I am planning to movw to Geneva soon with my partner. We are relocating because of my job, so I am all set.

I speak a little French, English is my mother tongue and from what I have heard I should be okay. I am going to launch myself fully into learning the language.

The same is true of my partner, but she doesn't know any more than ski resort French (bonjour, bon soir, vin chaud, chocolate chaud etc!). As she will be moving out with me for my job, she doesn't have a job to go to but with such limited French to begin with, will she struggle to find any work? She has a degree in accounting and finance and has run her own business since graduating. Would she struggle getting a starter job in pretty much any field vaguely finance related field (banks, trader, project management etc) - low basic salary etc, would even consider a low paid intership to get her foot in the door?

I have read the sticky, but she'll be starting from scratch in both French and in her field (despite degree and 3+ years running ecommerce business).

Thanks for any and all advice folks.

SS

1) Be optimistic
2) It'll be difficult and once the exoticism of moving here wears off - which will take some time - it may be more demanding on the soul and wits than one would like, but with her background and experiences letters are likely to be answered
3) It's a really tough economic climate which doesn't seem to be moving much
4) When in doubt, consult point 1)

This forum will be very useful. Read as much as you can to prep yourselves. And it's free, which rocks

As far as I know from experiences of my friends etc, the average job hunt lasts about 6 months in Geneva. Majority of the recruitment agencies would prefer cover letters to be written in french.

the first thing she should do is enroll herself in the migros french school and you guys will have to network like crazy.

Great thanks. We have no problem with optimism - just need to remind ourselves we are living in Switzerland and that the pistes are less than an hour away.

Useful info, thanks - we'll both be enrolling in a school. I love speaking French and cannot wait to increase my ability. Would your example be the case with her not wanting to get a job with experience? E.g. she would not be chasing a job at 100,000, but perhaps more like 30k-40k to get established and integrated.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of international organizations and large multinational companies headquartered in Geneva, and that for them, speaking French isn't necessary at all.

international orgs dont require folk to speak french but its a big plus if they can. you will be competing with folk with similar profile as you and any comp advantage would be great.

i think for jobs that are 100k plus the waiting time is probably longer ( i would imagine) as majority of my friends (where i took the sample from) have graduated uni in 2005-2006 and have about 2-3 year work experience outside of switzerland (canada, states, UK and france)