7 ms·

Show HN: How to Find a Job as a Software Developer in Switzerland – Guide

107 points by Varqu 8y ago

ArtWomb 8y ago
Yes. Swiss has it all. Would be interested to hear about tech scene there. As well as where to source the finest shokolade ;)
- cheesedoodle 8y ago
  I realised that Switzerland is not a favourable country to move to if you are planning to start a family or have more kids. "Under federal legislation, gainfully employed mothers are entitled to maternity leave, but there is no law granting fathers the right to paternity leave." [0] Add to that, the cost of health care and child care: "half day" day-care system. [1] Subsidised day-care is at 50-150CHF a day! [2] If you are looking to re-locate to an EU country, you might find better options where work/life balance is greater AND cost of living is lower. [3] However, the pay-scale is probably adjusted to the cost of living. [0] https://www.ch.ch/en/paternity-leave/ https://www.ch.ch/en/paternity-leave/ [1] https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/children-and-childcare/41292356 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/children-and-childcare/... [2] https://www.expat.com/en/guide/europe/switzerland/10476-child-care-in-switzerland.html https://www.expat.com/en/guide/europe/switzerland/10476-chil... [3] Estonia, Sweden, Finland, pdf => https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=19932&langId=en https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=19932&langId=e...
  - Varqu 8y ago
    Yes, if you consider a 4 person family it starts to get pricey. Basically, for a lot of my friends it meant that one of the parents would be a stay-at-home parent. On the other hand, if you are single - there is probably not a better place in Europe, even in the world to work as a Developer, save a substantial part of your salary and have good work life balance in the same time: https://www.quora.com/Is-130K-CHF-total-annual-gross-a-good-salary-to-live-in-Switzerland https://www.quora.com/Is-130K-CHF-total-annual-gross-a-good-...
    - cheesedoodle 8y ago
      Not all family members would consider relocating and leaving their current jobs to become a full time stay-at-home parent, solely because of the cost of living. On the other hand, I know many would appreciate the chance of being full-time with the kids and why not do it in Switzerland. Its just something to really think about should you be in a position where you might relocate. Either to make sure you can afford child care or that your partner is ok with not working.
  - snowAbstraction 8y ago
    Exactly! If your and your family is flexible enough, then Nordics are great for families with young children.
    - ramblerman 8y ago
      Are you thinking Sweden? Switzerland is not Nordic.
- mweibel 8y ago
  https://www.laederach.com/en/ https://www.laederach.com/en/ pretty safe bet ;) Love it.
harryf 8y ago
Would tend to say the salaries on the jobs listed there are a little on the low side compared to what you could probably get for those jobs. As it’s targeting developers outside of Switzerland, perhaps that’s led to a bias downwards. It’s common story for people findig their first job in Switzerland to end up with a low end salary thinking its high. Then they find out how much it costs to live here...
- Varqu 8y ago
  It might be that you can sometimes get a higher salary than advertised but they values are provided directly by the companies posting the jobs and they seem in the range of PayScale: https://www.payscale.com/research/CH/Job=Software_Engineer/Salary/8d55ae7f/Zurich https://www.payscale.com/research/CH/Job=Software_Engineer/S... In the end you can find a Senior earning 250k CHF annually and one earning 100k, there are many factors that come into play. It's also important to consider both salaries and costs of living but I would say from my 2 year experience here that you can live better than in Silicon Valley and save in the same time.
Varqu 8y ago
If you have questions for about living and working in Switzerland as a Software Engineer let me know: https://twitter.com/SwissDevJobs/status/1109728672297177088 https://twitter.com/SwissDevJobs/status/1109728672297177088 I plan a few more articles to describe it from my current >2 year experience. The topics that will be touched: - IT market in Switzerland: startups, BigCorp and other companies - SV vs Switzerland for living and working
krn 8y ago
I think Berlin, Germany provides a much better value for money for software developers, because one would need to earn 200k in Zurich to maintain the same standard of life that requires only 100k in Berlin[1]. Switzerland is a great choice for someone who just wants to save as much money as he can during a short period of time before moving somewhere else, or for people working in non-tech industries, who would make very little doing the same job in other parts of Europe. Still, there are much more enjoyable places to be in Europe for someone without kids, and much more cheaper for someone with. [1] https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Germany&city1=Berlin&country2=Switzerland&city2=Zurich https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...
- Varqu 8y ago
  Good points. Berlin has definitively a bigger Startup scene and generally more companies to pick from than Zurich. In terms of salary you have to also account for taxes (100k in Germany will be taxed at around 45% and in Switzerland (Zurich) around 30%.
  - ramblerman 8y ago
    I also think Berlin is a city full of culture and brimming with life. As a single male/female, zurich and geneva can get quite dull imo
    - Varqu 8y ago
      On the other hand, in Zurich you have a crystal clear lake where you can swim in the summer. Take a 1.5 hour train and you are in the Alps.
      - krn 8y ago
        > in Zurich you have a crystal clear lake where you can swim There are more than 30 lakes in Berlin[1], and more than 100 lakes around it[2]. [1] https://www.visitberlin.de/en/lakes https://www.visitberlin.de/en/lakes [2] https://www.brandenburg-tourism.com/detail/id/17723/theme/a-z.html https://www.brandenburg-tourism.com/detail/id/17723/theme/a-...
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
xiphias2 8y ago
If you want to go to Switzerland and earn 200k, just go to Google and get promoted there. It's far the most fun workplace in Zurich. It also helps if you're a female intern/step intern, the male-female ratio for interns is about 1:5 .
shelune 8y ago
Would be really nice if this can be done to more countries. I'm interested to know how things look in the whole EU.

