Switzerland has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe and one of the highest average salaries in the world. A quarter of the Swiss population are foreigners, and only a third of the students in secondary school go to some sort of university. Taking into account these facts, it would appear that the chances of getting a (good) job in Switzerland are relatively high for a well-educated foreigner actively seeking employment. Somehow, nonetheless, this was not the case for me for a long time.

This book describes the importance of understanding the country-specific context and demystifies some key challenges in job-seeking and the unemployment experience. Through a mix of statistical data and individual stories, it will become clearer why getting a (good) job in Switzerland can sometimes take much longer than anticipated.

This book is a detailed reflection on the challenges I faced during my job search in Switzerland. In Part I, I describe the Swiss education system and explore the perceived value of the academic degrees I obtained and the opportunities I took or explored in order to redirect my career. In Part II, I describe my experiences of the recruitment process and the challenges I came across in navigating it. Finally, in Part III, I focus on the subject of unemployment and share some of the biggest struggles I dealt with during that time. Throughout the book, I have also included the stories and opinions of 19 other people, as well a significant amount of factual data and statistics. 

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The people for whom I wrote

Although most of the factual information is heavily focused on Switzerland (e.g. education system, salary references, unemployment benefits, laws), the majority of the insights described here are relevant to people looking for jobs in other (developed) countries. These are the groups of people whom I believe will find most value in this book:

1. Any career-driven person looking for employment. Main value: understanding the perceived worth of certain career paths and tertiary/higher degrees (e.g. bachelor, PhD, MBA), as well as the trade-offs commonly made while climbing the ‘professional ladder’; recognizing and preparing for some of the most common and less obvious universal challenges faced during the job search.
2. Expats coming (or planning to come) to Switzerland without a job. Main value: understanding the specific challenges to finding a job in the Swiss context (e.g. education system, multilingualism, cultural beliefs) and how they can be overcome; creating awareness regarding the challenges of unemployment.
3. People in unemployment. Main value: finding perspective in the handling of unemployment-specific struggles (e.g. dealing with rejection, imbalance in relationships, financial pressure); understand the support system for unemployment in Switzerland and learning to use it productively.
4. Family and friends of the people in unemployment. Main value: understanding the struggles of people in unemployment, particularly emotional struggles; creating empathy.

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