Moving to Zurich for partners job

[Willowlondoner]

Hi All,
My Partner and I live in London but we will be moving to Zurich for my partners job. He is a Swiss citizen bur hasn’t lived there in decades, I’m English and will be moving on a spouse visa. I’m currently the bread winner and quite a bit ahead in my career although my partner accepted this job as it was such a good opportunity for him and I’ve been supportive of that. We will be moving in four months time and I will be handing in my notice in shortly. I’m desperately looking for a job in Switzerland however I’m not really getting anywhere and haven’t heard back from applications. I work in Pharmaceuticals as a project manager and I’m open to anywhere within an hour commute of Zurich. I’ve never struggled to get interviews in the U.K. and I’m worried that the standard and competition is a lot higher in Switzerland.

I'm wondering if anybody had a similar experience to share? And if I’m being foolish by taking the jump into the unknown to support my spouse. I’ve always wanted to live in a different country.. I just have no desire to be unemployed.

You might want to move this to the living abroad board
I have lived in the Zurich area for 11 years.
It can take longer to get a job here. It’s just the way it is.
I suggest Englishforum.ch and there are some useful Facebook groups like Women Rock Switzerland and also some different groups in the Zurich area.
it is a lovely place to live

Could you not work remotely from Switzerland and keep your current job? Or try another UK based company for remote working.

There are plenty of fully remote positions in Pharma.

Do you speak German? If not I imagine that's a major barrier. Wouldn't a remote position with a Uk company be better?

DP worked in Big Pharma in Switzerland for 18 years. The big hub for Pharma is Basel but you could easily live part way between Basel and Zürich, the trains are regular and reliable. He worked in English, most of Big Pharma does.

My cousin has worked in Zurich for 10 years and only speaks English. Which slightly blows my mind. The equivalent being someone working in London who only speaks German.

I was chatting to some Swiss families on safari and they were convinced that our British crapness at speaking other languages is because we're an island.

Agree with the others, you might want to keep your job and work remotely if you can as getting a job in zurich is really tough. You might find it easier once you are in the country and have a Swiss address and contact number. It took me almost three years to get a job in zurich and that's also with speaking the language to a good level (not bilingual but C1 level). You should look on the Facebook job seeking forums for zurich / Switzerland and update your cv in the Swiss style. The market is very closed, a lot of jobs are not advertised and go to either internal candidates or people within the company network. You might need to widen your search to the whole of Switzerland and just get a job anywhere to begin with, just so you have some Swiss experience on your cv. And with flexible working after Covid, you may be able to commute across the country a few times a month. A lot of trailing spouses end up starting their own small businesses because they can't find jobs! Wishing you the best of luck!

I should also add that if you are a woman of child bearing age, you will find it extra tough unfortunately x

Thank you so much for all of the responses and great tips. My company are super strict about being office based so remote working isn’t an option but I’ll just stick at it and try and use any contacts I have. I speak poor to ok German but it isn’t really a requirement for international Pharma. Some of the smaller companies would require French or German depending on the location and I’m trying to encourage my partner to only speak to me in German before the move to brush up on my poor skills. Basel would be absolutely fine and I would either commute or move somewhere in between. I commute for 1.5 hours at the mo so as long as it’s less than that I would be happy to do so. Regarding the child baring potential.. not much I can do here.. I can shorten my name to make me appear to be a man ha. Oh the joys…

Hello! Moving to Switzerland from London early next year and I’ll be taking my cat with me. I could either hire a car and drive with the cat in the car or take the cat on a flight from London to Switzerland (airline dependent I know). The car option seems a lot easier however the prices seem to be insane. Has anybody had any experience of this and if so do you recall how expensive either option was? I’m not finding a lot of great advice on the internet and would rather avoid spending 1000s. Many thanks :)

Have you considered getting the train to Paris and from Paris to zurich? It's not far and might be cheaper (not sure about pet rules on trains though?). If I were you I would ask in the Switzerland Facebook groups - "brits living in Switzerland" or "zurich expats" or "women rock Switzerland" they might have some good advice / experience.