Hi all.
I wanted to get some advice regarding working as a graphic designer in Zurich.
I have a Bachelor of Design and have been working as a graphic designer in Sydney for just under 5 years. The problem is that I don't have a working visa yet - am just about to start organising my EU citizenship (my mother is polish which means that by birth right i can become a polish citizen) but this will probably take anywhere up to a year to organise and it seems very unlikely that any company would sponsor me to work in Switzerland.
From what I understand, you have to be pretty good at what you do for a company to sponsor a foreigner instead of just hiring a local.
So, can anyone suggest how I go about maybe looking for work experience?
I've also heard of a trainee visa where you can find a Swiss company to hire you as a trainee - has anyone heard about this visa option?
Switzerland is known to be the mecca of graphic design and I would LOVE any opportunity to develop as a graphic designer, so any suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated.

HI

I'm a Graphic Designer based in Zurich, I work freelance with some swiss clients and some UK. Its been hard to find much freelance work in Switzerland due to language, the clients I do have here are english language based clients primarily

Unless you are fluent in german I think you might find it hard to find a full time role here in graphic design, it is not one of the job sectors where english is the business language - but this is not saying there will be nothing it's just my view on it after 3 years here.

Have you applied to any agencies yet or got in touch with any agencies to get an idea of what might be available?

Nicky

Hi Nicky.
Thanks so much for your response.
I haven't applied to any agencies as of yet - I tried searching for some but wasn't very successful. Can you recommend any?
I've also tied searching for some jobs through recommended job sites but as I cannot speak or read German I wasn't able to apply.
Do you think that some architecture firms would consider employing designers for in-house roles?
I might also consider the work experience option.
Thank again for your response.

Dalia

Hi

Why would an architecture firm need a graphic designer? you need a design or advertising or brand agency

i can only do a search on directories.ch the same as you could for design agencies, i haven't really applied for jobs as i work freelance and prefer to keep it this way but I have sent my CV to a couple of design agencies and never heard anything back - I really think that without being able to speak german you are going to have difficulty getting a job here - I would say the language spoken in most agencies will be swiss german amongst work mates so not sure how you would get on

I wish you lots of luck in finding something and sorry if I am sounding cynical but learning german may help you a lot before you come here to find work

I repeat what Nicky already wrote. German will probably be a requirement for any graphic design job.

Hence the job adverts are all in German.

Being bilingual would be an advantage.

You all make prefect sense.
Thanks for the advice!
Dalia

Hi Dalia,

I came over here in 2000 as creative director for a well-known agency in Zürich.

My situation was very unusual in that the company that hired me wanted someone who spoke native English to manage a key client who only spoke English, not at all a common situation. I was also very experienced and I was already working as a CD for a major company in the US, I was a perfect fit for the situation.

That being said, my experience suffered greatly from my lack of German. All of my co-workers preferred to speak Swiss German. I also found that there is a cultural gap between Germanic and Western design. My way of working and my design process was completely foreign to my co-workers and this often caused a great deal of tension.

Virtually no employer is going to take a risk on sponsoring you unless they have a very strong business reason to do so.

I would also say that, while Switzerland may have a great reputation as a design center, the people who are pushing that reputation are not the big agencies who would be most likely to hire a foreigner, they are the smaller boutique shops.

Good luck

Bryan McCartney

Welcome Sidney Girl.

I have to disagree with your comment that Switzerland is a mecca for graphic design. Coming from a graphics background in London I soon realised there just isn't the market here that exists in London. There are some (but not many) great examples of design here but in my experience most Swiss companies just don't see it as a commercial benefit and are happy to try and do it themselves (strap line in Helvetica at a 15º angle is seen as being very creative).

My work in London was in display production, exhibitions and signage etc and jobs there with £5000 budgets would hardly get SFr. 1000 over here. I'm not saying that meaty projects don't exist here, but they are few and far between.

In the end I found a new career (well, of sorts) and am enjoying it more, altough earning much less money.

Sorry to be the bearer of gloom, but it's the way I found it.

Thanks for bringing me up to speed on the situation!
Maybe my time in zurich will be best spent re-inventing my self and learning new skills and maybe doing some voluntary work.
Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to respond to my post.

Dalia