Application Tips
The difference between applying and applying properly.
Your CV
Life is not perfect, but your CV should be.
This is what you should look for in your application for the Swiss market.
Your CV is your entry pass to your next job or project. In the following section, we will give you a few general tips. If you have more specific questions and requirements, we would be happy to discuss them with you.
Make a good impression.
Make sure your picture is firstly recent and secondly professionally taken. Nothing is worse than a blurred, 20-year-old snapshot that shows you as a “jolly fellow”. Testimonials are good. If you don’t have any testimonials or they are barely presentable, give references. But don’t forget to inform the person giving the reference and ask for permission beforehand. Otherwise, there may be unpleasant surprises.
Clear. True. Structured.
Do not write any narrative and do not tell a story. Use the proven standardised CV in table form. This way you achieve a clear structure and convey the most information in the shortest time. And time is money. Start with your last position and work your way back to the beginning, position by position. List your activities, tasks, responsibilities, goals achieved, work equipment and tools used. We advise you to list your professional experience and education chronologically in separate blocks.
For IT specialists, it is a good idea to list the tools they have used for each project. Either include them in the separate skills matrix or in the career stages.
As short as possible. As long as necessary.
A CV should be a short (!) summary of your professional stages. Clear, simply structured, neatly formatted, and maximally informative. It must include all the skills and tools you have mastered. It is best to start with a short profile at the beginning of your CV, which immediately makes clear what qualifications you have for the advertised position.
The CV should not be longer than three to five A4 pages. And it should be written normally and not in a 5-point font without marginal paragraphs. Professional experience dating back more than 5 to 10 years should be listed briefly and concisely (place and time, company name, job title).
Don’t mind the gap.
Nowadays, no one values a flawless standard curriculum vitae without surprises and U-turns. Did you take a sabbatical? That’s your right. You needed time for your voluntary work? Very honorable. You invested in further education and training and spent this time learning and not working? Good investment in yourself. You had to care for your relatives and therefore have a gap in your CV? Great. You have taken on the responsibility. A longer period without gainful employment is no longer a problem as long as you can justify it well. It’s best to describe the phases briefly and concisely, without hiding or embellishing anything. This makes your CV look much more personal and authentic.
PDF is not everything.
Nowadays, CVs are mostly processed automatically and imported into CRM systems. A PDF format (especially with images) can make this process difficult. We therefore recommend a text format such as Word or Pages, in which you can also insert an image if required.
One font. One font size. One font colour.
Clear. Reduced. Simple. Avoid anything that distracts from your message. Different fonts, font sizes, and font styles ruin even the clearest CV. Go for Arial, Helvetica or Times. And that’s it.
- Incorrect or missing contact, location, and time information.
- An unprofessional photo
- Format overload: too many colors, formatting, inappropriate fonts
- Too long CV
- Unexplained gaps and untruths
- Grammar and spelling mistakes
