Yes, it's obviously possible to get a job in Zurich without German.

Big banks like Credit Suisse, UBS or Julius Baer don't require German (in IT) and there're many other companies where you can get by in English.

The problem's that you'll be applying for positions where the competition's fierce.

You can try your luck as well with start-ups (angel.co).

Good luck!

Just landed a IT job and I turned... ***Drum roll!** 60 a few days ago.
At the moment it would seem that anybodywho can tell the difference between a telephone number and a IP-Adresse can find a job. Ok, so it´s a driving all over Bavaria, giving a world class butt-crack show from under the table while juggling a screw driver, a hammer and a roll of ducttape. But it pays the bills, keeps me in beer and my motorbike on the road.

What more do you want?

But do/did you have to speak German, or not?

I also have "problems" with the Swiss reality. I'm a software engineer, more on the side of algorithms and low level in general but my skills are wide. Unfortunately I'm constantly bombarded with JavaScript offers, or Mobile apps development, but I can't find a serious job as a back-end or embedded developer. Sure if I'd lowered my expectations to an absolute minimum I would land such job at some startup or an old factory.

Well I do sprech the Deutsch, it makes things easier, but actually Englisch was a requirement.

That doesn't answer the question.

In certain areas of IT it isn't too hard to get a job without speaking German. Even those that require German in their CV (often written by HR folk off a template), will often consider an IT person regardless, so long as you aren't applying for a help-desk position. System Engineering, Admin, Network - anything to do with the infrastructure and not with assisting employees. Most folks in that area speak predominantly English. You sort of have too.

I was a System Admin until my company went bankrupt recently. Didn't take me too long (couple of months), my German is only A-2. I had a few offers, and eh..Well, another story, for another time.


Edit: I just realized I necroed an old thread, sorry.

Good luck with the Job search ! I am in the QA Field, also got sucked a Month ago due to the Corona time (in Germany), hoping will be able to find quickly a new once once we move to CH in a few Months.

Really doubt lacking German is a big issue. Mostly it's about skill set. For us the big demand is around cloud-based platforms (in our case AWS). Days of the on prem DB are numbered. My tech tips are Alteryx, Talend, Snowflake, Reltio, Tableau, Thoughtspot and the dozens of ML/Ops 'Data Science' tools....

Oh I found a job. I had a couple of offers before the end of the year. I am just not sure about how I feel about the place I chose, yet.


QA is a little bit trickier, normally. But I have seen several pop up here and there. Check Siegfried, in Zofingen. Though...From what I hear, that place needs nerves of steel though.

There are jobs, if you want an international app, ypu‘ll want a universal language.
Saying that though, if you were to learn a local language and competent, you couöd prob find a wealth of jobs available