this sounds like a great story. write the book. you've lived your dream.

now that you've tasted freedom from the 9 to 5 rat race, why would you want to go back?

you sound a bit desperate....nobody hires desperate these days.

maybe your resumé is not selling the right product. as they say in marketing:

"sell the sizzle". of course in europe today, us citizens, regardless of their experience and abilities

have to take a back seat due to e.u. work permit laws etc. so, my advice would be to find a niche in the market that only you can fill, and do it!

all in all, you've got moxie :-)

With all due respect, I would suggest that you could lower your sights for the moment and tale any kind of honest job that you can find – private tuition, baby-sitting, housework, gardeniung, etc.

And don’t just answer advertisements, write “on spec” letters to any enterprise that catches your imagination.

Also, join a few compatible interest groups or do some voluntary work, to widen your

circle of acquaintances and help you integrate more.

With perseverance and a little bit of luck, you’ll meet or get to hear of somebody who knows somebody who’s looking for somebody …

It’s when you already have a job and other interests that you find openings and opportunities.

All the best, R.

Following on from Ritchie, have you looked at the Jobs section in the classifieds on this site ? You just never know....... Cheers Jeff

@Nola

Do you know the English-speaking Association of Haute-Savoie?  If not, check their website as they may have members who could help.

R.

Or this one perhaps...

http://www.thelocal.ch/jobs/?site=tlch&category=&location=geneva

Thank you Ritchie :-)  We do look for any kind of honest job at least to sustain but not many people would hire us under the table (without work permit). We can't work in MacDonald's for example, or as waiters. 

To stay and work legally for a longer term, we need a work permit. When consulting a lawyer , h said that the work permit requires the job offer to be in our field of study and experience.

We had plans for my husband teaching English for example, but the lawywer said the work permit request would be rejected because he is not a certified teacher. 

Thank you for the advise on voluntary work. You are right, that's what we are looking for, a breakthroufh of someone who knows someone. 

All the best!

Noha

Thank you! We will check it. We have no problem with French jobs either since we speak French. The problem is that the resumé gets rejected by HR (due to the gap and work permit issue) but will definitly try! :-) 

Thank you! Will check their website. English or French is not an issue since we speak French fluently :-) 

hi again, you really have to come to terms with the fact that here in the e.u you are competing with 250 million inhabitants. that, plus not having the needed work permits, make finding a proper job, an uphill battle. therefore, i would suggest that you promote your particular skills in your resumé that hardly anyone else has to offer and focus on that. you really need to brainstorm that angle.

Ofcourse we do understand that. Like I said, we don't want statistics to dictate our dreams, we want to give it a chance.  Posting on this forum is part of trying to widen our network and getting ideas. I don't think it is desperate to ask for help. Than you again for your advise. We will definitly give it a try! 

Hello Noha,

I'm looking for a job too and have been told by several people that networking is the the way to go and that one is never more than six handshakes away from one's ideal job. Such a nice idea! I think it's just a question of getting the first handshake right ;) so here's hoping! 

 Two associations that you might find useful in your search. The first is OWIT the Organisation of Women in International Trade which you might already have heard of. They have a monthly meeting in Geneva and also in Lausanne but its only for women. The address is www.OWIT-lakegeneva.org. There are definately some Americans there. You need to just sign up for the meetings on the website and the last one I went to there were quite a few young professionals like you.

The second could be useful for both of you. It is called Café Emploi and is run by an association called Pact. They hold monthly meetings (next one tomorrow at 9.00 am) in French and there is usually a talk on a theme such as networking or getting your CV right etc and there are also occasions like tomorrow afternoon I think where companies send representants to talk about how they recruit or something like that. The web address is www.pacte.ch then look at the cafe emploi agenda to find the nearest one to you. They have them in Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchatel etc. The people are generally very helpful and there are also foreigners too.

Anyway, hope that'll help you get to that first promising handshake. All the best of luck.

Poppy

Thank you Poppy! You are right! We haven't heard of these two associations and they both sound very useful. This is exactly the sort of information I am looking for! :-)  Good luck to you on your search as well! :-)