As a global company, with clients on six continents, operating in a multitude of languages, it’s critical for Bloomberg to hire, develop, promote and retain multilingual employees.
One of our largest markets is Germany, where Bloomberg has a significant data and product footprint. German-speaking employees in our London office work with a variety of clients across financial services, alongside our regional hubs in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Düsseldorf and extending to clients based in Austria and Switzerland. Our expertise in the market and our employees’ abilities to engage with clients in their native language is of critical importance. Here, three of our London-based, German-speaking colleagues share insights into their individual roles and explain how being multilingual enhances their client relationships.
Sean, Sales DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland)
First language: English; Second language: German
Tell us about yourself.
During my Economics & Econometrics degree, I spent a year living and working in Munich, which put me into a hybrid English-German role in a dynamic professional environment. From there, I endeavored to make sure to use my German language skills in my future career. I then went on to join the Bloomberg Analytics and Sales training program, spending a year as an Analytics representative before moving into Sales.
Tell us about your role.
I am now a Senior Account Manager in our Tier 1 Buy-Side Sales team in EMEA, responsible for our business with some of the largest asset management and insurance companies based in Germany. The companies we cover are already very good customers of our core product, the Terminal, so much of the work we do focuses on our Enterprise Solutions, particularly those tailored to buy-side needs such as order management, portfolio monitoring and reporting, quantitative workflows and research management (to name a few). It is our role to manage and expand the relationships with decision makers at these companies, while understanding their often-complex technology setups and finding opportunities for Bloomberg to better meet their needs. As they compete in a persistently competitive market, we strive to become a strategic partner in their future.
What’s the best thing about using a second language in your role?
Being able to converse with customers in their first language is extremely helpful in managing relationships with them; it makes the conversation accessible to – and inclusive of – them which also makes it feel more personal and less transactional. Through this, I often find I can get more useful information from our conversation; about them and about their business needs, goals, and gaps, making my job a lot easier. Having a second language also brings more opportunities — to attend networking events with both my customers and industry experts in the local market, or even to get good local restaurant recommendations when travelling.
What doors have been opened for you at Bloomberg by using your second language?
As much as the financial industry in the DACH region is used to dealing in English, it is undoubtedly beneficial to be able to speak in the local language with individuals, something that is recognized when a role opens up and needs to be filled. Despite their size and global investment strategies, for some of the larger customers in Germany with limited international office presence, it is important for the core relationship management to be conducted in German. This makes Bloomberg more approachable as a partner and provides confidence that their needs are being understood. Although I had specialized in buy-side workflows and performed well in my previous role, a deciding factor in hiring me for my current role would certainly have been the ability to speak German.
Jonas, Bloomberg Customer Service
First language(s): Bilingual German/French; Second language: English
Tell us about yourself.
I was fortunate to grow up in a bilingual French and German household, and decided to study mathematics at university in London, as there are many career opportunities as a European language speaker here. My current role at Bloomberg allows me to use my first languages in tandem with English.
Tell us about your role.
As a customer support representative, I take calls and instant message ‘chats from clients who contact us with a variety of questions. From troubleshooting hardware and software issues relating to the Terminal to transferring calls to our technical support, billing department, or sales (among dozens of others), I’m involved in frontline support for any incoming Bloomberg-related queries. In addition to this, I am also involved in projects including with our interviewing and new hire onboarding team.
What doors have been opened for you at Bloomberg by using your second language?
Being multilingual definitely presents a lot of opportunities at Bloomberg, both within and outside of a department. It also greatly increases your visibility and helps in creating connections with a diversity of colleagues. We have close-knit language teams and it has also made networking with other departments easier too. When it comes to internal progression, having a broad network can help if/when looking to move departments.
Where do you most add value to your team and clients?
As a source of German language support, I can help my team by managing queries from German speaking clients. I am an asset to the entire department and to Bloomberg generally. As the primary interviewer of German candidates in my group, my language skills are also critical to our hiring process. In general, speaking different languages in customer support also means collaborating with your peers on your language teams. Whether it’s scheduling, updating our language-specific documentation, or reaching out to a different department as a spokesperson on behalf of a language team, the value added by any multilingual representative to the department and company is significant.
Anna-Marie, Global Data
First language: German; Second language: English
Tell us about yourself.
I studied Econometrics in Germany. During that time, I worked as a scholar in a reinsurance company and had a number of internship opportunities, where I focused on innovation, data analytics and the incentive for ethical and sustainable behavior. I then moved to London to pursue a Masters in International Business and Business Analytics. Last summer, I interned at Bloomberg in the Global Data ESG team and then joined full time in April 2021.
Tell us about your role.
I am a member of the ESG Team within Global Data. I work on the Environmental Social Scoring initiative together with our US and Asia Pacific counterparts to create industry-specific environmental and social performance scores for companies. We also work daily with our Bloomberg Intelligence experts, as well as colleagues in Engineering, Quants, Products, and Sales. To ensure the best quality of products and customer service, we also speak to clients to understand their needs and build tailored products for them.
How does speaking a second language help you in your role?
We recently reviewed Bloomberg’s Gender Equity Index (GEI) Questionnaire, which serves as an important pillar in our efforts to quantify social factors within ESG. We offer the questionnaire in different languages to make it accessible to more companies in several markets. One of those markets is the German speaking DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) region. We strive for all our communication to be gender-inclusive. I reviewed the German questionnaire with this in mind and am excited to see my suggestions implemented in the next iteration.
What doors have been opened for you at Bloomberg by using your second language?
Bloomberg is an international company and we truly have a global workforce. It is fantastic to work with colleagues from a rich diversity of cultures. I think a knowledge of multiple languages helps make you aware of the nuances of different cultures and how to engage politely and inclusively. Working in the London office, I sometimes interact with our German speaking clients and I think the shared language helps me to connect to their needs and build rapport.