Total Pageviews

Monday, October 29, 2012

Dual career partners: "success story saga" part.3


By now, you are familiar with our saga, therefore, with no further comment, I let you enjoy the part 3 of the collected Spouse & Partner success stories.

"When my wife was offered the opportunity to relocate to Switzerland with her employer, I had been working for a global FMCG company in the UK for more than 10 years. Having enjoyed a very successful career, with plenty of opportunities for development, I felt I had reached a crossroads and decided it was time for a change. Although hesitant to leave my job, family & friends, following numerous sleepless nights I decided to make the move to Switzerland.  

 I had heard a lot of negative stories about relocation. However, from our perspective, thanks to the diligence of my wife’s company, everything went smoothly. As I did not know exactly where in Switzerland I would find work, we initially moved into temporary accommodation as a base for my job-search, supported by job4U2.

From the first meeting with the job4U2 consultant back in October 2011, through to final discussions about contract negotiations in May 2012, she has been a huge support to me. She managed expectations from the outset and gave structure to my job search. This allowed me to develop and maintain a comprehensive network here in Switzerland. Regular contact gave encouragement and direction during quiet periods and advice / guidance when things began to move. Even when my search was at an end, we have continued our dialogue as to how best (and when) to communicate my appointment to maintain a positive impression on the network I have established here (should I ever need to call on them again in the future).

Listening to the advice of my consultant, I set up my job search objectives to the level I would have done back in the UK. This allowed me to be fully motivated and enthusiastic when going for interviews. In the end, I was fortunate enough to be offered 2 contracts of employment. The most difficult part in the search became the final decision as to which contract to choose! Today, 4 months into my new role, I believe I made the right choice. 

I cannot stress enough how much value the support of a professional career coach added to my search here (which undoubtedly made our integration to Swiss life so much easier). There are good days and bad days throughout this process but the support of a company such as job4U2, for me, is invaluable."

R.E.


If you liked this blog, please share this article with your network and register on the blog for email alerts. 

Sandrine van den Oudenhoven
job4U2, "relocation is a project for both"


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Root cause analysis of your job search-part 2: “I have not sent application yet.”

About one month ago I published a post to kick-off the root cause analysis of a job search. After being one month on line, this post has reached the top 5 of the articles published by job 4U2 during the last 12 months, demonstrating a strong interest of the readers in a process driven support to their job search.

No surprise for me in this result: There’s nothing more frustrating to dedicate a huge amount of energy to a critical project and to see little result if not any at all.

Taking the risk to create frustration to the ones of you who are already advanced in the job search process, I would like to take the time to start by the beginning (we talk here about a systematic approach and this is what we will deploy):
“I have not sent any application yet”

I hear the reaction (yes yes I do!): “No wonder he/she doesn’t have a job if he/she has not applied yet)”

Well, it’s is not this simple: I hear many people, telling me how frustrated they are about not working since they have relocated to Switzerland and who have not sent one single application letter.

Let’s go back to our root cause analysis chart and try to find the root cause for not having applied:

Understanding what prevents you from starting your job search project is of course not sufficient but is already a big step forward towards taking corrective action.

If you are in one of the situations highlighted by the root cause chart and need some help to find out what could be a corrective action, please post your comment here below.

If you liked this blog, please share this article with your network and register on the blog for email alerts. 

Sandrine van den Oudenhoven
job4U2, "relocation is a project for both"


Related posts:


Copyright job4U2 2012

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Newsletter archive - 30 August 2012


Page updated on 30 August 2012

September: most companies are already kicking off budget 2013 preparation. At job4U2 we keep the focus on supporting Swiss based companies not only in their relocation offer efforts but also in the talent acquisition challenge: We continue to provide full care and attention to the accompanying partners because this is the way we can best support our clients in being successful in 2013.
Why supporting specifically the international employees’ partners?
  • Without their acceptation, geographic mobility or international recruitment will not be accepted by the recruited employee.
  • They are the cause number one of early assignment interruptions  
  • Their well-being has a major impact on the well-being of the expat partner, thus on his/her performance at work.  
  • They are the family social integration facilitator.  
  • They usually take care of the whole relocation practical side.
  • Their qualification and experience make them very valuable to the Swiss society.  
On the job4U2 blog, in these last weeks, the new posts covered a wide range of subjects of interest for dual career partners: interview, networking, etc
The LinkedIn circle, open to accompanying partners, head hunters and corporate recruiters is still growing with today more than 100 members exchanging tips and information about the Swiss job market.
Join us on these exchange places; we look forward to meeting you on line.
I wish you a very nice September,
Kind regards,

Sandrine van den Oudenhoven
Director job4U2
"Relocation is a project for both"

Previous: Page updated on 24 June2012

You can still access to our former newsletters on the blog.