杏吧原创

IBM boasts 45, Nestl茅 50, Google 75 and Roche 80. In Switzerland, the number of nationalities working under one roof is as brag-worthy as the high profit margins, the number of patents 鈥� and the fancy wristwatches.

It鈥檚 no surprise that companies based in Switzerland find attracting global talent easy. Breathtaking landscapes, clean and smoothly run cities and a host of outdoor pursuits mean that the quality of life is consistently ranked among the highest in the world. Sure, it is a little pricy and finding a home can be tricky, but if you sign up for one of the many big companies headquartered there, salaries are likely to be generous and the in-house relocation teams will help you settle in.

Meanwhile, companies with offices in Switzerland enjoy the country鈥檚 financial and political stability, and its ease of access to the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. And their employees have the chance to work closely with the many top universities in the region and benefit from the country鈥檚 innovation-friendly culture. It is no accident that Switzerland has topped the for the past two years.

Unlike many countries, the multinationals haven鈥檛 just flocked to Switzerland鈥檚 de facto capital, Bern. If you are a banker, Geneva is likely to be your destination. 杏吧原创s, on the other hand, have more room to manoeuvre. It鈥檚 a case of whether you want to apply that biochemistry background to understanding how chemicals affect the body at Nestl茅 while enjoying the Jura mountains in Lausanne, or preferring to look for new target drugs at Novartis and swim in the Rhine during your lunch break in Basel. Tough call.

Zurich: Little America

IBM is one of several US companies with European headquarters in Switzerland. Back in 1956, the computer giant chose Zurich for its only European outpost, a research centre in the leafy suburb of R眉schlikon. This turned out to be a good choice since Switzerland鈥檚 largest city is often ranked as one of the .

With low-rise concrete buildings and employees in jeans enjoying their mid-afternoon coffee on the canteen terrace, the centre feels like a university campus. This is deliberate, says HR manager Oliver Ottow. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a calm, quiet atmosphere but it鈥檚 also highly professional. There鈥檚 no need for stress. People work long hours but they always have a smile on their face.鈥� And if they do need to de-stress, getting involved with the company鈥檚 many sports and social clubs should do the trick.

PhD student Martina Hitzbleck counts this hybrid atmosphere as one of the perks of doing her doctorate at IBM. Although her degree will be awarded by the , or ETH (the 鈥淢IT of Europe鈥�, according to Ottow), she is based at R眉schlikon. 鈥淚 can use the facilities at the institute but I get all the support I need at IBM, as well as insights into filing patents and dealing with the media. I also get to meet interesting visiting scientists and the occasional politician,鈥� she says.

Hitzbleck specialises in lab-on-a-chip devices and wants to work for a healthcare diagnostics company after she finishes her thesis. The stint at IBM, then, should make the transition from academia to industry much easier than if she had stayed at university. 鈥淭here are more researchers here than students so the average intellectual level is that much higher,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t pushes you. People are always very open to answer your questions or have lunch and discuss your work.鈥�

Employees are encouraged to publish papers and attend conferences as long as trade secrets are patented first. IBM owns all patents but if the company has no interest in developing an innovation further, you could do what Felix Holzner and Philip Paul did and license the patent back from them. Earlier this year they went from PhD students working at IBM to CEOs when they set up their own nano-fabrication company, .

is another big US company with a European research arm in Zurich, this time at ETH. Walking down one of the old town鈥檚 prettiest streets, the black ears of Mickey Mouse that form an arch between two houses are the only clue that the world鈥檚 most famous entertainment company is in residence. Step inside and you catch a bit of that Disney magic. Weird-looking princess figurines beam down at you, contorted masks grimace and beautiful early sketches of the company鈥檚 characters adorn the walls.

According to postdoc Thabo Beeler, 鈥渢he cool thing about working at Disney is seeing stuff get used 鈥� it鈥檚 not just going to end up in a drawer鈥�. He is responsible for those creepy princesses, having developed a way to reconstruct faces in 3D that is now being used in Disney theme parks to produce figurines with customers鈥� faces moulded onto them. That was his PhD project and it was so successful that he is now head of his own research group, developing ways to generate ultra-realistic human faces in 3D.

