The benefits of being multilingual at Bloomberg
August 16, 2022
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.
Make it happen here.
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.
Alex, Sales
First language: English; Second language: German
Tell us about your role.
I currently work as a senior account manager, covering a wide variety of clients primarily in Frankfurt, Germany. You could split up a lot of what I do into two core responsibilities: expanding our business across the German territory, whilst retaining and servicing our existing client base. This means a typical ‘day in the life’ would involve a mix of new-business prospecting, updating users on our latest innovations plus developments, and working on my own monthly/quarterly strategies for the year.
What’s the best thing about using a second language in your role?
It’s great fun! While I had a few initial nerves about using my second language in a business environment, especially as I had limited experience of this before joining Bloomberg, I soon broke through those apprehensions and now thoroughly enjoy using it. This has been a major part of my own personal development here at the company, and my network of colleagues and support around me has really helped propel my German to the level that it is today. On top of this, I truly recognize how appreciated it is by our clients to be able to engage with them in their own language, and makes for an overall much smoother collaborative experience with them.
What doors have been opened for you at Bloomberg by using your second language?
Simply put, my second language has unlocked a whole new market to me that I wouldn’t have otherwise had access to, if I didn’t speak German. On a more granular level though, there have been some great projects that I’ve been able to participate in by being a German speaker, such as: reviewing our German newswires and products on the Bloomberg Terminal, leading digital webinars in German on market mega-trends, and promoting participation in Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index (GEI) amongst German corporates.
Where do you most add value to your team and clients?
There are so many ways you can make an impact with your language skills at Bloomberg, it really is a highly sought after and appreciated skill here. One example is over the past year, I have been a liaison between our German user-base and our news content indexing team, ensuring our news that matters the most to our German clients is reaching them in the most optimal way possible. In addition, I have been running a handful of webinars in German to present on our solutions to market mega-trends (such as ESG, supply chain analysis etc.) in our users’ local language.
Anna-Marie, 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 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 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.
Are you a German speaker with experience in finance, analytics, engineering, or data?