With all the Brexit crap, it has made me think about would it be possible to work in Europe in the future*.

How do people go about it, do people get internal transfers? just send CVs speculative letters? Other things like language, would you be expected to know the language or given some slack? I am guessing it depends a bit on the role and the country?

Geneva has always struck me as a nice place, F***ing expensive though!!!!!!!!!

*Before anyone points out the obvious, I have an Irish passport.

You will get unskilled jobs if you don’t speak the language but just make an effort to learn. People are much more accommodating if you speak to them in their mother tongue (even if it’s not grammatically perfect). I was in Portugal for a while and now in Austria. Apparently, it’s a lot easier ti learn a new language if you already fluent in two.

Course it will. Plenty of people from non-EU countries work and live in the UK and Europe.

I got a skilled job even though I couldn’t speaka da lingo. Just gotta have the right skills / luck

Internal transfer is obviously plan A

Plan B is to search out specific jobs and / or recruitment companies. Language is a massive advantage. Start working on yours.

Geneva is expensive but I was helping a friend apply for graduate starter jobs and the better ones where equivalent of £100k. Yes it’s a wonderful place if you like the outdoors and prefer a smaller city of around 200,000. A good friend just moved there, celebrated his 54th birthday with his 52nd solo parapent flight and a skin-up/hike to 3000 meters before skiing down.

Depends on industry. In IT they advertise jobs from all over in the usual places. The address specifies what language skills are needed.

Language helps but isn’t essential for many jobs. Settling in, doing local tax forms, registering in your district etc. is a different matter and can very much depend on where you are. Loads of folks do it though and there are often local expat groups that will help so go for it

leffeboy – Belgium

I get a fair amount of job ads for software contracts in places like Belgium and Germany. As it currently stands I can just accept and go work there. Maybe even work remotely. Language depends on the company though a lot of foreign software companies have no issue if you can only speak English especially if the staff are a mix from various countries. Obviously helps if you can speak the local language. More so if you move there.

Post Brexit though and it’s a bit different. I’d have to actually move there, become resident and/or open accounts and pay taxes in that country even if I could work remotely. May even have to get a visa to work there.

Not that I want to. Working anywhere outside of Surrey freaks me out 😀

Crikey all you lot EU supporters can you actually speak or write in another EU language? 😯

Are you saying you support EU so long as they all speak English? 😮

Scottish does not count … 😆

Many people who work in Geneva live in France.

local expat groups

Take your longest shittiest stick with you for use should you come across one. They attract expats intent on being expats.

local expat groups
Take your longest shittiest stick with you for use should you come across one

Agreed, but when you first arrive they are a quick way of working out what is what until you get yourself signed up to a language class. Then escape

Crikey all you lot EU supporters can you actually speak or write in another EU language?

Well yes, it’s not that bad if you try. Not speaking one shouldn’t put you off going and trying living in another country though.

Crikey all you lot EU supporters can you actually speak or write in another EU language?

Bit Welsh
Bit English
Bit Portuguese
Bit German
And I can get by in Spanish

Crikey all you lot EU supporters can you actually speak or write in another EU language?

Yes, in French and more recently in German (helps having two German minions and a fluent German speaking wife).
Can get by in Spanish and Italian too. My current main customer is having a go at teaching me Suomi, which is hilarious.

Oh and there’s about 5 years of Latin underpinning all this in a finally, begrudgingly accepting that it wasn’t a total waste of time way.

I’m a northern monkey from Bolton

lived in Zurich for 6 years and now coming up to my 10th year in Norway

dont worry about the language issues – learning enough to get by and be polite is easy and can be fun

How do people go about it, do people get internal transfers? just send CVs speculative letters? Other things like language, would you be expected to know the language or given some slack? I am guessing it depends a bit on the role and the country?

On the language front, we test immigrants here, even EU members. So it’d churlish for them not to reciprocate. 😀

Like Leffeboy – also Belgian expat

In Brussels there are lots of English language positions but the further you get away from the city the more unlikely you would find something. I speak English, Flemish fluently & enough German to disgrace myself.

I’m based in Brussels but work all over Europe. It seems inconceivable to find skilled work in many countries if you don’t speak a local language. You would need a very specialist skill to overcome that boundary. English levels are very high in NL, DK, SW & NO hence its probably more feasible to work there (in English) if you have some work related skills.

No-one in my team speaks just English even though our corporate language is English.

I’m also an expat based in Belgium, and I speak French. From my experience of having moved to Europe and having been here for nearly 10 years now, I’d recommend definitely showing at least a willingness to learn the local language goes down well with employers and locals alike…and of course is a worthwhile investment if you ever find yourself looking for work once more.

Also, once you’re here on a purely practical note, you’re also really, really limited if you have to use, for example, the only English-speaking electrician/bank/doctor/lawyer etc.

