Hello, I will try to be brief:
I am a no very happy au-pair living in Switzerland, I came here because I have the double nationality (Spanish and swiss) and this was my first and only opportunity (the main thing was lean the idiom to do a course about my degree and put it on my CV and to work over here); I want to change so I have these options (more will be super-welcome):

1.- I am in talk with two families in Deutschland, their kids are older and I will try to get very clear from the beggining what do I have to do (most of the families whats a cheap nanny+maid) the first one is far away from everything but I could go to a course. The second one has an university very near and have a maid so I do not have to do almost anything, I am talking with the first but awating the second to tell me something...
2.- Send emails to parents asocciations on schools of Switzerland to find another family (in the web I foubd the first one I cannot find another that wants a male)
3.- Send CVs to banks (I have a Spanish economics degree with 6 months practice) as I said I do not have german (I have english though), I do not know if they need it to work there and I do not want to burn my options if they do.
4.- Find a spanish restaurant or something in Zurich and ask for work
5.- A shitty operator job in Zurich in avocis.com
6.- Ask for help to the Swiss Goverment, I read they pay you while you find a job and also the german course, but here is the catch, I have no contract here, if I go there I do not know if I have to say what I am doing here, and if I do someone is going to knock on the house I am working to let them know how come I am working without contract and let the family know I am looking for other things. I am doing a course of german that ends on 9/Feb should I go and ask? should I tell I am working here without contract? Should I hide it? what do the look to see if you are good enough for welfare?

Thanks everybody who read this and more to the people who answer!

Well, first of all you should improve your English if you want to work in a bank. Then learn German to have more chances.
As an Au Pair myself I am telling you that being here without papers is a very bad thing. When I wa searching for a position I stated in my profile that I will speak only to the families that offer me a contract because I don't want to be amongst the other black market workers.
There are lots of au pair websites, you just have to put your profile up and search for families.
Why do you say shitty operator job? I guess it is easier for you to get money from the Government than work as a shitty operator somewhere but the problem is that you won't make a good impression when you say you are here without papers.

Good luck and I hope you find the right thing for you.

Hi, thanks for your answer, I said shitty as they made many hours underpaid, I have nothing against that job, but I think they would agree with me... I think my english is already good enough! I will answer more later, I am in a hurry, sorry.
Salud.

I'm really sorry to say, but that attitude isn't going to help. To put it bluntly, I had problems understanding a couple of things you wrote, and I teach English as a foreign language (so I'm used to non-native English). I think princessduck's advice was well-intended and very useful.

Aside from that, have you considered the Italian or French-speaking parts of Switzerland? Is there some reason you absolutely have to go to the German part?

He's Swiss so not here "without papers".


The Swiss gov't does provide assistance to returning Swiss. You can go to the RAV (job seekers office) and they should be able to get you set up with German classes and maybe find you some sort of job in the meantime while you improve your German.

But as Duck says, you really shouldn't be working without a contract. There are things that need to be taken care of including taxes, insurance, etc. The RAV people will be able to help you with what needs to be done to sort all that out.

Good luck!

I know of a returning Swiss who didn't speak German and who, after proving no one could support him, got German lessons, and a monthly amount of money which he could live on...and this for almost a year.
And by the way...no, your German is definitely not good enough...

You have to wake up! Your posts are full of mistakes. Do you really want me to count all of them?? I am not a native English speaker and I found too many mistakes for someone who claims that speaks English ''good enough''.
Do you know how many people with studies+ experience (not practice!)+ plus fluent in English+ at least basic German are searching for a job in a bank in Switzerland? To be honest- you have no chance.


I am waiting for the groans but really I don't care as this guy needs a wake up call.

No groans from me, I completely agree with you.

It is okay, I see those error too, in this forum I cannot edit, I don't know why, , it happens when I write quick, so I will be extra careful; I will try the RAV thing. Thank you.

Well thank you, a lot. I will definitely try that.

It is a pain in the ass that I can edit my replies, now I have to write in a row.
Ok, should I go to RAV now and tell the truth about my situation? or maybe better when I have finished my course? because now I do not really need a job, I would be for February...

See? I see mistakes in my last post and I can't do anything about it, but I am interested, really, I want to improve, point me out the mistakes in my first post. Thanks.

You can apply to your "Heimat" for financial assistance whilst studying, they are obliged to look after you.

If you go to the RAV and say you've been black working, you and your host family will get a very nice fine for that.

