SwissJobs.app or the studentjob.ch generator — what is enough for a first job?

Feature comparison

Everything about studentjob.ch was read from the vendor's own page on 4 September 2026; our rows come from the code (lib/stripe/trialConfig.ts) and from walking the live flow. "not stated" means it could not be read on their site — not "does not exist".

Pricing side by side

Everything about studentjob.ch was read from the vendor's own page on 4 September 2026; our rows come from the code (lib/stripe/trialConfig.ts) and from walking the live flow. "not stated" means it could not be read on their site — not "does not exist".

An English-language reader cannot really use it

We checked this rather than assumed it. The site declares itself as German in its own markup, carries no alternate-language links at all, and /en, /fr and /it each return a not-found page. Their sitemap index lists 548 content URLs and none of them sits under a non-German path. There is no English edition of the CV generator page, the advice pages or the FAQ.

The company itself is not German-speaking. studentjob.ch belongs to StudentJob International B.V. of Hoofddorp near Amsterdam, part of YoungCapital. Their Swiss imprint gives a German telephone number with a Cologne dialling code, names a person responsible for content "laut Telemediengesetz", quotes a Dutch VAT number under a German tax statute and states that the content falls under German copyright law. No Swiss company, no Swiss address, no reference to Swiss law.

That matters practically, not patriotically. It is why their advice pages read like German advice pages, and why a reader who has just moved to Zurich or Geneva will not find in them the things they most need to be told.

What their advice covers, and what it never mentions

We took their seven advice pages on the CV and the application, stripped the navigation that repeats on every page, and counted the remaining fifty thousand-odd characters. "DIN A4" appears five times, "Deckblatt" — a cover sheet that belongs to the German application folder — seven times, "Gehalt" three times and the Swiss word "Lohn" not at all, "Stellenanzeige" once and the Swiss "Stelleninserat" not at all.

The zeros are the finding. Arbeitszeugnis, the employer reference that every Swiss employer writes and every Swiss dossier carries: never mentioned. Bewilligung, in any compound: never. Pensum: never. Bewerbungsdossier: never. CEFR levels such as A2, B2 or C1: never. Quellensteuer, GAV, thirteenth month salary, AHV, RAV: all zero. If you are new to Switzerland, that list is roughly the set of things nobody tells you and everybody assumes you know.

Credit where it is owed. Twice in those pages there is a sentence about Switzerland, and both times it is right. "Ein Foto im Lebenslauf ist keine Pflicht, jedoch in der Schweiz fast schon normal" — a photo is not compulsory but is close to normal here. That is exactly the convention international tools get wrong, and they got it right. Their advice that a first CV should stay on one page is sound too.

What a Swiss first CV contains, according to the official services

berufsberatung.ch is run by the SDBB on behalf of the cantons with federal support. Its page on writing a CV is aimed at young people applying for an apprenticeship, and it is the most exact free specification of a Swiss first CV we know of. It asks for: the heading "Lebenslauf"; a current colour photograph on a neutral background, explicitly not a selfie; the full date of birth; the Heimatort, your Swiss commune of origin, or your place of birth if you have none; your nationality and, if you are a foreign national, your residence permit, "for example permit C or B"; all your languages, starting with your mother tongue; and referees with names and telephone numbers.

Two of those have no equivalent anywhere else. The Heimatort is a Swiss civil-status concept that no international CV tool models. And the permit line is the point where an otherwise good template becomes unusable for someone without a Swiss passport: if you hold a B, C or G permit and do not write it down, you leave the reader with a question that many will not ask.

For applications outside apprenticeships, arbeit.swiss is the authority. Three points from its English edition are worth holding on to: a CV should run to no more than three pages, personal details go in together with a photograph, and work references belong in a single PDF, most recent first and with no gaps in the sequence. Note the three-page ceiling: it is more generous than the two-page rule you will hear repeated, and it comes from the federal service itself.

One point goes to studentjob.ch here. They advise leaving referees out unless expressly requested — and for adult applications arbeit.swiss agrees, saying the CV should generally just note that references are available on request. It is only for apprenticeship applications that berufsberatung.ch reverses this and wants names and phone numbers.

What the adverts themselves ask of a beginner

We measured this in our own index. We took the open adverts carrying an entry-level marker in the title — junior, trainee, graduate, Berufseinsteiger — deliberately excluding apprenticeships and internships, which answer a different question. We read 234 of them with usable text, and repeated the same measurement on a random draw of 232 other adverts so that every figure has something to be compared against.

The languages are the surprise. Entry-level adverts ask for more, not less: 32.7 per cent name two or more required languages, against 20.6 per cent of all other open adverts. Split by the language the advert itself is written in, that is 63.2 per cent of French-language ones, 41.7 per cent of English-language ones, 40.0 per cent of German ones and 25.0 per cent of Italian ones — the last two groups being small enough to read as a tendency. An advert written in English does not mean English is enough.

They are also more concrete about tools. 25.2 per cent name at least one software product outright, against 22.0 per cent in the comparison draw; Excel appears in 12.0 against 6.0 per cent, "MS Office" in 11.1 against 7.3 per cent. When you have no track record, this is what you are read on — and it is written in the advert, not in a template.

Then a zero that says more than the percentages. In neither sample did a single advert ask for a photograph. Arbeitszeugnis appears in 1.3 per cent of the entry-level adverts and in none of the others. The two conventions that most mark a dossier as Swiss are therefore not in the advert at all. You have to bring them — which is precisely why the template you start from decides whether there is even a place for them.

Where each tool wins

Our claim is narrow and checkable, and it fits in one sentence: the advert decides what the document says. You paste the posting or pick it from the listings, every section is rewritten against it, and then you take any sentence back under your own hand, by typing or by giving an instruction in plain language. One saved version per application, with the posting stored beside it. The document is written in whatever language you are using the editor in. It leaves as a PDF or a Word file, neither watermarked.

The Swiss format is the foundation rather than a decoration: the permit line, CEFR levels instead of "fluent", the photo convention, two columns over two pages. Within that format you can style freely — today 54 combinations of 2 layouts, 3 fonts and 9 accent colours. Those are variations of one Swiss format, not separately designed templates; if you want a large gallery of distinct designs, other tools have more.

Now the other side, without softening. studentjob.ch is free permanently, download included. With us, downloading is where an account and a started trial are required — a card on file and a cancellation date to remember. For a sixteen-year-old looking for a holiday job that is the wrong amount of friction.

Their listings are also built for exactly this reader and ours are not. They run side jobs, holiday jobs, school-student jobs, taster apprenticeships and internships, indexed down to jobs for twelve-year-olds. Our index is Swiss adverts across the whole market, in which explicit entry-level roles are a narrow band. And their account puts your CV where employers can search for it; we have nothing equivalent.

Who should use which

Use studentjob.ch if you read German, want a clean PDF for a first side job at no cost, and are comfortable with your profile being visible to employers afterwards. For school and student jobs their listings are the better ones.

Use the official berufsberatung.ch template if you are applying for an apprenticeship. It is free, needs no account, and it is the only one of the three that explicitly tells you to write down the Heimatort, the permit and your referees. Be aware there is no English edition of it.

Use SwissJobs.app if you are applying to specific adverts and want a separate version for each — especially when you have little experience and therefore have to make the few relevant points land. It is also the only one of the three you can use in English at all, and the only one you can try without creating an account first.

Whichever you pick: write the permit line if you do not hold a Swiss passport, include the photograph, state each language with its CEFR level, and attach your references and diplomas as a single PDF. No tool decides that part for you.