In the last two years of fruitless searching I have found out a little about Graphic Design in Switzerland.

-Agencies are not large meaning that, for the majority of them, Swiss German is the language of choice. I have however come across many agencies with dual German and English websites which would seem to indicate that they have English clients. I have come across one agency with an only English site - including the job ads. I have been told, by someone in the industry, that if one is good enough it should be possible to work in an agency speaking only English but the more German one knows the better.

-Large international companies with Graphics departments sometimes employ designers in roles where the only language needed is English. Most of the time German and French are also required though.

-I have only found one tiny employment agency for design in Bern. It's not really recommended though, as the place for design is Zurich of course. If anyone wants the address give me an indication. They don't have a website and I don't feel like searching for the address right now. If anyone has some time and the inclination try googling stellenvermittlung zurich. Thats how I found the one in Bern. If you find some results please post them back here! I know that there are some.

-When I once visited Manpower they told me that they sometimes have design jobs but it is difficult to place people with qualifications from outside of Switzerland.

-Graphics is not a huge industry here. It will take a lot of persistence to find openings. As far as I know there are more openings in web than print design.

-If you want to try trawling the job sites, these are the only job sites where I have consistently found vacancies:

http://www.medienjobs.ch
http://www.jobsuchmaschine.ch
http://www.jobs.ch
http://tagesanzeiger.jobwinner.ch
http://www.speed.ch
http://www.dasauge.ch/
http://www.marketingstellen.ch/
http://www.persoenlich.com/

-A couple of pages where you can use for searching for companies, lots of agencies only advertise vacancies on their own sites.

http://www.persoenlich-directory.com/index.php
http://www.designnetwork.ch/

Good luck. Please contribute if you have any more info.

Blaze

If you're an expert flash designer / programmer check out nothing: open positions for web developers, programmers, designers, engineers

They've been advertising these jobs for ages though, so I guess they're quite picky... I think the positions might be in Bern as well.

Just wanted to thank you Blaze. I'm actually looking for a job in Zurich as a Graphic Designer. So your info helps. I will let you know if I get something.

Sam

Here's a head-hunter, who specialises in jobs in advertising and marketing. She speaks english and knows the business inside out - so don't be afraid to contact her... Good luck!

Or you might want to try the Swiss advertising association: Bund Schweizer Werbeagenturen - BSW