Hi,

As a software engineer, I am thinking that at the time of my next job search, I insist and negotiate on having as much "work from home days" as possible, maybe by sacrificing some salary. It seems there are not so many such jobs in Switzerland, and at least larger corporations are culturally not happy with this.

Does anyone here have experience regarding this? Things I should consider? How does one overcome the dilemma of "If it can be done remotely, why not give it to someone outside CH who demands less salary?"?

Your thoughts are more than welcome.
Thanks

P.S. I currently live and work (non-remotely) in Switzerland.

Working with remote teams is harder simply. Biggest problem is to find team / people you can trust.

I think the market is moving in this direction, but there does come a point where it makes little sense to pay Swiss prices for someone who could be working anywhere.

If you are looking for around 60% home 40% office I'd say you have a decent chance at a "regular" role - assuming you're good enough to justify it of course

More than that you'd probably need something that explicitly states a high proportion / exclusive WFH.

I think it will become easier due to Corona. I've not been into the office since March. That's with a contract with one of Basel's multinationals.

Given that most if not all of the projects I worked on have teams spread over the world, it makes little difference where I physically am.

Reasons to take on Swiss residents.

1. Dealing with Swiss confidential data
2. They want you, specifically, because you are good
3. Local language/culture - this applies more to smaller companies

I see no reason whatsoever to take a pay cut to wfh. The employer saves money by not having to provide office space.

__________________
Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

Thanks. It's good news for me. I consider 60%/3 days "remote enough".

I have a few clients who have been forced to rethink their remote working strategies since the COVID mess.


Many of them are now looking at sourcing new jobs remotely - but the catch, they aren't looking on the Swiss market. Instead, they are relying on nearshore resources (Czech and Poland mainly) - with their local branch doing the hiring (and paying local rates, which aren't always that much lower than Western Europe - but still cheaper than Switzerland).



I worry that the next few months will see a drastic transition of workforce out of Switzerland. After all, if the job can be done remotely, why do it in Switzerland? (confidentiality of data being an exception - but there are workarounds which seem acceptable, e.g. a citrix server in CH that people can dial into)

Remote working (near or offshore) isn't a universal panacea for lowering costs.

I know one global project where all the programming was done in India. After five years, issues emerged:
1. Low quality code base meant time consuming rework and unstable programs that became increasingly difficult to maintain.
2. Knowledge of the code base was ephemeral. Few people onsite knew much about the technicalities, and offshore, it was rare to have a good knowledgeable developer in the team. After 2 years, most developers who were any good were shipped to client sites, moved to management positions, or move to better paid other specialisms.

I also have recent knowledge of offloading development to Poland. Great guys, great workers, highly knowledgeable - rapid turn over, hemorrhaging systems knowledge.

Smaller companies are less likely to try to outsource - simply because people like to hire people like them.

TL;DR I don't think it that Swiss IT jobs are likely to seriously dwindle anytime soon.

__________________
Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

Remote working (near or offshore) is usually a senior management decision to lower costs , and thus meet bonus targets.

With a few honourable exceptions, most off shoring just transfers the costs from internal developers to QA or external contractors hired to fix things up. Or you need to send your internal project managers there to oversee things directly.

Especially applies to the "Big 2" in Zurich

Who are the big 2?

Isn't there an option in EF to tearfully thank a user?

They used to be bigger...