聯The cool thing about working at Disney is seeing your stuff get used. It doesn鈥檛 just end up in a drawer聰

Basel: Pharma Ville

Basel, in the north of Switzerland, lies at the bottom of Europe鈥檚 , a biotech cluster that stretches into southern France and Germany. The city is home to 59 biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including the headquarters of two of the world鈥檚 giants, Novartis and Roche.

was set up in 1896 by the Hoffman-La Roche family to sell its brand of cough medicine. Today, it employs over 3500 research scientists in Switzerland alone, who mainly work on therapeutics for neurological and metabolic disorders, and cancer. As well as research scientists, there are interns who spend time at Roche during their bachelor鈥檚 or master鈥檚 degrees, and postdoctoral research fellows. Anja Harmeier, a postdoc from Germany, has been at Roche for two years doing basic research into schizophrenia. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good to experience industry as a postdoc,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 get great support from both Roche and an academic mentor based at the University of Basel.鈥�

Employees are encouraged to work closely with universities and publish in prestigious journals, which can make life seem very academic. But other aspects, such as being paid for working out of hours, are distinctly less so. 鈥淲e want our employees to be motivated in order to come up with the innovative results,鈥� says Mario Watzke, head of HR marketing Switzerland. As a result, the employment package also includes flexible working hours, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and subsidised meals and cultural events.

Further downriver lies . After the utilitarian white and blue buildings of Roche, the Novartis 鈥渃ampus鈥� is a visual feast with buildings clad in coloured panels, landscaped (and soundscaped) gardens, modern art around every corner and the likes of architect Frank Gehry involved in the design. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty inspiring place to work,鈥� says Niamh Johnston, who studied biology at the University of Edinburgh and now works in corporate communications. 鈥淚t definitely encourages us to interact and collaborate鈥�.

Johnston鈥檚 team has been rushed off its feet organising this year鈥檚 鈥� an annual international networking event run by Novartis with attendance capped at just 60 students. This year, those 60 were drawn from 21 countries. Places were limited for good reason: the students were treated to an intensive three-day programme of lab visits, workshops and lectures given by some of the company鈥檚 most senior members of staff. It seems the extensive itinerary paid off. 鈥淚 was impressed by the strength of Novartis R&D,鈥� says Xiaofeng Li, who has just completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield. 鈥淗aving a Q&A session with the CEO and members of board of directors was great 鈥� you don鈥檛 often get access to such high-level people.鈥�

While attending BioCamp will stand any attendee in good stead for a future job application, young scientists may initially be better off applying to work in one of Novartis鈥檚 鈥� at Horsham, for example 鈥� before putting in an application to transfer to the Basel HQ.

Lausanne: Consumer Central

Take the train from the northern part of Switzerland down to Lausanne in the south-west and it鈥檚 easy to see why over a third of the city鈥檚 population is said to be foreign nationals. With undulating green hills, grazing cows and Lake Geneva glinting in the evening sunshine, it is picture perfect.

Lausanne is smaller than Basel or Zurich, but it oozes charm. Nestl茅 has based its headquarters, and an Institute of Health Sciences either in the city or a short commute away. So has food and tobacco giant Phillip Morris, and Tetra Leval, the global food processing and packaging company. Nestl茅 has a total of eight research facilities in Switzerland, and between them they carry out more than half of its R&D.

Ciar谩n Forde, a scientist at the NRC working in the consumer and sensory science group, describes it 鈥渁s the pinnacle of food research鈥�. Forde, who has a PhD in nutrition from the University of Cork in Ireland, is currently researching how consumers make portion size decisions when selecting different foods, work which will help develop new products for Nestl茅鈥檚 weight-management range.

The company doesn鈥檛 just carry out work directly related to its products, it also does fundamental research and conducts its own clinical trials organised from its newly opened . For example, one trial looked at . Raf Crabb茅, who heads the unit, estimates that Nestl茅 was running 137 trials globally at the end of July. This is about the same number as a mid-sized pharma company, he claims. 鈥淣o other food company does such basic research.鈥�

Like many of the other young scientists working for multinationals, Forde says that feeling he is making a difference is what really enriches his working day: 鈥淎t university, you can publish and talk at conferences but you are not affecting anyone鈥檚 life.鈥� Plus, it鈥檚 a bonus, he says, that Switzerland is second only to Ireland in terms of natural beauty.