I am a high-earning career woman in Switzerland, AMA

[JollieJullie]

Bit bored today as everyone is on holiday and work is quiet

If anyone is interested in my experience with climbing the corporate ladder and moving to Switzerland, I'd be happy to share.

[DJT30]

Do you ever regret not settling down, having a family, investing more time in finding a partner whilst you're young or worry about fertility down the line if you are yet to meet someone in your early mid thirties?

[dumbstruckdumptruck]

@VladmirsPoutine

I don't see the issue with the term 'career woman'. I have a few friends who happily describe themselves as such having pretty much made their careers the sole focus of their lives and some of them have done very well out of it.

How many friends do you have who describe themselves as 'career men'?

[VladmirsPoutine]

I don't see the issue with the term 'career woman'. I have a few friends who happily describe themselves as such having pretty much made their careers the sole focus of their lives and some of them have done very well out of it.

[Nonunsnonunsnone]

Do you notice the racial and cultural inequality in Switzerland. My sister was born and raised in Switzerland but has no white Swiss friends and lives in an area which is 90% non white, non Swiss nationals. She has never been able to progress in a number of sectors and I feel racism may play a large part in this. At one point, they were even talking about swimming pools being only for Swiss nationals, which she will never be due to having immigrant parents.
Is there any talk of this in the media? Is the average Swiss person aware of how segregated their society is?
The UK is far from perfect too I'm aware but at least as I'm born here I am considered British to most!

[PolarPolly27]

@JollieJullie

North of 200k CHF.

That doesn't seem a very high salary for a director level role in Switzerland (I've lived and worked there). Are you happy with that?

[LovelyQuiche]

Are there any people on your level of career that you know of that had a less privileged start in life?

[Summertime2012]

Thanks both for the info, extremely helpful especially the info about the websites. I was not aware of the tax issue re school fees. The job is exempt from national tax but I need to check whether there any exceptions to this. I am still to get a job offer of course but if I can pm you once I have more concrete info, it would be really great.

[Lavendersummer]

@Summertime2012 There is a Facebook group International Mums living in Switzerland I recommend you join. The average salary may well be 70K Pa but in the urban areas Zurich, Geneva the rental costs are high eg 4,000chf for a 2/3 bed flat is not unusual. English forum.ch also has a lot of information.
Heath insurance for your family isn’t usually covered un packages.
Anyway proceed with caution is what I would say.
have lived here 8+ years and still occasionally get shocked by the prices.
If your employer will pay for international school check they will also pay the tax you will pay on this - it’s considered an asset I understand. So you have to pay tax on it. Feel free to send me a Pm. Lived here a while with my family

[Trenisenne]

Oh, if you’re not paying medical insurance, that’s a huge saving (we pay about 1600 per month for four). In your position, I’d use one of the tax calculators on the cantonal website (most cantons have one), do some looking on rental prices (try comparis), food (Migros), transport and other insurances and work out a budget from that. No doubt it is expensive, but I feel as though the gap with the uk has closed somewhat in recent years.

[Summertime2012]

@Trenisenne, thank you very much for this. As you said, the information online re salary rates is very varied. I have never lived there and all the talk about how expensive Switzerland worried me. If we were to move, we would be probably looking at living in one of the big cities so that would be costly but given that we wouldn't pay school fees or medical/life insurance that should be ok, it seems.

[Trenisenne]

@Summertime2012 the average salary in Switzerland is about CHF 70k. I think it would be very hard to support a family with that, but 150k (esp net) is fine. There are loads of posts on various forums that give a really skewed view of what is normal.

depending on where you live, childcare can be difficult (normal to have Wednesday off school in the public system), but if your employer is paying school fees, that won’t likely be an issue for you.

[Summertime2012]

Hi OP, I just came across this thread. I am thinking of moving to Switzerland. If offered the job (am at the final stage at the moment), I expect the net salary will be around 150k Swiss francs pa. But I have a partner and a child. My employer will pay though the school and even university fees. My husband will still have his job in the UK. Do you think this would be doable or am I out of my mind to move there with a family?

[FelicityFidget]

@2bazookas

why should I care?

Jealous?

[newbienel]

Do you work much overtime? What skills would you recommend for your career path?

[emeraldcity2000]

Do you like the work and feel fulfilled by it? Do you ever suffer from imposter syndrome? Do you think you'll do this type of work long term?

[OhMerde]

@Iamthewombat

This was the first thing I thought, too. Why would you use the term ‘career woman’?

OPs response spectacularly missed the point.

[MassiveSalad22]

Communicate to who though? So say you work for milka/callebaut (love and use callebaut regularly btw, good work 👌🏻) - you’re talking to the customer, and you’re talking about ‘content’ as in social media?? For £200k I assume not? Or you’re communicating to the rest of the staff?

[JollieJullie]

@MassiveSalad22

Going to read thread now so may already be answered - but I don’t even know what a Communication Director would do? That’s my question. I never know what these sort of job titles would involve. It all seems so unattainable to me. But I dream of a second chapter once the kids have left home and being rich in Switzerland does appeal 😄

So at the beginning of the year we define a Comms calendar with the other Directors and our manager. We are given certain products and topics we must communicate about from the Commercial teams. Based on that, every month we plan several initiatives, campaigns, webinars, videos, podcasts, press releases, blog articles, etc etc

Based on this calendar, our work throughout the year is creating the content for all these planned iniatives, sometimes in collaboration with other departments who have more technical knowledge, getting the right approvals and then pushing the content on the appropriate channel before the deadline. After that l, we are responsible for tracking how our content is performing to determine if a specific initiative has been a success or not.

Rinse and repeat

[MassiveSalad22]

It’s been answered but I still don’t get it 😄 don’t think I’m cut out for the corporate world.

[MassiveSalad22]

Going to read thread now so may already be answered - but I don’t even know what a Communication Director would do? That’s my question. I never know what these sort of job titles would involve. It all seems so unattainable to me. But I dream of a second chapter once the kids have left home and being rich in Switzerland does appeal 😄

[TreacheryPepper]

Do you fancy sending me a tenner? 😆

[JollieJullie]

@CounterTop

Do you not think the phrase “career woman” makes you sound like you were written by a man?

Next you’ll be telling us that your nipples are standing erect as you stand by the kitchen sink, not realizing that you’re gasping at the memory of how he took you in his arms the night before, your 34J breast heaving against your size 4 ribs as your thick, blonde hair tumbles across your pale and delicate neck.

As I said I am not a native English speaker, I didn't realize the term "career woman" carried this type of stigma. Apologies!

[JollieJullie]

@newbienel

Do you own property either in Switzerland or abroad?

Can you describe a typical working day in comms?

I don't. Buying in Switzerland is prohibitive and so far I haven't bought abroad. I was considering the idea right before the war in Ukraine started but then I didn't feel confident making such a financial commitment during such an unstable time.

A typical day is mostly callscallscalls to be honest, what I actually do is mostly coordinating other people who create content (whether that is copy or design content) for different projects. I get involved mostly during the initial phase of projects to help define the strategy, but then most of the execution is done by my team and I just double check before things are delivered or published. My manager is based in a another continent so she is very hands off with me and we only speak twice a month unless there are emergencies.

[CounterTop]

Do you not think the phrase “career woman” makes you sound like you were written by a man?

Next you’ll be telling us that your nipples are standing erect as you stand by the kitchen sink, not realizing that you’re gasping at the memory of how he took you in his arms the night before, your 34J breast heaving against your size 4 ribs as your thick, blonde hair tumbles across your pale and delicate neck.

[newbienel]

Do you own property either in Switzerland or abroad?

Can you describe a typical working day in comms?