107 points by Varqu 8y ago

Yes. Swiss has it all. Would be interested to hear about tech scene there. As well as where to source the finest shokolade ;)

cheesedoodle 8y ago
I realised that Switzerland is not a favourable country to move to if you are planning to start a family or have more kids. "Under federal legislation, gainfully employed mothers are entitled to maternity leave, but there is no law granting fathers the right to paternity leave." [0] Add to that, the cost of health care and child care: "half day" day-care system. [1] Subsidised day-care is at 50-150CHF a day! [2] If you are looking to re-locate to an EU country, you might find better options where work/life balance is greater AND cost of living is lower. [3] However, the pay-scale is probably adjusted to the cost of living. [0] https://www.ch.ch/en/paternity-leave/ https://www.ch.ch/en/paternity-leave/ [1] https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/children-and-childcare/41292356 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/children-and-childcare/... [2] https://www.expat.com/en/guide/europe/switzerland/10476-child-care-in-switzerland.html https://www.expat.com/en/guide/europe/switzerland/10476-chil... [3] Estonia, Sweden, Finland, pdf => https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=19932&langId=en https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=19932&langId=e...
- Varqu 8y ago
  Yes, if you consider a 4 person family it starts to get pricey. Basically, for a lot of my friends it meant that one of the parents would be a stay-at-home parent. On the other hand, if you are single - there is probably not a better place in Europe, even in the world to work as a Developer, save a substantial part of your salary and have good work life balance in the same time: https://www.quora.com/Is-130K-CHF-total-annual-gross-a-good-salary-to-live-in-Switzerland https://www.quora.com/Is-130K-CHF-total-annual-gross-a-good-...
  - cheesedoodle 8y ago
    Not all family members would consider relocating and leaving their current jobs to become a full time stay-at-home parent, solely because of the cost of living. On the other hand, I know many would appreciate the chance of being full-time with the kids and why not do it in Switzerland. Its just something to really think about should you be in a position where you might relocate. Either to make sure you can afford child care or that your partner is ok with not working.
- snowAbstraction 8y ago
  Exactly! If your and your family is flexible enough, then Nordics are great for families with young children.
  - ramblerman 8y ago
    Are you thinking Sweden? Switzerland is not Nordic.
mweibel 8y ago
https://www.laederach.com/en/ https://www.laederach.com/en/ pretty safe bet ;) Love it.

harryf 8y ago

Would tend to say the salaries on the jobs listed there are a little on the low side compared to what you could probably get for those jobs. As it’s targeting developers outside of Switzerland, perhaps that’s led to a bias downwards. It’s common story for people findig their first job in Switzerland to end up with a low end salary thinking its high. Then they find out how much it costs to live here...

Varqu 8y ago
It might be that you can sometimes get a higher salary than advertised but they values are provided directly by the companies posting the jobs and they seem in the range of PayScale: https://www.payscale.com/research/CH/Job=Software_Engineer/Salary/8d55ae7f/Zurich https://www.payscale.com/research/CH/Job=Software_Engineer/S... In the end you can find a Senior earning 250k CHF annually and one earning 100k, there are many factors that come into play. It's also important to consider both salaries and costs of living but I would say from my 2 year experience here that you can live better than in Silicon Valley and save in the same time.

Varqu 8y ago

If you have questions for about living and working in Switzerland as a Software Engineer let me know: https://twitter.com/SwissDevJobs/status/1109728672297177088 https://twitter.com/SwissDevJobs/status/1109728672297177088 I plan a few more articles to describe it from my current >2 year experience. The topics that will be touched: - IT market in Switzerland: startups, BigCorp and other companies - SV vs Switzerland for living and working

krn 8y ago

I think Berlin, Germany provides a much better value for money for software developers, because one would need to earn 200k in Zurich to maintain the same standard of life that requires only 100k in Berlin[1]. Switzerland is a great choice for someone who just wants to save as much money as he can during a short period of time before moving somewhere else, or for people working in non-tech industries, who would make very little doing the same job in other parts of Europe. Still, there are much more enjoyable places to be in Europe for someone without kids, and much more cheaper for someone with. [1] https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Germany&city1=Berlin&country2=Switzerland&city2=Zurich https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

Varqu 8y ago
Good points. Berlin has definitively a bigger Startup scene and generally more companies to pick from than Zurich. In terms of salary you have to also account for taxes (100k in Germany will be taxed at around 45% and in Switzerland (Zurich) around 30%.
- ramblerman 8y ago
  I also think Berlin is a city full of culture and brimming with life. As a single male/female, zurich and geneva can get quite dull imo
  - Varqu 8y ago
    On the other hand, in Zurich you have a crystal clear lake where you can swim in the summer. Take a 1.5 hour train and you are in the Alps.
    - krn 8y ago
      > in Zurich you have a crystal clear lake where you can swim There are more than 30 lakes in Berlin[1], and more than 100 lakes around it[2]. [1] https://www.visitberlin.de/en/lakes https://www.visitberlin.de/en/lakes [2] https://www.brandenburg-tourism.com/detail/id/17723/theme/a-z.html https://www.brandenburg-tourism.com/detail/id/17723/theme/a-...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

xiphias2 8y ago

If you want to go to Switzerland and earn 200k, just go to Google and get promoted there. It's far the most fun workplace in Zurich. It also helps if you're a female intern/step intern, the male-female ratio for interns is about 1:5 .

shelune 8y ago

Would be really nice if this can be done to more countries. I'm interested to know how things look in the whole EU.