Wow, its so terrible the salaries there in Switzerland? The worst salary that i saw was 50k at year... and that leaves you 4166 Fr at month... decent apartment cost around 500, 600 Fr...
At least thats what i saw in the internet, im not living there yet...

500 CHF an appartment? Wake up and smell the coffee.

Double that for the apartment. Remove social contributions + taxes + health insurance. Add a 50-100% factor for price of living overhead compared to Germany. With 50K CHF a year, you don't get anywhere. In EF all know that you need at least 120K CHF to survive decently

For a qualified IT worker, with experience, you can expect double that, give or take. But with many of the big employers enforcing hiring freezes it is inevitable that unscrupulous employers, or even cash-strapped recruitment agencies, are going to try to exploit the situation.

Consider this: If you were to live in Zurich and required a college degree in order to obtain professional employment at 50k per year there is no possible way you could ever pay off your student debt. Maybe a college grad might take it on for a year in order to gain experience, but I've recently seen ads for such rates, and lower, that claim to require minimum six-years experience, in addition to expensive-to-obtain professional certificates. But there are sharks everywhere, looking to make a quick buck by exploiting others, and Switzerland is by no means immune.

Ultimately, the only people they will hire for that money will either be incompetent or uncaring. The end result, if the company can stay in business with a such a poor hiring policy, is that it will cost them more in the long run and they will have to hire an external consultant to come in and fix up the mess.

That's where people such as you and I come in.

Martin, believe me thats what I thought prior to getting here. If there is one priceless piece of advice I can give you it is DO NOT take anything on the internet seriously as everything I have read from people "living here" is absolutely 100% incorrect, it might have been true five years ago but there have been many many things that have changed since then, especially employment and especially if you are working in IT.

The numbers you have listed are way way off, dont learn the hard way!

Hahahaha anyway, it cant be worse than here... here i earn 19k (not Fr, which is almost like 1k Fr) at month, and for the rent 10k, for food 4k, for the transport 1k (wich is a lie...), +cellphone bill, + water, + electricity, + other taxes...

So, it cant be worse, believe me, ah, and off course, everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) is double price here because of the taxes that this country put to all the things that are imported (from 50 - 60% more than the original price), and to this, off course, we have to add the price that the seller puts to it...

In resume, we dont earn much and everything is at the same price almost as there, a little bit more in some cases, like the car... an Audi A3 from the year 2000 with 200.000km cost around 20.000 Fr... So, it cant be worse than here...

ok, ok then, you'll learn it the hard way..

Absolutely, the EF poverty line... One day I'll climb above it, one day... Until then I'm still leading a good life here in CH, eating every other day

The OP might want to consider Munich which is a 3.5-4 hour drive I've been told (so easy for the gf or for him to travel for a weekend together). Personally I would definitely not want to go to Frankfurt (but that's just me, after 3-4 months there one Summer during university, I never want to return). As for Berlin? If I was asked to leave Zurich for a decent job there, it would be a hard decision (I love Berlin), but I think in the end I'd want to stay in Zurich a bit longer.

Hahahah wanna try change countries, you come here and i go there? hahaha

That was the cost of renting it per month... just in case...

I really doubt you will find anywhere for less than 1000CHF per month... My studio costs me 1300/mo and I think I got off lightly...

Ive just found a couple small appartments (that for me and my gf is more than enough) in this page... http://www.wgzimmer.ch/wgzimmer/search/mate.html

I would contact the American embassy in Bern for possible jobs.IT professionals seem to always be needed.You might not want to travel that far,but the government makes a move like that a whole lot easier.