Ideas for quick, accessible, english speaking jobs?

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
I am 30 years old, I have an MSc in Zoology. My dream is to continue my career working with animals, but on arriving here 6 months ago it quickly became apparent that this would be difficult, particularly until my German is much better. I have since switched plans to teach English, but would like to find some other form of work before studying.

I will do (almost) anything as a job. The problem I am having is not where to find the jobs, but which jobs to look for. I can garden, clean, paint, move heavy objects around, I am good with IT, friendly telephone manner etc. Some of these things seem to require a completed apprenticeship here.

So I am looking for suggestions about which jobs are most available to somebody such as myself (perhaps there are good agencies for this sort of thing?)

Anyway I look forward to hearing your ideas. Many thanks.

2
You say you want to work with animals - are you experienced, skilled with dogs? As in, lots of hands-on experience, up to date knowledge of canine behavior, with a bit of first aid skills thrown in?

If so, there is a great need for dog care providers, especially during the busy holiday season. Just browse through the EF pets and market place sections to see the number of desperate pleas for dog care.

BUT

You must have qualifications. To start in a small way this is easily done - you only need the SKN theory and SKN practical courses. The theory course is usually only 2 lessons, the Practical 4-5. So within about 5 weeks at the cost of ca. 300 you'd have your qualification that would allow you to care for up to 5 dogs.

(Caring for more than 5 dogs requires professional degrees, the FBA for 5-19, the eid. Tierpfleger diploma for 19+. Depending on the service offered, a carer might also be required to register with the cantonal Veterinäramt.)

If you have the right experience, skills, knowledge, the right attitude and sense of responsibility, and you are willing to care for the dogs in the client's house, including staying overnight, CHF 200 per day is the going rate.

If you were to take dogs into your own home, expect to earn less - ca 25 to 50 per dog per day, perhaps up to 75-100 per day if you guarantee to only take in one client's dog at a time. (And be aware that you would need permission to do so from your landlord - and you'd have to have an appropriate home. Taking multiple dogs who do not know each other is difficult in any home setting, to state the obvious.)

BUT

Your lack of German will be a problem, albeit not an insurmountable one. A dog carer must have at least enough German to read and understand the law, attend the courses - and be able to respond if an emergency arises while the dog is in your care.

Working illegally - that is without the courses required - is a non-starter, as you put yourself, the client, and most importantly the dog at risk. Please don't do that.

But set yourself up legally and responsibly - you'll likely soon have all the work you want.

3

There are no quick, accessible, English speaking jobs here. English isn’t an official Swss language so you really should devote your time to learning one of them so you can improve your chances of being hired.

If you have no qualifications to teach English you won’t be able to do that either, and again you’ll need a Swiss language as well particularly if you want to teach in public schools.

4
Meloncollie, thank you for your informative response and good ideas. I do have experience working with dogs, and in fact teaching animal first aid, so I will give this some serious thought.

Medea Fleecestealer, you couldn't have known, but I have been on an intensive (3.5 hours per day) German course since arriving here because I recognise the problem you have stated. I also have no plans to teach English without first learning how to teach English and I am researching appropriate courses at the moment.

What I am looking for is advice on short term opportunities where language is not an important component in the job. For example, if I helped out a removals company, or helped to paint fences. Just something to give me a modest income while I am working towards my longer term goals.

5

Yeah, those are the sort of jobs that are either apprenticeships or you need the language to start with. The only thing I can suggest for that sort of work is to advertise your services down in the Jobs Wanted section of the Marketplace forum. It may not be steady work, but most of your clients will speak English and are often looking for people to give them a helping hand with things like that.

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Animal, if you do decide to offer dog care services, here is a bit more info:

Requirements For Dog Care Providers

Here is the database of certified trainers who offer the SKN courses. These are the same courses that all owners are required to take, so it makes sense for a carer to do so as well.

http://blv.bytix.com/plus/trainer/

Don't be too concerned about language skills in this case - since it is a subject you already know you will likely find your German is farther ahead in this context than you think it is.

Just call up any in your area and ask if English is a possibility, or if you could attend with someone who could translate for you. There is no test to either SKN course, attendence is what is required to get the certificate.

Note that caring for other animals, like cats, small furries, etc. does not require coursework.

Once you have your SKN classes, there are two platforms for pet sitters to advertise:

http://petsitting24.ch

https://www.betreut.ch/tierbetreuung

And of course the forum here, where the clientel will be English speaking.

A note from my own experience - there are few dog sitters out there with the ability, knowledge, sense of responsibility, and empathy needed to care for 'special needs' dogs, those with medical or behavioral issues. A carer qualified and willing to take on these kinds of dogs will stand out miles ahead of the competition.

