You cannot get the Permis C as an academic

Started: 2022-10-06 Last Modification: 2022-10-06 , 473 words, est. reading time: 3 minutes

I just received a letter from the Swiss Government telling me that my 5 years of PhD do not count towards the Permis C, according to the rules laid out here on page 22. I had originally taken his to mean that the PhD counts as normal employment, which as an EU citizen means I would be able to ask for the Permis C. This would mean I’d have some security of staying in the country (allowing for startup and other ventures that a normal employment might not permit), as well as taking my first steps towards the citizenship.

I have to say I’m a bit shook, not necessarily mad, but shook.

Since I’m nearing the end of my PhD I had been thinking about what to do next, and since I actually really like teaching and the administrative/infrastructure work of our lab (I am de-facto running our lab IT “team” and have supervised over 30 students during my 4 year stay, as well as participated in multiple grant writing efforts).

I am still seriously considering of staying in academia under the right conditions ¹ as well as starting a spin-off or trying to get funding for starting my own research group bridging academia and industry, but all of these are highly depending on factors outside of my control so I don’t want to make my life here dependent on this.

The condition of “private enterprise or public administration” coupled with the salary and freedoms afforded force me into private industry for at least a year, starting summer 2023. Effectively, the Swiss Government is forcing me to take a lower risk, higher paying option for at least one year (or more), commit to uncertainty until I get tenure or GTFO.

I’m not sure where I will land yet, but if you are a startup, hiring manager or other person-looking-for-talent and are interested in my profile (geometric deep learning,generative modeling, RL and game theory), shoot me a mail!

Aside from my skills centering around software engineering a game theory and optimisation theory approach to machine learning leading me to prefer to work on related things ². I have 3 main conditions

1. I would like to stay in Switzerland, preferably here in Zurich although I’m flexible here, on track for citizenship
2. I would like to to be able to pursue side projects and publish papers (I’m happy to coordinate with you to make sure this is a win-win agreement)
3. The companies business model and culture must be in line with a sustainable social-democratic political world view (for example, any libertarian crypto-bullshit is out, but I’m extremely interested in companies like onechronos aiming at making markets more efficient).