Frankfurt, famous for being the German financial hub and „Mainhatten“, draws many international students to come to work in finance industry or just to study finance.
As a former international student myself, I felt quite uncertain if I was going to make it to one of the companies in those skyscrapers. Heck, I was not even sure what to begin with or where to even look for opportunities. But it really is just a matter of time and experience.
After 5 years in Germany and who knows how many hundreds of applications I made, I have worked in 5 different companies (including internships) and accumulated quite a bit of experience in looking for job opportunities in finance industry which I would like to share with you here!
The most asked question: can I find a job without German language skills?
In financial industry, I am confident to say yes but it is definitely way harder as your choices are more limited. The companies that offer English speaking positions are quite limited. Even in the companies that offer some English-speaking positions, there is German language requirement for the majority of the positions. There are in general some rules of thumb regarding German requirement:
- In general, the less known or smaller (less international, more local) company it is, the higher chance it will require German.
- Consultancies typically have higher German requirement than banks. It also depends on which team you are looking at though. To summarize, the more client exposure the job has, the higher German requirement there is.
- The German requirement starts to get looser once you have more working experience. I would roughly say, for fresh graduates German is most needed. Internship/working student position is an exception though. Often times there are not as strict requirements for them.
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You don’t need perfect German to get a finance job in Frankfurt as an international
What I am trying to say here is not that you should not learn German or aim at achieving German fluency. On the contrary, it would be the best if you could improve your German to a very high level. What I want to tell you here is that you don‘t have to be over-worried or over-stressed about it.
In the end, try your best to learn and show your motivation to the companies/interviewers that you are still learning and have motivation to keep improving while working. When some schoolmates and I got our first job after graduation, we were around B2 level and still far from being working proficient. We were yet hired because we showed we had ability or determination to get there after 1 or 2 years.
However, if you don‘t reach certain German level your employer expects, you may be stagnated at your current role and have low chance of further advancing.
The websites to use to search finance jobs as international in Frankfurt
The following are all the websites I used frequently when I was searching:
eFinancialCareers
eFinancialCareers is a career website exclusive for financial industry (not only in Germany). You can not only find job posts, directly make application there but also find useful career tips. You can also upload your CV and make your profile public to job hunters so that there will be people coming to you with opportunities.
Stepstone
Stepstone contains a diversity of jobs in different industries. It is a very good complement to eFinancialCareers. There are some relatively small companies‘ job posts here which you may not find on eFinancialCareers.
Glassdoor
I personally don‘t use Glassdoor for job posts. Instead, I use it a lot to see the reviews of the companies and people‘s interview experiences.
Kununu
Another website I use to see reviews of companies. This one is more German market specific than Glassdoor.
Linkedin jobs
Don‘t overlook Linkedin. These days there are many jobs posted here as well. You can even directly apply with your Linkedin profile.
Xing is the German equivalent to LinkedIn. There are also a lot of jobs posted there. However, because Xing is a German website, the employers there are more likely to expect applicants to be fluent in German.
Facebook groups
For me it is my uni group and class group. Many students/alumnus post their own company‘s hiring add there, which opens a door to more exclusive opportunities to the students in your uni only.
Company website
If you are interested in a particular subset of companies, you should directly use their career website. For a lot of them you can create a profile and sign up for notifications. You will be the first to know when there is a new opportunity!
Use Career services
There should be career services in all universities, which offer career consulting and organize events like career fairs and workshops with different companies. Make full use of them, especially the alumni network. Career services should also know about the job opportunities offered directly by the alumnus. They can also help you adapt your CV and cover letter to the German job market.
The German job market values are different from Anglo-Saxon countries
I had job searching experience in three different countries. I do notice a few difference German recruiters highlight more than e.g. the UK. To succeed in German job market, university is not as important, practical experience and the knowledge itself is the most important. There are also not so common personality tests or emphasis about being well-rounded. (Personality is of course important, just not as much advertised or emphasized.) Having internships/working student jobs in relevant area is a huge plus in your CV here. So if you are a student, start looking for internships/ working student positions as early as possible.
About networking
Networking is more emphasized in Anglo-Saxon countries. However it is very important everywhere. I had some discussions with my schoolmates about the meaning of going to the career events at our uni and whether the networking is going to land us a job.
As an introverted and shy person myself, networking is like a monster to me. And as a result, I personally barely went to any of those events. I actually later regretted about not going.
Do I regret because I failed to get a job without networking? No.
Do I regret because these events could have helped me to get a job? Probably not, as I wouldn’t be able to be myself or stand out and leave impressions on the employers anyway.
Do I regret because I fail to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone? Hmm, maybe a little bit. But I regretted mostly because I could have got information from the employers there to get to know more about different areas and the companies.
Later when I am so confused about which areas I really like to work in and which companies I should go for, I regretted not asking more questions. The info you can get online is very limited. You cannot do an internship in every area and every company either. That‘s how valuable those events are. You get the first hand information from the people who know the best.
If you aim at impressing the employers at those events and get your CV handed out (except for certain job fairs which allows acceptance of CVs), the chance exists but is slim and what you really get from the hours spent there is little.
How is your experience in job hunting? What are your opinions? Would you like more info about job hunting in finance in Frankfurt?
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thanks for sharing
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