Just a quickie - does anyone know what the average hourly rate for a web designer would be here? Back in the UK, I charged roughly £30 per hour, so about CHF 60 - would it be more or less in Switzerland?

Angela

More like 70 CHF/Hr. I can only say that with my creative work I have been struggling to get anything close to what we could charge in the UK. Even jobs that I quoted really low (compared to the UK) I have lost out to other quotes sometimes up to 40% below mine. Not worth getting out of bed for!

At the end of the day I guess it's how good and fast you are. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply Interesting about quoting low because I am considering doing that - one of the reasons I'm asking about average rates. I don't think my hourly rate is unreasonable but people expect a website for a lot less!

In what circumstances would people quote low? My story is that I'm just getting back into the game after being on maternity leave. I need both the experience and the work for my portfolio.

Angela

When I took my web design class I was told the beginners and intermediate designers usually charge between CHF 60-80.

It must be tricky with Web design. Although Web design has evolved from old school static HTML - there must be an army of young developers who would undercut any older, more expensive developer. School kids to university grads, to self taught developers.

It must be this army who are the first to take on new web technologies as well, Ajax, PHP etc.

I know people who have design companies, they prefer hiring younger, slaves who are great web designers. The snap them up whilst in uni, pay them next to nothing and offer to pay off the uni fees for a few years or cheap labour and industry experience.

Is that why?

It is a fix for experienced web designers to be in. The graduates want the experience - soon enough they will prove themselves and be in a position to command more $$$$. Unfortunately those of us with more experience quite often have families to support and need to charge a certain amount for our time!

You are not kiddin'! I took a web class paid for by the unemployment office. I don't know how they thought I would get a job in web design! I'm really in marketing & I guess they thought it was "close enough" and would occupy my time. It was fun, but I certainly can't beat (in speed & skill) the 15 yr olds from all over the world that do amazing work.

It makes more sense for me to get the job (sales), then farm out the work& I get a fee for being the middle person.

They always tell you things like this. When I did my SAP BW course I was told that if you finished the academy you could make €1000 a day. There was a girl in the class who was a farmer, whose friend had a friend who told her how to make money fast.

The thing is, you actually need to be very good at what you do.

Oh, and contact swisslinx I see they are looking for a web developer.

also, there are some Web Developer jobs in Switzerland on jobserve.

http://www.jobserve.com/JobListing.a...E7DD1C31C9F2D7

Well, I like your answer better than the one I got... I guess I should take that class next ! LOL!

Hello All,

I would like to add my 2 cents on this. I'm currently a Engineer working for Sun Microsystems. In addition, I run a indie Hip Hop record company here in Zurich called Hit-Crib Entertainment. www.hit-crib.ch

I'm also studying Java programing here and there.

From what I see from the corp. side, most of the big companies are looking for Java Java Java..., esp. Enterprise Server Side developers.

"Now A Days", the web has made it simple and cheap for a normal person to create a website which really takes away business from the professionals.

I've contracted work from many web companies and freelancers alike and what really gets me excited is two things "How fast can you get the project done" and at what quality.

Here is a little secret for anyone looking for make quick money in web dev in Switzerland (esp Zurich). Take the small jobs that you can complete quickly. Work on quanity!!! For example: The big money is in designing web banners, skyscrapers and not entire sites. Also, the new trend is myspace layouts. I usually pay a programmer up to 100-150 CHF for a banner that usually takes them no more than one to two hours to complete.

My advise is to go for markets like "Hip Hop/ Rap/ Rock music groups here in Switzerland. There are too many to choose from. Do things like party flyers, banners, cd cover designs. This is a untapped market that only a few are working. Once the word is out, people will be ringing your phone all day and night. One could easly do three to 4 banners a day for 100 CHF each...?

Also, 3D design is really becoming popular. Hope this helped.

Best,

Roderick

Just wondering what would be the pay for a Host (Mainframe) programmer with DB2 PL/1 COBOL Skills?

for the Host (Mainframe) programmer with DB2 PL/1 COBOL Skills , it depends where you apply and your db2 level. banks have good pay and benefits.
pay will be higher rates with specialized temp companies hiring db2 administrators.

you can expect a low to medium 6 figures income based on experience and db2 certification level


depending on your db2 mastering level you can apply for db2 crash and recovery teams (directly with IBM and a handful of certified companies around the world) . they are the one who are called when there is a serious problem at a stock exchange, banks and insurance or other critical systems.

they are paid by the second of downtime (almost literally...)

you can expect a high range 6 figures income

I would add i have done some work for large companies here in CH, but this was for use on there internal pages, so if you are starting get permisson from the company so you can show them your work
R