I agree that in case one wants to be effective as a consultant in switzerland/ Germany/Austria, one needs to be fluent in German so that you could talk to the guy on the shop-floor with equal ease as you did with the CEO… however, most progressive companies to invest in their employees and train them in skills (language skills included) .. however some firms don't seem to get it!! They brag about international teams and blah blah and multi-country assignments … however, while recruiting they say try to emphasize too much on the language skills!!! damn who would make a better consultant ..a guy/gal fluent in german and no brains or a smart MBA who can get numbers and tons of data to spell out the true story? Skills like language, IT, et al can be acquired.. but people and personality traits.. hey that's a scarce resource…

My discussions with the principals and senior consultants at all the top consultancy firms have led me to believe that language should not be the deciding factor.. but somehow the HR folk seem to be singing a different tune..

Anyway BCG is of the progressive kinds …and it was their HR manager who took pains to emphasize that they value people and subscribe to this philosophy…they'll come back to the campus to engage us for recruitment in Jan/Feb'08..

Then we had a talk by the Managing Partner of Wegelin & Co. a boutique mid-size European investment firm based out of St. Gallen into an assortment of index funds based investment strategy. Something which sounds very banal.. but was very interesting!

Then we had a hedge fund presentation by a Goldman Sachs executive.. with rather interesting insights into the recent "happenings" (hurricanes!) in the hedge fund space.. (Bear Stearns anyone!)

Besides rather interesting presentation by ADIDAS about their new global management program : sports, high decibel music, soccer stars.. et al.. first company reps to come in casual attire.. most are dressed to kill (Will the I-Bankers in the house pls stand up!)..

Julius Baer's CEO was here too.. with an interesting workshop about alternative investments... and so was the CEO of Grisons Peak another medium size boutique investment advisory fund set up by a top honcho at ABN AMRO

then we had two Mckinsey workshops : one on presentation skills and another on storylining and story telling..

there was a talk by Capital international about their graduate programs too... and the last event of the block was a workshop about interviewing with PWC..

For those from outside the German speaking region: if u told somebody in this region u are a student at St. Gallen, u will see their eyes widen with awe .. this place is the Harvard of the region... I've seen people turn around and stare at out HSG jerseys.. Man this is the place to be!!

On Wednesday we had a presentation by senior executives including the head of Business Processes and Analysis division of Novartis.