Application as Backend Developer

Backend Developer is a profession in IT / Software Development, typically entered via IT Specialist EFZ Application Development. Anyone applying here should know these requirements and pitfalls - specific to the Swiss job market, not generic.

Technical Requirements

• Java, C#, Python or Node.js at production level
• API design, usually REST, increasingly GraphQL
• Database design and query optimization
• Message-based architectures with Kafka or RabbitMQ
• Security fundamentals: authentication, authorization, input validation

Personal Requirements

• Thinking through failure cases, not just the happy path
• Willingness to read and understand other people's code
• Reliability in keeping interface commitments

Common Mistakes in the Application

• No indication of load and user numbers for the systems supported
• Security topics are missing, even though they are central to backend work
• Legacy experience is left unmentioned, even though many Swiss positions specifically look for it
• Only the language is named, not the architecture worked in

Typical Employers in Switzerland

Avaloq, Temenos, SIX, PostFinance, Swisscom, Adnovum, Netcetera, Bexio.

Excerpt from a Cover Letter

Dear Ms. Schneider For four years I have worked on the core system of a Swiss payment service provider - Java, Spring Boot, around 300 requests per second at peak times. A large part of the codebase is older than my time at the company, and I have learned that the hardest skill in backend work is not writing new services, but understanding existing ones.

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