Working in Switzerland

[Rose03]

Hi folks,
I'm new here. Have a general question:
I'm studying medicine in Ireland and have one more year to go. I have a family in Italy. My husband and a year old baby. I wish to know what are the job prospectives as an intern or an SHO in Switzerland or Italy. Do I need to speak Italian fluently???? What is the salary like? Thanks.

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[john182]

You have relatively good chances of getting a job in Switzerland if you are a swiss citizen. Otherwise, you should be an EU citizen with something extra to make yourself attractive.

Each canton can dictate it's own rules. Remember that e.g., in Lausanne you pay french taxes (very bloody high!) not swiss taxes. One other canton allows unfettered medical licensing Vaud? I cannot remember which.

Italian is an offical language, but in the minority. German is the majority language (~70% spoken), but even fluency in high-german will not mean you will understand local Schweiz dialects. Of all languages, you would need fluency in German as the best option.

It would be easier to get a job as an EU citizen in Italy. However, the salaries are very low, around €800/month.

Swizterland is only an option if you are a swiss citizen. Even with large amounts of finances to invest, you will be entitled only to a non-working resident visa. This is even harder than the US, where $500k investment will get you a green card instantly (effectively) - no H1B/J visa issues.

 

[tlew12778]

In general, it is VERY hard to get a working visa for Switzerland. I even know EU citizens that had difficulties.

For Italy, the job prospects are low. For residency, you would need to work for free in a hospital for at least a year in order to meet people. The idea here is to try to get them to "ask" the residency placing board to place you in their hospital. Very rarely will you find a residency position otherwise. It can happen, don't get me wrong, but it's not common. You would need to speak Italian fluently. The salary is roughly 900 euro per month but you have to pay tuition, board fees, insurance, etc. It comes out to about 800 net per month. They have supposedly passed a law that increases the gross to 1800 per month, but no one has seen the money yet (it is retroactive to November 2006 assuming you were already in a residency program at that date).

After residency, jobs are not guaranteed. You have to scramble to find a job as a consultant in a hospital. Forget attending positions. You need to consult for a few years first. As an English speaker you could probably easily moonlight in some international health clinic but that would depend on your choice of specialisation and your location.

The upside to Italy is the lifestyle. Compared to the US, residents do not seem to work as much. My DH is a vascular surgery resident in Milan. We eat dinner together most nights of the week. He works about 12 hours a day (7:30AM-7:30PM). He is on call one weekend per month, but it is home-call. He moonlights as well to earn a bit more. That actually interferes more with us seeing each other than his residency. At certain hospitals, residents do not do weekend call at all.