1. Are engineers in demand to begin with? 2. We're aware of how expensive Switzerland can be. Do the jobs pay well enough? 3. Even more interestingly - what's the current attitude in Switzerland towards 100% remote work? Is it primary office-based over there? What's the work culture like?
Any insights are much appreciated.
1. If we’re talking software engineering, the demand is ultra-high. I’ve had to hire freelancers, because skilled software people are neigh-impossible to find.
2. Yeah, for engineers and other skilled workers, pay is very good, even the relatively high cost of living considered.
3. Before CV19, 100% remote was pretty rare. 1-2 days of home office was pretty common. Nowadays, things are a lot less defined, and given how desparate companies are to hire skilled ppl., you can probably negotiate something.
I’m not sure how to describe the work culture, but if you get into some tech start up in Zürich or Geneva, you probably won’t find it too foreign, and everyone speaks English well enough.
If you have a EU passport, you can generally get a work visa just by asking. If you’re from elsewhere, it’s a little more involved, but still manageable.
Are there any 'tech-specific' areas in Switzerland, or is it mostly just the big cities like Geneva & Zurich that have most of the tech jobs?
Also Google has a huge hub in Zürich, and most of the other big tech companies have offices there or in Zug. And as someone mentioned, there’s a lot of crypto-stuff going on in Zug.
1. Yes, you will find a lot of job offers
2. Compared to my peers not in the software industry the pay is excellent. To get a glimpse you can check https://swissdevjobs.ch/ for salary ranges. Note that this is a lesser known job board and will not have the big name companies on there.
3. Currently there is mandated remote work due to a spike in covid cases. My company has floated that they will require 50% office presence afterwards. But guessing from the sentiment in the industry, there will be plenty of companies allowing full remote.
1. Engineers are similarly in demand as everywhere in Europe
2. I'd say the "cost of living" to "after tax salaries" ratio is unbeatably good
3. 100% remote work: not that popular; why would I pay you 130k CHF remote when I can get someone in Ukraine for $50k?
I had cases where firms wanted a Swiss (German speaking) person and they paid 140k CHF for fully remote but this was an exception.
Ping me for any further questions: iwan@coderfit.com or better just cold call me: +41 77 986 9000 (I am on any messenger app like Signal, Whatsapp etc.)
The Ukrainian dev would probably bill 130k CHF if he had the same skills...
1. Engineers are highly sought after. The companies I worked for always had a hard time getting local people (and capable ones at that) and are pretty much continously searching. I'm hearing the same from friends at other companies.
2. Pay is very good, if you go for some of the larger companies or into the financial industry even better. (For swiss people, maybe can't compete with ridiculous silicon valley salaries.) Raising a family is pretty expensive though for everyday things, at least the schools and universities are cheap (and good) ;)
3. From my experience flexible working arragnements and remote work was hard to come by and often only allowed for maybe 20% of your work. Since COVID this has of course changed and we are currently forced to work from home. I think this also changed the attituded of many workplaces (at least I hope so) but it's not been a given for a long time. I can't compare work culture as I have never experienced it anywhere else but as others have mentioned, 42h workweeks are standard with 5 weeks of holidays (depending on the canton you move to you might also have more or less public holidays in addition to that).
The big cities are of course always the most expensive ones to live in but Switzerland has very well built out public transport that is also mostly on time so getting into the cities to work while living outside of the city is mostly a non issue if you are willing to spend the time traveling.
If you care about the FAANG titans, we have Microsoft and MS R&D in Switzerland, Google has their largest Software Engineer campus outside the US in Zurich and AWS is just moving in.
Why is it 42 hours? That is not a typical 8x5 work week.
About 25% [1] of the population are foreigners, so it can't be that bad?
If you're not white, still move here (I've been living here since 2016, love it). If you work in IT you most likely end up in a bigger city anyway, and as in most big cities in western europe nobody cares about the color of your skin. Or what languages besides english you speak.
[1] https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population/m...
It's not a convincing argument. As counterexample, until not to recently, black people were a sizable portion of the US population, and it was literally that bad for them...
Regarding the first: Yes, I'm sure it exists, including, to some extent, in government representatives. It can express itself in more stark ways in rural areas (If you want to get naturalized and live in a rural village, the village gets to vote on your application; it larger places, the process purely bureaucratic). OTOH Switzerland is not a particularly violent country, so generally the racism does not express itself in physical violence.
The standoffishness is a big cultural thing. When we moved back to Switzerland after 8+ years in California, this was something we had to get used to again. OTOH, as others said, 25% of the population is foreign born, so you can always socialize with those… and, who knows, maybe over time you'll develop a taste yourself for keeping your distance and playing your cards close to your vest ;-)
