IDCN is nonprofit association formed through the collaboration of companies, NGOs and academic institutions with the purpose of facilitating the job search for mobile employees’ partners and providing member companies access to a turnkey pool of talent.
The Basel Chapter of IDCN invited Anne-Claude Lambelet, President of SIETAR Switzerland; Christine Groell, SIETAR Switzerland Basel-based member and career coach; and Gundhild Hoenig, SIETAR Switzerland Basel MeetUp Ambassador, to speak at the event on “Networking Successfully in the Swiss Job Market”. This was also an opportunity to increase SIETAR Switzerland’s visibility to potential members – individual and corporate.
A broken leg and hospital stay prevented Anne-Claude from attending, but members Christine Groell and Gundhild Hoenig shared their expertise on “Getting Hired in Switzerland – Optimizing Your Self-Marketing Strategies” with 80+ expat partners attached to IDCN member organisations in Basel : Novartis, Roche, Syngenta, Lonza, EY (formerly Ernst and Young), Colgate-Palmolive, University of Basel and ETH Zurich- their recruiters and HR representatives.
Participants and speakers were warmly welcomed by the IDCN Basel team, and their President Juliann Hickey kicked off the event by introducing IDCN, its objectives, activities and purpose of the day.
Helen Odell, Head of Global Mobility at Novartis, welcomed the audience to the Novartis Campus. She spoke about what it means to be “at work worldwide and at home in Switzerland” and addressed challenges for employees and career opportunities for their partners.
An attentive audience then listened to SIETAR Switzerland members Christine and Gundhild introduce the cultural aspects of job hunting in a new territory, followed by a highlight of the most critical steps job hunters must take to improve their chances. Participants appreciated valuable advice on how to reach their goals and successfully master this long-distance run while staying “Zen”. The SIETAR Switzerland facilitators concluded their session by illustrating how SIETAR Switzerland can provide expat support with professional cross-cultural and career coaching, events across the country and other opportunities to build new personal networks and learn how to use them well.
The SIETAR Switzerland Q&A session was well-received, fielding specific questions on topics from job applications to career change to work-life integration and transition management.
Afterwards Henri-Michel Yéré (D&I) and Lilly Sitzler (Job Coach) from Novartis, engaged the audience in active and fun networking exercises and showed a video:
“Successful Networking: The ultimate guide” (Christopher Barrat, TEDx), which encouraged the participants to try out their enhanced networking skills right away!
The participants used the time after the formal part of the program to continue exchanges and reach out for further advice on personal career matters. The organizing team and the SIETAR Switzerland speakers received a lot of positive feedback and requests for personal guidance during the networking part of the event. Now we look forward to welcoming a lot of them at our upcoming events and potentially as new members.
Christine Groell, Gundhild Hoenig
baselmeetup@sietar.ch