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)
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?
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
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
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
Update on progress:
2021: 223kCHF
2022: 239kCHF
2023: 244kCHF
Hoping for a next promotion within the next 2-3 years for a bigger push…
2022 : 78k CHF
2023 : 80k CHF
2024 : 82k CHF
Will go job hunting this year when the professional situation of my SO settle down.
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.
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.
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?
Update for the last three years (same company, same job):
2021: 141’000 CHF
2022: 168’000 CHF
2023: 178’000 CHF
Nice progression without job/role change!
We should add everytime in this thread the age and general work sector to have an idea of the context
Looks fancy.
But it’s minus vacations, minus sickness days, minus your own employment costs, minus equipment and professional licenses, potentially minus a reasonable pension scheme… In the end I guess your net take-home pay over the year might still be 50% more, but only showing the gross figures is a bit misleading.
Great progression as freelancer.
I’im IT systeme engineer IT contractor but and I’im interested in change to freelance…
But I know how start… not easy find your own customers
congrats and have fun at the new gig! 
you are right. some things you have to calculate. in the end its about money management. you earn more so you can actually also take more vacations if you want. but the income is not for granted so you have to plan better. and sick days are not paid yes thats true. but since im doing freelance im less ill because i dont habe to peovide a certain amount of hours. so my physical and mental health got actually better 
and pension plan is depending on what you choose. my pension plan before when i was employeed was also worse so it can always get better. basically i think in the first year its maybe 50% more than employed. but when you filled up your emergency funds then i guess its going up
Dear community,
I would like to take advantage of this thread to announce that I have successfully passed my bar exam with an overall mark of 5.58/6.
This means that I have finally become a “lawyer” (not entered in a cantonal register, as I’m practising as a jurist at the moment) after 15 years of long studies, 5 of which were spent looking for an internship (which was ultimately the hardest part, as my grades did me a lot of harm in this respect).
Unfortunately for me, no pay rise in my current position, but no doubt new opportunities for the future!
2017 : 72’000 → first job after graduation
2018 : 78’000
2019 : 86’500 → change of company
2020 : 90’000
2021 : 86’900 → reduction to 80% + pick up side job as a teacher (~15/20% but more holiday)
2022 : 90’900
2023 : 89’000 → 90%, dropped teaching side job
2024 : 94’500
