The partner newsletter_January 2015 including IDCN Highlights and report of the last IDCN event was held on 13th November hosted by Amcor.

1. IDCN Newsletter January 2015
IDCN Highlights
The 11th IDCN event, hosted by Amcor, was held on
November 13th at Priora Business Center, Kloten.
As an introduction, Martijn Roseboom, IDCN Partner
Committee President, provided the attendees with
the latest IDCN news. He announced that ETH, the
newest strategic corporate member, recently joined
IDCN. Madeleine Luethy, from the Dual Career Advice
Office at ETH Zürich attended the event. Martijn
highlighted the importance of ETH for IDCN partners
as they have a broad experience in international dual
careers and can also provide information about
education opportunities for interested partner
members.
The presentation continued with a discussion on the
value of networking as one of the key aspects of IDCN.
Martijn noted that networking is an opportunity to
connect with a large variety of people, including
corporate recruiters. He remarked that the IDCN
LinkedIn group is the most important networking tool.
The LinkedIn group has 325 members and IDCN gets
many requests from recruiters looking for specific
profiles. IDCN encourages representatives of
corporate partners to join the group and tap into the
potential of the talent pool. All spouses who have not
yet done so are also strongly encouraged to join so as
to maximize the benefits they get out of IDCN.
This was followed by a presentation of the latest IDCN
facts and figures: 17 active corporate members are
representing the major multinationals in Zug-Zurich-
Schaffhausen; the membership has seen an
impressive growth from 176 members to 416 spouses
and 56 partners have found a job.
Next, Martijn mentioned that the IDCN administration
team is currently updating spouse information and
called for spouses to inform IDCN about status
changes. Spouses who have found a job or who are no
longer active in IDCN are kindly asked to inform the
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administration by sending an email to
zurichidcn.register@gmail.com .
It was also announced that IDCN is continuously
expanding globally. In the year 2015, three new hubs
in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong will be opened.
The Zurich and Basel hubs will be closely
collaborating, therefore the Basel hub spouses
attended the Zurich event for the first time and were
impressed by our network.
Finally, Martijn suggested that spouses visit the
recently launched global IDCN website at
ww.idcn.info, to get information about IDCN
corporate members and to watch videos about recent
events.
1 IDCN Highlights
2 Welcome to Amcor and Recap of a Success Story
3 Candidates – Recruiters : Make Each Other successful!
4 Succeeding in Interviews Through Storytelling
In this issue:
Next Event
The next IDCN event will be in February 25th 2015,
hosted by Mondelez International.
Before coming to an IDCN event, we strongly
checking corporate member websites to be aware of
relevant job vacancies and updating your LinkedIn
profile.
Alexsandra Ameli, in his new role as volunteer adviser,
welcomed spouses who are interested in participating
in the voluntary IDCN partner committee.
Avoid gaps in your CV, develop new skills, connect
directly with corporate members, and raise your
profile within IDCN by volunteering for IDCN.
There are four groups managing the day-to-day
coordination of IDCN; Administration,
Measurements, Events & Communications teams.
Email zurichidcn.volunteersmanager@gmail.com, If
you are interested and/or skilled in one of these
areas.
Call for volunteers

2. IDCN Newsletter January 2015
Hilary started off by presenting Amcor, one of the
biggest packaging companies globally. Facts and
figures illustrated that they are globally active in 43
countries with 28,000 employees and more than 180
manufacturing sites. Melbourne is the head office,
complemented by 3 other important offices located in
USA (Washington), Zurich and Singapore.
To introduce Amcor’s product line, she explained that
they are specialized in two types of packaging
products; flexible packaging, related to food and
vegetable packaging, such as salad bags, and rigid
packaging, related to plastics, containers and water.
All of the products are fully recyclable, based on
feedback and a strong relationship with customers.
She stated that “our ambition is to ensure that the
packaging we make enhances the lives of the
consumers of the final products".
