I've lived in the Netherlands for the past 6 years and recently went to Zurich to check it out before accepting a job. Here are my first impressions:

The scenery is stunning (well Holland is flat!), also the ability of the swiss to build tunnels through just about anything is impressive. A trip on the Zurichsee is great too. However after the initial highlights you start to see the other side... compared to the Netherlands the supermarkets sell a frustratingly conservative range of food and at high prices. Little competition I suppose. Beer selection is crap - anyone who lives near Belgium will complain bitterly. Ok I saw Leffe in one Coop for around 2 swiss francs it's 80 euro cents here. Did I miss something or are there any normal shops in Zurich, most just seem to be expensive boutiques. Shops not open on Sunday.. give me a break and supermarkets closing at 9pm on Saturday, laughable. Forget having an apartment with a view of the sea unless you're seriously loaded or a criminal. The affordable accommodation is in dull and lifeless suburbs like Oerlikon and Seebach and even then you have to fight with 20 other people for the same place.

And something I (or rather my girlfriend) felt personally... is it a genetic disease that the swiss stare unashamedly at you? I mean a casual glance is ok but even in restaurants people look straight at you for what seems to be an eternity. My girlfriend was getting quite irate and thought there was something wrong with what she was wearing. I put it down to the conservatism of the swiss... looks a bit different so we better stare at it. I was pretty close at one point to telling somebody to go screw themselves. Comments on this strange swiss phenomenon...?

Overall I got the impression it's a nice place to visit for a few days but to live there it seems rather sterile and dull. Constructive comments?

Prices - in real terms, they're actually ok.
Downtown Zurich isn't shopping for the thrifty.
Accomodation isn't all dull. You must've found the wrong places. Zurich is fairly densely populated though.
Staring - covered many times on the forum. Are you both very attractive or ugly?
Sterile - yes. Fancy not having to avoid dog poo everywhere. Dull? Maybe not - there's a real good nightlife here as well as many other things.

You might have to <gasp> give it a chance?

Most of the things you say have some element of truth however the majority of people on the forum have made the decision to live and work in Switzerland so you'll find that there's 2 sides to every coin.

My advice is that if you don't like your first impressions of Zürich that you formed on your visit then it would be best to look for somewhere else to live.

Staring. Yes, happens all the time. A lot of the Zurich women tend to wear pretty much the same thing (whatever is fashionable at the time) so perhaps you were walking down Bahnofstrasse with your girlfriend and she was not wearing the uniform. My roommate and I joke all the time about "Not getting the memo" for what to wear when out shopping on the weekend.

I love living in Zurich. I don't think it's dull at all. There always seems to be some sort of something going on. Concerts, festivals, seasonal outdoor bars etc etc. I could spend a bunch of time outlining what I like about it and dislike but pretty much everything has been covered somewhere on the forum.

Check out the search function. People have a lot to say about Zurich.

Well..... I suppose if one actually lives here one fast gets used to some of the points you have mentioned

(i) the food selection can be overcome by locating speciality shops that cater for expats (sometimes at a premium price tho)

(ii) shopping hours are indeed problematic for expats used to the 24/7/365 shopping experience

(iii) beer selection issue can again be overcome if one knows where to look

(iv) accommodation is indeed a problem in the greater city

(v) The staring thing, the swiss can smell a foreigner a mile away and yes it is indeed rude to stare (this is not an uncommon thing in Zürich at least) but the solution is simple - stare back and they shrink in shame

All in all don't let your holiday experience lead you to the wrong conclusions. Swiss life can indeed be mundane but a large expat community in the right city can liven up things somewhat. Add to that good salaries and low tax rates, a perfect transport system, beautiful scenery and one couldn't ask for more...... except that the national language change to english maybe

Lob.... is that venom dripping off your fangs ... am i going to get a groan now ?

The opening hours thing is all about attitude.
Back home its a consumer thing, make money so open the shops at all times and sod the poor buggers that have to work in them, this attitude roles over and suddenly everyone is expected to work late at night, early in the morning 24 hours a day.

I like the opening hours here, yes its a pain that I can't buy a pair of socks at 1am on a Friday morning, but I count that as a good thing.
Besides there is always the main station, and supermarkets, they are open late and at weekends.

Also the supermarket choice is surprisingly good. I was told it was limited and poor selection but to be fair its got more than enough choice for me, and I'm a dedicated Tesco man.