I cant believe how many threads i will read about people who uses families to come to Switzerland and once here try to find something else. If the deal was not good then why you make them bring you here. I can understand if the family wants you as maid and nanny is wrong, but then do not take the job. Have you any idea how is for the kids to go nanny after nanny?

I was an aupair is USA and the deal was 100 dolars per week, room, food and car with the gas included. All my friends there were payed at least 200 etc, of course it call the greedy part of you to wish you have more, but then learn how to negotiate in the first place. I did talk to my family and asked them if they felt my job was good and they could afford it to increase my pocket money and they did only increase 50 dollars but i was very happily surprised about it. Sometimes talking does the trick.

Below is the corrected English, I hope I have not changed the meaning!

I don't think that you can edit until you have 10 posts. I could be wrong but I seem to remember this. The same goes for thanking and groaning.

He needs it. It's true there are plenty of jobs in Switzerland, but it is no less true that precisely because there are many jobs and relatively well paid, there are also lots of very well educated and experienced people looking for these jobs and definitely most if not all of them have better English skills.

I would much rather do a "shitty job" than become one of the many parasites who live off the government just because they can't be bothered to work hard for their money. This sort of post makes me absolutely furious, our system will collapse if this sort of attitude is not stamped out soon. When I hear people in their twenties who got fired from a job talk about how they have worked hard for "aaages" and that they won't look for a new job right away because they "deserve a rest", after all they "paid in lots of money", it's bad enough. But for someone to just turn up based on a passport and expect the state to look after them -

Oh and for you to think that "idiom" is language (idioma in Spanish, fair enough), well, I doubt your English is up to working life standard. To say that you were just typing fast singles you out as the type who makes excuses - not something that goes down well at work. In other news - in this country, it's pretty common to have supermarket cashiers (yeah, shitty job, I know) speak several languages, so that really doesn't count for much. People who have an excellent command of English generally charge around CHF 50 per hour to review text, so I don't see why we should help you for free with the attitude you have shown.

Agree with the previous poster.

But, Kittster, in reality it isn't the State that is looking out for them. It is really you! After all you are a tax payer.

Don't worry, Auntie Kittster will take care of everything for you. All you have to do is show up and the rewards will flow. Is that how it works???



Seriously, I'm all for helping people get a hand up and all of that but come on people. You have to bring something to the party. Even if it's only tenacity and hard work. But for goodness sakes at least drop the self absorbed, self important attitude of entitlement. We don't owe you anything but a shot and you succeed or fail on your own merits.

It sounds like moving from one little scam to each bigger scam.
First the Swiss passport gets him here past truly qualified people, or interest in being in Switzerland. Then host family takes him on, paying his expenses here. Then he uses their house as a base to search for work he could not find from where he was before. Then he reads or read before arriving here, that he thinks Switzerland just willingly recruits bodies to pay their lifestyle while they search for work. So he is tired of being an Au Pair, and wants to instead not work at all while Switzerland sets everything up for him. Finds him a job, pays his expenses, and educates and integrates him into their system. Really, their aren't that desperate for bodies to fill up space.

I mean it's not like options 1 thru 5 were all Au pair based jobs and he just wanted to find a better option in that field. As far as any of the Au Pairs I have ever met are concerned, they weren't using that work as an opportunity to stay permanently, but rather as an experience as whole, as mentioned before, the pay is normally not so great.

The Unemployment insurance is set up so that people who are in a dire situation, and for the moment are not working, but have contributed a fair amount over the past 2 years(just as any insurance policy one would pay into), are taken care of.

I mean I would never crash my car, and call up a private insurance agency and demand them to pay for my repairs, when I haven't taken on their insurance, nor made any payments. So why should this be any different?

In effect if you couldn't afford to come here on your own steam, or by the way of a company contract in hand, why should your unemployment in Spain(assuming it's where you were before here), be any more important to your un employment here?

AND PLUS, you are actually, by working under the table, taking a legitimate job from a job seeker here, thus adding to those in the unemployment lines here.

The un-employment insurance here is under funded, and they already passed measures in the last year to try to delay and cut payments to recipients, because not enough people are paying in as they are taking out.

So pardon me if I come off as aggressive when some one comes on here and publicly states he wants the best advice on how to get over on the system. And I don't feel this way just because of being here. I felt the same in the US, and the same in France. It's a common scam and I don't appreciate working my tail off to meet the requirements for that safety net, and to hear someone looking to coast there way to actually get paid to look for a job.