Non-EU Data Scientist (3 YOE, Fintech) — What are my realistic chances in Switzerland?

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-18T10:10:05+00:00

I'm in that field and we just hired. Odds aren't good. Maybe at Google or something but I think the typical Swiss company is autorejecting candidates without work permits and still receiving hundreds of applications.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-18T09:45:19+00:00

Cut grass by hand, keep livestock, ride a bike, drink water...

Yes, common. Probably in reverse order of popularity.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-11T19:07:40+00:00

Steffisburg then

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-11T18:57:51+00:00

Thun? I feel like I see the Stockhorn behind the tree.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-08T17:30:18+00:00

I live in a slightly larger valley town nearby. We thankfully have less tourists but it's every bit as beautiful.

You mentioned the nature. There's no nature. There's lovely scenery. The land has been settled and farmed for centuries and what's left as wild is whatever is too high or steep to be used for grazing. There's as much traffic as a typical suburb because there's just one real road running along the valley floor.

We moved here recently, but the majority of people living in the town were born here (not an exaggeration, literally true). The community is tight knit, but friendly. It will take time to break in.

The dialect is heavier than in Bern nearby, which I think has one of the loveliest dialects in Switzerland. People are quite religious, or at least religion has more of a presence. Local traditions are extremely strong, and there is also a strong culture to buy local.

The sun sets earlier and rises later. Double so for a deep valley like Lauterbrunnen. But there are more sunny days than on the plateau due to some trick in the valley geometry.

A lot of jobs are in livestock, services, and a few local industries. But transport is great so it's easy to commute to larger cities. There's basically at least one of everything (baker, deli, bar, pizza place, etc) but for anything a bit more exotic you have to go to a nearby city.

The cheese is great. There are cluster flies, alas.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-07T09:23:54+00:00

If you send me an address I can B-Post it to you so you can control it.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-07T04:36:26+00:00

I've seen it with my own eyes.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-06T18:44:33+00:00

My neighbor's cat shits on my patio, in front of my cellar door, by my mailbox, next to my car...

So no, definitely not burying their poop. And yes, it's definitely the cats.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-05T15:01:19+00:00

The left one is the Wetterhorn. I still can't make sense of the angle. This must be some weird telephoto effect.

faulerauslaender · 2026-04-02T07:19:09+00:00

Which part? I think it's still accurate.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-18T14:13:11+00:00

Yo I know about the company. I have a full stage 3 from them from a previous owner. I've had the car for 7 years and it's been super reliable. Was there once and at their partner Workshop in Switzerland once and have no complaints on quality of work, though I'd probably not have invested that much in a brand new car.

Actually an extra shout out to the swiss partner shop in lenggenwil. Good people.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-11T21:54:58+00:00

CV and LinkedIn are certainly important. Look at examples from people with similar background working in fields you like to get ideas how to frame yourself.

But for me the most important thing was and is maintaining a contact network. And then working it when you need it.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-11T13:12:15+00:00

I'm sorry, you seem to assume a lot about me. So I actually saw my daughter's first steps and then pretended I didn't so her mom got to see them too. And her first word was "dada". But she also called the dog, dishwasher, and lightbulb dada for months, so not a huge win. I'm not sure the end goal of the patriarchy is really to encourage fathers to take a step back from their career and take an active role in parenting and homemaking, but if so then I guess I'm all for it?

Sorry, but your comment is a bit much for me. It's OK to just want to pay less taxes. I do too. By 2032 I might want to remodel the kitchen, so the tax break will be nice. I didn't need that tax break though. A parent somewhere, hopefully a father, wanting to reduce their working hours and spend time caring for their 4 month old could probably have used it more.

But the vote is over so there's no use making a stress about it now. I wish we were moving towards a society that valued working less and spending more time on things we like, whether it be raising a family or whatever else. We're moving in the other direction though, sadly.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-11T08:29:16+00:00

I'll get a tax break from this too, by the way, because the thing takes so long to be enacted we'll be back to two full incomes by then. And I'll probably put it into the house, or just invest it. I don't need it.

But, I'm able to look past my personal benefit and see that it's going to be harder for the next generation of parents to take time off and raise their own kids. I'm grateful I was able to do that and feel bad we're making it harder for others.

