>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 04:40:32 est
Hi Nico,
You are not the only one in this situation. European headhunters in general
are much slower, incapable and they do not like expatriated Europeans. I have
not yet known any European who was able to get back through their help. Once
you are here in Europe they might be willing to help you, but as long as you
are in the US they do not care about you at all.
How can anyone then come back?
That is the question and sincerely I do not think anybody cares. The brain drain
stuff is just a lot of empty words around a bunch of non-sense. Brain-drain
is fashionable.
I have heard that also in the Academic field it is not a better situation. In
fact they give you a start-up grant, you stay for five years in a Swiss University,
after that there is no more funding and they simply tell you to get back to
the US. How easy can it be then to find an academic job in the States, after
5 years in Switzerland, it looks like you did not get any tenure in Switzerland
and you are trying to get it in the US!!
Brain-drain: just a "Schlagzeile"!!! Get real.
Two friends of mine, one in Germany the other in Switzerland had both bad experiences
with Kelly Scientifics. They are incompetent and I think they should just plainly
get out of business. The one in Germany was promissed 1'000 wonderful jobs in
the winter 2000/20001, nothing came ever out of any promisses. The Swiss friend
applied to a job, which fit to him like a glove, but was advertised by Kelly
Scientific. They replied telling him that he was OK, but they would prefer somebody
that was already in Switzerland, so they would be assured he would really start
the job!! After few months, Kelly even sent him an evaluation form of their
services! Not only they do not help, but they are also dumm!!
That was why I never contacted a head hunter when I was trying to get back to
Switzerland. Too much hassle for a handful of flies. In my case I had a protecting
angel in Switzerland, who was keeping me updated with all the new positions
in my field. I wrote 7 letters and had 6 interviews. I got three offers, but
this was last year in spring when the economical situation was a lot better
than it is now.
In trying to get back to Europe in general it is important to get the right
moment in your carrier and the right world economical situation, right now I
personally would wait one year longer. I waited over three years trying to get
back. I understand that not everybody has the luxury of time on his side, as
I had.
The best bet for you would be to write directly to companies around Switzerland.
A lot of efforts, but usually the Heads of the Departments are very nice and
reply very quickly.
I'll try to find out, if there are any good head-hunters at all in the biological
sciences,
good luck!
Corinna
(a brain-drain pessimist!)
>Hi everyone,
>
>I was wondering whether anyone shares my experience so far searching for
>a job, and also just wanted to start a discussion regarding the
>"returning to Switzerland" issue.
>
>I am a molecular biologist with a reasonable CV, and I recently put it
>on monster.com and sent it to two Swiss headhunters. Specifically, I
>applied for a job with one of the hunters, with the other one I said I
>was interested in talking about opportunities. The second one confirmed
>that he got the CV and promised to get back to me, while the first one
>did only admit that he got my CV after repeated inquiries, and I haven't
>heard since from both of them. It's now been more than two weeks.
>
>On the other hand, I get calls from American headhunters almost daily,
>which shows that I cannot be that uninteresting after all. They even
>write emails during weekends, and turnaround time is usually less than
>24 hours.
>
>I think it would be a matter of politeness to at least get back to
>someone who sends a CV, even though there may not be many open jobs at
>the time. Aren't the Swiss interested in bringing people with experience
>from abroad back? How are we going to countersteer the brain drain if
>not by aggressively recruiting people back to Switzerland? Are the Swiss
>really so much slower than the Americans? Or did I just pick the wrong
>headhunters? What are your experiences? Do you know good headhunters to
>work with?
>
>cheers
>Nico
>
>--
>Nico Ghilardi, Ph.D.
>Molecular Oncology Department
>Genentech, Inc.
>1-DNA Way, Mailstop 40
>South San Francisco, CA 94080-4990
>USA
>
>650-225-6907 (office)
>650-225-1081 (lab)
>650-225-6443 (fax)
>
>
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Received on Wed Apr 10 2002 - 15:38:47 PDT
