We continue a special series of materials about the relocation of programmers. Developers tell how to find a job abroad, move and adapt locally. Our fourth hero is Sergey Kashubin. Six years ago, he moved from Ukrainian Vinnitsa to Switzerland, the city of Zurich. Disclaimer: the opinion of the hero has nothing to do with the position of Google I was born and raised in the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa, where I graduated first from the local technical lyceum, and then from the Vinnitsa Polytechnic University with a degree in Programming. There I hung out with people with whom I took part in olympiads and programming competitions. In my second year, I worked as an outsourcer for about a month, writing online stores in Java.
Invitation to Google
About 6 years ago, a recruiter from Google wrote to me on Linkedin and invited me for an internship at the company. I don't know how I was approached, I think it was due to participation in programming competitions. First, I went through a telephone interview. Later there was an on-sight interview in Zurich. They paid me for a hotel and spent the whole day in the office conducting interviews. This is almost the same as on the phone, just more complicated. Onsite interviews ask questions about algorithms and data structures. It is not necessary to be an Olympiad programmer, but you need to understand the basic things. Now there is a new type of interview that asks questions like: “What did you do in a similar situation at your last job?” or “What would you do in a similar situation at your new job?” I spent three months on the internship. After it, you could go through an interview and try to get a full-time job at Google. So I went through two more additional interviews and was offered a job. After that, there was a process of finding a team for work, and I was offered to work inSearch Quality ( department of search quality - ed. ). At that time I had no idea what it was, so I just said: “Let's try it.” A little over a year ago , I started working on the Google Service Framework . Now I am also engaged in machine learning.
Documentation
With paperwork in Switzerland, everything is almost the same as in other European countries. First you need to get an offer from the company, then a visa, and then a residence permit is issued on the spot. I made a residence permit type L in Switzerland - it is issued for temporary workers. It is given for a year, then it can be extended for another year and can no longer be extended. Later, I received a residence permit category B (work residence permit - ed.). A permanent residence permit, as an analogue of the American Green Card, is a category C residence permit. I still do not have it, because I have not learned German sufficiently. You can get it no earlier than after 5 years of residence in the country. In general, it is given after 10 years, but if a person is sufficiently integrated, then it can be done after 5.One of the reasons why I want to get a category C residence permit is that I can freeze it for a certain period and live outside of Switzerland for a year.
moving
When I moved, the company offered me either a relocate package (accommodation for the first time, money, etc.), or just a certain amount of money. I knew that I would be renting the same room that I lived in during my internship, because I became friends with the host, so I just took the money. For me, relocation assistance looked like this: I had an increase in the amount of money in my account and I was paid for German courses in the first few years. There was enough money to cover tickets and rent for a while.
Housing
When I went to Zurich for an internship, I was looking for housing for a long time. All the hosts wanted me to come to a personal meeting where they would look at me, talk to me and then rent out the apartment. But I was very lucky: the same summer when I was supposed to move, my girlfriend met a musician from Switzerland at a festival in Kyiv. When I moved, it turned out that he had a spare room that he could rent out. It was very successful. I rented this room for an internship and then for the first few years. I have been spared the search for housing and cannot tell you how to do it remotely. I know it's very difficult. I already moved out of that apartment. We got married with a girl and decided it was time to move to a separate apartment.
German
Switzerland has 4 official languages - German, French, Italian and Romansh. German is spoken in Zurich. After moving, I learned German and brought it up to a level where I could communicate fluently in a restaurant or shop and fill out a tax return. Then I forgot and a year ago I realized that the language still needs to be tightened up, including in order to obtain a residence permit. I'm doing just that right now. Since Google is an international company, everyone at work communicates in English. Everyone in Zurich also understands English. But, for example, if you go skiing in the mountains, you already need German. In general, the history of languages in Switzerland is funny. If you go somewhere to Lausanne or Geneva, they only speak French there. Somewhere in remote villages in the mountains, one can only speak German.
Work culture
I love that Google has a way of taking on as much responsibility as you want if you want. The company's approach is such that management is open to proposals from below. If you take responsibility and cope with the assigned tasks, you can take on even more “load”. There are also a lot of different teams within the company and you can change the field of activity. It is very comfortable. In the beginning, I wrote things in C++ related to natural language and logical systems. Then I switched to machine learning: this helped me change the team and move into the field where I only do machine learning. The company has a division by positions. A person comes to some level and grows as long as he can. I just changed the team a year ago, so I did not have time to get to the senior position with the previous team and I plan to get it now. The idea is that a person first takes on more responsibility, and then he is officially promoted. After the senior position, positions begin in which it is necessary to coordinate the work of different people. You can completely go into management or combine coordination with coding. Not everyone likes it. But those who do it get paid more. Now we are away from home. The only negative is that you don’t go to the office, you won’t communicate with people. Offices at Google are really as cool as they are made out to be. But I noticed that I don’t use it much, although it’s good that it is. We have microkitchens with coffee and snacks. When I was doing some intra-Google projects and I had to concentrate, I went to such a place and sat there. There are also rooms where you can sleep. When you come back from a trip in the morning and can't work at all,
Salary and taxes
The salary of a programmer at Google is higher than the market for Zurich. The market in Zurich is a little more than 100 thousand francs a year. Google gives more. Taxes are a fun and unexpected topic, because in Switzerland they are less than in all of Europe. In Zurich it is about 20%, not counting the pension fund and insurance. You can go to another canton, where the tax will be another 5% less. This is explained by the fact that in Switzerland taxes are divided into federal, cantonal and local. Near the canton of Zurich there is the canton of Schwyz and the cantonal tax there is less. And it has areas where the local tax is even less than in others. This way you can save some money. But I decided for myself that it is more interesting for me to live in the city.This is the advantage of Switzerland: salaries are high, taxes are low. If you do not live like a king, you can postpone. And you can postpone it quite normally. You can find a penthouse in the center of Zurich for 8 thousand francs a month and live there, but why? If you do not do such obvious stupid things and just live, get a Google salary and pay Swiss taxes, then you can save.
