Career transitions in Switzerland are much more common than people realize. And, of course, a career transition requires preparation: you need to identify your skills and then understand the Swiss job market.

As coaches, we often hear these kinds of statements. But if we look around us, we’d be surprised to see just how much people think this way without actually saying it. Many people think about something they didn’t do. Some wanted to be chefs but ended up in trading—that’s a concrete example. Or perhaps the other way around. Or you might simply feel like you’ve seen everything there is to see in your profession.

There are also situations like being laid off, fatigue, and burnout. After a burnout, you tell yourself, “I can never do that again; I’m going to take on something that suits me much better, something that lets me conserve my energy.” ” And then there’s a loss of motivation, the desire to do something else—and that can happen at age 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60.”

To gain awareness of your skills, you often have to strip away the jargon. If you want to leave the banking industry, you need to set aside the banking jargon, and you’ll see that, at their core, your skills are actually quite simple and transferable. Next, you need to understand the market you’re in—the Swiss market. That’s really the most important thing.

In summary
In this article, we discuss:
– Why you should first assess your timing and motivations: sometimes, a small change is all it takes.
– How a skills assessment helps you take a fresh look at your situation and identify your transferable skills.
– How to position yourself in the Swiss job market: resume, LinkedIn, networking, and languages.
– Cantonal financial assistance and key considerations for funding your re transition.
– How to overcome imposter syndrome and stay motivated in the face of rejection.

 

Understanding the Key Factors for a Successful Career Change in Switzerland

Major Trends in the Labor Market in French-Speaking Switzerland

As for the major market trends in French-speaking Switzerland, what we’re hearing most often right now is:

• AI and digital transformation, a very common topic that has a tangible impact on jobs;
• demographic trends;
• environmental changes.

You can find interesting information throughthe Federal Statistical Office and SECO. We’ve also written an article about jobs that are hiring people looking to change careers.

Assess your timing and motivations before getting started

When it comes to timing, it's best to assess your timing and motivations before embarking on a career change.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of job dissatisfaction, and simply discussing it internally can already bring about changes. Personal changes can also lead to greater satisfaction, both at work and outside of it. The idea is to figure out whether you really want to change careers, or whether it’s another source of dissatisfaction that you can address in a different way or approach differently.

There’s also the influence of the work environment and fatigue—it really depends on the situation. So it’s best to take a step back before making any decisions, and talking it over with someone first can help.

As a coach, we see that sometimes we really help bring about change. And sometimes, it’s clear that the person is capable of doing something else—and just hadn’t realized it.

"Often, people tell themselves, 'I need to change my life.' But actually, no—all we really need to do is change something very simple."

Sometimes it starts with a quick chat with management, a coworker, or a family member—it doesn't matter who. It doesn't necessarily have to be a life-changing event or a complete turnaround.

coaching 's Career transition : AAA+'s Human-Centered Approach

Strategic, hands-on support in Carouge and via video conference

When you're thinking about a career change, you ask yourself a lot of questions:

• What career should I choose?
• How can I make the most of my experience?
• Do I need to go back to school?

We also need to regain confidence in our abilities.

At AAA+, we support individuals who want to take their careers in a new direction with our team of certified coaches. Our support begins with a conversation to understand the individual’s background, current situation, and expectations. We then define the coaching ’s goals and the frequency of sessions based on their needs.

Sessions can take place at our offices in Carouge, near Geneva, or via videoconference, depending on where you live and your availability. You can find details about our packages on ourcareer page transition .

The AAA+ Method: 90% of Our Clients Return to Work

At AAA+, our approach is based on personalized support that truly takes into account your background, skills, and career goals. Over the course of our sessions, we’ll help you:

• identify your strengths;
• explore the opportunities available to you;
• Set a realistic career goal.

This support then helps you refine your positioning and your approach to the market, and prepares you for the steps necessary to launch your transition.

It should also be noted that at AAA+, we have a 90% return-to-work rate for the clients we support. This rate refers to a return to work in general and does not apply solely to transitions to a new career.

