Given the studies and the field (PhD in a field that’s extremely popular and sought after), I think the issue was indeed the first job salary.
Thanks!! I don’t know when the bubble will burst, but for now it seems ok 
To be honest, I always had doubt I was underpaid and indeed, you and I are right. But compared to other job, my situation was already very comfortable. Now I don’t have this doubt anymore
Thanks! Both jobs are related to doing research in machine learning. Nothing really change in terms of responsibility, but the career growth from the previous job was uncertain (i.e., not defined through metrics, more related to your “relationships”). Now the metrics and career growth are very well-defined processes and I would like to start moving slowly into a managerial position.
One difficulty I had through negotiation was the market. Since September 2022, lot of layoffs happened and and not many research positions were available in companies; they recruit only specific people. This is a downside because it means you have a lot of competition and the bar is high. Nevertheless, I could ask more because of my performance at the interviews and it was accepted. I didn’t try pushing too much because I really wanted this job (I was in the interview process in another company, but it would have taken too much time to have potentially an offer).
3 Likes
How do you do a 100k upgrade? 
Is this sw.engineering?
Congrats!
2023 was eventful. Got fired from my job and found a new one quickly (good job market for civil/environmental engineers right now in the région lémanique at least) I’ll work part time (80%) starting January 1st 2024.
2016: 75K
Entry salary - environmental engineer MSc working on road projects - Wallis
2017: 77K
Environmental engineer MSc working in hydraulics - Wallis
2018: 90K
Public, Gemeinde of 1k to 2k inhabitants, head of a very small infrastructure department - Wallis.
2019: 90K
2020: 90K
2021: 90K
2022: 92K
2023: 95k (previous job)
2023: 105k: 95k base, 10k variable
Project manager, environmental engineering - Wallis
Expected for 2024 : 82k (80%): 76k fixed, 6k variable (103k equivalent at 100%).
7 Likes
Thank you!
Research in ML (in industry) is not too far from software engineering in terms of coding skills: the purpose is not to build software 100% but researchers need to know how to code (and sometimes even how to deploy).
I think the increase could be explained by a few factors:
- being underpaid at the previous company
- my profile on the market is valuable (at least as of today, maybe not in a few years)
- changing job is the best way to have a salary increase
1 Like
Working as a SE Engineer with Bsc in IT.
Working in Bern/Zürich
2013-2016: 58k - 65k
2016-2018: 78k (finished my Bachelor Degree in IT in 2017)
2019: 95k (worked at an IT Contractor Company)
2020: 100k (worked at an IT Contractor Company)
2021: 105k (worked at an IT Contractor Company)
2022: 110k (worked at an IT Contractor Company)
2023: 250k (started to work as a Freelancer)
2024: expect 200k-220k (Work less to look after the children)
13 Likes
congrats, shows that freelancing can be hugely better compensated. I assume that’s pre deductions for pension fund etc.?
If you don’t mind sharing, which specific field do you freelance in? And are you engaged as a contractor for a single client or lots of different clients?
1 Like
Im working for a single client. My hourly rate is almost the same as at the IT Contractor Company before. But now i get the whole cake and not only part of it ^^
Pension wise i have to go with the plan the company where i am employed offers me. Sometimes if you want to work with big clients you need a company which already has a contract with the company to deliver them manpower. Otherwise you will not get a contract or get into the firm because most of the time they either want to reduce the amount of external workers or they just wanna work with a specific selection of companies. And because of that i am actually employed but get almost the whole cake. so its me ↔ company X ↔ client
And its normal software engineering
2 Likes
I’m curious about this, are you independent or do you have your own company? (GmbH / Sarl / LLC for instance)
I’m asking because in Switzerland AVS / AHV is rather harsh on independent people working for a single customer, as they consider it disguised employment.
But your numbers seem rather normal, and given the amount I would go the LLC way even though AHV were not bothering, for tax optimisation.
Congrats on ditching your previous cake eater BTW
Working in cyber in VD.
2017-2021 : CISO in France @47K€
2022-2023 : Moving to Switzerland as CISO/vCISO : 144KCHF
2024 : Moving to an other job with more means : 150KCHF
8 Likes
i am employed at a company but they only deduct a small amount for the admin expenses. maybe in the future i plan to do my own GmbH to choose my pension plans. so i can “work” with the money a bit more than right now.
Because of my current private situation it was not possible moneywise to create a GmbH so thats why
1 Like
Update on progress:
2021: 223kCHF
2022: 239kCHF
2023: 244kCHF
Hoping for a next promotion within the next 2-3 years for a bigger push…
1 Like
2022 : 78k CHF
2023 : 80k CHF
2024 : 82k CHF
Will go job hunting this year when the professional situation of my SO settle down.
4 Likes
Got the numbers today. Unfortunately little disappointed about base salary as it stayed basically the same. But the bonus was higher than expected.
Bonus is CHF 35’500 paid out this month and another CHF 6’800 in March 2025 if I stay at the company till then. This additional bonus was linked to getting new client assets in 2023. So combined I managed to get 42’300 in total for 2023. But it’s odd that I have to wait another year for the other part.
As I’ll start my new role as a private banking relationship manager in spring this year, I expect to get a decent rise in my base salary in 1 year.
4 Likes
I’m always amazed on how much bonus there is for CA’s / client facing roles. I’m a Director/VP in the corporate function and made 14.5k bonus in this round. Granted, this is probably on the lower end for my peer group, as my boss remarked that I make already a high base (150k) and they adjusted for a “fair” total comp amongst peers, but still. By the way, none of my directs got a base increase if they were not promoted, including me.
I’ll hand in my resignation by end of Feb, had enough of the corporate B.S. and lack of progression, new role will be in a medium sized private equity shop. Total comp 180k + 20k sign-on bonus with the expectation to grow to 200k+ within 1-2 years, if things go well.
7 Likes
150k is an amazing base salary, I wish I had that 
I‘ll get to 125k with a Director/VP promotion, but that will take 3-6 years to reach. So I should get to 160-170k total comp by that time.
What will your new role be exactly?
I guess total comp is structured a bit differently between client facing / back office roles. In my 3 years with the bank, my base was never adjusted from the 150k but the bonus went from 9k, 12k to now 14.5k all within the middle performance bracket.
New job will be a tech role again, senior project lead in Data Analytics, driving analytics and data science projects for the firm with the goal to take over the lead of the engineering team within 12 months. It’s a mid size asset manager specialized in alternatives, especially PE, so a very well compensated niche.
4 Likes
Update for the last three years (same company, same job):
2021: 141’000 CHF
2022: 168’000 CHF
2023: 178’000 CHF
3 Likes