Hello,

I am currently living in Australia, but I will soon be travelling to Switzerland in the end of June. My Visa only allows for a 3 month maximum visit, unless of course I can obtain a work contract within the country.

I am planning on staying in Lausanne, and would appreciate if anyone knows of any construction engineering companies within Lausanne, or a web address where I might find related jobs. I have as yet only been able to find very limited information regarding this.

During my stay in switzerland, I will be learning French language hopefully to some kind of basic conversational level....

I am currently employed as a Senior Structural Draftsman, and have more than 7 years experience in the role of draftsman, and spent 3 years as a "Senior" role.
I am experienced in managing my own projects, and managing other staff that assist me on the project such as other draftsman, and related professionals.
I have obtained a certificate 4 in Engineering however the role does not require formal qualification in Australia, and is done as an "Apprenticeship" style of learning.

I have worked on projects ranging from small scale private residential, to government housing, to 45 story high rise buildings. Residential, commercial, industrial, I have worked on all different types of construction.

I currently work for a very reputable and well known company in Australia, for which you can view some of our projects at
http://www.robertbird.com/

I am proficient in the use of Autocad, microsoft word, and excel.

If there are no jobs in this field, I would pretty much do anything, as my girlfriend lives in Lausanne and ultimately I am just trying to get there for our relationship.

I appreciate any ideas/help anyone might have.

Thanks!

Aussie.

Hi Aussie

I was in a similar situation to you although I married my swiss girlfriend at the time and moved to Zurich.

Some useful tips:

1. You will find it hard to find any kind of work whilst travelling on a Tourist visa. Not impossible, but you may need to have some specialist skills that someone is looking for.

2. There is CAD work around in Switzerland but form what I can tell you may find 2-4 jobs posted poer week for this in the whole of switzerland, and often a local language requirement.

3. Finding other work can also be difficult unless you have experience, even bar work they like to have someone with lots of experience and know the local language.

You might want to learn the local language as best as you can before and during your stay.

Do not expect to get too many job offers while youa re over there, finding work in switzerland can take a whole lot of early planning.

Consider working on higher qualifications such as post grad and masters level education to further your career.

One option if you want to stay in Switzerland is to seek English speaking university courses.

Good luck with it all and I wish you all the best in your search. Feel free to message me if you have any particular questions. I did not live in the French speaking part so ther emay be variations in life experiences.

Thanks for that, yeah I figure that I am not going to have much luck, but
at this point it's just another option that I can try. Never know
maybe I will get lucky and nab something!

Maybe marriage is on the cards, jsut have to wait and see. If that happens then the Visa isn't so much of a problem.

Thanks for the advice, I hope French speaking part is a bit more
flexible....

Hi
Losinger a subsidiary of Bouygues were recruiting recently and I think they were also looking for people who could speak English.They are in Lausanne.

http://www.losinger.ch/

Here is the website of the Vaudois construction diectory- lots of companies-

http://www.fveconstruction.ch/anMetier.asp?M=01&R=2

http://www.blondel-jaques.net/?m=200506

You could also look at agencies recruiting construction staff eg adecco.ch
or architects/ engineer offices.

http://www.google.com/alpha/Top/Worl...27%C3%A9tudes/

Just looked at adecco site , at least 3 jobs for ? draftsmen with autocad. Need language tho`
Good luck Jo