What are the steps to planning a career change?

Conduct a skills and potential assessment with a coach

The key step—truly the foundation—is conducting a skills and potential assessment with your coach.

A skills assessment lets you take a fresh look at everything. You step back from your experience, zoom out, and say to yourself, “Wait, what have I done so far? Wow, I didn’t realize I’d done all that.” People are really surprised by everything they’ve accomplished.

We identify:

• our skills, our professional skills, and our skills more broadly;
• our personal qualities—who we are while we're doing our work;
• our motivations and values, which also change: between our twenties and fifties, things change.

And then there are other things that have remained surprisingly the same since we were kids. We take stock of our skills and realize that, as a banker, we were already doing the same thing as a child. As a schoolteacher, we tell ourselves, “Actually, I already loved teaching back then.” ” Or as a therapist, we already loved listening. We’re surprisingly the same people across all these different experiences.

The goal is to bring transferable skills to light. Often, when you ask people what they do, they don’t necessarily know how to explain it very clearly. By putting it in writing, they realize, “Oh, actually, that’s what I do.”

"It's simple, but it has a much greater impact when it's simple and taken out of context."

The context typically involves all the jargon related to insurance or banking.

During the skills assessment, you can also talk about your challenges, your successes, and the things you no longer want. It feels good. It’s therapeutic, so to speak: of course, it’s not therapy, but it feels good to be able to say what you no longer want. You really take stock of things, and it’s nice to have it in writing, to put it into words.

Defining Your Positioning and Personal Brand in Switzerland

After the assessment, what do we do? We position ourselves and highlight our background.

Once you have all that, you need to find ways to connect with the outside world—with people who are interested. You’ll want to tailor your resume, and likely your LinkedIn profile as well: everything needs to be consistent, including how you present yourself. You’ll also want to practice highlighting your past experience.

We’re also becoming more aware of the role of networks and languages in Switzerland. That’s very important, too.

Here is a summary table of the steps involved in a career change.

Step	What We Do
Check your timing and your motivations	Take a step back, talk it over with someone, and see if a simpler change is enough
Assessing Your Skills	Take a fresh look at everything, cut out the jargon, and highlight your transferable skills
Position Yourself	Tailor your resume, LinkedIn profile, and presentation so that everything is consistent
Financing your transition	Check for cantonal financial assistance, set a budget, and try out the profession
Activate Your Network	Be specific about what you're looking for so that others can pass on the information

How can you finance and ensure a successful career change in French-speaking Switzerland?

Cantonal Financial Aid and Training Financing Solutions

You might wonder how to pay for all of this. It’s important to know that we receive financial assistance at the cantonal level, which, of course, depends on our situation:

• Annual training vouchers: We need to check the criteria to see if we meet them or not;
• coaching , and career transition programs, if you are receiving unemployment benefits through an ORP;
• canton-level scholarships;
• Employer contribution, if you are employed: Your employer may pay for your training.

So there are plenty of possibilities. You just need to carefully check the requirements before signing up and see if you meet them.

Managing Financial transition : Balancing Work and Future Plans

Of course, you have to be mindful of your circumstances. A career change can sometimes be costly, and it may result in a decrease in income. Some people consider working part-time so they can focus on other things and free up some time.

Sometimes you have to set aside a small budget. Well, “small” budget—in Switzerland, those are often large budgets. But it’s usually money well spent if you choose wisely.

Sometimes we also have the opportunity to get a feel for the job by doing an internship or taking on a project.

And before you quit your job, you should make sure you ’re eligible for unemployment benefits. The idea is to plan ahead, think things through a little, and lay everything out clearly rather than acting on impulse: “Okay, I’m quitting—we’ll see what happens.”

Some people are tempted to take a risk: “I’m going to go from employee to entrepreneur overnight.” And then they quickly realize that’s not what they wanted at all. Sometimes it’s much simpler than you think. So really, lay it all out and plan ahead.