Funnily enough I would suggest the other way around, not so good to visit but a great place to live.

I agree with that statement. Not much to do in Zurich as far as showing visitors the sites like say in Paris, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam etc etc.

But the quality of life here is fantastic.

And the shopping thing, it is something to get used to. The Coop at Stadelhofen open til 8 PM on Sundays is pretty much the only thing allowing me to ever manage to make it to the grocery store.

Maybe i can add my swiss point of view here....
Supermarkets: I find them of very good quality and clean. Less choice than elsewhere but that's also due to the fact that Swiss cook more from scratch (at least until now) rather than using micro-wave all the time. Also, as said, it's a tiny market with few competitors but that's improving.

Beer: maybe better for public health!

Opening hours: well, it's true that having a supermarket open 24/7 in London is certainly convenient, but when I look at the face of the tired employees over there, I think having shops closing at 6pm on Saturdays and closed on Sundays is a good thing. From the perspective of many Swiss, Quality of life has also a price and if the coop employee still say "hi" at the till, it might be because she still sees her family on Sundays.

Oerlikon: not dull at all, it's a nice area to me with a market and some local shops. If you expect a sea-view flat for nothing in Seefeld..... you should look at london and see what you can have for the same price. It's true that the availability is an issue in Zurich but that being said, the prices haven't gone through the roof yet.

There’s certainly a lot of people in the UK who regret that general Sunday shopping ever started and it’s now extending to other sectors. A friend of mine in the insurance industry is now expected to work one weekend a month so that’s 12 weekends a year he won’t be able to spent with his family.

UK is king of the crap microwave food meal. NL doesn't have so much of it although I've seen more and more appear. You see the kids getting fatter each year along with it. However, the swiss diet seems to be a cut-down conservative version of German. Very meat and sausage-based. Little for the more vegetarian. Bio supermarkets are springing up all over the place in NL which sell lots of tofu-based products so it's actually very easy to be a lazy vegetarian/vegan here. I found a few of the products I wanted in Reformhaus but it's very limited. I guess it will come sooner or later.
Old habits die hard and beer really is a way of life in Holland/Belgium.
We don't have supermarkets open on sunday here except small ones at the back of the train station but I expected it in a "big city". I couldn't care less about buying clothes on a sunday but I expected Z to have these benefits.
Don't get me wrong, you could not pay me enough to live in London. The huge pay would not make up for the decaying transport and crap housing. I'm living in a big town with around 300K people which I think is the same as downtown Z.
Ok so there is one Coop open. It is not the end of the world!
Actually we were laughing that one bridge up from Bellevue crossing the river reminded us of a mini "Karlov Most" (Charles Bridge) in Prague.
From the Swiss I met I can say that they seemed very helpful. None of the surly anti-social attitude you can get from talking to some Brits. Always seemed willing to help and even seemed pleased that you asked.

And well what do people think of the sound of Schweizer Deutsch then...? To me it sounds like a cross between gutteral Dutch and Scandanavian. I can understand a reasonable amount of German but this dialect is really one from the hills

If someone stares at you, just ask them nicely if they want a photo of you

hm... most of the things you metioned as down side are acctualy things that I like:
food choice - well, I like it, here people eat this food, now I live here, now I will try how it is to eat this kind of food. In restaurant I always want to order a meal that they recomend, the meal that you supposed to eat there. Here I want to eat food that Swiss are eating - kind of experiment, how it feels and how it is to eat that... I do not want to eat here Swedish, Croatian or any other food - that is not original that is copy...

store opening hours - I like that as well because, for me it means, that people are alowed to rest, that noobody has a need to work on Sunday and customers are not always on the first place - people are. One day without stores feels like proper holiday, like Christmas when noone is working. Life supposed to be like that

staring - I am terrible, I stare probably more than Swiss people do... I am so courious how they do things, which food they are buying, how they walk, eat, etc... I did not noticed that they are staring at me...

Apartment problem... I applied just for two apartmnets - the first one I did not got, but I got a great advice from Italin girl who lived there. She told me: think of flat search as job search, with outer words send it you pasport copy, permit copy, registration copy, CV, company's recommendation letter and the most important personal letter where you say how much you looooove their apartment - I did that and got the next apartment I applied for...

I like very much living here...

