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Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 21:55:11 +0200
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Status: RO
Hi all,
Please find below the comments sent during the brain drain survey.
Enjoy the reading,
Best regards
Laurent Miéville
-----------------------------------------
Other propositions on Brain Drain given for the survey May 2000- Swiss-List
Create specific Research Grants for the re-entry of Swiss Researchers. This
year, on the first round of the newly established Foerderungprofessuren
grants, almost only researchers already established in Switzerland were
founded... (http://www.snf.ch/Foerderungsprofessuren/Statistik_f.html).
----------------------
I think facilitating the return is not the issue, once I decided to return,
I'll find my way. I found may way over here, I'll find my way back.
I think many of these propositions include traveling. While it is nice to
ask for travel funds, I don't think it is necessary for all of this. We have
the Web now, please use it.
Get immigration laws out of the way, so my non-swiss girl-friend can come
with me and find a job without us having to get married just so she can
work! This seems like the most important thing that could cause trouble when
I want to return.
Make sure I get as as good conditions there as here. It is not about the
first 6 months, or *finding* a job. It is about the existence of these jobs,
and the conditions to create these jobs.
We are the brains (I love that), and we were able to go to the US with not
too much support. We moved here because conditions here are better. Improve
the conditions in CH and we will move back.
We were able to get to the US despite US immigration laws, ridiculous
financial support (at least those on Nationalfonds), and all the things we
dislike in the US. We proved we can do that if we just want to.
------------------------
"Companies in Switzerland should be informed REPEATEDLY about the existence
of Swiss "brains" abroad; many companies still hire locally, i.e people who
have never left Switzerland (!) and do not bother looking abroad. So all
companies and headhunters in Switzerland should be
encouraged to consider Swiss brains abroad: some information work is needed.
However, I still think that swiss expats should also do their duty, by
establishing the first contacts; providing them with lists of companies and
headhunters in Switzerland would greatly help.
Also, I think that a detailed alumni list of Swiss talents (i.e. an extended
version of the one of the Swiss List), who are now professionnally active in
Switzerland, should be set up on the Web; I'd
be glad to help Swiss expats in my fields with tips and contacts to find a
job in Switzerland."
--------------------------
I believe that the main problem of brain drain is not that the smart people
all leave switzerland (i.e. we are not smarter than the people back home)
but it might be a relevant subpopulation that is more risk friendly and
open to innovation.
--------------------------
-Promote an entrepreneurial culture within Switzerland, through early
education and through articles in market/industry specific publications.
-Involve the media in covering success stories in Switzerland, what works in
the US may not work in Switzerland.
-Provide additional financial support for companies that make an effort to
hire back the Swiss from abroad, tax cut or R&D money.
-Provide additional financial support for companies that share the wealth
with the employees. (stock options, bonuses ...)
-Promote an higher rate of high education (only 9% of Swiss citizens
graduate from College, 31% in the US!)
-Do you have any statistics on the rate of return? I bet is very low, we
need to educate the Students through co-op or work while studying (like in
the US) to make them entrepreneurs at the moment they leave college.
The key is, why don't we return, is mostly because of the closed market
culture of Switzerland. This is a culture problem not too much a lack of
means, there is enough money in Switzerland to sustain new entrepreneurs.
-----------------------
How well aware are head hunters of the pool of Swiss people in the US?
Especially in computer science, many jobs either go over head hunters or by
direct contact. Living here, we are simply in another network than the Swiss
one, so direct contacts do not work that well. Job fairs with participation
of companies as well as head hunters would make real sense, at least if they
send people that know something about the companies and the jobs (not mere
resume collectors).
-----------------------
Why do the non-academic ones of us go to the US or Silicon Valley in
particular?
Well because that is the place where a lot of the innovation is happening.
Most of the time it is a big company that moves the swiss over. But before
coming back, many of US swiss non-academics worked for a startup or smaller
company. Especially in the last few years.
So what am I and the ones I know looking for when coming back to CH? Jobs at
Swiss Startups or small high/bio-tech companies. But finding those jobs
isn't as easy as in the SV. First because there aren't that many VC funded
companies and secondly no "central" location for finding them all. Forget
job postings, most of us know what we want to do and as long as we have the
web-pages of the Startups, we can figure out what stage they are at funding
wise and what positions they must be looking for. We con contact them
directly. Job postings would be out of date since updating them isn't every
startup's first priority.
Now the Swiss-talent's web page might be a vehicle for that or there might
be others. But what I think is most important is to get the most leverage
out of every SFr invested into some campaign. If we would get X SFr you will
be able to pull more swiss back by bringin to their attention all the
existing cool jobs than by opening actual jobs. i.e. 5 sponsored possitions
would likely cost over 500,000SFr, spend 1/4 on the website &co, some on
marketing to Swiss abroad (direct mail paper or email) and 1/2 on a
advertising campaing in Switzerland itself to make startups and small
companies aware of this channel for obtaining experienced management and
technical experts.
--------------------------------
"bilaterale Vertraege" 5
friendlier Life environemnt (flexible shop hours, ...) 4
non taxable stock options: 5
make it easier to bring in people from abroad: 3
flat rate internet access: 3
don't destroy the school system by copiing US or DE version: 5
----------------------------------
Les vrais 'assets' des Swiss-Listers, c'est de s'être frotté à la réalité
américaine, d'en avoir identifié les avantages et inconvénients. Vu que
l'Europe est toujours en retard sur les Etats-Unis, cela permet
théoriquement de prendre le meilleur des US et d'en rejeter le pire. (J'ai
parfois l'impression qu'on prend ET le meilleur ET le pire...!) Notre vrai
asset est d'avoir élargi notre horizon en y intégrant notre expérience
d'expats. Le côté entrepreneur et innovation s'en trouve renforcé, mais ce
n'est qu'une petite partie d'un tout. La nouvelle économie
Est en fait un ensemble d'outils qui transforment petit à petit l'ancienne
économie, et je suis de l'avis que c'est celle-ci qui restera prépondérante.
Donc en allant aux US, nous sommes plus exposés aux outils de la nouvelle
économie, qui nous aident à transformer l'ancienne économie, encore très
forte en Suisse, mais aussi ailleurs en Europe.
--------------------------
Create a web-site (a la swiss-list) specially designed for Swiss abroad,
which fosters networking between Swiss abroad and Swiss companies. Should
contain resources like company descriptions (of ones which are especially
interested in returning Swiss citizens).
---------------------------
We are initiated to the methods of cooperation between industry
and academy (which only starts in Switzerland). We feel we are
more entrepreneur, and thus have the capacity to generate start-ups
in Switzerland.
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Received on Mon May 08 2000 - 12:56:00 PDT