Overcoming the Psychological Barriers Associated with a Career Change

Overcoming Impostor Syndrome and the Fear of Failure

A common challenge—whether in career transitions or in our everyday lives—is overcoming imposter syndrome, the fear of messing up, and the fear of failure.

There's also the fact of becoming, so to speak, a beginner again at something. It can be both very rejuvenating and unsettling. And then there's the fear of regretting your choice.

Of course, these things can come up—it’s part of the process. It’s good to be able to talk about them, to put them into perspective or adjust our expectations, so we can be prepared.

We also see—and this is a classic pattern—that people tend to downplay their worth: they don’t recognize their own value. The idea is to be objective. There’s no need to puff out your chest and act like “I’m better than everyone else,” nor to overcompensate, nor to say, “No, no, I’m worthless.” Just be objective. And in that regard, a skills assessment is very helpful: it allows you to step back from your ego a bit and simply acknowledge your own worth. As long as you’re objective, there’s no need to feel self-conscious about saying things.

People often say, “I don’t like to sell myself.”

“So you don’t have to sell yourself—no worries. You’re simply passing on what you know how to do to someone else: it’s a form of generosity.”

People often view this negatively because they’ve been conditioned to think that way. It’s clear that “ coaching ” helps build self-confidence, because you’re prepared and you’ve laid everything out on the table.

Build Resilience and Leverage Your Professional Network

How can you stay motivated and stay on track? You’re bound to face rejections, and it’s always good to reflect on them afterward. You often realize it’s nothing personal: often, the position was filled internally. Or, if you’re changing careers, maybe it wasn’t really what you wanted to do.

A rejection isn't always a bad thing. On the contrary, there are some very important lessons to be learned from it, which allow us to readjust.

It’s also important to set achievable goals. The idea behind a “ coaching ” is that you don’t jump from A to Z—you don’t take giant leaps. You break things down into realistic and achievable steps—SMART goals—and that makes the process much more manageable. Rather than thinking, “I’m going to take the plunge right away,” we ask ourselves, “What am I going to do this week?” Something realistic, that doesn’t make me feel completely uncomfortable, that doesn’t cut me off from my life, that lets me feel good about myself. And to do it with enjoyment, too. We can also measure our progress.

And then there’s the importance of your professional network: reaching out to former colleagues and professional organizations. You’d be surprised at just how much more effective this method is than any other. As long as you’re clear about what you want.

It’s a bit like when you’re looking for an apartment. If you just say, “I’m looking for an apartment,” people are happy to pass on the information, but to whom, and what exactly? If I say I’m looking for a four-room apartment with a southwest-facing terrace, then we’re being specific. We can pass that information along, and we know who to pass it to, because we know who might have a four-room apartment. That’s really important, and it’s part of networking.

Once we've laid everything out on the table, clarified our offering, and are clear about our value, we communicate it and go out to find people.

And we can do this in a humane way. That’s really what we do at AAA+: we take into account the whole person, what they’re going through, and we don’t push them too far outside of that. It remains a very humane, very person-centered approach, and the person won’t get lost in the process.

Are you considering a career change in Switzerland? Learn more about our careertransition ation services or contact our team.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you're considering a career change and would like to discuss it, please feel free to contact Philip Chowney for an initial conversation.

For more information, please also contact: Fabienne Revillard

Would you like to explore the topic further? These articles may also be of interest:

Career transition: which professions are in demand?

Transition career at age 40

The career coach : your ally in professional change

9 essential steps for developing a new career in Switzerland

Career Reorientation and Career Choices: Practical Advice

Transition Career Path: From the UN to the Swiss Private Sector

Author: AAA+ The Better World Team, the team of coaches at AAA+ Coaching , and Training in Carouge. This article was written in collaboration with Philip Chowney, a career management and outplacement coach since 2013 and a graduate of the Institut de Coaching (IDC). He works with clients in both French and English.

Her areas of expertise: transition and career development, job interview preparation, exploring the hidden job market and networking, outplacement.

Published in October 2026