Euro Top Tech Jobs - Week 30
Hand-picked roles + The Zurich Trap for expats
If you just want to see some good dev roles in Europe for this week, scroll to the end of this article.
If you’re “in” for the weekly casual story, keep reading.
Ever heard of the "Zurich trap"? 🇨🇭🪤
Me neither.
That's because I came up with the term 😄
But let me explain what I mean 👇
Many young devs in Europe see Switzerland as the only place where they can get fairly rewarded for their skills, talent and work.
Because in most of the other European countries the pay is low (much less than in the US).
So they jump through hoops to get a six figures dev job in Zurich.
This can take years. Because the Swiss market is small and the competition high.
Finally, they manage! 🎉
And here's what they discover:
⛔️ If you don't have a family, Zurich is boring AF
Unless you like hanging out in the mountains and already have a partner. Otherwise:
nightlife is quite bad and extremely expensive
food scene is so-so and terribly expensive
going out in general is not fun
locals don't socialise with expats
dating isn't very good for most people
most expats are here for the money -> making friends and having fun is not a priority
⛔️ If you have a family, Zurich is much better, BUT also EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE
I think it's the most expensive place to raise kids in Europe, and among the most expensive in the world.
So, the "money argument" (what brings in most expats to Swiss), stops holding.
With that said, let me add that Zurich is all in all an amazing city, with a lot going for it.
Personally, I've enjoyed spending half of my 20s in the city. And I mitigated some of the above-mentioned downsides by travelling often (made easier by the top-notch airport, central location and strong currency).
Also, no place is perfect: it's not like there's many other options that are MUCH BETTER than Swiss.
But that's the point I'm trying to make: despite what a lot of people say or think, Switzerland isn't perfect either.
Surprised? 😄
If you want to learn more about being a dev in Switzerland, check out this extensive article.
You can also check this article for a comparison between Switzerland and Poland for Software Engineers in Europe.
Yesterday we talked about low-cost low-tax countries for remote devs in Europe.
Today we highlighted some issues that Zurich - an otherwise very appealing place to move to as a dev in Europe - can unexpectedly present.
Now, let’s do a little comparison.
Would you rather have a $300k job in Switzerland or a $150k remote job in Europe?
In this LinkedIn post that I published some days ago, I compared a $350k Swiss dev job with a $150k remote one.
But on reflection, I think a $300k Swiss job and $150k remote job are more comparable in terms of competitiveness and difficulty to land.
Now I would like to expand a bit on this comparison, doing some more accurate math and adding some additional nuances.
The Math 👇
1️⃣ $300k Swiss job (based in Zurich):
Taxes: ~36.3% total tax + currency conversion → ~170k CHF after tax
Living costs (family of 4): ~120k CHF/year (1 kid in kindergarten, 1 in public primary school)
Savings: ~50k CHF left → after healthcare, travel, dining, etc., savings drop to 25k CHF ($28k)
2️⃣ $150k remote job:
Taxes: ~15% in many European locations → ~$128k after taxes
Living costs (family of 4): ~$80k/year (same assumptions as above)
Savings: ~$48k
The Comparison
Switzerland savings: ~$28k in a country where that doesn't go far
Remote job savings: ~$48k in places where that's enough for a down payment on a property or other major investments
Caveats:
1. Pension:
In Switzerland, part of your taxes goes into a pension fund you can cash out or access after retirement
Let's value these benefits at ~$15k/year
Adding this to Swiss savings gives ~$43k/year
2. Value of savings:
$28k (or even $43k) in Zurich ≠ $48k in an LCOL country
The purchasing power and life opportunities of savings vary greatly based on location
In Switzerland, there are also some other deductions you can make from your taxes, if you’re willing to manage your wealth through pension funds. But it’s not that life changing. Moreover, in the costs we have also been relatively conservative, and they could also be quite a bit higher in some cases.
Of course, life isn't just about numbers.
Other factors come into play:
Work environment and culture
Location preferences (city, climate, lifestyle)
Long-term career prospects
Family and personal goals
Here’s some more resources on this topic:
Some data on family costs in Zurich (the above-cited 120k/year)
Crowdsourced data on salaries, living costs and saving rates for devs in Europe
Which of these two jobs (150k remote vs 300k Swiss) would you choose?
What other factors would you consider in making the decision?
Let me know in the comments!
Some hand-picked roles from this week’s EuroTopTechJobs.com update:
Datadog seems to be hiring in Italy too now (maybe interesting to keep an eye on it for the long term): they pay well, and they're remote friendly (good for backend/data engineering).
New Relic - Barcelona: Great pay and job if you’re dev in Spain.
Twilio - Ireland: Great job, and remote friendly company. Good pay too.
Etsy - Ireland: Senior role. Dublin is a good location for tech in Europe. It performed well in 2024 in terms of hiring magnitude.
Adobe - Bucharest Internship. If you’re a student in Europe, just apply (better if with a referral - as always).
Twilio - Ireland Internship. Same as above.
Salesforce - UAE. Doing Tech Consulting in Dubai can be a very interesting and lucrative career path as of today. There are openings. Tech Consulting in big tech also isn’t small in Zurich - where it can also be interesting.
Microsoft is hiring quite a bit. Berlin remote SWE, Belgrade hybrid SWE, and many others.
Same for Oracle. Zurich SWE, Prague AI engineer, Spain remote Senior SWE, Poland remote Senior SWE.
For the Quant Finance Devs, Optiver is still hiring in Amsterdam. Python dev, platform/infra.
That’s all for this week!
Have a great ending of 2024 and wish you an amazing start of the year!
If you can, try to take some time off your laptops and enjoy some chill offline time :)
Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
Euro Top Tech Jobs: 4000+ top paying tech jobs in Europe in addition to 80+ fully-remote companies paying $100-600k per year and private guides like this one.
Coaching Program: Check it out if you want to work 1:1 with me to boost your career as a dev in Europe or remote.
Think u criticized bit too harsh the ZH scenery. What are the alternatives? Also, disregarding thr high quality of life?