IT contractor going rates

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
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Hi all, I’m a mid-level Java developer with ~4 years of experience as a contractor, I’m considering Switzerland for next contract. I’ve been doing some research no the subject trying to get a feeling of current going daily rates in the market for someone in my position, last time I looked into it was few years back and obviously a lot has change during that time. I have some idea already based on various sources but I was wondering if I can get few more opinions from others in touch with the industry. Any thoughts? Many thanks in advance.

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500-800 CHF/day pre-tax

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Do not accept the contract if they offer you anything under 800 chf... Agencies want to increase their profit margin and offer low rates. You would be better off taking a permanent position if the rates are under 800. Even if you manage to find a contract and work for 1-2 years, Once the contract is over the agencies in Switzerland don't do enough to get you a new contract.

With the nearshoring/ offshoring (India/Poland/Portugal/ Bulgaria/Romania) going at full swing, contract work is slowly drying out. Most of these offshoring companies provide an onsite resource at 1200 chf/day and in return 4 resources in their offshore center for 300-400 chf. This model is destroying the contracting market. Moreover their involvement in the recruitment process for the local contracting positions means chances of you getting hired are slim as they want to push fwd their own candidates/employees. I have wasted a lot of time attending interviews at CS for contract roles - always in the interview there was a person from these offshoring agencies who gatecrashed the interview & tried to deliberately get me rejected by asking irrelevant/stupid questions and CS managers seemed ok with that. It seemed as if CS managers were helping these agencies.

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Thank you all for your input, I’m aware of the offshore issues and their impact and speaking of personal experience outsourced work usually suffers from quality issues, I wonder how long it’s going to take companies to start realizing that.

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Yes you are right, quality often suffers, but generally is not a deterrent as the motivation for cutting costs is a bigger factor.

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It really depends. I'm currently paying between 800-2000/day (pre taxes, to the agency).

What they then pay the contractor is another matter... Seniorities across the board (>10 contractors on board at the moment).

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Which agencies do you work with?

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From experience the more one is paid, the more one is respected and taken seriously. Also, weirdly industry pays better than the finance. Perhaps because the later has mostly outsourced to India or should say the lowest bidders.

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CS is complete chaos and UBS is on the "greed is cool" trip.

It all started long time ago:

https://www.finews.ch/news/banken/12...llen-verlagert

Some stupid CEO's signed long term contracts with Indian outsourcers.

Anyway CS is on big decline, just check the news and share price.

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800 a day would be way too less IMO. I would say dont accept anything under 1500. Esp. not from a bank.

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Banks do not pay the highest rates. CHF 800.00 is average.

CHF 1500.00 is consultancy money (not IT contractor money).

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Although cutting quality inevitably results in higher costs. The most cost-efficient way to outsource is to pay the partner their fee, and do all the work yourself.

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1500! Seriously?

I have been in this country for 6.5 years and did contract jobs for around 4 years. I must have had 100s of interactions with contracting recruiters here in Switzerland and never once they did quote daily rates anything over 950 CHF.

950 CHF was mostly for Banking jobs (CS and JB to be precise). Other than that one energy company was ready to pay 950.

Wonder who are these contractors that get paid 1000-1500 CHF? Are you talking about Solution Architects / Senior PM / Scrum Masters? Even those profiles don't get paid over 1000 CHF.

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They are the big fish in small ponds.

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Consultancy = the likes of Deloitte, Accenture et al.

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Depends. 1500/day is on the low end... especially if you are looking at Big4 or Big3 consultancies and high-demand skills, where double that would be the norm.

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Yes, the starting rate for the Big4 consultancy companies is around 1500.00. It goes from Associate, Consultant, Senior Consultant, Partner, Senior Partner.

IT contractor rates are anywhere from 600.00 to 1200.00. Top rates are very rare.

I used to manage contractors for one of the large insurance companies, so I am familiar with these rates. A few years ago we outsourced the management of contractors to one of the "external workforce management companies". This gave us more clarity of the market rates, and pushed the rates we pay down even further.

On a side note, I came to Switzerland as an IT contractor in 1999 and my hourly rate was CHF 220.00 (1800.00 a day). Those days are long gone.

Also worth noting is that most larger CH financial firms are now hiring IT people instead of outsourcing. With digital transformation now seen as a strategic advantage, it does not make much sense handing it over to a 3rd party. Actually outsourcing is being outsourced to the likes of Chain IQ while IT is being insourced.

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ftfy

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I was contacted today by a recruiter for a big computer manufacturer working in their hardware department. Quoting 580CHF a day working at 80%.

This is not a good day rate?

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Interestingly, while the cost rises polynomially, the skill level is more of a bell curve.