I've been clicking on "thanks" so much here, I'll just give a general one too. I just want some temp work for now, but would eventually like a couple of days a week. This just to be "out in the world" again, in addition to our translation business, after many years working from a home office.

Hi all. I'm new to this forum. I wish to work for a multinational company or international organisation in Switzerland. I already have a master degree in commerce and a few months of work experiences. I am currently staying in Berne.

Can someone please give me some suggestions in finding a job in an English-speaking company in Berne? What should I do? Who should I contact? Perhaps, a quick list of the inter. companies/organisations in Berne.

I am also willing to extend my search to Zurich and Geneva. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thx

Swisscom / Swisscom Mobile : Swisscom -

BT Infonet : BT Infonet

Sicap : SICAP HOME

Plimm Corporation : PLIM Cooperation AG

Have also attached a pdf of all Int Companies in Bern

Enjoy

international_companies_stand0107.pdf

Thankyou Polorise for your info. This is very useful.

click on the thanky button then ... go on, I know you want to .....

I am currently residing in the US in Florida but I am hoping to possibly make a move to Zurich.

Does anyone know any particular companies or have any contacts for anyone that would be willing to consider a candidate that does not speak German.

I have a background in IT analysis and software testing.

I appreciate any responses and if anyone knows any place currently hiring I would greatly appreciate the contact information.

Cheers,
Alberto Simon

http://www.englishforum.ch/jobs/5394...mostly-zh.html
Try the above thread, its got lots of companies listed.

Could a moderator add that into the sticky, its got a lot of good info for people in it.


Edit to reply to post below: It has been merged into this thread, have a look at page 2.

Cool but says thread invalid?

Hi,

i'm an Australian just moved to Zurich a few days ago and searching for a job. I'm currently registered with the Swiss Migration for an L permit.
Just wondering how hard it is to get a job on the L Permit, because my understanding is it's pretty restrictive.

i'm looking for work either in event admin/any assistant or secretarial role/project support.

your assistance would be much appreciated.

thanks very much
Kanch

this [thread] is perhaps is where you should have started looking for your job?

-----------------------------

It is pretty restrictive. But can you actually register for an L permit without a job offer ?

Hello Cherry,

I am Dipak and I am trying to help my wife find a job here in Switzerland. First off, can you tell me if she is allowed to work on a dependent visa?
And if yes, she needs a job where German language skills is not required.
Can you help me with some pointers here, either in your company or elsewhere?

Thank you so much.

Dear Cherry,
Would you have an open offers for English speaking people (with basic Italian knowledge - spoken as well as reading) in and around Lugano?

I have an L permit (trying for a B) and I will be here in Switzerland for a long time (at least 3 years fr sure).

Am looking for a suitable opening in Human resources or Marketing - I have an MBA degree and 7 years work exp with reputed international companies.

Thanks

OK.
After having gone through the job process here and succeeding I thought I'd post my thoughts and some advice.

This is Zurich, and only my experiences.

Applying directly to jobs from company websites has given me very little joy. The only success I have had with this was through UBS and that was due to ringing up the HR person and being a pain in the arse until they looked at my CV properly.
All other jobs I applied for directly either still haven't responded or have sent back negative responses. I believe that a lot of the companies threw my CV straight into the bin without looking at it.
Only evidence I have for this is that I applied for a job directly, got rejected and then applied for the same job through a recruitment agency (who pushed my identical CV) and I got an interview.


Don't spam jobs out there. Advice I was given is try not to apply for everything at once because you end up pissing off the recruitment /HR people who get your CV 3 times.

It takes a long time to get responses and then to get an interview. My experience was, a notification (sometimes) that my application was received and then a long wait, the shortest being a week. Interviews were never arranged for the next day, it always seemed to be next week at the earliest, often longer.
I received a request for an interview 3 months after I sent the initial application, I had heard nothing from them until that point...made me wonder if they were really interested in hiring anyone.
Contract jobs are obviously different in this respect and the turn around was quicker.

HR will give you the run around.
I had telephone interviews that were canceled 5 mins before they were due to happen, or in one case I wasn't phoned at all and had to ring them up to find out what had happened (job had gone, no one told me)
I had interviews where I heard nothing from them again, and had to phone them myself.
I even had interviews were I was told I would be called back, and then a week later told the job had been filled internally.

Typically I seemed to have to go through 3 interviews. Telephone followed by a mixture of HR/Line manager/uber manager.
All interviews asked personality questions...you know the type Strength/weaknesses - career goals - outgoing or introvert.

Salary was discussed at each and every interview, so know what you want..and don't be surprised if they offer you less - they will quote benefits, bonuses, pay structure in place, everyone else gets the same etc.
I found this very odd, salaries are never quoted in the job advert in my experience and even the agencies don't seem to know exactly what is being offered, it is expected that you will talk about money in the interview.

Knowing some German was a massive help.

The most joy I got was through Swisslinx they were the best agency and I regularly got phone calls from them keeping me updated and offering advice and new jobs that I hadn't seen.
In fact they were the only agency that seemed to offer any help.
Once again Swisslinx were the best at helping me find work.
In future I would start by talking to Swisslinx and then searching for stuff on my own using monster, topjobs etc.
I am not employed by Swisslinx just my opinion of them.

Most of the big companies (UBS/Credit suisse etc) seemed to be wanting permanent positions and were less interested in contracting.

I know the pimps at Swisslinx read this here forum, and I know they know me.
But I don't like to see one agency singled out for good praise.

There are other agencies out there who just as good a service:
Xenar, Stamford, Coba-IT and Harvey Nash based on experience and chatting with other contractors.

Umm, sorry to be pedantic, but I think you missed a word out of this sentence. Surely it's: "****ing HR will give you the run around"?

Good post, thanks. I am Bamboozled with the hiring process here, it's whack.

Nuff said.

I realises a few months ago I'm unable to say just "HR".

It always comes out as "HR bollocks", referring to the inane HR job perpetuating processes...

Another comment on HR professionals:
http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/o...t-of-dagenham/

I guess it's a matter of personal experience - Swisslinx certainly didn't do it for me and appeared to be no better than any other agency.

Fair comment, I didn't use any of those agencies.

I've gone through the interview process in 3 countries (if you count Scotland as different from England) 4 with Switzerland, and their HR has been the worst by a country mile.
The impression I normally get is that the company is trying to employ you, they want you to like them.
In Switzerland it seems to be the opposite, they gave me the distinct impression that I was lucky or privileged to be being interviewed by them and that therefore they could do as they pleased and I would still be happy.

From aforementioned article:

"Nevertheless, ‘Human Resources’ practitioners persist in many enterprises, with their ‘personality’ screening. This is an evil practice. Many will have experienced job interviews for a technical role where one is required to engage in ‘role play’, or is asked silly questions like ‘if you were an animal, which animal would you like to be’, and so on. Any trained and qualified psychologist will tell you that the tests are bunkum, culled from Girlie magazines. Even voluntary, properly administered personality tests, validated on large populations, and given in un-stressful settings, are notoriously unreliable. When they suddenly pop up in an interview, without prior consent, and the candidate has to give the "right" answer when a potential job is at stake, they are a gross impertinence, and probably illegal."

The tragi-comic thing about them is your HR Drone will say something like "oh they're just an indicator, we don't rely on them" and then make you take them. And then base their decison on the results. Saves them having to do the thinking, I suppose...