Moving to Switzerland

>>1054495
Swiss from Zurich here,
Some general tips:
1. don't try to live in Geneva. Almost the whole canton is owned by Russian/Middle Eastern Oligarchs and rent even for small apartments is exorbitant. Try Lausanne and it's suburbs like Morge (direct rapid train connection to geneva)
2. You don't need a car in switzerland. get a train/public transport abonnement, it's cheap and reliable. The whole Geneva - Lausanne area is one big traffic jam on work days. If you need a car there is the thing called mobility
>https://www.mobility.ch/en/private-customers/
where you can rent a car at almost every train station with your mobile phone and a access card for 5-6CHF/hour
3. groceries are fucking expensive, think about going over to france once a week to buy meat and other stuff it's about 50% off just for crossing the border.
4. learn at least basic french, you can get around with english but you won't have fun.
5. Just that I said it: you can't CC/OC a loaded weapon here
6. There's a shitload to do and after you covered your area you have switzerland to explore, you can get anywhere by train within 5hours max, explore and have fun.
Tell me what you like and I can hook you up with things to do.

>>1054495
Be humble or you'll make enemies quick. We're chill and hate people bragging all the time.

If you like weed then enjoy, it's really good, not too expensive and almost legal. Be kinda careful but I smoked a lot in the streets, outside of pubs and at the beach and never had any trouble, the most you risk is a 100CHF fine.

Try to save money and not spend it on bullshit like tons of people do. If you got a decent pay you can save 20k a year.

It might feel depressing at first, but don't kill yourself before May or June when everything wakes up. Maybe go to the mountain while there's still snow.

>>1054495
Get your income tax situation figured out before you move. Even if you live in the canton of Zug, but work in Zurich, you will be hit with the Zurich tax rate. I have no experience with Geneva, they are likely totally different. You are still on the hook for American taxes, but you do get a good portion of it exempt for being an expatriate. Talk to an international tax lawyer and get everything set up.

Aside from that, plan your weekends. You can now spend a day and night in a European capital for cheap. You can even day trip many places for just a rail ticket.

If you are in tech, Switzerland does not have much of a start up culture. That's the only reason to leave, otherwise I would have stayed there forever, even if I had to marry to stay there.

Zurich and Silicon Valley have similar costs of living for a young single guy.

>>1054495
what do you do for a living can I ask? I want a job where I have the opportunity to work in Europe.
Im an American highschool senior

>>1054495
What job did you get? Isn't it tough for non-EU citizens to find a job in Europe?

OP Here

Thanks for the advice! I'm not living in Geneva, looking for a place in Lausanne. I've been working on my basic French.

I've been looking into living in Zurich too. I am a control systems engineer and I know they have a tech reputation too. I figured Zurich could be where I get my next job.

To the American high school senior - Work hard and choose a degree that translates well into different areas. We live in a global economy. If you're good at what you do, there's always work somewhere.

OP again

As far as things to do, I'm a snowboarder so I'll definitely be hitting the Alps in France.

I'm a pretty experienced traveler by now, but I've never been to Switzerland before. I'm game for just about anything, but I'm over the typical tourist stuff. I'm also looking for places to go with a more young-professional vibe. It doesn't have to be high class, I just don't want shit music and teenagers. I'd be looking to join a gym of some kind - could be weight lifting, martial arts, or yoga kind of thing. I just use it as a way to meet people so if there is one that is popular with mid 20's, I would go there.

>>1054975
Zurich - Geneva is about 4hours by train and kinda pricy, so living in Zurich and working in Geneva is not possible unless you rent a "week apartment". Both areas are equally awesome, the problem is if you move to zurich you have to learn german.

>>1054978
>As far as things to do, I'm a snowboarder so I'll definitely be hitting the Alps in France.
I guess you're in the right area, you got over 300 ski/snowboard areas within 180min.
https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Airports/Geneva.html
You even have a glacier where you can ski/board almost all year long in Les Diablerets about 2h away.

Anything else Lausanne and Geneva got you covered. Good concerts and parties all year around and every summer you have the Montreux jazz festival (I don't think I have to explain anything about it)
Sport/Gym you will for sure find something. Almost all gyms offer a free 3-7 day trial memberships so test a few until you find something you like.
Any other sports wether you want to play yourself or watch it, you will find it.
If you're into wine, you got over 100 vineyards around the lac leman, most of them offer degustation and/or tours.

>>1054732
" I smoked a lot in the streets, outside of pubs and at the beach"

In Geneva ? At the beach ? lol

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80KB, 800x531px

>>1055012
not him.

It's small but there's one next to the jet d'eau.

>>1054975
I'm from Lausanne and commute to Geneva everyday for Uni. You'll see it is pretty cool and take only about 30 minutes from a station to another.
Lausanne is pretty laidback, lots of cool places to have drinks, especially in the summertime.
As there are two universities you'll find plenty of young people between 18-30 that are studying there from a lot of different social backgrounds and nationalities.
Same goes for party, you can either go to (lame, as long as I'm concerned) student party, hit the big mainstream club, find some more "edgy" clubs or go full techno.
Either way, Zurich is 2h hours away, so are the furthest ski slopes.
Life is pretty expensive, especially small things (pretty much 9 frs for a large white beer) but if you got a job an engineer you should be good.
If you have the opportunity to live close to the city center in Lausanne (cité, marterey, saint francois, riponne, avenue de france, Bugnon, place de l'ours, sous gare) that will save you a lot of hassle because public transportation are over around 00h30 during the week and walking distance can quickly become painful. Taxis are really expensive too !
If you have any questions don't hesitate

>>1055040
>Taxis are really expensive too !
Another Swiss anon here. They are ridiculously expensive. The <10min drive from the train station to my apartment is 30 - 40 $

>>1055043
Yes...
I've found that Uber proved to be a quite "cheap" alternative, cutting price in two here in Lausanne and sometimes when shared price is equal to the one you would pay in a bus

Op, which job did you get in Geneva? What are your prior qualifications?

American university senior reporting in

He guys, German from Southern Germany here.
A friend who works and lives in Switzerland and used to live in my area before recommended me to come to Switzerland as well.
I'm still a student and about to graduate very soon and I still don't know what to study.

Do you know what kind of degrees would be useful to work in Switzerland?
I thought about becoming a teacher but I want more ideas and I'm afraid students will mainly talk to me in Swiss German.