Hi, F30 from the Philippines who moved to Geneva 2 years ago. I am an electrical engineer but my experience is in quantity surveying and procurement engineering. I now speak French (B1) after attending ecole club migros. I registered as chomage in hopes of getting help with language training (since going to school is very expensive) and for job insertion which is actually helpful since i was able to go to OSEO. Please note that I don’t qualify for financial aid as I have never worked in CH. For my background, I have 5 years of being a procurement engineer and quantity surveyor at the same time in the Philippines (building construction - apartments with 30+ floors) and 9 months in Belgium as quantity surveyor (construction of huge industrial plant). We moved to CH since my husband got a better job offer and we thought that it would be easier for me to find a job here as well if i already have the B permit. (In Belgium, I found a job after only 3 months and got so many job interview offers.) Which turned out to be wrong as I have been actively looking for a job for 2 years now with hundreds of applications. I did get few interviews at first but since my french was not enough at the time (zero french - A2) I mostly got rejected after. Now i found 1 job that matched me 100% as quantity surveyor (english job) and i was able to reach the final interview, however it was not as good as i hoped for. They told me that they were impressed with my background and with my interview but they chose someone much closer to their needs. I’m guessing it was the Italian language as it was an Italian construction company and i was told that most of their discussions during meeting will be in Italian and they asked me if i am willing to learn the language to which i answered absolutely. I did learn french and dutch previously.(both B1 now) When i was with OSEO, my counselor has helped with recommending my CV but most of the companies we sent to has not replied to any of it. 1 company said that my French language (A2 that time) was not sufficient. Another big company has reached out to me and asked for samples of the projects I did. But after sending it, and following up with them, i think that they are now ghosting me. But now I have finished my contract with OSEO and I have still not secured any internship. I am getting hopeless as most companies wants someone with experience in Swiss market. I do not have any network as well as I am an introvert and having a hard time with just putting myself out there. Although this time, I have submitted an application with Caritas to work as a volunteer just so I can interact more with people and to practice more of my French. My husband works in a different field and we have tried contacting some of the people he knows already but still to no success. So, does any of you know/work/have construction companies who is in need of an Ingénieure achats et économiste de la construction? (procurement engineer / quantity surveyor) I don’t mind if it is a startup I just want to gain experience here in Switzerland. I don’t also mind if it is an unpaid internship as I am really getting desperate. As for my character, I do think that I am hard working person and someone who is good at my job as what my previous bosses has told me as well. My OSEO counselor has also given me so much positive evaluation and told me that I just need someone to give me chance to put my foot in the Swiss market. This post has been long and probably a bit chaotic as I am typing it with so much frustration right now. My apologies and thank you for reading and for any advise you may have. submitted by /u/Existing-Degree-1674
Originally posted by u/Existing-Degree-1674 on r/Switzerland