At the very beginning I would like to breifly presents my situation: I have already graduate Master in Finance on one of the “no name” University and working as a team leader in BO department in the BB, additionaly I passed CFA L2.
I can’t complain for my salary and work/life balance but in the future I would like to work in M&A department hence I’m wondering if advance knowledge of other foreign language (e.g. German, French , Spanish) would be an asset in ordet to break-in there or it is just waste of time & money since english is enough ?
I’ve seen some positions that prefer a second language but I don’t think it makes a material difference for most openings. Also passing CFA does not really help you with landing an IB offer as it is mostly fit, networking is more important.
One more thing i would like to add - from personal reason I need to have one year break in CFA L3 which makes me feel depressed …
I don’t want to make this year totally worthless that’s why I’m looking for some other qualifications that might be an assets for IB positions (particularly M&A)
Generally speaking, advanced knowledge of language but more importantly culture is very important in deal making when you are trying to make deals between cultures where there is a large cultural difference. For example between US and JP/KR, many deals fail due to communication issues (not necessarily language).
at the end of the day, most Americans cant speak a foreign language and you are competing against Asians and Eastern Europeans who will eat your lunch with their language skills
Looks like he’s Polish and his focus is eurocentric. i’d make sure your english is tip top as most Germans can speak english anyway. might want to focus your time on modeling and learning deal structuring. Then proceed to start networking your ass off. CFA won’t really get you in the M&A door by itself. Its just a nice add on.
