I was simply invited to an internship at Google: the story of developer Sergei’s relocation to Switzerland

We continue a special series of materials about the relocation of programmers. Developers tell you how to find work abroad, move and adapt locally. Our fourth hero is Sergei Kashubin. Six years ago he moved from the Ukrainian Vinnitsa to Switzerland, the city of Zurich. Disclaimer: the hero's opinion is in no way connected 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 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.

Google Invite

About 6 years ago, a recruiter from Google wrote to me on Linkedin and invited me to an internship at the company. I don’t know how they found me: I think it happened through participation in programming competitions. First I had a telephone interview. Later there was an onsight interview in Zurich. They paid for my hotel and spent the whole day interviewing me in the office. It's almost the same as over the phone, just more complicated. During onsight interviews, questions are asked about algorithms and data structures. You don’t have to be an Olympic programmer, but you need to understand basic things. There is now 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 at the internship. After that, you could pass an interview and try to get a full-time job at Google. So I went through two additional interviews and was offered the job. After that, there was a process of finding a team to work with, and I was offered to work in Search Quality ( search quality department - ed. ). I had no idea what it was at the time, so I just said, “Let’s try it.” A little over a year ago, I started working on the Google Service Framework ( this is a Google service program. Responsible for managing many variable communications - ed. ). Now I am also doing machine learning.

Documentation

With the preparation of documents 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 they issue you a residence permit on the spot. In Switzerland I applied for a residence permit type L - it is issued for temporary workers. It is given for a year, then it can be extended for another year and cannot be extended any further. Later I received a residence permit category B (working residence permit - ed.). A permanent residence permit, like an analogue of the American Green Card, is a residence permit of category C. I still don’t have it because I haven’t learned enough German. 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 is possible after 5. In Zurich, to obtain this permit, it is enough to know German at the B1 level. One of the reasons why I want to get a residence permit of category C is that I can freeze it for some period and live outside of Switzerland for a year.

Moving

When I moved, the company offered me to receive either a relocation package (housing for the first time, money, etc.), or just a certain amount of money. I knew I would be renting the same room I lived in during my internship because I had become friends with the host, so I just took the money. For me, help with moving looked like this: I had more money in my account and they paid for my German courses for 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 spent a long time looking for housing. 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 was moving, it turned out that he had a spare room that he could rent out. It was very successful. I rented this room for my internship and then for the first few years. I was spared the trouble of searching for housing and cannot tell you how to do it remotely. I know it's very difficult. I have already moved out of that apartment. My girlfriend and I got married 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 improved it to the point where I could communicate fluently in a restaurant or store and fill out tax returns. Then I got bored and a year ago I realized that I still need to improve my language skills, including in order to obtain a residence permit. I'm doing this right now. Since Google is an international company, everyone speaks English at work. In Zurich everyone 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 like Lausanne or Geneva, they only speak French. Somewhere in remote villages in the mountains you can only communicate in German.

Work culture

I like the fact that Google has made it so that if you want, you can take on as much responsibility as you want. The company's approach is such that management is open to suggestions from below. If you have taken responsibility and are coping 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. At first I wrote things related to natural language and logical systems in C++. Then I switched to machine learning: this helped me change the team and move into an area where I only do machine learning. The company is divided 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 didn’t have time to get into the senior position with the previous team and I’m planning to get it now. The idea is that a person first takes on more responsibility and then is officially promoted. After the senior position, positions begin in which it is necessary to coordinate the work of different people. You can go completely into management or combine coordination with coding. Not everyone likes this. But those who do this get paid more. Now we are at home remotely. The only downside is that you don’t go to the office and you can’t talk to people. Google offices really are as cool as they say. But I noticed that I don’t really use it, although it’s good that it exists. We have micro kitchens with coffee and snacks. When I was doing some internal Google projects and needed to concentrate, I went to such a place and sat there. There are also rooms where you can sleep. When you return from a trip in the morning and cannot work at all, this is very useful.

Salary and taxes

The salary of a programmer at Google is higher than the market in Zurich. The market in Zurich is a little more than 100 thousand francs per year. Google gives more. Taxes are a fun and unexpected topic because they are lower in Switzerland than throughout 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 because in Switzerland taxes are divided into federal, cantonal and local. Next to the canton of Zurich there is the canton of Schwyz and the cantonal tax there is lower. And there are areas in it where the local tax is even lower than in others. This way you can save some money. But I decided for myself that it was more interesting for me to live in the city. This is the advantage of Switzerland: salaries are high, taxes are low. If you don’t live like a king, you can put it off. Moreover, 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 don’t do such obvious nonsense and just live, receive a Google salary and pay Swiss taxes, then you can save.

Prices

Prices are on average higher than in Germany, especially in Zurich. Prices for food are significantly 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 that is not so expensive, but it will not be Swiss. The Swiss really like to support local producers, which is probably why prices are so high.

Medicine

Medical insurance is compulsory for everyone: it is private. When you come to Switzerland, an immigrant has three months to choose insurance. If you don’t choose yourself, the state chooses for you, and this is usually not the cheapest option. The insurance works like this: you need to pay a certain amount of money per year, after which the insurance becomes effective. For example, from 500 to 2500 francs. Until you reach the required amount, you pay for medical services yourself. Once it has accumulated, insurance begins to cover up to 90% of expenses. If you pay above a certain insurance threshold, it begins to cover 100% of medical expenses. There are many additional options on top. I took the option of choosing a room in the hospital (you can take a room for two). I did this not because of the room, but because such insurance allows you to choose a doctor when you get to the hospital.

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 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 one of their own. 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 Swiss. But you won’t be able to feel like you’re in your native country, even if you obtain citizenship. Thanks to the fact that my girlfriend found a Swiss musician at the festival with whom I was staying, we became friends with some locals. That's probably all. We didn’t make any more Swiss friends, because it’s easier to communicate within our own circle. There are a lot of immigrants here from Ukraine and the CIS. We're talking to some people I mostly know from sports programming competitions. As for leisure, during the coronavirus, almost all I do is work. Before the coronavirus, my friends and I went to the mountains, then there was skiing in the mountains, sledding in the mountains - there are 10-kilometer sledding tracks here. The first time after moving, we traveled around Europe. There is a train from Zurich to Paris 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 see “Uncle Vanya” in German, it was interesting. The advantage of Switzerland is its nature and relatively central location in Europe. If you want to go somewhere in Europe, it’s easy to get there.

conclusions

I would recommend Switzerland to anyone who wants to live in Europe, earn 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 in London doesn't mean there isn't any.