A free CV check by a headhunter (jobrelations, Coopers) or by AI — which helps more?

The tools compared directly

As of 4 September 2026. Every figure for another tool comes from that tool's own site; "n/s" means it was not readable there — not that the feature is missing. Our row comes from the code and from walking the live flow.

What the two sites actually say

Both were opened without an account on 4 September 2026. At jobrelations two addresses lead to the same form: the page called "Kostenloser CV-Check" and the page called "Headhunter CV-Check". Above the form on the second one is the line "your name and your e-mail address are not sent to the AI reviewing body". A reviewer you have to shield your name from is not a person who wants to meet you. It is a model.

The FAQ underneath states it plainly: the free check is automated with AI, while "with the paid personal check, Albert Messmer assesses your profile himself and discusses the results with you via MS Teams". That is an honest answer, and it comes from the vendor rather than from us. What the free check gives you is a competent automated review. What it does not give you is the thing the word "headhunter" promises.

At Coopers the confusion never arises, because there is no tool to confuse. The candidate area lists a six-step process, and step two reads: "needs analysis: we look at your application documents, discuss your professional goals and your qualifications. You get your Cooper, your personal contact." Alongside it sit free downloads — a guide to working and living in Switzerland, a CV template, an interview guide. That is a person and some paper, not a score.

Why it is free, and what Swiss law has to do with it

A placement agency earns from the employer, not from you. The federal Employment Services Act does allow an agency to charge a job seeker a registration fee and a placement commission, but it ties the commission to the outcome: it is owed only once the placement has led to an employment contract. That is why having your documents read inside a placement process costs you nothing — it is part of the work the client is paying for.

The same article contains the sentence the price list grows out of: for services that are specially agreed, the agency may charge an additional fee. A CV check at CHF 249 and a written dossier at CHF 350 to CHF 750 are exactly that — separately agreed services, not placement fees. It explains the shape you see on both sites: free where it belongs to a placement or brings in contacts, list price where working hours go in.

So read the word "free" carefully rather than suspiciously. The free check at jobrelations is the entrance to an offer — the paid check sits at the foot of the same page, the packages next to it, and the consent you give on submission expressly allows them to inform you about their products and services. That is legitimate and openly declared. It just means you pay for the free check in attention rather than in francs.

A job title is not a job advert, and the gap is measurable

The mandatory field in the jobrelations form is "Berufsbezeichnung" — the job title you want to be assessed for, "for example Sales Account Executive, Head of Quality Assurance, Head of Controlling". Our first step asks for the position instead: an advert, searched on SwissJobs or pasted in, scored against that advert. Whether the difference matters is something the index can answer rather than the marketing.

The basis is the live adverts on SwissJobs.app on 4 September 2026, apprenticeships and internships excluded, grouped by normalised job title. Of the 209 title groups that hold at least five adverts and where at least three state a language requirement, 34,0 per cent contain adverts that contradict each other about which languages they want. In 17,2 per cent the adverts are not even all written in the same language.

Take "Senior Accountant", ten adverts live: four want English and German, one German alone, one English and French, one all three, and three say nothing. "System Engineer", nineteen live: English and German, English alone, German alone, and one wanting English, French and German. "HR Business Partner", seventeen live, reaches six different combinations, one of them German, Italian and Romansh. These are the same words at the top of the page and different jobs underneath it.

A check that knows only your target role cannot know which of those is in front of you. It can tell you whether your CV is well built, and that is worth having. It cannot tell you that this particular advert asks for French and your language block does not mention it. That is why a free check is worth re-running per advert, and why the first question we ask is which advert.

If you are new here, the free human help has a shape

For someone who has just moved to Switzerland, the appeal of a recruiter is obvious: a person who can explain a market you have not worked in. It is real, and it is also bounded, and the boundary is worth knowing before you spend a week waiting for a call back.

Coopers names four fields. Counted generously by advert title across the live adverts on SwissJobs.app on 4 September 2026 — apprenticeships and internships excluded, overlaps counted once — those four together account for 24,0 per cent of the market: Engineering 12,0, IT 10,6, Finance 3,7, Life Sciences 2,4. Because a title-based count errs on the generous side, the counterpart is a floor rather than an estimate: at least 76,0 per cent of live adverts sit outside them.

The employer side has the same shape. Of the companies advertising with us, 44,7 per cent have exactly one vacancy open right now. A firm hiring one person rarely holds a retained mandate with a search house; it posts an advert and reads the dossiers itself. For that application a recruiter has no seat at the table, because there is no recruiter in it.

One Swiss-specific point that no international CV tool will raise with you, and that a recruiter will: the dossier here is not a resume. Swiss employers expect Arbeitszeugnisse (the written employer references you collect on leaving each job), a permit line if you do not hold a Swiss passport, language levels given as CEFR grades — B2, C1, not "fluent" — and a workload stated as a Pensum in per cent. Two pages is the norm rather than the exception, and a photo is conventional here where in Germany it is discouraged. Both free checks look for these; a generic international checker does not.

Where two Swiss recruiters and we disagree: the photo

This is worth leaving rough rather than smoothing over. jobrelations sells a dedicated photo check as a third variant next to text and file review — the photo is a reviewable object there. Coopers, on the page that carries their CV template, writes that a photo "is not a must, but it makes your application more personal", and that in the end the whole package counts, with or without one. Then they still give criteria: at least 300 dpi, a neutral background, appropriate clothing, no selfies.

Our own check page puts it more firmly than either of those two houses does: the photo is one of its ten categories and the page calls it Swiss convention. The honest position is in between. The photo really is customary in Switzerland, unlike in Germany where candidates are advised against it — but a firm that reads Swiss dossiers every day says it is not compulsory. Not having one loses you no process; having one means meeting the criteria above.

Places like this are why the two routes complement each other rather than compete. A score is a rule applied to your document. A person who places people in your field knows the exceptions to the rule and will say so out loud.

What we recommend, and who should ignore it

For most readers of this page the free check on SwissJobs.app is the better of the two free options, for one checkable reason: it asks for the advert before it asks anything else, and the 34,0 per cent above says how often that changes the answer. It scores ten Swiss categories rather than general readability, and it has its own pages in German, English, French and Italian, while the jobrelations form is filled in in German or English — though its report, to be fair, comes in all four.

The cost on our side, stated up front: a free account stands between you and the result — e-mail, no credit card. If you would rather not, jobrelations gets you to an answer faster, in exchange for your name, your e-mail and a marketing consent. A sample report is viewable here without an account so you can see what arrives first. After that it stays free within limits: five documents a day and ten per rolling week, the same for cover letters and AI edit prompts. Beyond that there is a seven-day free trial, then CHF 15 a month or CHF 95 a year, cancellable at any time.

And the cases where we are not the answer are just as firm. Working in IT, Engineering, Life Sciences or Finance: register with Coopers or a comparable firm, because their feedback is free and knows the client. Wondering whether your next step is realistic, or how this market reads a foreign career: that is what the CHF 249 at jobrelations buys, and it is credited back against a package afterwards. Wanting a German dossier written by hand: ciivii charges CHF 229 for the CV, discounted inside a Coopers process. And if all you want is to change one line in a CV you already own, Word on your own file beats every tool on this page.