I’d recommend definitely showing at least a willingness to learn the local language goes down well with employers and locals alike…and of course is a worthwhile investment if you ever find yourself looking for work once more.

or having a social life outside your expat bubble 🙂

Expat. I have always gone out of my way to avoid being an “expat”, it’s actually very hard work to stop yourself falling into that trap.

Turning up with no / little language skills doesn’t make you lookmlike a seriousnapplicant. Company will worry if you are really going to fit in socially at work and outside and therefore might not stay.

Re:Geneva and Edukator’s remark, yes many newly arrived to Geneva live in France not least as finding accomodation in Switzerland is a project. My mate has a scenic lakeside commute by bike as he lives on South/French side on Lake Geneva not least as rules on dog ownership are much more flexible, it’s also more convenient for his trip to his weekend place in Chamonix (bar-steward)

many newly arrived to Geneva live in France

I think when I looked into this two years ago, it wasn’t quite as cheap as you’d think as you end up liable for national insurance payments in both countries? It worked out marginally cheaper to live in France, but the overall experience was still eye-wateringly expensive (like €120k wasn’t actually enough to live on expensive)

mattwilliams84 – Member
I’m also an expat based in Belgium, and I speak French.

eerrrh … they are not French you know. 😆

skin-up/hike

Sounds like my kind of outing…

Here in Munich I’m always surprised at how much English you hear being spoken on the street.

Lots of companies use English on their premises as their only language, even among native German speakers. I know of at least five friends who work for large companies where they have to use English.

If it’s Italy you are thinking of then just ask your dad to get you a job. Assuming he is Italian and knows a few people.

Turning up with no / little language skills doesn’t make you lookmlike a seriousnapplicant. Company will worry if you are really going to fit in socially at work and outside and therefore might not stay.

It is one thing to be able to survive, which i have enough French to do, and another to actually be able to work in the language. I am also aware that Romande is not quite the same as the French i was taught many years ago.

And yes i am trying to learn French, if only because it makes the annual trip to Verbier a little easier. Only issue i have had in the past, speak crap french get a perfect answer in English.

Google “transfrontaliers France Swisse” for a mass of information on how to do it – first Google result covers most of it. You don’t need 120k, you’d live fine on a third of that if you commuted from somewhere cheap in France. Transport is good and cheap with SNCF worker passes. You just need to be on the rail network and capable of riding from a station to work or using the Swiss bus network.

We had an Irish woman working for us a few years ago who came to Germany with her husband who worked in the banking industry. He couldn’t speak a word of German when he came and apparently the whole office agreed to do all meetings etc in English until his German was up to scratch. I’ve lived in Germany now for over 16 years and would agree about the expat scene sentiments expressed in earlier posts.

IME people working in Geneva live in Switzerland at first primarily as they can’t find a place in Switzerland.

IME people working in Geneva live in Switzerland at first primarily as they can’t find a place in Switzerland.

SAY WHAT????????????

IME people working in Geneva live in Switzerland at first primarily as they can’t find a place in Switzerland.

Jamba rumbled. 😆

eerrrh … they are not French you know. 😆

Who would you recommend for Belgian classes, chewkw?

😳

Obviously meant live in France first …

jambalaya – Member

😳

Obviously meant live in France first …
I gues that the first of many corrections you’ll have to make now. 😆

I’ve been in Basel. Despite being in a German speaking Canton half the office speaks French to itself because they are French, and not French speaking Swiss, also live in France. But English is the main language at work because the German speaking Swiss don’t speak French and most of the French don’t speak German. The architect is Russian and has never learned German, and they just took on two Portuguese. Because of stuff like this YOU hear as much English and French on the streets as German – a lot of it from Brits too.

er
Crikey all you lot EU supporters can you actually speak or write in another EU language

Yeah, Spanish. Which is helpful what with having a Spanish wife ‘n all.

You could probably work in Spain in IT with limited Spanish, but it certainly wouldn’t be ideal and you’d be limited to multinationals. If you did want to come here without learning the lingo the easiest route would be via a Spanish company with a UK presence – I work for a large red Spanish bank with a huge HQ in Milton Keynes, and internal transfers happen on a regular basis. I imagine the same goes for other large companies in other sectors and countries.

captainsasquatch – Member

eerrrh … they are not French you know.

Who would you recommend for Belgian classes, chewkw? [/quote]
Go to their Flemish class in Belgium I guess …

As for speaking French my French friends gave up teaching me French coz I simply cannot pronounce their language properly. I have no problem pronouncing Italian or Spanish and I think German too.

In Geneva as I type this message. I’ve been out here for two days looking for an apartment for myself and my wife.
We saw 18 places over the two days and have made 3 offers to rent – It’s a strange process here and worth researching if your serious about moving.
Costs are high but salarys generally make up for that depending on your skills or profession.
Yes, you can commute from France but different tax laws mean lots of extra travel time for very little difference in take home pay.