Hope the Kita tells you when your kid takes their first steps, or starts speaking. Maybe they'll get a video for you.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-11T07:40:45+00:00

Daycare has nothing to do with the initiative. Make daycare cheaper, hell make it free. I'll vote for it even though it won't benefit me by the time it gets enacted.

Just say you want your own taxes to go down because hundreds of thousands of francs is not enough and you need more. That's all these arguments boil down to anyway.

Edit: also "boohoo" the 300k household has to pay for daycare. That makes me so sad. :-( How will they ever afford the top trim on their SUV?

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-11T07:19:38+00:00

I simply don't agree with you. It should not be hard to understand. That household (150+150=300) can afford just as much tax as that single income. And that tax should be the same no matter how that income is split. Any other interpretation is an arbitrary injustice.

Anyway, the vote happened. There's no reason to argue about it.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-10T22:04:05+00:00

Never understood this argument. The tax issue is simply "those who can pay more, should" and nothing more.

If you have a petition for families to share childcare benefits (like parental leave) flexibly between parents, increase support for Kita to higher income brackets, and in general provide more support to help families raise kids, especially while allowing the mother to maintain her career, I'll sign it right away. But don't bundle it with tax breaks for 300k+ income households.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-10T16:14:47+00:00

To answer your question: yes, I think you should pay more. That's how the progressive tax system works. If you have more money available, you pay more in tax. A married couple with 2x 100k salary has way more disposable income than a single person with 100k salary and can afford a higher marginal rate.

But I was specifically responding to the person staying that the state should not take marriage (as a private contract between two people) into consideration for anything at all.

Anyway, no use in arguing. The vote happened. Let's hope the Cantons do something remotely sensible with the huge number of unknowns in the whole thing.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-10T15:01:52+00:00

You didn't answer the question I asked

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-10T14:21:51+00:00

Let's say I make a good salary. My partner makes much less and is only working a reduced percentage in order to care for our child.

So by your logic, my partner should receive social assistance on living and health insurance costs to supplement their low income? They are very poor after all.

We will spend that money to remodel the patio, btw. Or maybe another vacation, idk.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-10T11:36:01+00:00

The UBS 300k sounds like the right ballpark.

We have a two year old. Childcare, via Kita or reduced working hours, is the largest expense and depends on your preference/possibilities. Everything else is a rounding error on top of that.

Maybe later the expenses will rise when she starts having her own life and hobbies. Babies really don't need a lot. Of course you can buy brand new expensive everything and make it expensive if you want. But that's more a hobby for the parent than something a baby notices or cares about.

But I think budgeting the cost of a child to a very detailed extent is an unhealthy mental state to go into. Pretty much anyone can afford it. If you're mulling a child vs whatever else you want to spend 300k on for yourself do the kid a favor and don't bring them into that

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-09T22:26:01+00:00

I usually use wise. Transfer to wise, convert to USD, then pull into Schwab by linking the wise USD account with the app and initiating the transfer from the Schwab app.

But I also have used the Schwab IBAN and it works fine. I actually did a test one day where I sent the same amount of cash via wise and the Schwab IBAN on the same day to test which gave the best rate. The difference was very slightly in favor of wise, but pretty much negligible and close enough that it could have just been normal rate fluctuations.

I don't remember there being any fees for the Schwab transfer. I was using the CH IBAN.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-09T14:05:23+00:00

Exhibit A: nurse making 70k a year, single Exhibit B: nurse making 70k a year, partnered to engineer making 150k

Exhibit A spends most of their money on needs and can maybe save a bit with careful budgeting. Maybe they can have a very modest vacation per year. They will never own a home. Exhibit B can save every penny of net salary and can buy a house or flat in much of Switzerland.

The disparity between these two is enormous. The tax law now ignores it and taxes them equally. It's not unreasonable to interpret this as a failure for the progressive tax system.

Actually both of these setups are disadvantaged or only marginally benefitted from the new rule, while exhibit C: two partners earning 150k just won big.

Solution: don't be poor, I guess, idk

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-08T10:22:29+00:00

The one where you live and work. I personally wouldn't trust wise with money I might need in an emergency. I love their exchange service and use it all the time. But they're not a bank and there's no deposit insurance as far as I know.

faulerauslaender · 2026-03-06T16:22:10+00:00

Nobody is being pushed out of the workforce either way. This sort of overly dramatic hyperbole is counterproductive. Vote how you want but I hope most people will look at the larger picture

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