Time to read: 8 minutes
In this newsletter, you will find two topics:
- Stop Applying, Start Monetizing
- Your Career in the AI Age - workshop free intro & sign up
3.Your Leadership In The AI Age - what remains yours?
Hi {{first_name | default: 'there'}},
A client came to me recently after sending over 150 applications in ten months.
Two decades in financial services and tech. Strong network. Solid references. And yet: near silence. A handful of first rounds. Five second rounds. Zero offers.
He had tried everything he could think of on his own before we started working together.
When we sat down, I did not ask about his CV or his interview technique. I asked him something different: "What if the problem is not the applications? What if the problem is the question you are asking?"
He stared at me.
"You are asking how to get a job. What if the more useful question is: how do I monetize everything I have built?"
What Is Actually Happening Here?
Let us be honest about the market, because denial is expensive.
Swiss job openings have dropped from nearly 130,000 in 2022 to below 90,000 in 2025, according to SWI. The ILO unemployment rate climbed from 4.7 to 5.1 percent in twelve months, confirmed by SECO. Pharma redundancies accounted for nearly 30 percent of total job losses in 2025. A major Swiss bank has eliminated over 10,000 positions since its emergency merger. One of Basel's largest pharma companies is cutting hundreds of roles across Swiss sites.
And here is what makes it structural, not cyclical. This is one of the first times, but certainly rare times, when economists are projecting solid growth in 2026 AND declining job creation. More economy, less jobs.
Goldman Sachs named it precisely: sturdy growth, stagnant jobs. Companies are expanding output without expanding headcount. AI is making that possible.
It is not replacing people overnight. But it is quietly reshaping which tasks justify a senior salary and which ones no longer do. Countries with high labor cost, like Switzerland are especially impacted.
We are not burying white collar jobs, but we are seeing a shift.
What remains is judgment, relationships, and the ability to make sense of complexity. That is a different kind of value. And not everyone has figured out how to price it.
For experienced professionals in the greater ZĂĽrich area, this creates a specific problem. You are looking for something increasingly rare: a full-time, senior, well-defined role in a large organisation. The positions that still exist attract enormous competition.
The old ways, applying, applying, networking, repeat, do not work.
The Question Worth Asking Instead
Here is what I keep hearing in coaching: "How do I get back in?"
Back into a structure. A title. A contract. A place on an org chart.
I understand why. Corporate careers shape identity over decades. When your title disappears, the instinct is to find another structure that looks the same.
But I believe, if old doors are closing, we have to tuck up the sleeves and start opening new doors.
You have spent ten, twenty, thirty years solving a specific kind of problem in a specific kind of environment. That is not a credential. It is an asset.
The question is: who needs a similar problem solved, and what would they pay for it? How can you repack your experience and knowledge so you are fit for the market?
That shift, from job seeker to value creator, is not just a mindset change. It is a practical business decision. And it has never made more sense than right now.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Consulting isn't dead, in fact, it just getting started. The Swiss management consulting market is valued at USD 3.58 billion and projected to reach USD 4.66 billion by 2031, according to Mordor Intelligence. Demand is concentrated in exactly the sectors where senior Swiss talent lives: financial services, pharma, precision manufacturing, digital transformation. Daily rates for senior consultants in Switzerland are among Europe's highest, exceeding CHF 2,400 per day at the top skill level, according to the Metrics 2025 IT Consulting Report.
These are not exceptional rates for exceptional people. They are market rates for professionals who have packaged what they know clearly enough that someone will pay for it.
That packaging starts with language. Not "I was Head of Transformation." But: "I help multinational companies navigate organisational restructuring without losing the people who matter." One is a job title. The other is a value proposition.
It continues with specificity about the problem you solve and visibility that reflects expertise, not employment history.
Channels Worth Exploring
Consulting and advisory work is the most direct path. Mid-sized Swiss companies regularly need senior thinking they cannot afford or do not need full-time. They buy it on a project or retainer basis.
Interim management is well-established here. Companies in restructuring or leadership transitions need experienced capacity for twelve to eighteen months. Michael Page's Switzerland Job Market Outlook 2026 confirms that interim roles are increasingly the fastest route back into meaningful, well-compensated work.
Board and advisory roles are a longer-horizon play, but worth building toward early.
And thought leadership is underestimated, especially in Switzerland where discretion is cultural. But visibility is no longer optional. One substantive post per week creates more market awareness over a year than most application processes ever do.
2. Your Career in the AI Age
I have been having this exact conversation with a lot of people lately. About careers, AI, and what expertise is actually worth right now. And I realised I wanted to bring it into a proper setting.
On 18 April, Saturday morning, from 9:00 to 11:00 CET, I am running a small online workshop called "Your Career In The AI Age". It is not a webinar. It is a working session, a small circle, limited places, where we actually look at where you stand, what you have, and how to start thinking about your next chapter differently.
In two hours you will:
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Know exactly which parts of your expertise AI cannot replace
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Have a clear, confident narrative about your professional value, updated for the world we are actually in
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Walk away with a written positioning statement ready to use on LinkedIn, in conversations, and in interviews
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Have a concrete idea of your next move
This is for you if you have ten or more years of experience and feel the pressure of AI reshaping your field. You will not just listen. You will think, write, and leave with something done.
The early bird price is CHF 199, going up to CHF 279 shortly. Ten seats only.
If you are somewhere in this newsletter thinking "this is exactly where I am right now," it might be worth joining.
The job market in Zurich is not going back to what it was.
The structural shifts in financial services, pharma, and professional services are not temporary.
Neither is AI. The professionals who navigate this well are not the ones who send more applications. They are the ones who ask a better question.
What is your expertise actually worth? And to whom?
Those answers exist. They just need the right conversation to surface them.
3. Your Leadership In The AI Age
That same question, what is yours and what is not, came up last week in a very different setting. I gave a keynote at MSD for International Women's Day on leadership in the age of AI. And one moment stood out.
I asked the room: what is the one thing in your work that only you can do, no matter how far AI goes?
The answers came fast. Building relationships. Being present. Making the call when there is no clear answer. Inventing the future.
Not a single person said "writing reports" or "analysing spreadsheets."
The interesting part? Nobody hesitated. We know. We actually know what only we can do. The gap is not in the knowing. It is in the doing.
Most of us have not yet rebuilt our days, our roles, our priorities around that knowledge. And that might be the most important career move of all.
Thanks for reading. If this landed somewhere familiar, hit reply and tell me. I read every response.
Did you miss our last newsletters?
Inboxes can get a little crazy, right? Just in case you missed them, here are the links to our previous newsletters:
- Newsletter #28: I’m sharing how asking AI for a mirror reveals your blind spots, why thinking is becoming cheap, and how to define your value in the AI age. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #27: I’m sharing why I stopped asking my teenager about jobs, why judgment beats answers in the AI age, and how to train real sense-making. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #26: I’m sharing why AI’s “adolescent” phase could disrupt 50% of entry-level jobs, what’s really holding leaders back, and why sending applications isn’t enough. → LINK HERE
Thanks for reading. Just drop a quick reply if you have any feedback.
Wishing you a great weekend ahead.
Warm regards,
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