She explained the values of the company and said:
“For all of us I think we can find a company that
matches our personal values and that makes us more
happy to work in that organization.” Amcor has 4 core
values. It is a manufacturing company and uses big
machinery, therefore safety is priority number one,
second; team work, third; social responsibility - work
with communities for more environmentally - friendly
products - and fourth; innovation. “New packaging
ideas help and delight consumers in their everyday
lives. “
Hilary also explained the career perspectives within
Amcor and stated that there is a very good
proposition for Amcor employees. Amcor gives their
employees challenging opportunities to encourage
professional growth and development and a full
realization of their potential. She mentioned that
global reach, diversity, training and development
and an out performance culture are the values that
draw people to Amcor as an employer.
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In the second part of her presentation, Hilary shared
an interesting story about her own personal journey
to Amcor in Switzerland and the reasons for her
relocation and her new career orientation.
Hilary worked in financial services her entire career
until just 1 year ago, when she moved to Amcor, a
manufacturing company. Her move to a new sector
was a big driver to gain experience in a new area after
23 years of experience in management roles.
Hilary then recounted her relocation experience. Over
the years, she had left the United State and started
her career in Scotland, and then later moved to
Australia. She actually moved to Australia twice. The
second time was because she had met her Australian
partner, Dave.
During a restructuring process in the bank where
Hilary held her last position in Australia, she decided
to move to another organization. Around the same
time she and her partner came to Europe on holidays
during which she spent a few days in Geneva and met
a friend with lots of relocation experience. After this
conversation she got the idea that it may be possible
to work in Europe. They went back to Australia and
soon after she was informed about a job opportunity
at Amcor and got an interview for a 6 month contract.
It was interesting for her because it was a learning
opportunity in a new organization and a new sector.
She explained how a LinkedIn connection that she had
made a year before, helped her get this interview.
Hilary highlighted how one connection she made
through LinkedIn was key in enabling her to secure
this 6 month contract in a new sector and ultimately
to start this journey. She wrapped up her speech by
emphasizing that although most people are looking
for work on a permanent basis, nothing is really
permanent. After a short term contract you can
demonstrate your skills and delivery capacity and get
people interested.
She finished her presentation with a Q&A session.
Welcome to Amcor and Recap of a
success story
In this section we will recap the
speech held by Hilary Crowe, VP
Group HR at Amcor, in which she
presented Amcor’s business and
shared her experience in landing a
job in Switzerland.

3. IDCN Newsletter January 2015
Candidates – Recruiters : Make each
other successful!
Sandrine van den Oudenhoven & Valerie Rodriguez
from Job4U2 were the next speakers of the Amcor
event. They presented practical tips for a win-win
interview.
An introduction to the speakers:
Sandrine is managing director and consultant at
Job4U2 which she founded in 2010. She came to
Switzerland 8 years ago. Her husband is working at
Amcor. Sandrine says: “Career change will come to
your life because of your own choices“. She is the
mother of 2 kids and she has an engineering
background but her career path so far has included
business development, direction of purchasing and
career consulting.
Valerie is a consultant in Job4U2 and is a Swiss citizen,
born and educated here. She has worked in the HR
function on the recruitment side in international and
national companies. She has a few relocation
experiences in London and in Canada for a couple of
years and is the mother of two young children.
Sandrine stated that Job4U2 is supporting individuals’
and corporations’ mobility challenges. “We specialize
in supporting spouses’ career transitions, which
means giving facilitated access to the job market.
What is important for Job4U2 is to make of relocation
a project for both partners. “
She encouraged the spouses to join the IDCN LinkedIn
group and explained: “There are people in that space
and we are a very rich network in the industry. Our
partners are looking to fill specific roles and are asking
us. If you are in the group we can find you, so it’s
quite important to be there, because through
organizations like Job4U2 recruiters do find you.”
After the introduction, they started an interactive
presentation about what makes an interview
successful and how we can make each other
successful when it comes to interviews.
