DWS

The final interview is conducted by two DWS assessors and "language flexibility is a notable feature, with interviews potentially conducted in English or German, based on the role and location." For graduates, the final stage is a half-day virtual assessment centre on Microsoft Teams covering a group exercise and an interview that mixes critical-thinking and role-specific technical questions. The implication for candidates targeting Frankfurt or other German-speaking offices is that part of the loop is run in German, so German fluency is gating before reaching the assessment centre rather than after.

DWS runs two distinct early-career tracks, both administered through its DWS Early Careers portal:

• DWS P.A.C.E. Graduate Program – a two-year rotational programme with four six-month placements, opening with a three-week orientation in Frankfurt for the global cohort and structured around a mid-programme "Showcase Week" in Frankfurt. The cycle starting in September 2026 is fixed to a 7 September 2026 start date, with eligibility limited to bachelor's or master's graduates from 2025 or 2026 holding less than 12 months of relevant full-time experience.
• DWS Internship Program – either a ten-week Summer Analyst Internship or a seasonal three-to-six-month internship with Spring, Summer and Autumn intakes, depending on location. Eligibility for the next cycle is a bachelor's or master's degree on track for 2027, with less than 12 months of full-time relevant experience. Successful interns are invited back to join the next P.A.C.E. cohort.

The firm advertises roles across the UK, Germany, USA, EMEA and APAC, but with only two named programmes the choice is functionally between a long rotational commitment in Frankfurt and a shorter, location-specific internship that doubles as a P.A.C.E. feeder.

For early-career applicants three structural features follow from this. The graduate programme is run as a single global cohort orientated in Frankfurt rather than as separate regional intakes, so a UK or US hire will spend the first three weeks in Germany before starting rotations. Final interviews are explicitly bilingual where the location is German-speaking, narrowing the role pool for English-only applicants to UK, US and certain APAC seats. And the firm's franchise strengths are concentrated in retail funds, pension mandates and Xtrackers ETFs rather than in flow trading or sell-side investment banking, so rotation choices in P.A.C.E. lean toward product, distribution and asset-class investment teams.