The woman with blood type “F”
Nicole Seitz has found her dream job as deputy commander of the fire department at University Hospital Zurich. The ETH alumna never wavered from her chosen path – even when it took her in unexpected directions.
Nicole Seitz is the go-to person when problems arise at University Hospital Zurich. If a fire breaks out, a bag of infectious waste materials bursts, or a supply line starts leaking caustic soda, the 42-year-old deputy commander of the hospital fire department is on hand to help. She coordinates the deployment of 35 crew members, all of whom are hospital employees, ranging from cleaners to an expert in electrical engineering. “It’s immensely rewarding to work with so many different people,” says Seitz. As well as knowing how to extinguish fires, the firefighters also need the skills to deal with hazardous chemical, biological and radioactive materials. As the head of training, Seitz organises regular drills and practice runs.
The fire department only accounts for a relatively small proportion of her day-to-day work, however. Primarily employed as a safety officer, Seitz is responsible for ensuring proper disposal of the hospital’s hazardous waste, including dirty hypodermic needles, human tissue from surgery, and chemicals from the research labs. Her work involves all sorts of organisational and administrative tasks, but although she enjoys the mentally challenging aspects of her job, she can’t imagine spending all day sitting behind a desk. That’s why her work with the fire department is the perfect antidote: “It lets me get my hands dirty!”
Seitz pursues her passion not only in her work, but also in her free time as an officer in the Rümlang volunteer fire brigade. “My blood type is F, you know, for firefighter!” she quips. She is always ready for call-outs at any time of the day or night, including at weekends. “When my pager goes off and I jump out of bed the adrenaline really starts pumping.”
Some call-outs can take their toll on first responders, especially accidents involving injuries or fatalities. “But I’ve also had lots of positive moments that I would never have experienced otherwise,” she says. She cites the example of an evening when she and her colleagues were called out to clear a fallen tree from the road. When they had finished, one of the local residents showed Seitz something she had never seen before: huge clouds of fireflies fluttering through the night sky. “We stood there in our full kit and just enjoyed the show,” she says. Once the adrenaline rush subsides after a call-out, she feels more connected to the world around her. “You never forget moments like that.”
Solution to an existential crisis
Nicole Seitz grew up in Gams, a small village in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen. After completing her university entrance exams, she embarked on a degree in chemistry at ETH, commuting to Zurich during the week and returning home at the weekends. But things soon became stressful – not just because Seitz had a girlfriend, but also because her parents had a very different conception of the life they felt their daughter should be leading. “I felt constant pressure from all directions – from my parents’ home, my relationship, and my life as a student,” she says. Eventually she reached a tipping point: two years into her chemistry degree, she decided to leave higher education and focus on getting a job and becoming financially independent.
She moved out of her parents’ house and found a job in a call centre run by the telecommunications company diAx. She was promoted just six months later and put in charge of planning staff deployment. At the same time, she took on some basic IT duties and started teaching herself programming on the side. “That’s how I ended up gradually moving into IT,” Seitz says. When diAx merged with Sunrise, she decided it was time to leave. She went on to work for various companies as a system administrator.
Finally she decided to join UBS, where she became an application developer for mainframe systems. “That was a mentally challenging role,” she recalls. But the enjoyable aspects couldn’t make up for the repetitive nature of the job: “I basically started to get bored.” Six years into her career at UBS, she decided to take stock – and that’s when she realised how far she had drifted from her original goal of pursuing higher education. “It was time to change my life and focus on getting a degree from ETH.”
About
Nicole Seitz, 42, is a safety officer
at University Hospital Zurich and deputy commander of the hospital fire department. She worked for various companies as a system administrator and programmer before embarking on a degree in environmental sciences at ETH at the age of 32. After completing her studies, Seitz spent a brief period working as a consultant in the energy sector. Seitz is an active member
of the Rümlang volunteer fire brigade and lives with her partner in Affoltern, Zurich.
Tough realities of student life
She handed in her notice and returned to ETH at the age of 32. But instead of continuing her degree in chemistry, she switched to environmental sciences. This course offers a broad scope of subjects including chemistry, biology, social sciences and technology – and that made it the perfect choice for her needs. “I’m more of a generalist than a specialist,” says Seitz. S
he enjoyed taking an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving and working on complex environmental topics such as developing mobility concepts – but learning to be a student again proved to be something of a challenge: “It was really tough.” During her first semester she sat up until ten o’clock every night, poring over her books. But gradually she learned to set priorities. She needed to decide what to focus on and, crucially, what to leave out, because she was also holding down a job to finance her studies. What’s more, she was still part of the volunteer fire brigade that she had joined in 2003.
Seitz vividly recalls one key event from her student days. In 2011, it emerged that ETH had cancelled its subscription to a green energy provider for financial reasons and had mostly switched to electricity generated by nuclear power. “I was horrified, and so was everyone else on the environmental sciences course,” says Seitz. She and her fellow students organised a public campaign that ultimately caused Ralph Eichler, the ETH President at the time, to change tack. ETH drew up a comprehensive energy policy that included a gradual return to renewable energy. Seitz is proud of what they achieved: “The campaign inspired us to put everything we had learned into practice.”
New challenges
In 2013, she completed her studies and received her Master’s degree. She then spent some time working for Energie Zukunft Schweiz, an organisation that promotes energy efficiency, travelling across the German-speaking parts of Switzerland to advise homeowners on energy issues. “That was interesting, but it was tiring work,” she says. The position was a temporary one, so she was soon left looking for a new challenge – and that’s how she ended up at University Hospital Zurich. The job seemed like the perfect fit, allowing her to combine her expertise in environmental sciences with her passion for the fire service. This was a connection she had already forged at ETH when she wrote her Bachelor’s thesis on the hazards faced by firefighters called out to incidents at wind farms, solar parks and biogas plants.
Seitz likes to enjoy whatever time she has free from her work and volunteer fire brigade duties, so several times a week she goes swimming with her partner. “Those are important opportunities for us to spend time together,” Seitz says, emphasising the importance of having time to talk without worrying about her pager ringing. At weekends, they often go on short hikes in the area around Zurich.
Seitz is adamant that hiking is not about conquering high peaks, but rather understanding that the journey itself is the goal. But not all their outings are quite so relaxing: Seitz’s partner is also a member of the Rümlang volunteer fire brigade, and is even in the same shift group. Nicole Seitz actually finds that arrangement surprisingly practical, cheerfully noting that “when the alarm goes off we can both jump out of bed at the same time!” It’s
a busy life – and the next call-out is always just a pager beep away!