SWITZERLAND – HSG, UNIVERSITY OF ST.GALLEN

School support:

The Career Services Center (CSC-HSG) offers a variety of services to support students in their career planning and transition to the job market.

Through its Career Events, the CSC-HSG provides students with the opportunity to participate in various career-related workshops, seminars, and trainings in order to learn from experts in the field, practice their skills and meet with corporate representatives.

Furthermore, individual appointments can be arranged with professional career counsellors on individual career planning strategies, job application documents, interview preparations, and more. Job offers from corporates; listings of career events and company portraits may be found on the career platform here where students may also upload their CV.

Furthermore, students have the opportunity to participate in the main recruiting event, the HSG TALENTS Conference with over 100 companies held in spring and various tailored events such as the HSG Consulting Days, the HSG Banking Days, the HSG Industrial Career Day and the HSG Consumer Goods & Retail Days held in autumn. Such events usually include workshops with company representatives as well as pre-scheduled interviews. As spots in these are limited, they usually require a previous online application.

Contact:

Mr. Gerd Winandi, Head of Student Career Services, csc@unisg.ch, +41 (0)71 224 29 23

Legislation:

For EU 25/EFTA nationals working for less than 3 months per year, the employer does not need to apply for a work permit, but need to notify the competent cantonal immigration authorities before they start working. For an internship with a duration of more than 3 months a work permit needs to be applied for.

For EU 2 and Non-EU/EFTA nationals, a work permit is needed for every work stay in Switzerland irrespective of the duration. They may obtain a work permit limited to max. 15 hours per week and/or the semester break with the confirmation of the university that the job does not interfere with the study program.

For mandatory internships being part of the CEMS study program, EU 2 and Non-EU/EFTA students may obtain a work permit for the limited period of the internship with the confirmation of the university that such is mandatory.

Please note that a sufficient level of German is not a necessary prerequisite to apply for an internship in Switzerland, but in many cases is highly preferred by companies operating in the Swiss market.

Further information:

For further information please check the “Overview of Work Permit Regulation in Switzerland” here on “Services for International Students”.

Requested documents:

The application process is usually initiated by the employer submitting the necessary application documents to the competent authority in the canton of residence or work of the applicant.

The documents required for the application are determined by the competent authority and usually include: a copy of the employment contract (salary and working conditions have to be in line with country and industry standards), a passport photograph, a copy of the passport (and the residence permit), CV and diplomas of the applicant, confirmation of the university that the internship is mandatory.

Company support:

The interest of companies to offer international students an internship varies from company to company and depends on their business model and internal guidelines. Another factor is whether they are prepared to take the extra effort to go through the work permit application process.

For graduates:

Internships in Switzerland after graduation are possible for EU 25/EFTA nationals. Non-EU/EFTA nationals from Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Tunisia, Ukraine and USA can apply for a trainee position under the Trainee Programme Agreement Switzerland has signed with these countries (see also here).