Prices
Prices are on average higher than in the same Germany, especially in Zurich. Food prices are much higher. Meat prices are much higher. I know people who drive to Germany, buy meat there and come back because it's cheaper. In general, the cost of living in Zurich is high. You can buy meat not so expensive, but it will not be Swiss. The Swiss are very fond of supporting the local manufacturer, probably because of such high prices.
Medicine
Health insurance is mandatory for everyone: it is private. When you come to Switzerland, an immigrant has three months to choose his insurance. If you do not choose for yourself, the state chooses for you, and this is usually not the cheapest option. The insurance is arranged as follows: you have to pay a certain amount of money per year, after which the insurance begins to operate. For example, from 500 to 2500 francs. Until the required amount has been collected, you pay for medical services yourself. As soon as it has accumulated, insurance begins to cover up to 90% of expenses. If you pay more on top of a certain insurance threshold, it begins to cover 100% of medical expenses. There are many more options on top. I took the option of choosing a ward in the hospital (you can take a ward for two). I did this not because of the ward, but because such insurance allows you to choose a doctor,
Leisure and communication
The disadvantage of Switzerland is that it is difficult to integrate here, even if you learn German. While you work at Google with hundreds of the same English-speaking programmers, you can communicate with them and live in this soap bubble. But if you want to communicate with the Swiss, you need to know the language. And even knowing knowing the language, it is quite difficult to feel at home in Switzerland. Even if you learn German, it is not Swiss German. Even if you know Swiss German, the locals will still understand that you were not born here, and a large number of people will not consider you theirs. The country is very conservative. Needless to say, women here received the right to vote only in 1971. If I try, I can pass for a Swiss. But you won’t be able to feel like you are in your native country, even if you get citizenship. Thanks to, that my girlfriend found at the festival a Swiss musician with whom I lived, we made friends with some locals. That's probably all. We didn’t make any more Swiss friends, because it’s easier to communicate in our own circle. There are a lot of immigrants from Ukraine, from the CIS. We communicate with some people whom I mostly know from competitive programming competitions. As for leisure, during the coronavirus, I practically only do what I work. Before the coronavirus, my friends and I went to the mountains, then there were skiing in the mountains, sledding in the mountains - there are 10 kilometers long toboggan runs here. We communicate with some people whom I mostly know from competitive programming competitions. As for leisure, during the coronavirus, I practically only do what I work. Before the coronavirus, my friends and I went to the mountains, then there were skiing in the mountains, sledding in the mountains - there are 10 kilometers long toboggan runs here. We communicate with some people whom I mostly know from competitive programming competitions. As for leisure, during the coronavirus, I practically only do what I work. Before the coronavirus, my friends and I went to the mountains, then there were skiing in the mountains, sledding in the mountains - there are 10 kilometers long toboggan runs here.The first time after the move, we traveled around Europe. From Zurich to Paris there is a train that takes 4 hours. There are cafes and restaurants in the city, but I would not say that Zurich is too much of a party city. The choice of performances in the theater in languages other than German is limited. We once went to “Uncle Vanya” in German, it was interesting. The advantage of Switzerland is in nature and relatively central location in Europe. If you want to go somewhere in Europe, it's easy to get there.
conclusions
I would advise Switzerland to anyone who wants to live in Europe, get a good salary and pay low taxes. This country has a lot of cool nature, but a limited number of parties. I have enough. But if a person wants to live in London or New York, he will not like Switzerland. Just because there isn't as much partying here as there is in London, doesn't mean it doesn't exist at all.
Disclaimer: the opinion of the hero has nothing to do with the position of Google I was born and raised in the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa, where I graduated first from the local technical lyceum, and then from the Vinnitsa Polytechnic University with a degree in Programming. There I hung out with people with whom I took part in olympiads and programming competitions. In my second year, I worked as an outsourcer for about a month, writing online stores in Java.
One of the reasons why I want to get a category C residence permit is that I can freeze it for a certain period and live outside of Switzerland for a year.
This is the advantage of Switzerland: salaries are high, taxes are low. If you do not live like a king, you can postpone. And you can postpone it quite normally. You can find a penthouse in the center of Zurich for 8 thousand francs a month and live there, but why? If you do not do such obvious stupid things and just live, get a Google salary and pay Swiss taxes, then you can save.
The first time after the move, we traveled around Europe. From Zurich to Paris there is a train that takes 4 hours. There are cafes and restaurants in the city, but I would not say that Zurich is too much of a party city. The choice of performances in the theater in languages other than German is limited. We once went to “Uncle Vanya” in German, it was interesting. The advantage of Switzerland is in nature and relatively central location in Europe. If you want to go somewhere in Europe, it's easy to get there.
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