How to write a Swiss motivation letter: the three paragraphs

Of the 14,818 live Swiss adverts that state a language requirement, 65 percent ask for German and 48 percent ask for English. Many ask for both.

If the advert is written in German, the letter is written in German, even at a company where the working language is English.

Example. The advert is headed Logistikkoordinator/in 80-100% and the body is in German, though the company is a Basel medtech firm whose internal language is English. The letter is written in German. If the same company posts Logistics Coordinator in English, you write it in English, and nothing else about the letter changes.

The date, as city and month and year. Zurich, September 2026.

The recipient, on three lines: Hiring Manager, then the company name in bold, then the city. If the advert names a person, use the name instead.

The subject line: the position title in bold, exactly as the advert writes it. No Re, no Application for, no colon.

The salutation. A name if you have one, Dear Sir or Madam if you do not.

Example, the four lines in order:

Basel, September 2026

Hiring Manager / Medtec AG / Basel, each on its own line, the company name in bold.

Logistikkoordinator/in 80-100%, in bold, copied from the advert with the workload left in.

Dear Sir or Madam, or Dear Ms Weber if the advert names her.

That is the whole job of this paragraph.

What to leave out matters more here than what to put in. No opening hook. No I hereby apply. No line about how excited you are, and nothing about how long you have admired the company.

A Swiss reader is checking whether you understood the role, and an ornamental first sentence reads as though you did not.

Example. The advert asks for someone to run inbound shipments for a medical-device warehouse under GDP rules.

You are looking for a logistics coordinator to keep inbound goods moving through a GDP-regulated warehouse. I have run that process for four years at a pharmaceutical distributor in Basel.

Two sentences: the advert's main requirement, then the reason you are relevant to it. Nothing about excitement, nothing about the company's reputation.

One example, not three. A letter that lists everything is a letter that has not chosen, and the reader already has your CV for the full history.

This paragraph exists to show you can tell which part of your history is the relevant part.

Example, continuing the same letter:

At Pharmalog, I coordinated around 40 inbound deliveries a week and rebuilt the goods-in check that cut mis-sorted pallets from 6 percent to under 1 percent in a year. The audit trail it produced passed two Swissmedic inspections without a finding.

One example, chosen because it is the nearest thing to what paragraph one described, with a number attached. The warehouse software you also know stays on the CV.

Keep the close formal. Happy to chat, feel free to reach out, let me know if the timing works and let us grab a coffee all read as wrong in a Swiss business letter.

Then Sincerely, and your name in bold.

Example, the close:

Your team operates a single site with a small coordination group, which is the setup I work best in. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss the role with you and thank you for your time.

Then Sincerely, and Anna Meier in bold. Not Looking forward to hearing from you, and not Happy to chat.

The limit is the reason the rules above are so strict. At 900 characters you have room for one problem, one example and one ask, and nothing else fits.

Most letters that get no reply are not badly written, they are four paragraphs of general enthusiasm where a Swiss reader expected three specific ones.

No bullet lists, no skills section, no headings, one page.

Example. The three paragraphs above come to 762 characters, which leaves room for one more sentence and no more than that.

What did not fit, from the same applicant: a forklift licence, two other employers, a line about why she is leaving her current job, and an opening sentence about being delighted to apply. Each of those is either on the CV already or is not an answer to anything the advert asked.