I've been here over a year now and am still unemployed. Of course my job hunting has not been very consistent (i gets bursts of renewed energy and motivation mingled with some real down time) but how can it remain so when i get so many disheartening results? I'm young and have no real marketable skills (bachelors in psychology and a barista - i make coffees - and many other menial job experiences), which is my main issue having a B Ausweis and competing with local Swiss for jobs I hear that employers need to prove they can't hire a Swiss person or someone at least with a C Ausweis) over you. English is not exactly an advantage in Switzerland, and mein deutsch ist noch nicht fliessend genug. Naturally I don't speak swiss either! I've searched papers and the Internet. My CVs have been returned repeatedly by "headhunters" or recruitment agencies and even local supermarkets, citing that i have no prior swiss working esperience! How picky! I have not been fussy about what kind of work I look for as long as it doesn't require perfect deutsch or swiss (or French and Italian for that matter). I'm almost at breaking point where I want to turn into godzilla and just stomp all over them!

*breath out* I really probably should have posted this in the complaints section of the forum... but it's job related too... Thanks for reading *feel better now*

I am in the same boat. There is nothing to do but keep on chugging I guess. I actually had job a interview scheduled, finally, for today. Then they canceled it on me yesterday. Living here, unless recruited from outside, is no fun. I am really tired of people making posts "I need a job!" or "What should I earn in this position?" I know they have a right to ask, but for people in our position it is rather frustrating, eh? I also find it strange to just post: "I want a job," whereas I'm searching through Jobwinner, Monster and so forth on my own.

Do you have a B permit on account of a Swiss spouse or a non-EU/EFTA spouse working in Switzerland? If your spouse is Swiss you technically deserve the same treatment as the Swiss and EU nationals. However, the Swiss issue us the same permit as those not entitled to work -- it makes it that much more difficult.

I've only been looking for a couple of months now though -- I worked on my German for months before looking. I think that is just something else that must be done -- studying as much as possible, speaking with as many people as you can in German and reading the newspaper everyday. Do you have a Goethe certificate?

I got my B permit on account of my non-EU/EFTA spouse not working but receiving a PhD scholarship here for a fixed period of 3 yrs. Already 1 and a half yrs has been and gone! So as you can see, I'm not here permanently and that's also a contributing factor to my failure in the job hunt, as they are hesitant about hiring someone who is likely (or guaranteed) to leave.

I completed my Deutsch Zertifikat exam in July last yr for German Stufe B1. Took 6 months of intensive courses at Migros for it. Because i'm not here for good, I didn't see the point in pursuing it further. If we were to stay however, it would present a different story, and my chances of getting a job might increase too!

I assume you have a Swiss spouse? If so, good for you! I'm happy for you as well as fuming with jealousy! You'll be sure to have better luck than me, not just with the job hunt but also with integrating into the community. Your partner can help you with sticky issues like customs/cultural differences and language hurdles.

Will keep trying! Thanks for the encouragement! I know I'm not alone...

It just takes a loooong time (usually) to change jobs/find a new one in Switzerland. Generally, the job market there is not dynamic so you can expect to be looking for months even though the economy is good. There were a couple of threads on this subject before, worth doing a search to see if they can give you extra info.

There's an additional complication in that fair recruitment laws either don't seem to exist or are commonly ignored. Definitely, the recruitment process in a lot of Swiss businesses is not transparent and often people get jobs based on personal contacts and not from being the best of the applicants for an advertised position. ie. The positions are never even publicised.

IMO, for a foreigner with no current job it's best to go via an agency. They will have made the contacts ready-made.

I've been through the threads, and have shared links to job search engines. Right now I am applying to jobs everyday at this point -- wrote new cover letters in English and German today for more jobs.

In terms of job agencies, do you have any recommendations? Or is there already a list of non-IT agencies somewhere on here? I have yet to simply contact an agency directly, without it being a specific application. My main problem is that I am a fresh college graduate (albeit with very good grades and honors) and only have experience working in the accounting department of a non-profit (14 months total, spread over four years).

Interesting thread.

Have you both tried Temp agencies?

I ask because when my ex left me and my boys some five years ago, I was really confused as to what to do. I have always worked as a freelance photographer but having limited German language skills meant that I was hesitant about working fulltime for a company.

The Manpower Agency found me work almost immediately at the Post Office sorting dept. The work itself was very boring and tedious plus very physical. After four months I was offered fulltime work but luckily by then, I'd been offered a position as house photographer at the firm I'm currently at.

Give the agencies a try.

Best of luck.

well the boring, tedious positions are not really what people are after. I realize after reading several threads that the people married to a Swiss have the permit to work but then have a not so easy time coming in and doing the search. In some ways they are stuck in a market which is not so dynamic as Gav said.

