I’ve been job searching in Geneva for the last couple of months. Between December 2019 and April 2020, I have been fortunate enough to have had an interview every month. Some organizations gave me very good feedback, others have left me feeling ghosted but I am not letting them off the hook until I get a reply. I haven’t quite bagged my job yet. Everyone I have spoken to about job hunting in Geneva, tells me the job market is saturated, competitive and the success of landing a job depends highly on networking above anything else. Armed with online courses, volunteering experience and ready to knock doors or slide into DMs uninvited, I am in the middle of the search knowing I am playing the long game. Being a Kenyan and from Eldoret where marathon runners are born and trained, surely my hips won’t let me run but mentally I believe I have what it takes to run this marathon in finding my job. Like all marathon runners, I definitely need pacers to keep me going. Especially in this arduous and sometimes helpless journey to finding a job that you like.

I am interviewing expat professionals (my pacers) in different sectors in Bonn, Germany and Geneva, Switzerland to share their job searching stories in this pandemic. These stories of the struggle, resilience and creativity are inspiring me to continue in my job hunt and will hopefully inspire you too in your search.

This is the story of my first pacer – Steven Jordan. Steven moved to Geneva in late 2018 as a Master’s student to join his wife after 2 years of living apart.

“When I started my job search in Geneva after graduating in December 2019, I was told and had read that companies here move a lot slower than in other countries. It takes about 6 months to find a job. Geneva is not really a tech hub; while there are some opportunities for data scientists, not only do you need specific subsets of skills, but you surprisingly often need fluent French as well. The big international companies do not ask for French, but the Swiss companies do. I have been taking French classes and I can navigate my way and speak to people at the stores, but I definitely don’t have the business level yet.

I had my first interview with a start-up in Lausanne. It went very well. In the end, they decided I was not the best fit for the data scientist they were looking for. Instead they offered me another position in technical sales, but at the time, I thought ‘this is the beginning of my search so I don’t need to settle for a role that is not going to be what I want - especially for a start-up which can be risky.’

“If I am going to work for a start-up, I’d rather do something that I like. I turned down that offer.”

Next, I had interviews with a consultancy firm in Nyon which were going really well. By March I had 5 rounds of interviews with them and things were going very well until the pandemic hit. The communication slowed down and even though they were/are still interested in hiring me, like most organizations, they’re re-planning and re-organizing financially. The director called me personally to say he would like to hire me but under the current circumstances, he doesn’t have the approval to get me on board. I am keeping in touch with them to see how things pan out in the months ahead. Their response was helpful, reminding me that I can provide value to a company, and if it weren’t for the pandemic, I most likely would be starting a new job.

I also applied for a major international organization based in the USA that has offices in Geneva. I went through the screening process, a phone interview and was waiting to get to the next round. I received a phone call to say the position had been cancelled because of Covid-19. For other jobs I have applied for, I just wasn’t sure what is going on or what the process is because of Covid.

“There is a lot of uncertainty. I don’t know if it’s me as a candidate or Covid or both.”

The uncertainty was there before Covid. That, combined with my field, the slow pace of the job market in Geneva, and that I don’t speak French fluently, required a change of tact and I began applying for jobs in the UK and back home in the USA. Unfortunately that might mean my wife and I have to do long-distance again. Fortunately we don’t have kids because that would change a lot of the choices. But it could mean we might have to stay apart until we find a way to be together again.

Coping with the uncertainty

I feel like I am coping in waves. You have lows when you’re not getting feedback back from the applications you’ve done and everyone you speak to says, ‘well, look at what’s going on, that’s why it’s taking so long.’ Those are moments when I’ve felt I don’t really know whether all the work I am putting into finding a job is leading anywhere. I’ve wondered whether it’s me or Covid causing this, it’s probably both. It’s a feeling of helplessness. In my case, the companies I’ve worked for in the past preferred to hire someone who was already employed because the thinking was, ‘if this person is good at what they do, they would already have a job.’ However with Covid in the picture, you cannot afford to have that mind-set because most places may just not be hiring. You don’t really know.

There is an existential dread I go through the longer I am unemployed that leads to me questioning the value I am bringing to the world. The uncertainty is definitely an extra psychological hill to climb, to keep pushing, to keep hustling and keep working.

When I get any type of good news in the form of a response, that helps me get moving again and stay motivated. I do think there are jobs out there but now it just requires a lot more diligence to be able to uncover those rocks to make sure you are always working and searching.

Good stuff coming out the situation

All my work experience until now has been in the USA. In the States for salaried corporate jobs there is less respect for people when they’re sick and, on top of that, you have a limited number of sick days. There is an environment that encourages people to go to work even when they are sick. In the past when I had a cold, I couldn’t afford to take a few days off and had to power through instead. I am hoping now there is more respect for people who are unwell and companies are opening up to the idea of supporting employees to get better. I hope that’s something positive that comes out of this situation.

Inspiration to keep going

My wife is my inspiration. She is very smart, successful, I love her very much and hold her in extreme regard.

I feel very fortunate to have a very loving and supportive partner who wants to support me more than I let her. I am also very grateful that she has not lost her job in this pandemic like so many people have.

She grew up in Medellin (Colombia) when the cartels were still very strong and lacked many of the privileges I had when growing up in the States. I try to be the best husband I can possibly be to her, besides looking for the job.

The fact that she is with me, in many ways reaffirms to me that I do have value. That’s the external validation for me that I need.

What would do differently if you knew the pandemic was going to happen?

I would have started hustling a lot harder earlier. In the beginning I was choosy and selective. I would have lowered my standards a lot earlier had I known this pandemic was coming. I mentioned earlier the start-up in Lausanne had offered me a technical sales role. Had I known the pandemic was coming, I would have taken that and transitioned from it somehow. But then again, you never know because this is probably not the best environment for selling either so you don’t really know what would have happened.”

Note: After this interview occurred, Steven received and accepted an offer of employment.