Hello!

First of all, regarding the languages, it totally depends on the office. As a thumb rule, you should think: in this determined geography, do local clients speak English? Or would they need local language to communicate?

Regarding how to best secure an offer without coming from a target school, don´t worry, since i´ts not impossible. There are plenty of cases, I am one of them -I am actually an architect!!-. I would suggest you to (1) leverage or build a network and (2) attend to networking events -the ones from the firms, from Unis, specially targetted for groups, etc.-.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello,

It depends on the specific country, but usually to join countries where company's clients speak english, the local language it's not mandatory.
Another option could be to enter an office of your home country or an english speaking country (USA, UK, ME..). Once that you enter is easier to move between the offfices wihout bein required for the local language.

Best,
Luca

I am a non-Swedish speaker working as a consultant in Stockholm. So I can share my first-hand experience here.

I agree with your assessment that once you cross the border, awareness of university declines and some countries do have stringent local language requirement (Southern Europ in particular in my experience)

In your case, I would advise as follows:

1. Find alumni from your college who are working in your target firms, either locally or in other countries. They will be your best champion and if they provide a referral, the likelihood of interview call is higher despite the language barrier
2. Some sectors have a higher propensity of clients speaking English (tech, consumer goods for ex.) than others (Public sector, Healthcare likely to work in local language). So shape your CV to be more suitable to sectors accordingly
3. Prefer global firms over niche local firms
4. Apply for an internship if direct recruitment is a challenge. work your way to a full-time offer
5. Join an English speaking office (ME visa requirements are not stringent in my opinion) and then take an internal transfer

I hope it helps. Best of luck!

Hi，

BCG and Bain Amsterdam are both ok with English only. And also a couple of tier-2 firms as well.

Try to network with your alumni, they will tell you more about the offices.

(edited)

Hello there,

As Robert says, English is primarily being utilized at selected office such as UK, US, Singapore, Middle East, Australia, etc. Some Nordic offices does open to English speakers but there's competition with candidates with similar profiles with an added bonus of fluency in local language.

Typically, people would try to focus on their home country to break into MBB, as unless you have specific skillset, being in a new country plus without fluency of local language will put your profile at disadvantage.

One way to do this is having an exchange or some kind of exposure to the target country (internship, etc), and then network your way in to the consultants and partners there.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan