What is wrong with my CV?

Fault 1: the CV does not say what you are applying for

First screening is a matching exercise, not a reading. Someone has an advert with a title and a handful of conditions in front of them and looks for the same words in your document. A CV that opens with personal details and then lists employers hands that work over: the target role has to be inferred from the history, and across twenty files nothing gets inferred.

The fix costs two lines. Above the work history, one line naming the function you are applying for, in the advert's own words rather than a broader label that would fit three other jobs. Under it, three to five lines that evidence that function: field, responsibility, scale. This is labelling, not marketing.

The second half of the same fault is the identical file sent everywhere. A dossier that fits an industrial firm, an accountancy office and a care home equally well fits none of them, and the people receiving it see that immediately — it is the observation Swiss staffing firms make publicly more often than any other. It does not mean starting from scratch each time. It means the top line and the top five lines change per advert.

Fault 2: the language line is not written in levels

This is the fault our own data shows most sharply. 66.6 per cent of open postings record a language requirement. Of all requirements recorded, 78.9 per cent sit at working level, 16.2 per cent at conversational, 3.6 per cent at native and 1.3 per cent at basic. The market is asking almost entirely about being able to work in a language, not about familiarity with it.

By language: German is demanded in 43.2 per cent of open postings, English in 31.0, French in 14.5 and Italian in 2.3. The pattern moves by region. In the German-speaking cantons, 49.8 per cent of postings ask for German and 33.1 per cent for English; in the Suisse romande, French is asked for in 40.9 per cent and English in 39.3 — practically level. In Ticino, Italian is asked for in 57.7 per cent, English in 22.1 and German in 19.5.

20.7 per cent of all open postings want two or more languages at once, and the commonest combination by a distance is German with English, in 10.2 per cent of postings. This is the number that catches people arriving from abroad: English is genuinely in demand, but usually as the second half of a pair. Only 13.8 per cent of postings ask for English on its own.

In practice: give languages their own block, each with a level from A1 to C2, split into spoken and written where the levels differ. "German C1, French B2, English C2" — not "good German". arbeit.swiss lists language skills as a standard component of the CV; how precisely you state them is left to you by the authority, and not by the market.

Fault 3: the Pensum is missing, although the advert leads with it

Workload in Switzerland is a first-class field, stated as a Pensum in per cent, and postings put it somewhere you can measure: in the title. 23.5 per cent of open postings carry a percentage in the job title. By region it is 26.2 per cent in the German-speaking cantons, 13.4 in the Suisse romande and 7.4 in Ticino — so the habit is strongest in the German-speaking market, but there it is the rule rather than the exception.

The shape of it matters more than the share. 58.4 per cent of those titles state a range rather than a fixed figure, and among the figures that are not a plain 100 per cent, 62.3 per cent start between 80 and 89 per cent. The employer is saying in advance that the size of the job is negotiable. A dossier that says nothing about workload is not in that negotiation.

For the CV this is one small change: the first line of every position carries the Pensum alongside function, employer and dates, wherever it was not 100 per cent. That does two things at once. It explains apparent gaps and overlaps without anyone having to ask, and it shows you are thinking in Swiss categories. Almost no CV written for the UK, the US or Ireland carries this line, which is exactly why it is the one most often missing.

Fault 4: the qualification is not in its Swiss designation

A formal qualification is named in 16.2 per cent of the requirement texts we analysed — and when it is named, it is named in the Swiss short form: EFZ in 3.6 per cent of all postings, FH or HES in 2.5, HF in 2.1, Bachelor or Master in 2.4, CFC in 2.0. The advert is not asking for a level. It is asking for a title, and the match happens on the word.

People trained outside Switzerland lose ground here for no good reason. A qualification written only in its home-country name has to be placed by the reader, and at first screening the reader does not place it. The fix is a bracket: the original title, then the Swiss equivalent as far as you can support it.

The line between placing and recognising matters. SERI, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, states that "Recognition is required to practise certain professions in Switzerland" — the regulated ones — and that which body handles it depends on the qualification. For everything else there is no obligation, but you can apply to SERI for recognition or for a level certificate. If you hold one, it belongs on the CV. If you do not, an honest equivalence still belongs there, and a claim does not.

Fault 5: the dossier is incomplete — and the advert will never tell you

This is the most awkward asymmetry in Swiss hiring, and it can be counted. In the same requirement texts where 66.6 per cent carry a language requirement, a work permit is mentioned in 0.5 per cent, work references in 0.1 per cent and a photo in 0.1 per cent. These conventions are almost never written into the advert. They are assumed anyway.

What belongs in the file is set out officially. arbeit.swiss lists the usual contents of a CV: the title "CV", personal details including a photograph, professional experience to date, education and training, language skills, special knowledge or activities, personal interests, and references. Structure is chronological, most recent first.

The dossier also contains the Arbeitszeugnisse, and the requirement is stricter than most newcomers expect: all of them, no gaps, chronological with the most recent first, gathered into one PDF, and the same for diplomas and certificates. References are normally handled with a note on the CV saying they can be provided on request. If you come from a country that does not issue employer references, you do not have a choice between two customs here — you have a gap in the file, which you name and replace with referees.

For anyone without a Swiss passport, the permit line is the most expensive omission of all. It costs half a line in the personal details and answers a question that otherwise triggers a query, and queries are rare at first screening. Your Swiss town and canton do the same job for the commute question, silently.

What is probably not wrong with your CV

The design. A specification for layout, typeface or template appears in practically none of the requirement texts. A template can certainly make a document harder to read — multi-column layouts and graphical bars for language levels regularly do — but it is not where the match fails. Changing the template while leaving the five points above untouched changes nothing.

The length, at least downwards. The one-page rule comes from a different market. arbeit.swiss puts the ceiling at three pages, and a Swiss career with workloads, continuing education and language levels usually needs two. When you do cut, cut the bullet lists on old positions, not the lines that evidence the advert's conditions.

And part of what feels like a document fault is not one. A Swiss rejection usually gives no reason at all. One rejection therefore teaches you nothing about your CV; ten applications sent with the same, deliberately unchanged document teach you a great deal. Change the document once, not after every rejection — otherwise you end up measuring nothing.

The order to check this in

Take an advert you applied to and were turned down for. Mark every condition it states explicitly. Then, for each one, check whether it is findable on the first page of your CV in the same words — not whether it exists somewhere, but whether it is found on the first pass. Do that for three adverts; the pattern almost always repeats on the same line.

Then the four convention lines that no advert asks for and every advert assumes: languages as levels, Pensum per position, qualification in its Swiss designation, permit status and place of residence in the personal details. Together that is under twenty minutes of work, and it applies to every application you write afterwards.

If you would rather not do the comparison by hand, our CV check does exactly this step: it reads your document against a specific advert and against the Swiss criteria on top — photo, permit line, language levels, results rather than duties. What it cannot do is change which adverts you apply to. If the five points are right and nothing moves, that is the next place to look.