Best of luck to you.

7

I do not know if along similar lines, also to put Free Advert on those cards in the supermarkets, like Co-op, Migros. Write it in English, then there will not be a language problems from replies. There will be times when people might want help putting Ikea stuff together, shifting furniture around apartment & if doing their own removals. I have seen adverts like that where there are English speaking areas. I believe there are some English speakers in Winterthur.

Good luck

8
Restaurants / Pubs - particularly English/Irish ones.

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Just adding my 2 cents here, I would advise do not waste time with English teaching unless you plan to leave Switzerland later.There is no work here, and every TEFL job attracts CV's from 70 or more highly experienced and qualified brilliant teachers.TEFL is still viable work but not in CH.

I would concentrate on your other plans, learn the language and pick up any qualifications you can.

Good Luck.

10
Getting a job with a removal company without speaking the local language should be possible. When we moved here from Belgium the guys who delivered,unloaded, unpacked and rebuilt stuff at this end were a mishmash if nationalities with varying degrees of fluency in French. This was the Swiss arm of a large international moving company.

The team leader was a Swiss guy who obviously spoke excellent French, the others were a mixture of Spanish/Portugese/South Americans and one British guy. A couple of the Latinos spoke passable French, a couple spoke barely any at all and the Britush guy ran to bonjour, au revoir and numbers. He was actually really happy to be able to communicate with us.

They managed to get by with limited vocabulary and gestures and everything ended up in the right place. Numbers were important to know as each box was labelled with a number which I had to mark on the list as it entered the house.

If the OP learns numbers plus the names for the different rooms in the local lingo and is competent in putting flat pack furniture back together ( no language skills needed for that) he may find work in removals.

Most if the smaller companies around here seem to be run by 'foreigners' in any case and a lot of the employees don't speak very good French.

As far as I am aware there aren't apprenticeships in removals.

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Thanks for your advice. Could I ask how you know that >70 well qualified and highly experienced teachers are applying for English language teaching jobs here? I don't doubt you are correct, I am just curious as to whether you have first hand experience with this situation. It is something that I am quite worried about, as the course is not cheap. I was thinking at the very least it would help to swissify my resume and if I could not find employment with a firm, advertise myself for private english language tuition.

Thanks for the responses all. Much appreciated. (I have no 'thanks' button yet)

12
Private English tuition sounds good, but not viable to support oneself on.

I did the Celta course, know lots of locals who are keen to improve their English (most have basic English learned in school) - but they run out of enthusiasm very soon. One then has stragglers who just want to improve their English so they can travel to English speaking countries. This provides only "pocket money", not self-support.

Schools have their own Swiss English teachers (even with funny accents - - and every second mother-tongue Engish speaking person is an English teacher!

Yes, the course is very expensive, and very intensive, and gives burn-out afterwards!

If you`re into "yard work" /domestic help what about firms like "Home Instead" that provides helpers for old folk living at home?

Or looking on building sites for labourer work? (It`s well paid)

13
Here's a more detailed response based on my experiences in Zürich since arriving in May 2013. I'm 29, with a relatively useless BA, took some German in high school but hadn't spoken it in 12 years.

English/Irish Pubs Really your best bet. Working language in many is English. Many staff start with no German and no bar experience, and some of people working at them don't have great English skills either. As a native speaker (i presume) you have a great chance. Bars gets busier and hire more when the weather gets colder, so now's a great time to be applying. If you have even a bit of German, you can apply at non-English/Irish bars/restaurants too. Lots of staff at them with limited German. My first job here was at the first place I applied (with no experience and limited German). With a bit of experience, I left and got a slightly higher paying job at another bar. Easy, accessible, English speaking.

Pizza Kurier I was a pizza kurier for about a month. At this stage my German was decent. But a 35 year old Italian guy I worked with, arrived 2 months before I started working there with absolutely no German and limited English. He had a great attitude though and tended to get the most tips. People in Zurich understand enough English, or if they don't you can get by with smiles and sign language to do simple stuff like deliver pizza. The working language was swiss german for the most part, but there were quite a few staff with no German and the others just switched to English when necessary. I applied online and heard back a couple months later.. tried it for awhile but quit as I had 3 other jobs at the time. My Italian colleague went to every pizza place he could find in person and got a job within a week. If you have a driver's license and a gps or smartphone, you can do this job.

