I'm a high school student from Russia and I plan to try to get into EHTZ (Informatik) after graduating from school. My GPA is now about 4.0 and I have a pretty good command (B2 at the moment, but I have some time to get C1) in German.
I'm not sure that I should even dream about it, so I have some questions.
1) My family doesn't have enough money. I've read that with a study permit I can find a part-time job, but is it possible to earn a living by working as a waiter, for example? I can code (JS, Python) and know SQL really well. Can it help somehow?
2) And here goes the main question: do I have any chance to stay in Switzerland after graduation? I know that an employer has to prove that they couldn't find a Swiss/EU citizen for the job before they can hire a non-EU. But I'm not sure that someone will care enough to go through the hiring process just because of me.
Do I have any chance to find a job in this case? Will a good portfolio/GitHub/etc. help in any way or it's too tough to hire a non-EU and nobody'll do it?
I plan to work as a DBA/Data Scientist after graduation.
Yes you can work part-time, but only for a maximum of 15 hours a week which may not be enough. But the main problem is that to get the study permit in the first place you’re going to need to have between CHF16,000 and CHF26,000 in your bank account. The authorities will not allow you in if they don’t think you can support yourself and what you may or may not earn once you’re here doesn’t come into it. You need the initial money up front. You might be able to get some sort of scholarship to help out.
I can only shed some light regarding your job query. 1-2 months ago I found employment with a large pharma in Switzerland in a trainee position. My official start date is next month. I dont have any command of German and neither did I study in Switzerland. The only common ground you and I have is we are both from Informatics field and are both non-EU.
Therefore, my point is that you stand a better chance of getting a job after you graduate (due to being Swiss grad and skilled in German). Plus I am willing to bet that IT is in good demand in Switzerland. So dont worry and take a shot at it. My suggestion would be to keep looking all the time and network with everyone while you are studying. That will go a long way to help you get a good job after you finish.
If you graduate from a Swiss university you will have an easier time, permit-wise. I know many non-EU ETH graduates who have jobs in the IT sector.
Of course nothing is certain, especially with current political climate, but on the whole it's definitely not a pipe dream if you can in fact graduate from ETH.
I think if you don't get a scholarship, you will have to prove that you have at least 24k CHF per year of study to get the visa. That is what I heard. So only apply if combined with scholarship.