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Michaela Rusnáková, IAESTE UK Praha,

ročník 3

About the country

Location of the place

Windisch is a small village located 20 minutes west of Zurich by train. It is one of the main stops for interregional trains, thus offering fast connections to major cities, touristic spots and airports.

City

Windisch has big university campus, so there is a lot of young people, bars as well as student events. It is directly connected with another village, Brugg, that has all major chains of supermarkets and multiple restaurants. Windisch has a military base for mandatory military training. One can see how the training looks like as often there are exercises by the river and one evening per week on their free night all the boys fill up every bar and restaurant in the surroundings.

Surroundings (possible trips, ...)

I went on trips mostly to the mountains. For skiing, Windisch is well connected with Melchsee-Frutt, Hoch Ybrig or Flumserberg. For hiking, Rigi and Pilatus are the musts.

Employer

I worked at Institute for Polymer Engineering at University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. The institute is separated into 3 groups with total of around 25 people. Around half of the coworkers are Master Students at the school working half time or fresh graduates, therefore the team is pretty young and open.

Work description

I directly contributed to current projects at the institute and worked mostly in the labs - either chemistry, analytics or engineering lab. I got to learn how to operate many devices and did countless measurements of different polymer properties.

Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)

The salary is sufficient for basic life and trips although the cost of rent and insurance was regularly rising also within one year.

Language requirements

English is sufficient for work itself however all of the bigger meetings, activities, some materials etc. were in german or swiss german. The general language during the coffee breaks, lunches is also swiss german, but when people are approached in english they usually have no problem switching to english. A little disclaimer, because of the widely use of swiss german I think it is not the ideal place to learn german.

Accommodation (price, who provided it)

Accommodation is a weak spot of this placement. The available options are either very expensive or very old and unsufficient in the terms of cleanliness. I got a room in a shared flat with the help of IAESTE but had to move apartments after 3 months, cause the first apartment had one old kitchen for 7 people and it was full of insects and maggots. After 3 months I was lucky to find a bit better one (or just better flatmates).

Social life

Meeting IAESTE members (pick-up at the airport, organized events...)

Local comittee organizes one weekly meeting on Thursday night in Zurich and then many weekend trips to all parts of Switzerland filled with every activity imaginable. Just join the group chat on Whatsapp!

Meeting other foreign students

Again just join the group chat on Whatsapp, where are very well organized groups for different topics like hiking or winter sports. Often there are also other IAESTE alumni or trainees directly working with you in the same team.

Sport and culture

The employer offers multiple sport classes during the work days and on the weekend there is always possibility to do either hiking or skiing. For culture, Baden, Basel and Zurich offer many events.

Food, local specialties

Fondue, Raclette, any other cheese, Lindt, Toblerone, Ovomaltine, any other chocolate, soft drink Rivella... I think all these are a must to try.

Other information

Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic

For data I recommend Swype - provides unlimited data very cheaply and then is the communication as normal.

Recommendations for students who will go to the same place

Get ready to do a lot of sports, for buying second hand sport equipment I recommend app Ricardo.

What not to forget with you

Clothes for every weather imaginable

Benefits of the internship

I got valuable work experience that helped me to get admitted to master studies in a different field than my bachelor (from chemistry to material engineering) I consider very valuable that I got to work in the applied research and see how research and development in the industry work. As part of my job I was able to attend a few academic conferences and industrial fairs both in Switzerland and south Germany.

Cooperation with IAESTE in the foreign country

The cooperation is easy as everybody is in the Whatsapp group and replies quite fast.

Overall experience with IAESTE

I am thankful for getting the opportunity to live and work in Switzerland. It is something I would probably never get otherwise as the job market here is very competitive and hard to get in without previous swiss experience.Even though not everything at work and in the accommodation went well, I recommend IAESTE to everybody. They try their best, and whether you are lucky or not in your placement, you will gain a lot of life experience.