I live alone, my girlfriend in another country and sometimes I have to “struggle” to save a good amount of money (considering that I’m not seeing my self living in Switzerland forever) but I have also a lower budget than 90% of the people here; we cannot take them in your life style consideration; they just earn to much and we cannot reach them at this precise moment.
I agree with some people saying that Bern is an expensive Kanton; some tips to reduce the expenses
are äss bar for lunch during lunch break or some apps like to good to go or checking simply discounted food or other products at the supermarket. In migros every days they have tons of stuff in aktion.
Good luck
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You don’t get it. People here love to fiddle with numbers, especially if it ends with someone getting userful information from it… but mostly it’s the fiddling that people enjoy 
The topic will be split. (thanks mods)
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better yet, bring lunch from home
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definitely hahahaha
reaching 20 words
2012 126k
2013 127k
2014 134k
2015 138k
2016 141k
2017 150k
2018 151k
2019 184k
2020 208k
2021 248k
2022 282k (est.)
From Senior Engineer to Team Lead to Middle Management
ZH, obviously in technical field
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great progression. Financial Services or Big Tech?
neither (assuming that with Big Tech you mean the usual suspects) - it´s data carrier / Telco related
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I had some technical lead function for a couple of years and I was usually the stand-in for my manager when he was on vacation or unavailable. So when he left the company, they asked me if I wanted to take over.
So it was clearly a mix of luck and doing a good job, I guess.
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I currently work as a designer in the construction industry.
My poor income (brutto):
2013-14: 13’200 CHF intern
2018: 43’000 CHF for 70% pensum as a consultant
2019: 63’000 CHF
2020: 68’000 CHF
2021: 68’000 CHF
2022: 73’000 CHF
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My progression
2019: CHF 92,000 (first year working, 8 months)
2020: CHF 155’000
2021: Target CHF 211’000
I’m now thinking of leaving my current job for a big comp cut (down to 130, but something much more exciting and fulfilling).
If the raises continue like that I’d rather do it 5 more years and save as much as possible.
Good point, but being 25 and feeling burned out of my work, with anxiety on top of it, is not great. I feel 130 is already an excellent salary in Switzerland and although it’s almost half of my target for this year, I prefer to get an experience with more learning and growth opportunities as well as something I will enjoy more.
Status update, I did quit my job in March 2021, my comp went down to 130K (100K salary). Got ~promoted, now leading teams and salary increased to 140K by this year (40% increase), stock options for first year are now valued at ~400K (after new round of investment, startup stock options, so I would take them as extremely high risk and don’t count on them). Very happy with my work, growing significantly and was the right decision for me
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How the hell do you earn 248k in IT? Who pays that and why? 
I mean I was reading your blog but can’t find exact answers there. Is it the area of security that is so highly paid right now?
It was at an internet giant company… Every independent consultant in IT in Switzerland should make around 250k or you’re selling yourself too cheaply.
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Are you talking 250k gross (I mean the amount charged to the customer)? If yes, you can’t compare it with 250k as an employee 
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He’s talking about 250k, not 150k
That’s only possible if you go for sole proprietorship, not if you have your own LLC. Then you are a normal employee and can only contribute the 6.8k for 3a
Unfortunately this is true. A lot of large companies prefer to deal with a few preferred suppliers rather than dealing with small companies directly.
It really depends. Yes, you will find cheaper people from EU or Eastern Europe, but usually the language is a problem. Plus: the customer gets what he pays for. If customers decide to go cheap - fine with me. I have the luxury of not having to work for those rates.
That’s also true, but I still think it’s great to be self-employed. Fortunately I’m in a niche with high demand.
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2019 - ~ CHF 120K (UK salary)
2020 - CHF 215K (first year in CH)
2021 - CHF 258K
2022 - on track for a repeat of 21, maybe a bit more with RSUs.
Work in big Pharma - Corporate Affairs/Corporate Comms/Risk background.
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Last year I charged a bit more than 300k to the client for a 250k brutto salary as employee of my company. Also important is how much you put in the 2nd pillar and how this is ventilated between employer and company part.
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That’s why I mentioned that 250k gross salary means you charge more to the client - you can’t directly compare with 250k gross salary of a traditional employee who doesn’t care about the other costs (50% of AHV/ALV/EO, insurances, P2, costs for equipment and/or offices etc).
You also need to take into account that you will maybe have some time with no contract
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Apprenticeship
2014 - 2018: 9.3k - 16.5k
Afterwards:
2018: 62k
2019: 50k (military / studies)
2020: ~7k (switch to full time studies)
2021: ~14k (part time internship / part time studies)
2022: ~52k (estimate)
2023: 105k
(non dev) IT job in finance
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Of course could happen however going back to the employee state will not be an issue if I remain out of contract for a long period.