Germans seek UK graduates

Frankfurt-based Deutsche Börse attends British recruitment fairs, offering fast track opportunities in Germany for economics, business studies and IT graduates who are discovering a challenging working environment with lower costs of living than London.

Human resourcing manager Holger Hansen says: &quotWe have employees from 32 countries. The greatest number of non-Germans are British. They are working in every segment as software developers, corporate communications, in electronic markets and finance.&quot

The expanding Deutsche Börse exchange has adopted English as its project and documentation language. The exchange operates Xetra and Eurex electronic exchange trading platforms for cash and futures markets and is a leading supplier of exchange services in Europe.

Deutsche Börse is one of the eight members of the PanEuropean Exchange alliance formed to harmonise market opening and closing times in 1998, the others being London, Zurich, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Madrid and Brussels. A plan to merge the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse was later shelved.

&quotLanguage skills are important, but we have a strong interest in getting people on board with English as their native language,&quot reveals Hansen. UK graduates are also proving they have the IT skills, analytical thinking and productivity needed.

&quotDeutsche Börse is a project-driven organisation in which employees perform in a changing technical environment.&quot

Another reason for choosing UK business graduates is their youth. &quotThe British market educates IT and finance specialists into becoming Bachelors of Science by the age of 21,&quot says Hansen. &quotThis step is unknown in the German education system - graduates with a diploma are at least 25 years old.&quot

Deutsche Börse has a staff of 13,000 plus and recruits 250 graduates a year, with at least 10% coming from outside Germany, the majority from the UK. The emphasis is on recruits with &quotinventive and creative minds, not a self-satisfied, 'I-just-do-what-I'm-told' mindset&quot.

London Guildhall Financial Economics graduate Clive Ewerse has been working for Deutsche Börse as an electronic markets supervisor for six months.

Says Manchester-born Ewerse: &quotIt's an exciting place with tremendous challenges. I'm not a fluent German speaker - I speak Spanish and Italian - but it hasn't been a problem and I'm learning slowly.

&quotThe opportunity to work in English is a bit of a double-edged sword as it slows down the process of learning German.

&quotI was bored with London and I find DB is more pan-European, less insular, more relaxed, less stressful. The quality of life is good too - I have a better apartment and can afford to eat out more than in the UK.&quot

Graduates enter Deutsche Börse on a salary level that varies, depending on experience, from DM60-90,000 (approximately 20-30,000 with an exchange rate of DM3.17 to the sterling). There is a bonus scheme which can add 10% to 30% and a social package that includes free lunches and drinks, free train and tube travel and up to DM500 a month for an additional pension fund.

&quotI'm definitely better off here,&quot says Ewerse. &quotI get a craving for a decent shepherd's pie from time to time, but it passes.&quot

University of Surrey Economics, French and German graduate Cynthia Awuku joined Deutsche Börse to work on the European Exchange Alliances project and primary markets.

&quotIt takes a little time to settle in. It's a challenging workplace which keeps your brain ticking over. The Germans are more direct and less diplomatic than the English, so you have to learn not to take offence,&quot says Awuku, from High Wycombe.

&quotI feel I'm using more of my business and language skills than ever before, which is satisfying, and the incentives and rewards are certainly here. Deutsche Börse has a strong international outlook, which I'm enthusiastic about. The standard of living, especially healthcare, is better here than in the UK.&quot

Holger Hansen says: &quotWe are always on the look-out for outstanding candidates. We have a strange but successful system in that we do not expect people to sign on for a lifetime. It's no problem if people leave - after three years we feel we have got the return on our investment.

&quotWe believe we offer a technical, social and decision-making environment that allows graduates to develop themselves in a way that they can build up their skills, not only for the world of Deutsche Börse.

&quotIt makes us proud that the name Deutsche Börse on a CV is taken as proof of having done a good job.

&quotBritish graduates have exciting positions here. We believe British and German cultures are closer than newspapers such as the Sun or Bild-Zeitung can imagine. We see no significant differences.&quot

Deutsche Börse: www.exchange.de job hotline 0049 69 21 01 1810.