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Ask HN: Engineering Job Market in Switzerland?

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Re: Ask HN: Engineering Job Market in Switzerland?

#41

Post by pkaye »

traspler wrote: post #38

I'm Swiss and worked at a couple of software companies, mostly smaller in size. 1. Engineers are highly sought after. The companies I worked for always had a hard time getting local people (and capable ones at that) and are pretty much continously searching. I'm hearing the same from friends at other companies. 2. Pay is very good, if you go for some of the larger companies or into the financial industry even better.…

> 42h workweeks are standard

Why is it 42 hours? That is not a typical 8x5 work week.

Re: Ask HN: Engineering Job Market in Switzerland?

#42

Post by traspler »

pkaye wrote: post #41
traspler wrote: post #38

I'm Swiss and worked at a couple of software companies, mostly smaller in size. 1. Engineers are highly sought after. The companies I worked for always had a hard time getting local people (and capable ones at that) and are pretty much continously searching. I'm hearing the same from friends at other companies. 2. Pay is very good, if you go for some of the larger companies or into the financial industry even better.…

> 42h workweeks are standard Why is it 42 hours? That is not a typical 8x5 work week.

I don't know how or why it has become 42, it just is. Mainly for medical professions it's even higher. We swiss have a bit of a strange relationship with work hours and holidays, when we had to vote on 6 weeks of holiday instead of 5 it was of course voted down... A lot of companies are still very old school so I don't have high hopes of getting any of the new experimental 6h workdays to try out here.

Re: Ask HN: Engineering Job Market in Switzerland?

#43

Post by traspler »

thekiptxt wrote: post #5
prashp wrote: post #4

If you're not white, don't move there. The Swiss culture is very unwelcoming to newcomers.

Would you say this is the case if one speaks German (or French) already?

German or French would certainly help a lot but don't forget that the german speaking part of Switzerland does not speak high german (like germany) but their own accent (swiss german) which you would have to learn to understand first. Noone is expected to actually learn to speak it (if you're not born here) but if you want to integrate better it's a must to at least understand it.

Re: Ask HN: Engineering Job Market in Switzerland?

#44

Post by haspok »

Youden wrote: post #36
0x008 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. But you can stay only 3 months without a job, and up to 5 years with a job. After having worked for 5 consecutive years you can apply for permanent residency.

This isn't quite accurate: - You can only stay 3 months to look for a job. You can stay indefinitely without a job if you can prove you have the means to support yourself. - You can stay in Switzerland indefinitely with a job, you just need to renew your permit every 5 years, which is essentially a rubber stamp because of freedom of movement agreements. - You're only able to get a permanent residence permit after 5 y…

> You can only stay 3 months to look for a job.

This isn't quite accurate either. You can stay as a tourist, but otherwise it's a good old Catch 22: - no one will allow you to rent an apartment (and therefore get a permanent address / residency) without a job contract and without a residence permit - you won't get a residence permit without a job contract. - but if you don't have a permanent address and a residence permit, you could just as well apply for jobs from your own country, because what's the difference?

I guess it is easier to go to job interviews if you are staying at an AirBnb, but otherwise no point in staying in Switzerland, unless you are a millionaire, in which case you can support yourself anyways, so the above does not apply to you.

This is actually one noteable difference to EU countries, where you can just move to as you want, you most probably need to register but don't need to apply for a work permit separately.

PS. There is another way. Many people live in Germany, close to the Swiss border, and commute to Switzerland. But if you are a German you already knew that, and if you are not, it's probably not much easier for you to get a job this way :)

Re: Ask HN: Engineering Job Market in Switzerland?

#45

Post by Youden »

haspok wrote: post #44
Youden wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't quite accurate: - You can only stay 3 months to look for a job. You can stay indefinitely without a job if you can prove you have the means to support yourself. - You can stay in Switzerland indefinitely with a job, you just need to renew your permit every 5 years, which is essentially a rubber stamp because of freedom of movement agreements. - You're only able to get a permanent residence permit after 5 y…

> You can only stay 3 months to look for a job. This isn't quite accurate either. You can stay as a tourist, but otherwise it's a good old Catch 22: - no one will allow you to rent an apartment (and therefore get a permanent address / residency) without a job contract and without a residence permit - you won't get a residence permit without a job contract. - but if you don't have a permanent address and a residence p…

> This isn't quite accurate either. You can stay as a tourist

Unfortunately you're not accurate either.

What you're referring to (staying as a tourist) is the same 3 month limit I was talking about. An EU national can come to Switzerland for up to 3 months without doing anything special at all. After 3 months, you can apply for a short-term visa to search for work for a further 3 months [0] or you can apply for residence without gainful employment [1].

[0]: https://www.ch.ch/en/foreign-nationals-in-switzerland/workin...

[1]: https://www.ch.ch/en/foreign-nationals-in-switzerland/entry-...

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