hi!
i've been stalking the forum for sometime now and i've been searching for jobs in switzerland for a few months. i just noticed that it's not very easy to get in switzerland and get settled.

but my question is (especially to those who lived there for a long time) is life there worth the difficulty to get into switzerland?
or should i look in other places in europe?

i'm head graphic designer of a marketing communications agency.
i just want to live where it's safe, organized and close to nature. i'm single 26 years old.

please share your thoughts, experiences and daily life. i'm aching for a new country and i'm very ready for change. i'm currently in haiti.

it's better than Haiti.

i'm living a very good life here though, enjoying. i just want a new country to live in.

but true. anything else is better than haiti.

But I've heard they do at least have brown sugar in Haiti. But, most importantly, could I live comfortably in Haiti on 155,000.00 Haitian Gourde?

Is that for just you?

Why switzerland specifically? US & Canada are in the neighborhood and are also good places to work and live.

North America and UK are the places to be for marketing.

Is that per week or per month?

^that's why!

Canada's got all that plus a lot more nature!

I grew up in Canada and I would say that CH and CA are are both great places to live and work. I was just curious why the op is targeting switzerland specifically. Canada's immigration policy is definitely easier than Switzerland's.
A safe, organized, and close to nature environment isn't going to cut it if there is no income. I would say his marketing skills are probably more valuable in securing something in CA than CH.

Bollocks. Canada's massive but it's "so what" massive. If you live in Toronto getting to Vancouver's going to take you about a day, all-in. You can get to Kyrgyzstan in about a day from Zurich. There's LOADS of nature there.

Canada? A vast, cultureless desert of snow and tundra, famous only for third rate doughnuts, melted cheese on chips and the folly of permitting the continued existence of a colony of Frenchmen in their midst, compared with a venerable and comfortable republic in the heart of the most civilised continent on Earth, where one can eat a sausage at the top of every mountain, ride a boat across every lake and live on chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I'd choose - did choose - Switzerland.

In fact, I dislike Canada so much, I haven't even been there.

You want safe, organized and close to nature.... THAT'S SWITZERLAND! I love it here. Love the nature, the food, the culture, the proximity to other places in europe, the beautiful towns (i live in Basel), the parks, forests, ... I could go on for ages. The people are polite, everything works very well, it's so clean and tidy but also pretty and rustic. It's great!

My personal answer to your question is no, but I have several reasons which are specific to my character and might not bother anyone else. I've been here for two years and it has never felt like home. You will see that both opinions are common - yes I love it, no I dislike it - so your best bet is to read what goes on here and decide what would annoy you/not make the move worth it etc. There are some things people whine about on here which I don't mind.

hi all! thanks for the replies! what i also like about switzerland is it's in the center of europe and it's close to other european countries. aside from that, the language diversity. i find that europe (in general) is rich in culture. some of my good friends are also swiss.

Adriane, that is precisely one of the reasons why i want to go there.

still the question remains, is it really worth it?

and what are those specific reasons? i'm curious, if you say no but still stay there, what could be those specific reasons?

As much as I love Switzerland, to be honest, if I were 26 and single, Switzerland would be the last place I'd be looking at. Not to mention the fact that the types of jobs you are looking for are not that abundant in Switzerland.

Despite Dougal's protests, I think Canada is a really good bet.

Watch it you, that's some real informed bias going on there. Go pick on some real shambles of a nation rather than the proper land of the free(ish). Like France or somewhere....

I was 24 and single when I moved over and I loved every minute. Only now, 5 and a half years later, am I growing somewhat tired of it and miss my home. I think that's mainly to do with having my daughter now and also missing my family way too much

Switzerland is just too hard to balance work and family life and I just feel I am missing too much of my little one growing up.

Saying that, we have just signed a new lease on a place that keeps us here for at least a few more years so we're obviously not that fed up yet

I came here to be with my Swiss partner. Staying in my country wasn't an option as 1) I wanted to leave anyway as I had problems at my job and in general to find a good job if I left that company, and 2) My partner would have struggled to find a job there and he has a decent one here.

I could copy paste the reasons but if you care to read, you can read them here. (only posting the link because you asked). Apart from the stuff mentioned in the link, as I said, it just never felt like home and I also forgot to mention: I come from a very sunny island and the almost total lack of sunshine in winter depresses me so much. I just know that I cannot live here (I live close to Zurich).

I came to this conclusion a while ago and then started working on a solution. My partner and I decided to migrate and we managed to get a permanent visa to Australia, where we think and hope we will both be happier. We're slowly getting ready for the move.

I think that depends on the person, there is no way I would move to either the US or the UK. Not because I find them bad places to live, but I do not want to bring up my children there, just as much as I do not want to bring them up back home in Peru.
Plus in the kind of job that I do, I would be a slave in the US, only two week holidays, nah...I am fine in CH thank you