[ThePawnBreak]

I would disagree. Zurich does indeed pay very well, but it's very hard to get a job there, and salaries are only competitive with the Bay Area at lower levels. That means it's possible to find a job that pays 100k, but 300k compensation packages are far, far more rare than in the Bay Area. I don't know any company apart from Google that pays that much for senior engineers.

I tried to get a job there about 8 months ago, and I could only convince 3 startups to interview me (after I failed to get a job at Google), and I didn't get an offer at any of them. I failed one for "cultural fit", one because I didn't do well enough in the technical phone screen, and with the third one I decided to stop the process because I had another offer and was tired of interviewing. It's fine to not accept people for cultural reasons, but if there are 4 startups that are hiring in Zurich, that kinda sucks for candidates.

Also, recently Google started paying new engineers in Zurich lower than in the US (same salary, far fewer RSUs). I guess the lack of competition in the European market is a good enough reason.

Do you know any companies in Zurich hiring developers that pay Bay Area salaries (100k junior, 200k senior) and hire >100 engineers a year?

[s3nnyy]

I am sorry that you had a bad experience interviewing in Zurich. A city with only 300k inhabitants can't be compared with Berlin, London, SF or NYC (all "huge" places).

The density of startups and tech firms, when accounted for the tiny size of Zurich, is still impressive, I think. I live here since three years and don't regeret it: "8 reasons why I moved to Switzerland to work in tech" https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-t...

[dola]

There are a few consulting companies doing project work that hire a good amount of people. (However none are even close to you >100 / year number) And also, it will be pretty hard to get near the 200k mark in Zurich if you're not at either a bank with a very specific expertise or at Google.

[ThePawnBreak]

I am talking total compensation (salary + bonus + stock), and at Google you get past 200k at L4, so after the first promotion. New grads used to make around $160k, not it's somewhat less.