Moved to Zürich for Job — Cancelled

A banking job was supposed to be Jimena Santillán’s next step up. Instead, it turned into the kind of employment story that wrecks a family budget fast. She moved from Lausanne to Zürich, signed the contract, quit her old job, lined up childcare — and then the bank told her the position was gone. (20min.ch) The story surfaced on May 11, 2026, but the shock hit back in March 2025, right after the move. ### Who is at the center of this? (20min.ch) Jimena Santillán is 42, originally from Argentina, and had already worked across Spain, England, Germany, and Switzerland. She was living in Lausanne with her family and was the sole earner in a household with two very young children and a visually impaired partner. That detail matters because this was not a casual career gamble — one salary was carrying four people. ### How did the bank job happen? Turns out this was not a standard application to an open posting. Santillán had wanted to work for a Swiss bank, reached out on LinkedIn to a team lead at a major bank, and later got contacted by another team. The interviews went well, she saw it as a dream role, and she chose it over a possible promotion at her then-current employer in Lausanne — even though the bank job paid less. (20min.ch) ### What did she commit to? A lot. She signed the contract in December 2024 and resigned from her existing job. The planned start date in Zürich was March 2025. In between, she searched for an apartment, traveled back and forth between cities, organized the move for the whole family, and secured daycare places for children who were then 1 and 3 years old. (20min.ch) Basically, she did all the expensive, irreversible stuff first. ### So why did the job vanish? The catch is in the contract language. The offer included a clause saying final confirmation still depended on internal checks and processes, plus “external factors” such as changes to hiring plans. After the move, the bank told her the role had been eliminated because of internal restructuring. (20min.ch) That meant the family landed in a new city without the income the move had been built around. ### Was she left with any protection? Some, but not much that feels immediate when rent is due. Swiss legal guidance on pulled job offers is pretty clear on the broad principle: once an employment contract is signed, it is generally binding, and an employer that refuses to hire can face wage claims or damages. (20min.ch) But real life gets messy when contracts contain conditions and when workers need cash now, not a long dispute later. ### What happened to her after that? She did eventually recover, at least partly. Six months later, Santillán found a new job in product management. But that gap matters. Six months without the expected salary after a relocation is exactly the kind of hole that can drain savings, force debt, and make a “great opportunity” look reckless in hindsight even when the worker did everything right. (20min.ch) ### Why is this story getting attention now? Because it hits a nerve employers usually avoid naming. Companies often talk about agility, restructuring, and hiring plans changing. But for workers, especially families relocating across cities or countries, a signed offer is not just paperwork — it triggers resignations, leases, childcare, and moving costs. (nau.ch) One clause buried in a contract can shift nearly all that risk onto the employee. ### What’s the bottom line? This is really a story about where “job offer” stops meaning certainty. Santillán’s case shows how a role can be real enough to uproot a family but still conditional enough to disappear. That gap is where the damage happens. (20min.ch)