Short introduction to Switzerland Economy for Jobseekers.

Switzerland first activity areas are: 

·       Life sciences, chemicals and pharmaceuticals (Novartis, Roche, Actelion, Amgen, Biogen Idec, Crucell, Merck Serono, etc)

·       Medical technology
 (Johnson&Johnson DePuy Roche Diagnostics Division. Ypsomed, Sonova, Straumann, Stryker, Zimmer, Medtronic, Smith & Nephew, etc)

·       Financial services
 (UBS, Credit Suisse and more than 150 foreign banks)

·       Machinery, electrical engineering and metals industry
 (Saurer, Riveter, Schindler, ABB, etc)

·       Watch industry (Swatch Group, Rolex SA, Richemont SA, LVMH Group, etc)

·       Global and regional headquarters of foreign companies
 (General Motors, Kraft Foods, Phillip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Dow Chemicals, Amgen, Baxter, DuPont, Nissan and Google, etc)

Read more

however these well-known, prestigious names I quoted as examples  account for a very small part of the Swiss economy:

·          86% of Swiss companies are SME with less than 9 employees providing almost 900’000 jobs. (Read more)

Switzerland is also an entrepreneurial country with 7,7% of the population running start-up companies.

Many industries from solopreneur to industry leaders, many different types of structures from local to multinational do cohabit here. Across these differences, some profiles are more or less wanted on the job market.

In 2012, The 10 most difficult professions for companies to recruit profiles are:

1.    Qualified workers

2.    Engineers

3.    Commercial

4.    Chefs and cooks

5.    Hospitality

6.    Mechanics

7.    IT specialist
8.    Non qualified workers
9.    Finance and accounting
10.   MarCom specialists 

Read more

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:

Domestic budget for living in Switzerland
“Dual Career”: A “way of life” in Switzerland?

Copyright job4U2 2012

Misty Swiss landscapes, news and greetings: job4U2 Newsletter November 2012

November and its (from above…) romantic misty Swiss landscapes…

Maybe a little bit disturbing for the newly relocated people but they will soon discover that foggy days are nothing more than a transition period towards the Swiss winter and its associated snow festivities and fun.

Did you know that, with most companies and most professionals having now a profile on LinkedIn, a company page is an interesting additional tool in the recruiting process?  Applicants express their interest in following and companies can source motivated talents.

This month, we have been editing our LinkedIn company page, adding a short description of our services and some new features, follow us and be constantly informed about our recent updates.

Take a tour on the blog and read the last posts.

• Dual career partners: "success story saga" part.3
• Root cause analysis of your job search-part 2

We wish you a very nice month of November,

Kind regards,

Sandrine van den Oudenhoven
Director job4U2

"Relocation is a project for both"

Previous: Page updated on 2d of October 2012

job4U2: Archive October 2012 Newsletter job4U2

Page updated on 2 October 2012

---

Last month, I shared with you the reasons why we, at job4U2, specifically support the international employees’ partners.

Some global surveys show that statistically, the accompanying partner is

• Married (90%)

• Between 25 and 44 years old (75%)

• Polyglot (80% speak 2 or more languages)

• Highly educated (80% hold university degrees)

• Experienced in relocating (60%)

• Professionally active prior to relocation (90%)

• Not professionally active during the assignment (75%)

• Wish to work (85%)

Our experience, at job4U2 is that each partner, while being unique, shares a common experience:

While the partner is relocating « on request » often from a large company, the accompanying spouse’s main reason for moving to Switzerland is to insure the family/couple remains under one roof.

This sometimes goes with some form of sacrifice, often on the career side.

Companies can easily ease the situation, by acknowledging their situation and showing respect and consideration for the efforts made by the partners.

Only raising the question of the partner career during the recruitment interview helps opening the discussion and facilitate the whole relocation process.

Beside our career support programs, specifically designed for the partners, job4U2 offer free resources, available to all accompanying partners in Switzerland through our blog and the LinkedIn group job4U2 Circle.

Take a tour and feel free to forward these links to accompanying partners in your network.

We wish you a very nice month of October,

You can subscribe to the monthly issue of the job4U2 newsletter by sending your request directly by mail here.

Kind regards

Sandrine van den Oudenhoven

Director job4U2

"Relocation is a project for both"

Previous: Page updated on 30 August 2012

Dual career partners: "success story saga" Conclusion.

The Success story saga was supposed to be a 3 parts blog. However today I feel inspired to share a bit further on the blog.

This is rather a confidential blog as I am not going to promote that one on the social media, and will keep it for the regular readers who have subscribed for a email alerts.

In dual career and in success story there’s also the satisfaction one finds in the professional life, and somewhere there’s also my satisfaction as entrepreneur and as a professional woman in my daily work.

This satisfaction is renewed every day though the people I meet in my professional activities.

The expat’s partners I coach give me so much …although they think that I am the one giving; It’s difficult to believe how riches are these meetings, how open-minded it is to share with them, for a little while, this adventure of relocating to Switzerland, of landing a new career here.

From spleen to joy and from discouragement to excitement:  this is a real school of life.

I am every day admiring the personalities that my job allows me to accompany for while, a few weeks, a few months; until my role becomes secondary and that they can embrace on their own their new career path.

One of the partners, I am working with at the moment, told me recently that he was amassed by the energy and the positive mindset I can deploy during our sessions.

This blog is a hat tip to him, he has probably understood it now: this energy is in fact, what he and my other clients do give to me and that I returned with the greatest pleasure.

I would also like to take the opportunity of this blog to say a big THANK YOU to the spouses who have accepted to share a bit of their story on this success story saga blog.

Sandrine van den Oudenhoven

job4U2, "relocation is a project for both"

Related posts:

Dual career partners: "success story saga" part.1

Dual career partners: "success story saga" part.2

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