Bike Courier If you don't have a driver's license you can do this. I did this for 6 months (at two different places) and it was my favourite job. Some courier jobs you need Swiss for, as they talk over the radio telling you where to go and you have to understand, and they have to understand you. (I was fired from this job after a month because of this) Others though you are just given a route in advance with what to pick up and deliver, and absolutely no German is required. Then there's also food delivery by bicycle, which I haven't done. If you like cycling, it's a great job.

Teaching English. I did my Celta in Asia in 2009 and have had a bit of experience since then. I applied everywhere I could find when I first got here but didn't even get a response. Eventually I became friends with a Swiss who did the finances for a language school. This led to an interview / demo lesson as they were 'desperate' to find someone asap as someone unexpectedly quit. The position went to a teacher with more experience, who was friends with another teacher who works there. It was never advertised openly. Unless you have connections, qualifications, a lot of experience and luck, I think teaching English is very hard to break into here. Tutoring is available and not too hard to find through some websites set up for the purpose, but it's really just a bit of pocket money.

Proofreader I haven't done this, but every so often jobs pop up for native English speaking proofreaders. A former colleague from a bar here with no previous experience or specific qualification does this now. Can't say too much about it but these jobs exist.

Temp Agencies Most were completely useless for me. One exception is Staff Finder. Simple jobs like moving tables to set up for a conference are on there, as are all sorts of other temporary jobs. The site is available in English and I think you might find something with them.

Tour Guide I worked as a tour guide, giving tours of Zürich in English. Not a full time job, but a little extra money in my pocket.

Anyways, despite what some may say there are definitely easy, accessible jobs in Zürich for people who don't speak the language or have an in-demand qualification or skill. If you'd like specifics about companies or anything pm me, happy to help.

14
Hi again, Smoky and Timb also give good negative advice on TEFL.

My 70 applicants per job is based on my experiences, and not accurate or scientific but i stand by it.I am a CELTA qualified English teacher with experience in many countries and good references.When I lost my job in industry here (no fault of mine) I thought i could easily get back into TEFL.After 2 years of intense search I gave up.The 70 applicant per job figure is based on replies I got from language schools apologizing for taking so long to reply due to being inundated, and also from email replies I saw from a teaching project i was helping with. Too many applicants to reply properly, and with qualifications like the DELTA which would get you a language school manager job anywhere else, but they were only looking to pick up some teaching hours.

Also, language schools told me that they receive 5 CV's per week even when they have no jobs to offer.

Sorry to be so negative but it is the reality here.Compare this my former work in Mexico, i landed on a Friday, walked into the best school in the city, 20 minutes later i had full time teaching starting immediately.I stayed a year.I think there are now so many EFL teachers that it is no longer a very good job.If you are young and want to go for it, i would say do an intensive CELTA in a nice place (I did mine with International House in Playa del Carmen Mexico, highly recommend) and then work in S.Korea, Japan if money is important, or Latin America if lifestyle is more important.Just my view.

If I was single i would probably have left Europe for good never to return, but luckily my wife has much more common sense, as well as a job here in Switzerland, leaving me to pursue business ideas and projects.

This is now a long post but my wife insists i give you as much help as possible because we understand your problem very well.We have much more advice about dogs, and also IT/computing if you wish.

Please feel free to PM me or exchange email or whatever.

Finally, learn German (or French), top priority.Check out Michel Thomas, I can send you the files or CD's if you can't find them.(It is legal in Switzerland to download from Pirate bay etc for personal use, in case you cannot find a copy to buy).

That's all for now, good luck and don't give up!

15
There is a lack of dog groomers here. It might not be something you have initially thought about - but this requires about 5 months of training - or less - then you get a certificate. Maybe you can get one online - or learn to speak enough German - even just a bit - to apply to one of the Swiss dog grooming programs.

They really don't have enough of these - and none that speak English - so you would come out after your certificate at a great advantage.

Maybe google schools that grant this education in CH or other areas.

Also - keep in mind for the jobs that the person posted above (proofreader, English teacher) there are on average 100 applicants for each position - so instead of thinking of this you might want to try "thinking outside of the box" to less over glutted areas.

16
FYI...had a phone conversation with Animal. He is a well educated, articulate and compassionate young man. His future is clearly bright, though he needs an income now...

I plan to use his help and hope others do, as well.

17
Thank you smoky, timpb and yukatan65 (check PMs) for your reality check on the teaching English in Switzerland. I am grateful for the cold hard truth, and I also appreciate the ideas for other lines of accessible work. Thanks Susan57 for your very kind words. SarieW - interesting...the market for dog groomers is also huge in the UK at the moment. Hmm... you have all given me a lot to think about. Many thanks again, what a helpful bunch!

18

Have you also tried contacting the zoos and animal parks directly to see if they’d be interested in hiring you?