I like everything different and new as long as it original - with other words, I like swiss things in Switzerland, swedish things in Sweden, Croatian things in Croatia - it is like going to different stores or different and original restaurants...

However, if you didn't like Switzerland when you were here - I do not believe that you will like it better later.

When I came here for an interview, I decided at once to stay couple of more day and bought myself return ticket for 3 days later....

Lots of spelling mistakes - sorry for that, I am still at work and tired

Lot's of people work on Sundays. However, it is against Swiss law to schedule an employee two Sundays in a row.

I can imagine that if Switzerland is your first expat experience that compared to some places it seems incredibly well organised, clean and safe. Coming from the UK I had the same impression of the Netherlands. I also thought the Netherlands was a bit backwards in some ways compared to the UK particularly in the customer service department - it is virtually non-existent here, you're lucky if they acknowledge your existence let alone serve you! This is what you get when your job is too well protected I suppose, lazy staff!! I did not see this in Z though.

Switzerland reminds me of the Netherlands several years ago. Not much choice from a protectionist market, little pub / restaurant choice and a little devoid of culture or identity. These are all first impressions of course but you're probably right if I don't like it now I doubt I will grow to like it

your impressions are really really wrong.

Lots of pubs, lots of different restaurants, crap customer service - it's all here.

Billie is also a long-time dodgy expat - better-travelled than most.

But of course your gut feeling is what matters; maybe it's not as good as Holland here? I've spelt a lot of time there myself and I like both countries.

this is my third expats country - and I like it... Stockholm is safe, well organized, clean, people friendly, working in Swidish company is very demanding - no much of a feedback and I felt like in the middle of Henrik Ibsen's play... I read his plays in high school and could not understand a thing - and then I moved to Sweden and his world just opened for me...

however 6 years in Sweden was enough for me...

before that I lived in UK - that was my first expat experience, planed to stay longer, but in the end stayed there for 5 months. I did not like it at first, but thought that things will better... lets see, in 5 months I gained 17 kilograms, although I went to gym 3 times a week - I just could not cope with class system. I felt so bad all the time... - and everything felt dirty, ancient and historical... I could not fit in context many things that people talked about - I felt that I speak English, but not at the same time... I felt like history is still alive in UK and I still feel that way when ever I go to London.

The thing that I absolutely love about UK is English: I love to hear their accent and the way they play with words - it is art!

I could not understand English humour before I moved there - I would watch it and wonder, what is funny with that, why is everyone laughing... after couple of months in UK, I got it, now I think that English humour is the best in the world.

Impressions, taste, etc. are very personal... but I would never live in UK again, in Sweden either - Swedish climate is terrible, so exhausting, I felt tired very often for no obvious reason.

But I can tell you one more thing: when I told to my Swedish friends and collegues that I am moving to Switzerland - most of them had 15 different storied how terrible Swiss people are... some of them lived here and did not liked it at all. They told me: Swiss people can shout at you... that acctualy happened to me at one interview... well, what can I say, I shouted back - did not got job there, but they told me to try again when I will have more knowledge about the industry itself.

What I like here compared to Sweden is following: you get feedback, in Sweden you do something wrong - no feedback, they are keeping it inside and sometimes I could see that I did something bad, but could not figure out what and why!?

What I like here compared to UK is following: you get feedback, in UK they look at you like you are 10 classes below them...

I also despise the English class system. Generally, a bunch of eccentrics obsessed with holding on to the past rather than looking forward. Everyone has to know their 'place' before they open their mouth. One of the main reasons I left. In the Netherlands you have the feeling that once you've talked to one Dutch person you know the protocol will be the same for the next. Not so in the UK, everyone can react differently because of their 'background' and so people are more reserved. In NL, people will tell you their opinion in seconds whether you like it or not. This leads to a great openness but sometimes the Dutch don't know where to draw the line
Yes the English are a bunch of language snobs
You never know where you stand with English people. The use of inference is exhausting. Also I never really felt like I had any 'true' friends in the UK. Always just looking out for themselves...

this is great...
"You never know where you stand with English people" - that is great - it is exactly what one English friend told me about Irish people... "You never know where you stand with Irish people"

Sometimes I think that I will stay here if I find boyfriend here, get married and get children - or maybe not if the person will be similar to me... I do not know...

I feel here so much more alive than I did for last couple of years...

And all people I met from EF are absolutely great! I was so pleasently surprised with them.