Did you go to a party last night and ask Karen, the other Expat Spouse across from you, how she managed her transition to Switzerland? And did Karen say: “Just reinvent yourself!”. This is a dreadful sentence to tell any newbie in a new place.  This sentence is advice you often hear when you lose your work or are still looking for a new job in Switzerland.  You are a New York, London, Frankfurt, or Mumbai professional. You have a career stamped on yourself. Telling you to reinvent yourself is like saying, “Why don’t you just run a marathon after recovering from COVID-19.” People make it sound so simple; it makes you feel guilty and shameful because it seems to […]

There is something inherently annoying about writing with AI and it’s not the em-dash overuse. I think it is the issue that we all sound the same now and it often reminds me of the horrendous clone armies of StarWars or the aligned thinkers and doers in facism (and not the ones in the movies). If we all “sound” the same, we also think the same. In my youth, I spent a lot of time reading about fascism, and there was a famous book called “Die Welle” at the time.  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Welle_(2008) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave. As a German, we were taught to take over responsibility, challenge the autocratic leaders and say no. We were taught to speak the “truth”, even if that hurts […]

The Expat Hub Job Market: Understanding local hiring cycles and cultural nuances. https://youtu.be/EWRrVLhp-wk Professional Connections: Building your “Social Capital” from scratch. The “Top 20” List: Identifying target companies that align with your mission. The hidden job market, particularly in Switzerland and Germany, consists of positions that are not publicly advertised. Research shows that up to 60-80% of roles are filled through personal networks and informal methods rather than open job listings. Many companies find it more efficient and cost-effective to rely on referrals or internal recommendations to fill roles, especially for niche or highly specialized positions. For example, industries like agriculture, education, and healthcare often use informal hiring channels more frequently than high-tech sectors, where roles are often advertised more […]

“Why did I not learn more about Finance?” I repeatedly asked myself in the first five years of running Global People Transitions. It didn’t make sense to me. I was good with computing cost projections and balance sheets in Global Mobility. I was an excellent math student in high school. I like numbers. My issue was that I lacked the practical understanding of a “good housewife.” I was curious to know how much a liter of milk would cost in the supermarket. I learned those little secrets of saving money in Switzerland, such as Migros and Denner, which are essentially under the same corporate umbrella, but you can buy twice as much food at Denner. Working as a Global Mobility […]

1 – Obtain Basic Training You have a wide selection of potential courses, and it will be easy to get lost in the wide web of opportunities. I suggest first reading this post before selecting your education. I offer consultation sessions to future coaches, too. Also, if you are looking for coach supervision, please ask for a coaching session with me. You can work with me under the “Global Rockstars” program.  I would recommend any ICF-accredited courses, systemic approaches, and holistic approaches such as the Vermeulen® method taught by Dr. Eva Kinast (in German). Intercultural coaching courses are also provided by Prof. Dr. Kirsten Nazarkiewicz and Dr. Gesa Krämer. Both thought this through, conceptually and with academic rigor, two decades […]