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#81 19.06.2007, 14:14

Just as with demanding certificates, diplomas, references, it provides a warm-feeling risk reductions and more importantly in my opinion, a blame-sink for HR if the hiring goes wrong.

dave

	Quote:	Uncle Max
	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...

danny · #82 19.06.2007, 18:07

	Quote:	PlantHead
	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.

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

Excellent post except that of course Swisslinx does not work for everyone. Seem to be better at responding.

Clearly the hiring process is very slow and non dynamic as even Gav, an experienced person on this forum once pointed out. Salary discussion is one thing and it will come up at some point.

'But I received a request for an interview 3 months after I sent the initial application, I had heard nothing from them until that point'.......this is the crazy part...

EOC · #83 05.07.2007, 15:55

Hi all,

I´ve just joined this forum because I read very good post and recommendations like the one from PlantHead.

I´m a RF engineer and as some of you I´m looking for a job in Zurich. The problem is that most of the recruitment companies are IT focussed. What I´m looking for is an agency specialized in mobile operators such us Swisscom, Sunrise.., because as PlantHead said is almost impossible to make contact with HR department.

Does anyone know more agencies like ELANIT or SWISSLINX? Any suggestion is more than welcomed...I'm lost!!!

By the way, I don´t speak German...yet

Thanks!!

PlantHead · #84 05.07.2007, 16:41

Sunrise advertise their jobs through Swisslinx and I don't think they require any German language skills, unless you are customer facing.

EOC · #85 05.07.2007, 17:03

Hi PlantHead,

I don´t know how to thank in this forum yet, but I just wanted to say thanks for your piece of advice. I´ve just registered with Swisslinx...so wish me good luck!

Thanks once more : )

Corbets · #86 05.07.2007, 21:49

http://www.sixi.ch
http://www.sandraschmid.com

The people at those two firms were both very friendly and verbose when I was looking for employment, very honest and direct as well. I'd try them.

http://www.mrd.ch

This lady focuses mostly on Zug jobs, but she gives excellent advice and has a really good eye for picking out opportunities that are well-suited to you.

And of course, if you're looking for jobs in the telecom industry as mentioned, I work at the 7th largest telecom in Switzerland, www.tic.ch, at least until the end of the month. Not in Zurich, unfortunately, but you can check the open positions if you don't mind working half an hour south of Zurich. If you apply, tell them you heard about it through me. ;-)

Cheers,
Lance

nancyblue · #87 16.07.2007, 16:49

the problem is that most of the jobs are in german, if i dont understand german how can i apply for these jobs.....can anyone help please

	Quote:	Richard
	Hi Cherry, I am not sure if this is the case at Zurich but do you get some kind of reward for introducing someone who subsequently gets a job? I know companies used to do this when the market was tighter... If so then maybe you can profit by people sending their applications to you and you forward them. Richard

Lob · #88 16.07.2007, 17:12

	Quote:	nancyblue
	the problem is that most of the jobs are in german, if i dont understand german how can i apply for these jobs.....can anyone help please

a) which jobs?
b) learn German?

nancyblue · #89 16.07.2007, 19:56

jobs for customer services or admin jobs. most of the job description is in german even though they want english speaking employees.

BoyD · #90 16.07.2007, 20:25

This usually means they want German and English, they don't feel the need to mention German skills as a "must" since the ad is written in German.

Usually....

	Quote:	nancyblue
	jobs for customer services or admin jobs. most of the job description is in german even though they want english speaking employees.

lucy_sg · #91 20.08.2007, 17:53

Hello Sara,

I have been looking for one of those in this part of the world for several years now, and haven't been able to find it.... it could be a....errr... challenging quest.... Other than the usual suspects, like Spanish and Portuguese branches of banks, travel companies..... Anyway, you probably might find easier to find companies that have their have global headquarters here and that are in need of staff to handle their Spanish and Portuguese subsidiaries / clients... even in this case, you very likelly would need to speak at least English to communicate with your other colleagues... I would recommend you to enter these languages as a criterium of search....

Let us know if you are sucessfulll and find anything that suits you....

Take care,

Lucy

	Quote:	SaraVG
	Hi Everyone Please could you help me. I am looking for work and would like to write to companies where Spanish/Portuguese is there communication language. Do you know of any companies I could write to? Any contact information would be very much appreiciated. Best Regards, SaraVG

flow23 · #92 20.08.2007, 20:20

speed.ch (in case not mentioned before) is kind of a scanner of most sites mentioned here. got my job through this service.

ali_the_nomad · #93 20.08.2007, 21:38

	Quote:	nancyblue
	jobs for customer services or admin jobs. most of the job description is in german even though they want english speaking employees.

Have you tried applying through a UK recruitment agency? The larger multinational companies may be recruiting native english speakers for swiss branches/HQ.

Natasha · #94 29.08.2007, 13:55

	Quote:	Leysin
	Hi there, I did not have time to read all the responses, but one agency which I found very good for English speaking positions though they specialise in banking. The link is http://www.futurewatch.ch/. I would suggest contacting Simon Portalski. They are very small, and not well known, but definitely worth a try!! Good luck, Leysin

I cannot seem to thank you for this post officially, but thankyou so much. I sent my resume yesterday afternoon, they got back to me first thing today, we spoke for 20 minutes, and I feel very positive now in regards to
employment oppurtunities. They were very proffesional, sincere, and I feel that they had my best interests at heart.

Two thumbs up

Starbug · #95 31.08.2007, 09:04

Try Comfone, it's an English speaking telecommunications company based in Bern. On occasion they look for people in Sales, their website is www.comfone.com

Siobhan · #96 05.09.2007, 19:12

Guys, I live in Lausanne and am looking for a job in the area of IT - Software Project Management, Project Coordinator, Project Lead. I am mostly functional but hey, 10 years in the industry has given me a good technical grounding.
Anyway, to get to the point, I have been looking for 9 months now and have not been successful. I have been to so many agencies, then decided to just use 4 or 5 as this is better. I am using all my contacts and still nothing. What the hell is going on here ??

I am beginning to really worry now !!!!

BoyD · #97 06.09.2007, 09:46

Hi Siobhan,

I couldn't find a "Siobhan" in "Lausanne" on our database.

Maybe a quick registration on www.swisslinx.com would expand your options?

Can't promise but you never know....

Siobhan · #98 06.09.2007, 10:08

Thanks BoyD,
Registration complete now - fingers crossed !
I am getting fedup of job hunting and trying to think of new ways and routes to go down

With being newly-married, it is causing a strain already

Anyway....head up as they say

- I must carry on.....

Siobhan

BoyD · #99 06.09.2007, 10:14

Wow, that was quick!

CV received, I think you should receive a call today from a colleague.

Siobhan · #**100** 06.09.2007, 10:18

Cool, thanks, I could do with a boost