Before day 1
3 days before:
- Confirm exact time and location (office, floor, contact)
- Prepare attire: suit for banking/consulting/law, smart casual for tech/marketing
- Scout the route (test at rush hour)
- Prepare 2-3 questions for your manager
The day before:
- Sleep 8 hours
- Avoid alcohol
- Prepare documentation: passport, permit, IBAN, previous employer attestation, diplomas
- Prepare a bag: notepad, pens, water, snack
Day 1 — Onboarding
Arrive 10 minutes early. Swiss punctuality is absolute.
Typical schedule:
- HR welcome (1h): document signing, photo, badge, company presentation
- Premises tour (30 min): cafeteria, meeting rooms, floors
- IT setup (1h): laptop, accounts, MFA, access
- Lunch with the team or manager
- Manager meeting (1h): 30/60/90-day goals, organisation, expectations
Listen more than you speak. Note everything. Memorise 10 names minimum.
Day 2-3 — Observation and learning
To do:
- One-on-ones with each team member (15-30 min each)
- Exhaustive reading of documentation: processes, tools, ongoing projects
- Identify key stakeholders (manager, peers, adjacent teams)
- Ask to observe 2-3 important meetings in silence
- Ask precise questions, not general ones
To avoid:
- Criticising existing processes ("At my previous place we did otherwise")
- Proposing major changes before D+30
- Giving your opinion on internal conflicts you don't understand
Day 4-5 — First contribution
Identify 1-2 tasks you can deliver with immediate value:
- A document to structure
- A simple analysis to conduct
- A presentation to prepare
- A meeting to lead (if invited)
Deliver cleanly and quickly. Better 1 well-finished deliverable than 5 botched.
Ask for feedback by Friday: "I wanted to align with your expectations — your feedback on this first week?"
Swiss cultural codes
Punctuality:
- 10:00 meeting = 09:57 in the room, ready
- Late > 5 min: apology message mandatory
- Leaving early without warning = very poorly viewed
Communication:
- Direct but respectful: no Latin circumlocutions, but measured tone
- Formal emails at first (Madam/Sir) then progressive first-name basis if proposed
- No ironic humour the first week: risk of misinterpretation
Hierarchy:
- First-name basis only if proposed by N+1
- Direct questions to the right level (not over your manager's head)
- Decisions go up established channels
Office life:
- Coffee break: 10 AM and 3 PM, important networking moments
- Lunch: 12-1 PM, short (30-45 min)
- End of day: 5-6 PM standard, not later without justification
- Friday evening: afterwork rare in German Switzerland, more frequent in Romandy
Tools to master quickly
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace: standard
- Slack / Teams: communication codes (public channels vs DM)
- Internal tools (CRM, ERP, ITSM): 1-2 days of learning
- Email signature: sober, charter-compliant, plurilingual (FR/DE/EN)
Lunch with the team
Key integration moment. Some rules:
- Always accept the first invitations
- Don't order an overly eccentric or expensive meal
- No alcohol at lunch unless everyone
- Talk about yourself moderately, listen a lot
- Memorise names and roles of colleagues present
- Offer to pay your share even if invited (appreciated gesture)
End of week
Friday 5 PM:
- Recap email to your manager (3-5 lines): what you did, questions, next steps
- Note your personal observations: codes, dynamics, points of attention
- Prepare week 2: 3 priorities
Weekend:
- Rest: 5 intense days, your brain needs to consolidate
- Avoid working unless absolute emergency
- Reflect: what surprised me? what confirmed my choice?
The first 30 days define the perception of your profile for the next 12 months. Invest these 5 days.