<p>Whats a good language to minor in for the finance industry? I know Spanish is a given, but what else? Chinese?</p>
<p>German, French</p>
<p>What about Portuguese? With Brazil and all</p>
<p>Could be wrong, but I don’t see minoring in any language as being the least bit helpful.
If you’re trying to work in a different country, having just a minor will not be enough unless you supplement it with a serious amount of work on your own.
There’s just no way you could come close to competing with those who have been speaking that language their entire life and had all of their coursework in that particular language.</p>
<p>elf brings up a good point. I misinterpreted the question. Minoring, and even majoring, would be useless. What would be useful is actually learning the language. No employer would care if you have a degree in a language. Instead just learn the language on your own and list fluency in the language on your resume (and be expected to be questioned on it!)</p>
<p>Portuguese would be a very good choice, given Brazil’s burgeoning economy.</p>
<p>The point of a foreign language major/minor is to show an employer that you are versatile and interesting; foreign language won’t help you out in a technical sense.</p>
<p>If you put fluent in “insert language” on your resume. Chances are by the third interview, they have a HR rep who speaks that language come grill you. The fact that you majored in Chinese isn’t enough, you will need to show it.</p>
<p>@the young boi - I don’t assume that I know everything about what employers want, but I do have pretty extensive experience interviewing across the financial services industry. Language definitely has it’s uses and can help separate you from the pack. I had a Hong Kong Investment Consulting firm specifically ask me during a interview to pitch a stock to a Chinese client with limited English. I f*&ked it up like no ones business and never got a call back, but you get the point.</p>
<p>Are there any specifics to pathways? Switzerland and Paris would be French. Frankfurt would be Berlin.</p>
<p>In terms of production, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean make the top 5 economies.</p>
<p>In terms of the rest of the populated world, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian will help in their spheres.</p>
<p>I would point to French, German, or Japanese personally for economics and finance. Business would be Chinese, Korean, or Spanish.</p>
<p>@theyoungboi, if this is the case, wouldn’t you want to learn a language that is interesting?
I feel like Russian or something really random would be much better.
Either way, unless you are truly interested in the language, it is absolutely not worth your time.</p>
<p>Being the 15th person interviewed that day that speaks mandarin just doesn’t seem like it will help you in the least.</p>
<p>@angryelf - thats not the point, you can be the millionth person to interview that day, however if you can pull it off, that adds value. The reason so many people said mandarin is because financial services are starting to migrate to China. Russian by far wouldn’t be as effective at “adding value”. Dig? That is unless you want to become a super secret spy and sell black market weapons to the Kremlin, then yeah I would say go for Russian.</p>
<p>Unless you’re a native speaker or have the proficiency of a native speaker, I seriously doubt you would be allowed to interact in a foreign language.
You won’t be “adding value” either way.
This really isn’t something you pull off. Your language skills either have to be flawless or there’s really no chance they will be used.</p>
<p>As pointed out before, a minor won’t get you close to that.
Mandarin is especially useless considering how high a percentage of each analyst class are native speakers.</p>