Customer Reviews

Living and Working in Switzerland: A Survival Handbook (Living & Working in Switzerland)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book will prepare you to move to Switzerland. If you are American, and think moving from the US to Switzerland will be like moving from NY to California, you need this book!

Switzerland, and most European countries, have rules, regulations, and customs that most Americans could never imagine. This book will help you through this maze. I was given this book as part of my move package by my employer, and it made things very smooth. I subsequently met many people who had moved to CH without this guide, and they made lots of mistakes that cost them a lot of money.

One example - if you use your existing driver's license to get a Swiss driver's license within the first year you live here, it costs about 40 USD. If you wait until after a year, you have to go through the very expensive driver's training system and testing, and it can cost hundreds or thousands. Really. That tidbit alone was a major hassle saver. None of my Swiss collegues knew about this issue, so you can't count on talking to locals to get much of the information that is in this book.

Even after living here over 15 years, I still refer to this book from time to time. It is a *must have* if you are really moving to Switzerland.

I purchased this book in anticipation of a possible move to Switzerland. Having just visited Basel, I feel it necessary to warn potential buyers that the numbers presented by the author seem very far off from the actual numbers. For example, he suggests that the "average" price for a four-bedroom house or apartment in Basel would be 1500 CHF per month (rental). The real number is double that (at least--if it is even possible to find a four-bedroom place). Further, he suggests that it would be possible for a couple to spend 600 CHF per month on food. (He gives that number as a minimum.) A stroll through both an ordinary and a gourmet grocery store reveals that a couple *might* be able to live on that small an amount, but only if one lived on pasta for the month and did not go out even once --not for lunch, not for a drink. To give some actual numbers I just paid: two of us spent 20 CHF on three beers in a local bar, 230 CHF on a nice meal for two with wine, and 40 CHF for two bratwurst and three beers in a bar. These were all meals eaten out, obviously, but the point is that the author seems on the one hand to acknowledge that many people planning to move to Switzerland will be filthy rich (he encourages job seekers to remember to ask whether the company will pay for limosines, live-in domestic help, regular flights back to one's home country, and fees for private school), but on the other seems to believe that one will never go out to eat the whole time one is in Switzerland. Some portions of this book will be helpful for those planning to move to Switzerland--he does provide useful information on Swiss laws and customs--but potential readers should be aware that the book is entirely unclear on its intended audience. The wealthy will find parts of the book laughable, while the less well off will get quite a shock if they move to Switzerland using a budget based on the author's numbers.

This book has been crucial for every part of our move to Switzerland - from what to bring and not bring, to how to pay a bill at the local post office. Do not listen to the negative review above that only mentions the budgets being off - while the numbers may not be exactly what you get in each area, that is about 1/100 of the book. I have read this book about 5 times to make sure I did not miss anything as new information keeps becoming pertinent.

Josh

My husband and I ordered this book before coming to Switzerland 9 years ago. This is the worse book that has ever been written to help somebody relocate to a different country. The prices for rent and food are completely off, by a lot. You could only afford the prices that are mentioned in the book, if you ate pasta for the rest of the month, and if you took the prices for rent that they say you should be able to get a place to live, you would be living in a shoe box. Also he has not updated the fact that credit cards can now be used in Grocery Stores, and that many stores are now open till 6.00p.m. on Saturadays, and even Ikea is open on Saturadays till 8.00p.m. very improtant if your relocating and trying to furnish you home on the weekends. I wrote the author of this book, and told him, what I thought of his book. When I suggested to him, that I thought he had never even set foot in Switzerland, he said he used outside resources, to gather information for his books. I have lived in other 8 countries, and have used books to help me in my relocations, I have never come across a book written as badly as this one. A lot of the information is quiet old, so he also doesn't seem to update his book, when a new publication comes out. Save your money, and just ask people around you where to go and what you need to do. It will be cheaper and more acurate then this book.

"Living and working in Switzerland" is a very easy-to-read and friendly guide, full with practical advise on all relevant subjects for those who wish to live in Switzerland. I'm pleased to have purchased this book.

Received in perfect condition and the book is amazingly helpful. It has already answered so many questions and I can only imagine how it is going to make my life easier when I move there.

Organized, clear, easy to read, good sense of humor; this is really a "How-to guide".

Like Switzerland, most part of the book is oriented to those who intend to live in German area, but French and Italian are well indicated also.

Suggestion: appendix as a small detachable book

Congratulations to Davis