hello to everybody,
I'll try to explain my situation:
I am an IT guy, more concretely Java / J2EE. 6+ years of experience for many customers (goverment, banks, telco, retail sales, car manufacturer), plenty of techs known (websphere, weblogic, jboss platforms, tomcat, glassfish, JMS, WS&XML stuff, EJB2-3, hibernate, DB-Oracle, DB2, PostreSQl, etc...), OMG UML & Sun J2EE certified. Not wanting to post whole CV, just to give perspective
Last 1.5 years i've been working as Solution Architect or Senior SW engineer (Renault). Most of work in Prague, some prior in Slovakia (my homeland).
I with my girlfriend are planning to move to Zurich in few months, and of course i am curious about salary, because I will probably be the one with most income
Currently I work as freelancer, which is convenient way for me. But there might be problems with starting like that (under some agency?) in CH, probably because of short visa i will get.
So what are your thoughts, how much should I ask? I speak fluently english, and +- mediocre german. And is it really not possible to start working as freelancer(contractor) immediately?
The sum i would like to get is at least 120 000 CHF per year for full-time job, but dunno how much real is it.
Thanx for any info, even links to similar threads would help

P.S. Yes i tried to search for info, found a lot, but some were confusing and proper advice is appreciated

Hi,

We are in very similar fields. 5+ years Java Developer although I now specialise in the Financial sector. Firstly, as a perm salary, 120K CHF is probably about right, depending on package etc.

I personally came over here as a contractor/freelance. Firstly I was with a UK agency, and then payrolled over here with a Swiss agency. They wont let you directly contract over here and payrolling makes things much simpler regarding tax and permits etc. Obviously having 2 agencies as such wasn't ideal, so I am now purely with a Swiss agency, this would be your best bet. Regarding permits, as a perm you will get a B permit, whereas with a fixed length contract you will be given a L permit which will expire the same day as your contract does. I have this permit and have no problems.

Look for companies such as Swisslinx, RMIT, Elan and Harvey Nash etc.

Any more questions, maybe regarding typical daily rates here, feel free to PM me.

Chris.

What would you say you could achieve as a contractor - doing the same job, in the UK contractor rates are three times permie rates - is it similar in switzerland?

"Is it similar in Switzerland?" Not anymore - since the £ exchange rate crashed against the Swiss Franc you have UK based IT contractors working here at very low rates.
For example 1,000 Swiss Francs per day was circa £400 & is now £600+. Sounds good except living in Switzerland costs the same now in Swiss Francs as it did when the Exchange rate was different.
Or to look at the other way the UK contractor looking for £400/day is now ok with 700 Swiss Francs per day