English Speaking Consulting Firms in Germany

Question

Hi,

hopefully by the end of next year I will finish my master degree here in Germany and would like to continue working here as a consultant afterwards. However, my German language skills are not that great (A2 levels), since the master program was in English.

Do you know which consulting firms in Germany do not require fluent knowledge of German? So far I only know about DHL consulting.

How do you think my chances are to get a job here? My mother tongue is Spanish and I am fluent in English of course. I have 6 months consulting work experience back in Latin America and my GPA is average.

If anyone could give me any tips, I would really appreciate.

Answer 1

Hi A,

I was in your shoes back in 2011-12, when I also came from Ukraine to start i Germany, and search for consulting jobs. I started to learn German from the scratch. So I can really understand your challenges.

In fact, there is no so many firms offering English consulting in Germany, so I would strongly recommend you to focus on improving you German, also on practicing cases in German. It would be very tough n the beginning, but I also did it and I practiced 100+ cases in English and in German, and that is what help me to get all the offer, including MBB and then finally choosing Roland Berger.

If you have any questions or advice, feel free to reach out.

Best,
André

Answer 2

Hi Anonymous,

as for my experience, it would be challenging to join any consulting firm without knowledge of local language, as this is key to any communication with clients. An additional problem related to the lack of knowledge of local language is that, in case you would manage to join a firm, you may find challenging to network internally with colleagues and senior consultants. This could create a problem for your career growth until you become fluent in German.

As a consequence, applying in Germany compared to a country where you know the local language, you may have the following problems:

less chances to receive an offer, as there would be less companies interested in scheduling an interview;
more difficult internal growth, as, until you become fluent in German, you would not be able to network as a local.

Since some companies allow to move internationally after a while, I think the best strategy to land a consulting offer in Germany in the long term would be to:

apply for a consulting position in Spain, ideally for a company with a presence in Germany;
move to Germany once you have become fluent in German after some years.

As you are fluent in English, UK could also be an option for the initial application, although you would be likely to find more competition there.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Answer 3

Hi Francesco,

thank you for your input! I really appreciate it.

Answer 4

Hi,

I second that applying will be tough as there is a lot of value in the local language in Germany. Therefore, it will limit the firm in its staffing capabilities and long-term career growth is challenging. So even if you were to be accepted, I would questions whether you really want to stay in Germany given those future growth constraints.