Best to get recruited from outside for sure. At least one has some local experience right away and there is some hope even if the job does not last a very long time. The basic problem though is that the companies tend to be very very risk averse and do not assess the dynamism or passion of the candidate. Very different from US.

Even the Swiss have a hard time getting the boring, tedious positions - they are just dwindling in numbers.

It is definitely best to try and just get in with an agency and do temp work or consulting/contracting if you aren't having luck finding a permanent position. I'm contracting and have been at the same company for over 2.5 years. I consider myself extremely lucky, but I know I'm not the only one who lands in positions like this.

Please, please, please give me the boring tedious position. That is actually something I would love. I studied at Oxford, I received a "very good" on the ZMP, I have all the honors from my university that I can receive -- what more do I need? I get rejected from temporary data entry positions! I god damn did data entry for 14 months in the US -- spread out of over four years, aka during my summer breaks -- and ensured that my employer wrote me a letter of recommendation for the Swiss market (a Zeugnis). What should I do then buddy?

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oh absolutely...consulting and contracting is the way to go while one looks for permanent positions...the thing is though that most of the contracts tend to be in the IT space. And I think that most of the IT folks have no problem landing permanent positions. They write their own ticket at UBS and CS.

well done though Evilshell! You are proof that it can be done !

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you need to keep fighting hard...i am sure you can land the boring position soon. That should not be a big deal buddy. Are they really rejecting you for data entry ? They might want 'excellent' on the ZMP as you have to really deal with many kinds of people in the so called boring positions. It is like looking for a position in manufacturing (which is not so boring). They need super German for some positions as it involved dealing with people in the lab, production workers etc.

You do not know the grading scale of the ZMP. There is only "very good" -- that is the *highest* grade possible.

sorry for that...so it is not really the german but just the agency. try another one

I just found and read your post Bell - I could have written it myself!!

I'm in exactly the same situation - and without a Swiss spouse to help or guide. At the moment I'm going through the energetic and postive mode
I've now started to call the recruitment company first - introduce myself - then send the CV by post - then call them again in a few days to check if they've got it - then suggest sending it to openings that I've seen on thier website. Basically I've been breathing down their neck - which makes it a little difficult for them to ignore me completely !

How're things for you? gotten any better?

My recommendation - go after global jobs.... Global companies and Headquarters often value more multilingual fluency and multicultural experience than fluent Swiss German... And very likelly you will have a foreigner manager who is not so strict about having prior Swiss working experience...

I could have written those posts myself, too.... only deleting the spouse part.... It took me about 8 months to find a job, and i was looking * very * systematically for several hours every day.... It just takes time, patience and a bit of luck....and errr.... persistency... The whole process is exhausting and i was at breaking point several times, but at the end, things worked out. I know it is of little comfort, but the Swiss market is in better shape than the one for the rest of Europe.

Good luck....

Donald Trump (Peace be upon Him) had it right: tenacity.

Horribly defeating, to be under/unemployed. You develop humour, that's for sure. Be determined as to what you want - ie, you want to be here, right? - and keep chopping wood. Any opportunity - even the boring stuff - can do so much to raise spirits and provide a sense of purpose.

Getting that opportunity seems as easy as ABC... to those in jobs. As mentioned elsewhere, getting a job is so much easier when you already have one. One of life's bitter ironies, I'm afraid.

Put your shoes on in the morning and remain upbeat. Keep busy. You're working for yourself now, as a job seeker, so put in the 42.5 hours a week - minimum. Arrange your diary appropriately: Start 8.30, break 10.00, lunch at 12.30, etc.

Motivating yourself is like rolling a rock up a hill, only to have it roll down again once you get to the top. Deep breath... onwards.

Tenacity, determination, optimism and good fortune. Hope it works out soon for you.

OK. Disregard my original quote about boring / tedious. That was my impression of it. What I was trying to say was that it was a JOB. It got me out of bed every morning, made me some new friends and put some money in my account at the end of the month. It also vastly improved my German language skills.

Regardless of the position I think it was a great help. Manpower was the agency I used. Give 'em a call.

Am doing so today. I was going to yesterday, but was too tired after being in Basel at 4 am for Fasnacht, and after handling an extremely weird and depressing job phone call in the early afternoon.

Well they don't seem to want to get back to me, so I'm going to increase my profile (i.e. do more to get their attention) until they tell me to go away I guess. I really hate it when I come across positions on the search engines to which I've already applied and been rejected -- are these positions fake or something? Why on Earth do they keep reappearing?

Have any of you guys thought about being self-employed? I'm assuming that if you have spouses, you don't technically *need* to work? If it's like in the UK then I guess the benefits agency could require that you find a job with a company but otherwise you might want to take a step back, make a list of things you enjoy doing, then think long and hard about how they can be turned into something profitable. You don't have to work for a giant corporation ....