With a BSC in St.Gallen, do you need to speak German to get into an investment bank?

I was wondering if you needed to know German in order to get into investment banking from St. Gallen, as I previously read that people employed by investment banks from St. Gallen were all German speaking. Is that accurate?

12 Comments
 

Well, I am still in school and have 2 years to go until I graduate and I start applying to universities, but to answer you question I do have a EU passport, but not German or Swiss. I am thinking of applying to St. Gallen in the future, but Id like to first clear up on my doubts, to see if its possible to go from St. Gallen to IB without speaking German.

 

While it’s true that St. Gallen is a feeder for Frankfurt and Zurich (where German is an advantage), there are still plenty of people leaving to London, Milano or Paris. Also, due to Brexit, more and more banks in Frankfurt search for non-German speakers.

Bottom line: language really doesn’t matter these days. Choose the university you are most enthusiastic about and where you like the people and curriculum

 

Why should banks relocating to Frankfurt look for non-German employees if all/most German students speak English fluently?

Can you please identify DE & CH based companies that hire also internationals?

 

Why should banks relocating to Frankfurt look for non-German employees if all/most German students speak English fluently?

Can you please identify DE & CH based companies that hire also internationals?

 

If you weren't able to learn German while being completely surrounded by it over multiple years, that's a sign to me that you are 1) lazy, 2) not interested in integrating to a new culture, and/or 3) not smart enough to learn German. Any candidate with multiple years in a certain country and is still unable to speak the language at least at B2 goes in the trash, because there are enough IB candidates (including foreigners) that speak German. 

 

Not true: know many Germans who study at nova or Bocconi or HEC who don’t speak a single word of Portuguese, Italian or French nor have developed any form of respect of the country they studied into

Why do you expect international students to learn German if Germans are usually the first one that only speak their native language + English without any additional languages?

 

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