I am about to start looking for a job change, so would be great to receive some feedabck:
-how much should I be paid in Zürich or around being a software engineer with 4.5 years experience and a master degree (though not able to speak german yet)?
-and just in case anybody is in touch with IT work market... is it much more difficult to find a (good) job now due to the wonderful economic crisis or soft. engineers are still in good demand here?
thanks in advance!
(I am already working as a software engineer in Zürich, though won't quote my salary until see your answers )
Thanks Lee Diamant, I will make my 4 years experience a little less vague:
technologies: extensive experience in C++, Java, MySQL (academic experience in tons of others technologies not worth mentioning here)
industries worked on: GPS navigation, games and financial industry
anyways thanks for your answer, of course I didnt expect an exact figure!
About being employed by contract instead of perm... I would happily trade less work stability for a better salary, will try to get information about it
Would have to agree on the German side of things. Previously in good times that was overlooked. Now I'm finding that most people are asking for German and I've been denied interviews due to this. Although I can converse in Swissie, I have no hope of writing technical documentation in High German!
I have had about 10 years experience in the Java/J2EE area, mostly back end integration (SOA, ESB, etc) and for permanent roles I am being told that I should look for a salary in the 110,000 to 120,000 range by the recruitment consultants I've been speaking too.
My 2 cents on a serious note: 130'000 seems really high for a permanent job with your qualifications at the moment. However, if you're willing to trade job stability for more moey like you say, I know contractors with about the same experience earning in excess of 150'000.
(p.s. I hope I have the right number of zeroes :P)
I tend to agree with you, I'd say 110,000 and German speaking is nearer the mark right now. Also, on the contract side the contract length is getting shorter and the gaps longer, so a really good rate is needed!
Some time back I did a detailed analysis of contract versus permanent and came to the conclusion that in order to be on the same level as an employee earning 110,000 a contractor needs a min rate of CHF105 per hour and work at least 11 months per year. This was based on the contractor having a "real" pension rather than the usual thing offered by the agents, taking a week of training, subs for meal, reka checks and all the other stuff. Getting the rate right now is not to hard, I think, but making sure you get 11 months work every year is not so easy.... also one you become a team leader in most large companies that 105 heads closer to 150!
Would also agree, but again depends upon experience too. Just spoke to one agency who have a position at a large international organisation in Zurich who are looking to pay a maximum of 100,000 for a senior J2EE guy.
I'd be interested in seeing the analysis if possible. I'm looking at a couple of options, one being a contract, others as a pertinent employee. Just seeing the end of month take home as a contractor makes it look a much better option, but there are all the hidden costs then that a company will pay for, holidays, training, etc.
One of my previous contract roles I did think that the agents were paying a lot less into the pension scheme than they should, in order to make the monthly salary look higher. Are there any guidelines around as to how much should be going into the pension to make a "real pension"? I have been paying into the 3a scheme too.
Thanks for the numbers. Really helpful as I never now what to expect rate wish when contracting.
I know from personal experience I can make a decent contract rate here in IT. It's just finding the contracts is difficult right now. Although for the right company I'd prefer a permanent position.
When searching around recently I have started to notice that more and more add want language fluency on them. I though it was just me not having noticed this new trend before. I'm guessing with so many more locals being out of work the companies can afford to pick and choose. Where as in the last few years they had very few relevant candidates for a technical position.
That's sound pretty high to me. In our company hardware and software engineers earn not even nearly close to that, although I am myself hardware engineer and changed to simulations/software group lately. But again I might be in a wrong company whereas salaries outside are higher.
The maths of the thing are actually very easy, it is the assumptions that are difficult! The basic idea used by most people is to figure out how much pension they want to have on retirement, subtact about 22,000 for state pension and then figure out how much money needs to be invested at a rate of say 5 or 6 percent to earn that return, that then gives you the total savings you need to make during your working life, after that assume a rate of 1 to 2 percent return on savings and you can work out how much you need to save per year, per month and so on. Of course it is only a maths model and does not take into account all factors, but it is not a bad guideline.