They started this part by explaining the importance of
being prepared for an interview and noted: “You feel
successful after an interview because you could
express everything you have planned.”
They provided the spouses with techniques to prepare
for an interview situation. The first practice was an
exercise in leading and following on both the
recruiter’s and the candidate’s sides, demonstrating
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how an interview is an activity similar to dancing.
They also explained other useful interview
preparation techniques such as:
• STAR technique: This is a technique to answer
interview questions in a concise and convincing
way. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and
Result. The situation is the context; the task is the
responsibility or the mission; the action is how you
responded and the result is the outcome. “It's nice
to take a little “bag” of prepared anecdotes of
achievements to help you actually use the STAR”.
• Preparation in a structural way: Give the recruiter
what they need to assess your experience and
facilitate their understanding. For example, when
asked about your experience give specific rather
than general answers. This will solidify their
understanding and make it seem more real.
• Gather knowledge about the company: This is the
first activity before an interview. Look at the
company’s career page, annual report, LinkedIn
page and, especially, try to approach people who
work in the company where you are applying for a
job.
• FAQ: They asked the recruiters who were in
attendance about the most important questions
they ask in the interview. These questions are
mostly in the area of achievements, motivation on
the job and experiences in challenging situations.
• Attitude and behavior: It's not just what you say in
an interview that is important, but also your
attitude and behavior. Try to prepare yourself to
have a positive attitude during an interview.
Sandrine and Valerie then gave the dos & don'ts of
behavior during interviews. Please see the full shared
presentation on this topic on our LinkedIn page.

4. IDCN Newsletter January 2015
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Join LinkedIn or update your profile indicating your
job/career aspirations and become an active member
of our LinkedIn Group. Please send your feedback to
zurichidcn.communications@gmail.com.
IDCN Zurich-Zug-Schaffhausen
Communications Team
Succeeding in Interviews Through
Storytelling
Angela gained experience in this area while working
as a Human Resource specialist before she became a
professional coach. For her second time speaking at
an IDCN event, she contributed valuable information
on making interviews successful. In this section we
will present the general idea behind her rich and
engaging presentation.
The main idea is that you have to engage people in
your success story. How can you do this? Angela
related interviewing to dating. You are successful in
dating when you want to meet again. She explained
the advantages of storytelling by asking: why do we
want to hear stories? The attendees provided
answers such as: “they make us dream”, “they speak
to our imaginations”, and “they touch our hearts”.
Angela then used the Lord of the Rings, a story that
inspires her (and many of the attendees) as an
example to explain the structure of a story.
The first thing we need to know about the stories is
the structure because “we like structure”. A story
starts with a situation. Each story then has a super
moment and there is a price you pay, in other words,
some sort of suffering or loss. However, there is also
usually a price you win, and that is the happy ending.
This structure is the basis of a good story. Such stories
can and should be told in relation to your profession
and your work achievements.
Angela then led a practical session. In pairs, attendees
practiced telling stories about an experience at their
jobs or in their personal lives. Then, their partner gave
feedback about what really engaged them in the
story.
Angela Weinberger of Global
People Transitions GmbH
presented insights into
succeeding in interviews
through storytelling
techniques. Angela is known
in the German-speaking world
as a global mobility expert.
Networking and the CV-Clinic at the
Amcor event
Amcor started the day off with a
morning networking session. This
was an initiative taken by Amcor
to be more visible and have more
contact with attendees. About 20
open jobs were communicated
with the spouses during the
event. The event was very
interactive.
The CV clinic took place at the end of the event with
the cooperation of recruiters from Amcor. The CV-
Clinic was very successful and in high demand from
the attendees. It will be repeated at future IDCN
events.
Angela emphasized that it is important to talk about
what you learned in a situation and what you would
do if the same situation arises again. The workshop
closed with a Q&A session.
IDCN Zurich Corporate Members: