Judging by the number of people I have spoken to that are having difficulty finding a job in Switzerland I find this article a bit surprising.. the bit about ABB being forced to employ people from China and India the most amusing. ABB was obviously forced into this decision as they could not find the staff, and it had nothing to do with wanting to pay them a fraction of a European salary...

Anyone heard of any companies in Zürich desperate for workers ?
dave

Swiss firms in war for Talent

Judging by the number of interviews I have had since deciding to go back to work in mid November and the offers I have also had I would suggest this is true. However, I must say that the money on offer is not what I am prepared to accept at the moment also for apparently senior roles. There is something like a 40% disparity with London!

I know that we are having a bit of trouble finding the right kind of person for the jobs we want filled. Most go to banks because they tend to have better "peps" but you run the risk of being overly specialised after a while.

You cannot compare it with London, a lot less money buys you exactly the same if not better lifestyle, the company my Dad worked for had done the calculations as has Kraft, apparently. I remember being told that you needed about 90K pounds in London to comfortably live with a family with children. It's no way near that much here.

90 K £ in London ? Do a lot of people get that in London ? If so, then London can be comfortable (it is more dynamic of course)

I think your idea of "live comfortably" differs from mine. Obviously the Fowlers and the Grants are earning more than I thought these days...
dave

Living like the people in EastEnders is definitely not my notion of comfortable. And I did say "with kids", if you count in private school, then it adds up rather quickly.

Obviously one could not be comfortable without the private school for the kids, could one ?

dave

Gross Domestic Household Income in Outer London is 65141GBP, for Inner London the figure is 48504GBP in 2004

rThis figure epresents the amounts of money individuals have available to
spend on goods and services, to save or invest. Further detail in :

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/article...holdIncome.pdf

I was looking for a earnings distribution...

90kGBP a year a lot for most households in UK let alone individuals.

dave

Considering Universities strongly favour private school students, it's not such a bad choice to make. For the record, I went to state school in the UK so I don't think it's essential but I have cousins who had trouble in the school in their catchment area and have done much better at public school.

Aaaanyway, the rate I quoted was not for your "average worker", they had looked at the issue for people in more senior positions.

I really don't agree with this, it may be the case here in Switzerland but its certainly not the case in the UK, I went to Uni and went to a state school and many many people I know did. As long as you are clever or talented enough it doesn't matter where you were educated.

Yes, absolutely - there are still a few of the dinosaur Oxbridge colleges that get upset about the thought of the peasants getting through the gates, but with the new funding mechanisms for higher education even they're going to change their ideas.

In Switzerland, only "special" kids go to private school. I wanted to go to an alpine private school but my dad wouldn't let me because he didn't want people to think there was something wrong with me.

What is true that you have better chances of getting through uni with rich parents because you don't have to work next to your studies. In the UK, loans etc. make it a little easier.

Durham's intake was 50/50 for state and private school, but if you consider the number of students in private school versus state taught ones, you see a definite bias. While I was in Oxford for interviews, I definitely felt a public school vibe, but there is a noticeable difference between the colleges, I was asked to interview in three different ones.

But we are getting off track, my initial point was that it takes more money to live a certain way in London than it does in Zurich, regardless of what sum you want to fix it at.

That's the issue from my perspective, being a public-school/crap uni kinda Uncle. (Uni taught me to think, not be a Fund Manager/Administrator).

There'll always be jobs for specialists; as a veteran 'generalist', I've certainly noticed an upturn in positons vacant, although usually for technocratic roleszzz...

The cruel irony is being in a job helps you get other jobs. Disturbs the socialist blood in me. So to those in the luxurious position of having choice in the matter, enjoy the fat. To those struggling, keep pluggin away - it takes massive reserves of tenacity - and squeeze into any position you can find.

Durham was pretty biased. A lot of the people that'd been to "state school" had actually gone to, eg, all-girls selective Catholic schools or whatever. The lack of black faces there was pretty noticable for instance.

On the talent war - I've seen stories say similar things worldwide. It affects some sectors and not others. For instance the oil industry is in dire straits - all the oil engineers are retiring and nobody has gone into the sector for a long time (seen as dirty, polluting, evil etc). Right now there are fields not being developed because of lack of skilled manpower.

Certainly it's true also at Google. We hire internationally and bring people to Zurich of course (that's how I ended up here), but still, finding people is really hard. We'll probably be more aggressively recruiting in Asia next as we tap out Europe (the states is to some extent already tapped out, apparently)

But obviously no trouble finding interns because my friend who applied didn't even get an answer. But I guess that sums it up, plenty of undergrads/graduates to be had but not people with the kind of experience you want.
We are looking for people specialised in tax but it doesn't seem to be a very popular area to work in.

We could do a lot better at responding to applicants. I believe we get about 5000 resumes a day though, so it's pretty tough. Almost everyone in my department is hired by having a recruiter approach them, because typically the people we want aren't on the job market.

We do take recent graduates, I am one, but it's not as common in engineering. For sales/ad consultants we take a lot more.

I'd have thought tax would be very popular, at least, at Durham it always seemed like everybody was applying to the accountancy/consulting/tax firms. Good pay, they train you etc ...

Well we need people specialised in Swiss Taxation so Durham is not going to be rich pickings for us. Which college did you go to? I was in Hild/Bede.

Thanks for the info on the recruiting, my friend is a little upset at not even getting an answer, poor thing. He's done his BSc but needs to do an Internship as part of the requirements for his studies in Mathematics. Or something like that. But he knew that Google is tough, so I guess he'll get over it. So next time we procrastinate away our life by looking at our various homes on Google Earth, you'll have something to do with it? That's kinda cool.

Well done for getting the job though, being approached rather than approaching is definitely the way to go.

Well, I was working in IT for for a large financial institution in Zuerich <cough> You and Us <cough> and I can confirm that there was a definite shortfall in suitable people.

Unfortunately, the organisation I worked for repeatedly offered low rates for vacancies, strongly resisted employing workers on a contractor basis and appeared to have no idea whatsoever about personal and career development. As such, they were having great difficulty finding new talent.


Depending on your job, you can earn vastly more in London these days. Plus, the London job market is way more dynamic. From a purely career point of view I wouldn't say that Switzerland is particularly attractive for well qualified professionals who are likely to consider moving internationally.


Gav

You & Us? You might want to click on my "You" link for the real version

The market is picking up. Says the state-school, polytechnic-boy

My cousin went to Durham and is now at Yale or something. Sutton Girls' High School is where she went before. Mummy doesn't have a horse, Daddy had a Porsche but now has a FFRR [Fully-fledged Range Rover]

Durham Johnston Comprehensive didn't harm me but all my relatives have ended up at Durham school. In the end it was me who got into the "highest ranking" university so it can go both ways I guess.

God I hate Range Rovers without a purpose. They are called "Huusfrauepanzär" in Zurich for a good reason...