Becoming an expat - Switzerland

BoomAM · 1 May 2016 at 16:46

Afternoon all,
Has anyone here successfully made the move to Switzerland in an IT field?

I'm finding getting a reply from a job advert there to be somewhat difficult and a little odd.
I've customized my CV to be more swiss-centric but it still seems to be wasted effort. Am i missing something obvious here?

Thanks.

Mr^B · 1 May 2016 at 17:10

Have you tried phoning them up?

It's not a "swiss only" problem; getting people to reply to you when you apply for a job...

I worked on/off in Switzerland for a few years, and know a reasonable number of expats in around the Zurich area, none of them have any particular issues...

datalol-jack · 1 May 2016 at 17:18

Mr^B said:
Have you tried phoning them up?

It's not a "swiss only" problem; getting people to reply to you when you apply for a job...

I worked on/off in Switzerland for a few years, and know a reasonable number of expats in around the Zurich area, none of them have any particular issues...

+1

These days it's not that common to receive speedy communication, from a real person, from a cold call esp. Best to do the chasing yourself.

BoomAM · 1 May 2016 at 17:36

Never really thought of doing that.
I'd kind of assumed that the issue was lack of language skills...

Any known good job sites and tips for general looking/applying?

randomshenans · 2 May 2016 at 09:46

I work in Basel. Crinkleshoes lives just outside Basel in Liestal.

I've been here nearly 5 years. They're a bit odd... or Swiss... but hey

Depends where you're looking to work, in what field of IT etc.

BoomAM · 2 May 2016 at 10:09

randomshenans said:
I work in Basel. Crinkleshoes lives just outside Basel in Liestal.

I've been here nearly 5 years. They're a bit odd... or Swiss... but hey Depends where you're looking to work, in what field of IT etc.

I've a few Swiss friends, i find it easy to relate to the oddness. :-p

At the moment it would be general IT administration/management...i do specialize, but i'm not seeing a lot of jobs in those specialitites over there.

randomshenans · 2 May 2016 at 12:56

That's like saying "I do IT" - You mean server admin? Do you speak German? Or French, if you're looking around Geneva way.

There are jobs about, but it really depends on what you're looking for... contract, FTE... where you want to work and what you want to do as a job.

You need to be more specific I think.

indeed.ch or I know some agents, but based on general IT admin I wouldn't know what you could actually do.

Mr^B · 2 May 2016 at 16:16

Best way (as ever) is to ask around your network. Depending on what you do (as has been said previously your skill-set is a bit vague), will determine if language will be an issue.

I got by, language-wise, with no more than "yes", "no" and "another beer, please". But that was because I'm a software developer, and English tends to be the requirement here. In fact all business meetings have to be conducted in English, even if there are only Swiss nationals present. But that's a result of a Swiss company being bought by a British one.

If you go out for any length of time permanently (I was merely commuting every other week) then I'd learn the language as a matter of good manners and convenience as well as opening up more doors for you in terms of jobs.

BoomAM · 2 May 2016 at 16:41

randomshenans said:
That's like saying "I do IT" - You mean server admin? Do you speak German? Or French, if you're looking around Geneva way.

Language is English only, & im looking for the Zurich/Zug/Luzern area.
Learning the language is an aim too, so no worries there.

You need to be more specific I think.

indeed.ch or I know some agents, but based on general IT admin I wouldn't know what you could actually do.

Cant really be specific when i'm looking for generic roles ;-)

I've not seen roles where what i consider to be my specialisms are available.