Hi,
I went to the RAV (or any job center in any country) today for the first time and the lady was very harsh and not helpful at all.
I have been in CH for 2.5 years and been employed uninterrupted during this time. I recently handed my resignition and was told to go to RAV.

On the 3rd minute of our meeting, my advisor told me to APOLOGIZE to my company for resigning and hope that they would take me back! and many more not encouraging things..

Does it make sense to change my advisor (if so, who do i contact to?) or do you think the next one will be as horrible?

I have read the previous thread about changing the advisor but it is from 2007..So maybe things improved since then??

Please give me your opinion as i feel stuck

Thanks,
Zeynep

go back and ask to speak to someone else. Also put in a formal complaint against her.

The way you've written that post seems to suggest that you decided to quit your job. If that is indeed the case then I doubt that another RAV advisor would be that much more sympathetic to your case.

The person that you saw is probably not going to be your advisor - they usually have some frontline monkey that takes all your details down and arranges an initial appointment with your assigned advisor.

I found the frontline people not terribly helpful with a lot of tutting and rolling eyes when they couldn't find my job in any of their lists and therefore couldn't neatly pigeon-hole me. Once you get your advisor, you'll find things a bit smoother.

In Switzerland, it is really inadvisable to resign from your job unless you've got a new one to roll into and you might be fined a few weeks' unemployment money to take account of this. My advice is to show willing and start applying for as many jobs as you can (at least 12 per month) to show the RAV you are actively looking for a new job. If you haven't been looking for work, this may prolong the "fining" period.

hi there,
thanks for the info. yes, i decided to leave my job. so in this case, i should accept their way of "helping" me to find a new job?

Thanks again,
Z

I dealt with 2 counselors in RAV. One was extremely nice, and she made a huge effort to help me. She was the one that pointed me in the right direction, and seemed honestly happy to see my contract when I finally got a job.

The other one told me that the RAV is there to help those that actually need them, not foreign women married to already employed men (even worse, with an University degree, since the RAV is there to help those that have no chance of finding a good job because of low education).

Like in everything else, it's a matter of luck of finding a really nice person, or a person not going through PMS...

What she said! The evil one was on the front desk.

No, the job searching is your task - they will only assist if needed, or "encourage" you if you do too little.

Hope you got some savings to tide you over until the payments kick in - should take about 2-3 months (from 1 recent experience of a friend).

Good luck

Actually, this person is my advisor. the front line guy was super sweet and helpful.
i understand that quitting your job without anything lined up is not the ideal way, but sometimes it is the only way..
I am aware of the fining period, thats ok. I just thought that, advisors were there to help me find something or give me tips etc..

They are, in a way. My advisor had a few things lined up for me plus they give you access to their intranet of job openings. In addition, you can request that you attend a course if your German isn't up to scratch or a course that brushes up your job application / interview skills. I never was unemployed long enough for the job application course but apparently it's pretty useful.

You have to kind of look at the RAV as a kind of "Job" in itself - there are certain criteria you have to fulfil to get your monthly "wage", which isn't that difficult - for me it was just keep on top of my job applications. If you've got interviews lined up, it makes them really happy. If you are dragging your feet and not applying for jobs then you don't get paid.

When I came over to switzerland I didn,t have a job so on the advise of my husband I signed on with the RAV my advsor was very nice and spoke english to me, though I didn,t get any money of them or any help with any jobs though luckly I managed to find my own job and emailed them to let them know. I got a email back saying WOW congratulations not sure if thats the proffessional reply I expected lol

It reminds me of the first divorce lawyer my friend went to. He insisted that she should forget about divorce and give the idiot she was married with another try.

Ask for another advisor. Cant get any worse can it?

I don't get it. The way it works here is you only get unemployment compensation if your were laid off. If you voluntarily quit, you are entitled to nothing. It is up to you to find a new job, and RAV aren't very helpful in that respect...their mandate it to ensure you are looking hard enough, writing CVs correctly, etc. that's all. Why even deal with them at all?

Because if you don't deal with them, there is no bread. If you don't go through the whole RAV system, you don't get any money you might be entlitled to get. And a lot of people can't live without that bread.

Like I said, if you voluntarily quit your job, you are not entitled to ANY bread from RAV/Unia. Why go through the RAV humiliation then?

Yes you are. You just have an extended delay in receiving the 'bread'

No they are not all the same, here let me resurect this thread.

How Slammer became Gibraltese, a Slammer-production, Slamsoap.

Ahh the memories

Well, although she wasn't very tactful, she's sort of right. They don't have a lot of jobs listed there and the ones they do have are low level, low skill jobs mostly. It's up to us to find a job. My ORP guy was really nice, but he knew he couldn't help me so we sat around chatting about cultural things.

Having said that, my friend did find a job with the Lausanne housing agency through ORP. She's an architect as well. It was just luck that her ORP person happened to know someone in that department.

Sorry, this is not true. Even if you quit your job you are entitled to unemployment, subject to possible penalty.


Possible delay. If you are good at pleading your case and have a sympathetic councilor you could be lucky.

You have to wait between 60 and 90 days for your brad if you quit your job, and the same applies if you were fired for misconduct.....

Playing the advocate's devil, the RAV counselor's job is not to "help" you to find a job. It is to make sure you are actually looking for it while getting your insurance money and see you strike from their book ASAP. RAV finances are not exactly in good shape and they are getting more and more strict. Expect zero sympathy if you have quit your job without a solid ground (eg - stress was making you sick, your boss was bully,...). Many people are now losing their jobs, accepting salary cuts, accept working more hours, so anyone that just quits a job, is, well... an irresponsible that just wants to enjoy a good vacation while living out of benefits. Most likely not your case, but this is how you are perceived. If you want to get along well your counselor, I would suggest you to rephrase why you left your company and look like you are genuinely making an effort to be back to work in as soon as possible. Don't try to outsmart a counselor - they have seen all tricks in the industry. And, they can make your life very very very miserable.

Not always. I did not have a penalty even though I quit. I think my ORP guy felt bad as I spun my tale of woe!

I had a very very bad boss! And no he wasn't Swiss. I know that's what you are all wondering.