finance
was in the same situation and tried learning french to improve my chances for pe, but quickly got shot down by 2 mentors of mine who are sr partners at different mfpe funds. They basically said “your language will never be taken into consideration while hiring unless you are native or bilingual - when im looking to hire someone that speaks language X, i will 99% go for a native speaker”. One of them elaborated by saying that if he needs a french speaking person, he wont even consider people that are from Belgium etc
you will also have 0 time to learn a language to that level if you work in IB/HF/PE as it requires a ton of effort and consistent practice
only learn a language if you are interested in it for personal reasons (hobby etc)
if you want to do something that improves your chances in finance/PE recruiting, focus on being a high performer in your work (top ranked) and growing your technical skillset alongside your social skills
Yes MFPE and PE in general in Europe prefers Euro languages, but if you dont speak them its not the end of the world. Lots of people go to these funds without speaking a euro language (like myself). chances are less but there is still a chance
You didnt choose what languages you could speak (whether you’re a brit or from US/Africa etc). Focus on what you can control, which are the above factors, and forget about what you cant control / is unrealistic
Agree that it's a bit late to be learning a language from scratch right before recruiting, for the sole purpose of recruiting. It's not a matter of simply "speaking" the language, but speaking it well, in a commercially practical manner. Even if you're not native, being able to speak a language fluently can be very useful for recruiting in investment roles.
As someone else mentioned you don’t really improve your chances unless you are native/bilingual. We had an intern in the office that I had to train, he was Central European and worked in a Greek office. We could not really use him despite the fact that he had some fluency, because we needed business Greek and perfect understanding of the language when conducting research.
The beautiful language of Ass-licking. Works in every jurisdiction and you don't need duolingo.
Just piling on that you won't have any advantage unless you are a native-level speaker. Someone in their 20s learning a new language is not going to get to business-level proficiency anytime soon. There is also cultural knowledge that you will not have. If you are looking at German internships, you will not be considered if you just learned German in the last year or two (also, FWIW, German is considered more difficult to learn than Spanish or French)
MFPE preferring European languages might be common if you are working in EMEA, but that is not a consideration in the US. And again, you won't speak the language in a usable capacity so it's not relevant.
TLDR; take whichever interests you most. It will have zero impact on your IB/PE applications.
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