Working language

An office often has two languages and they are not the same one. Models, credit papers and internal memoranda are frequently in English across Europe, because the templates, the software and the wider firm are. Client meetings, management presentations, statutory accounts, local legal documentation and the call at eight in the evening are frequently in the local language, because the client is.

That split is why the requirement lands unevenly. Where a seat puts a junior in front of clients early, the local language becomes a condition of doing the work rather than a preference: German across much of the DACH region, French in Paris, Italian in Milan, Dutch in Amsterdam. Where the seat is more analytical, the same language can be useful without being necessary. Ask which one it is, because the honest answer changes the shape of your application list.

London is the exception, and that exception is what creates the competition there. Its client work runs in English, so the office is open to a candidate from any European market, and the applicant pool is a continent rather than a country. A candidate with a strong second European language frequently has a better route into a continental office than into London, and treating that route as a consolation prize misreads the market.

The interview handling is precision. Fluent is not information, and an interviewer who switches into the language mid conversation, which is fair and common, will find out what the word was covering. Describe the level in terms of what you can do and what you would want reviewed, and give a checkable anchor where you have one: a framework level such as C1 on the Common European Framework, a year spent studying in the country, a role where you used it daily.