IT Jobs In Switzerland

Jim2007

Hi There,

For those of you in the IT area and thinking of moving London or else where, have a look at what Switzerland has to offer!


I pulled these jobs of the RAV (=> FAS) site this morning:

• Agile Software Engineer (C# / .Net)
• Software Engineer
• IT PROJECT Manager Banking
• IT Infrastructure Analyst (MSSQL/DBA)
• Software testing Expert
• SharePoint Developer

The working language for most jobs in the IT and Finance area is English, although speaking the local language is obviously an advantage.

Assuming that you have the qualifications the competition is not as difficult as else where and the standard of living is among the best in the world!

I've been here 20 years, working as a freelancer and as a permanent employee. I've been involved in two recruiting exercises recently in both cases we had less than 10 suitable prospects!

Good luck with the job search,

Jim

billcullen1

Whats it like to work in switzerland ?

Jim2007

billcullen1 wrote: »

Whats it like to work in switzerland ?

Well I suppose it depends on what you consider important to you....

The cost of living is very high over here, but then the salaries are extremely high as well, so you should be able to put some cash aside.

In general the crime rate is very low, I live in a town of about 15K people and we still leave the front door unlocked during the day, kids leave bikes etc on the street over night and so on... If I lost my IPhone or wallet on the train, I'd expect to have it returned to me, with the contents intact.

The average work week is about 42 hours, but overtime is not expected and if done is always on the clock, on average you can expect to clock may be 20 hours in an average year in IT and that is saying something. Over all the work-life balance is very good, contacting people outside of work is just not done.

Most large companies and of course the multinationals use American English as the work language, so language is usually not a big issue. Just remember that colour is color and so on....

The Swiss people are very polite and good neighbours but they don't make friends easily, it can take years to get to know them. On the other hand, when you make a Swiss friend, is is for life and they really make every effort to keep up the contact, even when one moves away.

In the German speaking part, learning the language is difficult because they actually speak several dialects and not the formal German you learn in school, in fact in some cases a native German would have great difficulty in making any thing of it. But if you make the effort, you'll find integration much easier.

Stheno

I keep getting the link attached when I try to view the Pm role?

http://www.jobarea.ch/jobsuche/Jobs/einfache_suche/?page=3&STN=00000087195FR&pagenr=3

Jim2007

At this stage I would expect that those links have expired....

try this one instead: http://www.jobs.ch/en/

However please note that it is autumn holidays right now, so most people are off for one or two weeks and there will not be much happening until November.

Stheno

Jim2007 wrote: »

At this stage I would expect that those links have expired....

try this one instead: http://www.jobs.ch/en/

However please note that it is autumn holidays right now, so most people are off for one or two weeks and there will not be much happening until November.

Thanks.

Out of curiosity what sort of salaries are you talking about?

krissovo

Stheno wrote: »

Thanks.

Out of curiosity what sort of salaries are you talking about?

I am currently on a project in Switzerland and you will surprised, even a Deskside engineer vary between €55 and €120k. Project manager €70 > €140k (€750> €1500 per day), consultant €1k > €2k per day.

You really need to be working for a multi national (not German) with only English, German companies will more than likely insist on German plus English, Swiss companies may require German + English plus Italian or French:eek:

Cost of living is tough to get used too but the standards are very good.

Stheno

krissovo wrote: »

I am currently on a project in Switzerland and you will surprised, even a Deskside engineer vary between €55 and €120k. Project manager €70 > €140k (€750> €1500 per day), consultant €1k > €2k per day.

You really need to be working for a multi national (not German) with only English, German companies will more than likely insist on German plus English, Swiss companies may require German + English plus Italian or French:eek:

Cost of living is tough to get used too but the standards are very good.

Wow those are good rates compared to here.

Jim2007

Stheno wrote: »

Thanks.

Out of curiosity what sort of salaries are you talking about?

Well it is very difficult to give you any general statistics because it is normally illegal to disclose your salary and we have very little labour law, so equal pay and such concepts are unknown out here!

Having said that I'd say someone with a degree and 3 years experience could command anything from 90K to 120K as a team member and up to 150K as a team lead or as consultant. In addition to salary, you can expect perks such as:

- 6 weeks holidays
- Accident insurance
- Employer's pension contributions of about 8% (16% - 20% if you are 45+)
- 1 or 2 weeks training per year
- Some contribution towards the cost of public transport
- Staff Canteen or allowance towards the cost of lunch
- language lessons
- relocation costs in some cases
- bonus or share participation schemes
- and so on.

( Apart from bonuses and share schemes, other BIKs are not taxable )

Contract rates have come down an awful lot over the past 5 or 6 years to the point where there is very little difference between a permanent position or a contract one, when you consider the total package.

In either case you can be terminated for no reason, so long as the employer adheres to the notice period.

When it comes to the cost of living, although it is high, it is also very local, meaning that moving a few clicks down the road can cause a tax increase/decrease of 2K or even more, the same for health insurance and so on. So where you choose to live does have a big impact on your living costs.

Stheno

Thanks

Jim2007

krissovo wrote: »

You really need to be working for a multi national (not German) with only English, German companies will more than likely insist on German plus English, Swiss companies may require German + English plus Italian or French:eek:

However it is worth noting that when they say "native German/French/Italian speaker" they mean a Swiss citizen, a German/French/Italian will not get this job!