Google Zurich exit opportunities (and London vs Zurich)

New
Gaou64

New

Gaou64
Jun 8, 2020 39 Comments

Looking at job specs in Zurich. Few impressions:

>90% (maybe >95% jobs) don't seem to care about CS knowledge/Leetcode. If you have some JavaEE/Hibernate/JBoss expreience or C#.NET you're fine. Presumably not interesting job and CRUD. And cobol, so much cobol.

There seem to be few interesting roles in banks but now even front office and quant devs/researchers are outsourced to Poland (at least according to ATS of Credit Suisse/UBS)

FAANG market size: virtually 0 outside of Google. Mostly FAANG buying small startups in computer vision, so 1-2 teams tops + sales office.

However, for single frugal person it's doable to save ~4k CHF/USD (on 110-120k base, nothing else) working for some random no name company or decent startup.

London has way more interesting roles (actual FAANG, proper finance, etc.) But insane tax so I would end up saving less. With 90k base (which isn't even trivial to get in London). Not even thinking about bonus as that's already taxed at progressive 50%.

What's your take on this if you aren't eligible for US visa?

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TOP 39 Comments
  • Snapchat
    bedrmbully

    Go to company page Snapchat

    bedrmbully
    Dude I would stay away from Zurich if I were you. London is very lax and easy going compared to Zurich. Culture shock is real if you’re not used to Swiss punctuality, Swiss dress codes, curfews etc
    Don’t get me wrong, Switzerland is beautiful and the taxes are low but adapting to Swiss life is a challenge unless you’re planning to live in a house. Make a sound past 10pm and your neighbors will start to bang on the walls.
    Jun 8, 2020 17
  • London is a shit hole... its dirty, full of homeless people, murder rate is the same as NYC (even though they don't have guns in London), taxes are insane (>50% on RSUs). British people all act like passive aggressive teenage girls with constant snide / passive aggressive remarks if they are "giving you feedback".

    I would take a job at the bank in Zurich over FAANG in London. But then again I took booking.com over FAANG in London so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    London might be good if your ultimate goal is to transfer to the US. But I've already lived there during my college years / internships and didn't like the fake / plastic culture. I also value easy going life over TC. And my life in the Netherlands is pretty comfy, I own my own apartment - and manage to save and invest 2k each month. Sadly the media induced hysteria by the name of corona virus hit, so I might be laid off from my job @ booking so will have to move to London

    tl;dr Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, even Germany > UK
    Jun 9, 2020 8
    • Uber
      Dibo

      Go to company page Uber

      Dibo
      @sergeyblin

      English proficiency in NL is very high. You can easily get by without ever learning a word of Dutch. Although that strategy might not make you many Dutch friends
      Jun 9, 2020
    • Another downside in the London is that housing is quite expensive compare to how much people make.

      But to be frank as non-white expat, UK is much better place than Zürich. You can always find like minded people while in Zürich is hard. I’ve lived in both, discrimination is real in Switzerland.
      Sep 21, 2020
  • Google / Eng
    sergeyblin

    Go to company page Google Eng

    sergeyblin
    No exit opportunities. US is the next step up and maybe HFT in London.

    Yes technically there are a few tiny remote offices of other FAANGs in Zurich: Facebook (Oculus), Apple (self driving & some others), Microsoft (AR/VR and enterprise), even Citadel, and I'm sure they pay well, but they're all really tiny. Like a few dozen people each tiny and hiring very selectively.

    Whereas Google's nearing 5k people. The normal attrition rate alone can't get absorbed by these tiny other offices.

    Banks and startups pay shit, 150k is their idea of a very good TC and 200k is a hard ceiling for any sort of IC work. Contractors can break through it but yeah you need to specialize in these boring banking tech. Generic Java development pays generically bad or gets nearshored to Poland for even worse rates. No interesting roles like quants, that kind of stuff is mostly in London and US, only sell side sits here.
    Jun 8, 2020 3
    • Google / Eng
      sergeyblin

      Go to company page Google Eng

      sergeyblin
      There's little headcount all around google, practically hiring freeze thanks to covid.

      But before yes we were hiring L3's even if not specifivally advertised. An explanation I once heard is they don't consider official job site a good channel for these, too much noise
      Jun 8, 2020
    • Google / Eng
      sergeyblin

      Go to company page Google Eng

      sergeyblin
      Actually you know what, I have an interview invite for an L3 candidate in a few weeks so I guess we still hiring. But I suspect team match is going to be really slow for them, that's the part dependant on headcount availability.
      Jun 8, 2020
  • Google
    lsudgs

    Go to company page Google

    lsudgs
    Very few exit opportunities in Zurich. I worked at the Google office there for 4+ years, married a Swiss citizen, and still decided to head back to the US. Don't expect FANG level comp outside of Google there. There's a very small FB office working on Oculus that might pay in the same range, but CH in general is a wasteland for high TC SWE comp.

    I didn't care for the city either, crappy weather, small living quarters, limited consumer choice, and unfriendly locals. The nature and outdoors is world class though (even California can't compare). Also consider that getting a C permit and even B permit is getting increasingly hard these days (see language requirements).
    Jul 11, 2020 1
    • ALTEN
      REeD55

      ALTEN

      REeD55
      As a Parisian, i do not understand the term "friendly locals", but other than that, is it not possible to translate your current driving license (B permit) into Zurich ? And do you have any insight about the situation of Microsoft at Zurich ?
      Sep 9, 2021
  • Workday
    RHki38

    Go to company page Workday

    PRE
    Netflix
    RHki38
    IMO, Zürich cost of living is brutal if you’re not making a FAANG salary. I feel like there’s a wider net of liveable areas around London vs. Zürich. That said, I think Z is far far prettier and if i had to pick between the two, it would be Z.
    Jun 8, 2020 0