<p>I was just wondering if being able to speak another language such as Japanese, Chinese, German, etc. would be a helpful or a desirable skill for Ibankers, consultants or traders (very different jobs, but there you have it). </p>
<p>Any specific places in finance/business where such skills would certainly be an asset? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>it's a desired skill for consultants. particularly chinese, japanese, german and, to a lesser degree, spanish.</p>
<p>fluency in chinese could help as a way to get you over to china and work on the excess deal flow for doing ibd work, same with consulting.</p>
<p>Do you think that firms would actually want to have you use that skill when they first hire you (i.e. out of undergrad)? Do firms hire people due in part to their language skills?</p>
<p>In other words, would it be realistic for new hire in IBanking or consulting to be sent to a foreign branch (Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc.) or use the language in client contact/translating/intrepreting, or would it be more likely to be trained in New York and get contact/experience later (after a couple years, or after an MBA)?</p>
<p>is french useful in IB area??</p>
<p>A European language is often advertised as useful in the London offices, particularly German (strong finance industry) but there would be work from London or Paris where French could be applied. I havem't heard anything to suggest that these languages are desired strongly by U.S. offices. In fact, I haven't heard anything about languages being a great plus for any U.S. companies, but that can't always be the case.</p>
<p>Any other inputs or examples?</p>
<p>Morgan Stanley just posted their 1st year analyst job for China and the requirement is fluency in mandarin. So i'd imagine you'd be using the skill a lot.</p>