Reply to: Where do I look for Zurich contracts?

[Lewis]

p.s. I am told there is quite a large US/UK expat community there now. We already have Swiss friends but a few friendly Uk people would be nice to know. How do you find it, are you friends from here or there or both?

[Lewis]

Your best bet is to learn normal German first. There are Swiss German lessons available, but they demand a certain level of High German before they'll let you enrol.

Yes this is a big dilema for me. The problem is I'm pretty bad at foreign languages and learning both High German and Swiss German might be quite difficult. I thought I could start on one and move on to the other. I was thinking that for day to day living and socialising Swiss German would be more useful and so to learn that first. But I know that High German is used when writing and is a more useful language to know. I'm not sure what the best approach is. Do most people speak Swiss German in offices over High German?

[Sysman]

Well my wife has started me on Zuri-deutshe(?) lessons which seem to involve mainly her saying some gooblegook and then both her and the children laughing at me when I try to repeat it! Hmmmmm ...

Your best bet is to learn normal German first. There are Swiss German lessons available, but they demand a certain level of High German before they'll let you enrol.

So I take it you are just an English speaker. Any other advice you might have whenever you have some spare time would be much appeciated. Typical pitfalls, how to organise etc.. e.g. am I right in saying I don't start a company like here but instead become an employee of an agency (that seems to be what people are telling me).

Yep, you go the agency employee route. Since you are married to a Swiss national, you may have other options, but you probably want to get settled in and find out if you like the place before exercising those.

[oracleslave]

contracting now in the same place for 3.5 years,

Part of the furniture by now. Where's the christmas do this year then?

[Lewis]

I was chatting with a pm from the Zürich Cantonal bank, and he said his biggest problem was that he has to have people who speak Züridyytsch (or however it's spelt). It makes it really difficult for him to get good people.

The exchange rate will work in your favour. In terms of sterling, my rate has gone up by a third... while remaining exactly the same in CHF. Tbh, you'll probably have to move here, contract anywhere until you get your first Swiss contract. That's what I did ... contracting now in the same place for 3.5 years, 10 mins tram ride from home. At a very good rate

Thanks for the reply.

Well my wife has started me on Zuri-deutshe(?) lessons which seem to involve mainly her saying some gooblegook and then both her and the children laughing at me when I try to repeat it! Hmmmmm ...

So I take it you are just an English speaker. Any other advice you might have whenever you have some spare time would be much appeciated. Typical pitfalls, how to organise etc.. e.g. am I right in saying I don't start a company like here but instead become an employee of an agency (that seems to be what people are telling me).

[NotAllThere]

...Friends have told me that in banking the office language (and source code language) is English. I know of people who speak only English who have worked there recently so I assumed I could do the same whilst I learn...

I was chatting with a pm from the Zürich Cantonal bank, and he said his biggest problem was that he has to have people who speak Züridyytsch (or however it's spelt). It makes it really difficult for him to get good people.

p.s. How is the contract market there are the moment? What are rates like? Is it as bad as London or better, I'm an experienced C# developer in banking (front office). Drilling down in Jobserve there are only a handful of C# banking roles and one has a rate of £380 p/day. I was hoping for at least £500 p/day. Does that sound reasonable?

The exchange rate will work in your favour. In terms of sterling, my rate has gone up by a third... while remaining exactly the same in CHF. Tbh, you'll probably have to move here, contract anywhere until you get your first Swiss contract. That's what I did ... contracting now in the same place for 3.5 years, 10 mins tram ride from home. At a very good rate

[sunnysan]

Zurich

Great thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

No, I don't speak Swiss German (or German) but am married to a Swiss national. Our kids speak both English and Swiss German so the rest of the family will be fine, I (just) need to learn myself!

Friends have told me that in banking the office language (and source code language) is English. I know of people who speak only English who have worked there recently so I assumed I could do the same whilst I learn. Anyone there at the moment, is this a reasonable assumption to make?

We have friends and family in Zurich and know the area well. Personally I find it to be leagues ahead of grotty old London. Better weather in summer, beautiful countryside, skiing in winter, everything is cleaner, on time and works, the standard of living is higher, easy access to lovely places like Lugano etc.. etc.. Zurich and Geneva consistently appear in the top 10 places to live in the world. But I do appreciate that some people find the Swiss a bit difficult.

From what I can see, if you have relevant financial experience then it may make things easier. That being said 95% of the jobs seem to require fluent German or French , and consequently you will have a disproportionate number of applications for any position with no language criteria.

This is my experience anyway

[BoredBloke]

I stayed in Swindon when I started my first contract at PHH. On my first week I was fixing this guys PC one evening - everybody had gone home and I took full advantage of the phone on his desk to call a few places for accomodation.

As I did I was doodling on the scrap of paper where I'd scribbled down this girls name and phone number. As we were chatting I was making a few notes like you do.

"So where is it?"

"Manchester Road. No I don'y know it"

"fifty quid"

"call round any time in the evening"

But as she started telling me more I decided I wasn't interested and as I was finishing the call I wrote No a few times and too expensive.

After the call I went home leaving the paper on the desk. When I got in the next day they were ripping the pi55 out of some young lad up there. Somebody was asking him what he meant by Sarah, Manchester road, 50 quid and call in anytime in the evening and then loads of No's on the sheet. Manchester road is where the local prossies worked. Obviously I didn't own up to this and left them thinking they had just employed some tight fisted kerb crawler who tries to haggle with the ladies.

[Lewis]

p.s. How is the contract market there are the moment? What are rates like? Is it as bad as London or better, I'm an experienced C# developer in banking (front office). Drilling down in Jobserve there are only a handful of C# banking roles and one has a rate of £380 p/day. I was hoping for at least £500 p/day. Does that sound reasonable?

[Lewis]

Great thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

No, I don't speak Swiss German (or German) but am married to a Swiss national. Our kids speak both English and Swiss German so the rest of the family will be fine, I (just) need to learn myself!

Friends have told me that in banking the office language (and source code language) is English. I know of people who speak only English who have worked there recently so I assumed I could do the same whilst I learn. Anyone there at the moment, is this a reasonable assumption to make?

We have friends and family in Zurich and know the area well. Personally I find it to be leagues ahead of grotty old London. Better weather in summer, beautiful countryside, skiing in winter, everything is cleaner, on time and works, the standard of living is higher, easy access to lovely places like Lugano etc.. etc.. Zurich and Geneva consistently appear in the top 10 places to live in the world. But I do appreciate that some people find the Swiss a bit difficult.

[sunnysan]

Zurich

Any recommendations on websites/recruitment firms?

Many Thanks
Lewis

Here are some sites which may be of use to you.

www.jobup.ch/
www.topjobs.ch
www.stellen.ch
www.jobs.ch
www.monster.ch
www.jobpilot.ch
www.edvjobs.ch
www.jobclick.ch
www.jobserve.com use Zurich as a keyword


If you dont speak German/French its very very tough at the moment, but I suppose it depends on your area of exp.

[zamzummim]

You may be right, Scary!

[Scary]

I think Jordan (Katie Price) is a Swindon gal too, right?

Are you sure you're not thinking of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melinda_Messenger

[zamzummim]

And Billie Piper used to live here.

I think Jordan (Katie Price) is a Swindon gal too, right?

[DimPrawn]

I think Zurich is based in Swindon !

Yep. And we've got Nationwide headquarters and Honda, and Intel, the list of mega high paying top names is endless.

And houses are cheaper than dirt.

And Billie Piper used to live here.