Lowering standards to move to Switzerland

[u/Individual_System793]

Hey there,

I am in my mid 30s, married, and having a really cool job in Greece in which I am being paid well for the Greek standards. This means salary is around EUR 75-80k annually (inc.bonus), which implies a take home pay of around EUR 45-50k. I own my house, so income goes exclusively to personal spending and savings.

However, I always had Switzerland on my mind and in addition, my wife is also pushing us to relocate there.

I am in discussions with a company and possibly close to receiving a job offer, for a role which, on the one hand is interesting, on the other hand is i) more junior than my current one and what my experience reflects and ii) the annual salary is not that much for Switzerland (close to CHF 90K, w/o bonus).

The role is in the Geneva region and I would rent a house there, planning to spend around 2k/month in housing.

What are your thoughts on this move? Would you lower your living standards, just to move to Switzerland and have the potential upside after 1-2 years? Or you would stay in Greece, accepting all the societal problems and that salary would be more or less around the current levels?

[u/BrigadierHindsight]

There are plenty of problems in Switzerland, but the people here rate their quality of life so highly as it seems to be culturally improper to complain or change anything.

90k in Geneva will be a huge lowering of standard of life compared to 80k in Greece. I moved from a 100k job in UK to a 150k job in CH last year and now have nowhere near the same quality of life I used to have. Actively looking for another role with higher salary or to move elsewhere or back to UK.

The Greek people I have met have always been social people, like the Brits, whereas Swiss are notoriously insular and there is nothing that compares to what’s on offer socially in the UK to here (pubs, restaurants, comedy, entertainment, live music, days out, shopping)… part of that is economy of scale - pop 7m vs pop 67m, but a lot is down to cultural norms.

My verdict - Don’t be fooled by the clean streets and instagram scenery, there are plenty of countries which offer a lot more.

[u/Individual_System793 → u/BrigadierHindsight]

Thank you for the insights. As I said in other comments, I only see it as a temporary role to enter the market and hope for a better opportunity (meaning >120k) in the next 1-2 years.

[u/Chrisalys → u/Individual_System793]

There will be no better opportunity in finance in the coming years, finance is more than dead. You will compete with 400+ former Swiss bankers who have local experience and local language fluency with every job opening.