In January, I moved from California to Switzerland. I transferred within Google to a team in GoogleAI developing on-device machine learning. It was closer to what I wanted to be working on than the team I was currently on, Android Security. The thing is, the job was in Zurich, Switzerland. I would have to move with my (then) fiance to Switzerland. Then again, what’s the big deal about immigrating?

Thankfully before I found this job, we had talked about if either of us found a job that was significantly more closely aligned to our career goals than our current ones, we would support each other in pursuing it, even if it was outside the US. So, when I did find a job, it was more of a conversation about when we can move based on how much stuff we have to do in the US before moving. We agreed that I’d move in January (2 months from finding the job), and he would move 4 months later so he could finish his job.

We thought moving would be a good opportunity for me to develop my skills in something I’m interested in, for both of us to see how it is to live in a different country, and have the opportunity to visit a lot of other countries.

Since then, we have both learned a lot about immigrating to Switzerland. I’d like to share what I’ve experienced in this early part of immigrating before I forget about it. :)

Challenging things for me to move from US to Switzerland

Moving continents

Moving to a non-English speaking country

Changing job & domain of work

Getting married

These big life events are thought to be the most stressful times in a person’s life. And, all of these big life events happened within a week. If this wasn’t stressful enough for us, we also had a lot of things we had to do before leaving the US (more on all of this later).

Personal circumstances which eased the move

Relaxed immigration policies for EU citizens & their family in Switzerland

Having a job waiting for me

Work funded moving package including a temporary apartment

We had enough money to cover the cost of moving

Almost everyone speaks English, and I knew enough German if for some reason we ran into someone who didn’t

No kids or pets

This is just to say, there were a lot of factors that made my move smoother. Take that into account if you’re seriously considering emigrating. Your Mileage Might Vary (YMMV).

View of Titlis. A little of what we’ve seen so far.

Why write though?

I wanted to write down how immigrating to another country has been for me, as of ~6 months in. When I was considering moving, I couldn’t really find any posts or videos of how people feel right after they immigrated to a different country. Once I moved, I had a lot of different and surprising experiences, so I thought it would be good to document them before I forget. If you are thinking about moving to another country, maybe you will find this helpful in order to know what to expect. If you already moved to another country, maybe you can see the similarities and differences in your adventure to mine.

I can only speak to my experiences, so it will be biased heavily towards how a young, newly married, EU-American feels when they move with a job to Switzerland. YMMV.

There are a lot of different aspects of moving, I wanted to organize my thoughts into different categories. This way, each thought can be kept concise and focused. The topics are listed below. If they are hyperlinked, it means that they are posted. I’ll post the links to the new articles on Twitter. Follow me @_mbdr_, or here, on Medium.

Let me know if you’re curious about anything else. I can write about it!

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