The only job that needs to be on site in Europe is sales. There is no reason beyond tradition to have areas like so called data science, financial analysis, accounting and so on sitting in an expensive location. And with the emphasis on cost it is only a matter of time until we get to the same level of off shoring in these services as we have in IT. The financial services sector has been slowly contracting in Europe for well over a decade and how quickly it progresses over the next few years will depend on the state of the economy.
If I had a masters in finance and data science from a good university like St- Gallen then I would not be worried about finding a job in Switzerland.
Doing so optimizes the service delivery model by achieving standardization, automation, and elimination of certain activities.
Data / Finance analyst jobs usually fall in the scope of these entities.
Having said the above, there are Swiss companies, banks, investment funds etc. who may retain these jobs in Switzerland mainly because either they don't have a large global footprint or do not mirror the same delivery model.
While outsourcing might be happening I still see a lot of job posts that are on site in Zürich, so I think that is not an issue for a good while.
It's good to know tho that 100k is not that unrealistic, I asked on some different forums before and people said that's way too high:/
Not sure if I can edit comments here, so I'm double posting, sorry.
Back in the old days, there was a need to have people sitting close to the source because we did not have the comms capability we have today [back in the early 90s we used to have to lease satellite links etc]. Most of the data used in the so called data science is anonymised data so even the legal reasons are removed. If it is cheaper it will be done else where, only the timing of when it will is the issue.
The upside is that the banking industry already changes a lot and will do so even more in the coming 10-20 years.
1. "they will all outsource all the non-essential jobs to low cost countries" is what I have been told 20 years ago and it didnt really happen. What did happen was that companies tried, failed massively, moved everything back and tried again a few years later. Its always the same arguments why it should work and in the end does not... and I predict that these waves will come and go for quite some time.
2. Id argue that a lot of the banking sector will change a lot more than just moving some people to wherever it is cheap. There is already and will be even more a wave of fintechs, wealth tech, insure tech and what not else - start-ups that can actually make use of the modern technologies. Yes, we did have data science 20 years ago. The principles I learned in college are the exact same today. But back then did only the software license for a DWH cost a bank a seven digit number a year... technology that is by now available and accessible for even the tiniest start-up at beer money prices. So I think it will be a hot skill set to have in the coming decade or two. Nobody really knows what will happen then...
Not saying that moving ops to other country can't happen these days, but is less likely to be for costs alone, would be more for lack of available skillset in home market.
Lates trend is pushing all infra to the cloud, some even call it "Outsorcing 2.0".
Will it work this time? Nobody knows, but chances are definitely higher, as cloud will more or less force you to standardize and give you something you never had before - end-to-end costs visibility.
So whatever you do in IT these days, make sure you get your hand on one or the other clouds and you should be fine.
When I started a certain big bank employed about 7,000 contractors and by the time I got out it was down to less that 2,000 with a Swiss staff reduction of about 24,000 staff And contract rates for the average Joe or Mary, not specialists, went from around CHF 200 down to about CHF 70 - 90
It will, it will contract further. Probably we will end up with about 8 top tier banks and a further say 15 second tier, with many of the smaller ones becoming name plates. The banks are not making the kind of money that is expected of them, they have been on a race to the bottom which has turned them into a commodity industry and the next step is consolidation. Even UBS/CS have admitted they have had preliminary discussions.
Like i said, all that has changed are the names and the people doing it. I sit down with some of these guys about once a month and there is nothing new there. They are still building the same stuff as everyone else - portfolio management systems, stock analysis systems, financial modelling, economic models etc... and in many cases they are not do as well because the kids building them have no experience or knowledge.