What beautiful sunny weather, we have had the chance to enjoy these last few days! You might, as I do, make a point of benefiting from the last golden rays of the sun to soak up as much vitamin D as possible before the days become even shorter. Who doesn’t need that energy to accomplish everything that needs to be done, everything you want to do? You might be in a position right now where either you are worried about losing your job, or you are already looking for a new job (or any kind of work). Maybe you have even been looking for a while already. Perhaps you feel it’s time to update your resume and your job searching skills, just in case. Anyhow, I thought you could use this reminder from my older publication, “The Global Career Workbook,” on how to get a Swiss recruiter’s attention.
Getting a Swiss recruiter’s attention is almost like asking her out on a date.
When you write a cover letter, you want the other person to like you and find you attractive enough to read your resumé. The cover letter is your appetizer, and the resumé is your main course. If you get to the interview stage, then that’s like having dessert on the first date. And after three interviews, you might get kissed. I mean, you might get the job offer you are longing for.
Don’t spoil the Swiss recruiter’s appetite by presenting the main course in the cover letter.
Imagine you are on your first date, and your counterpart tells you for half an hour how great they are. Rather boring, right? You zoom out of the conversation and wish to run away. The same is true if a recruiter reads your whole resumé already in the cover letter.
What could you do to make the conversation more interesting?
Cover letter writing is an art. With modern technology, applicants often do not see the need to write a cover letter these days, but in my opinion, it is the most artistic part of a good application. Emphatically, in Switzerland, IT’S A MUST.
Many recruiters want to read it. They would like to see that you made an effort to get that interview. I receive considerable amounts of cover letters, and most of them sound like they were copied from a textbook. Nobody gets excited reading some sort of ‘copy and paste’ write-ups, void of personal touch. Only the more personal ones gain my attention. They have to be personal, crisp and show me who you are.
Here are rules for fresh cover letters:
- Use the correct name of the recruiter instead of Sir or Madam. Take out time to research the recruiter’s name. This portrays you as serious. Make sure you also spell the names of references correctly. Be respectful and address recruiters formally.
- Make the letter appealing and nice-looking by using one font only and adhering to standard letter writing style in the country you are applying to.
- Speak about the needs of the other party before you speak about yours. This is so important because the prospective job is about what you can bring to the table.
- Find a personal connection between either you and the company or you and the recruiter. Maybe you use one of their products, or associate positive feelings with the brand because of a personal story.
- If you copy and paste (which is not a good idea in general), please check that you did not use the wrong company name or contact person. It helps to read the letter out loud.
- Use active language and complete sentences. When I say active language, I ask you to use more verbs than nouns, avoid passive constructs and keep sentences short.
- If you are not an English native speaker, check your translation and let a native speaker review your grammar. Most recruiters get irritated when they find grammatical errors in cover letters.
- Be brief and stick to a maximum of one page. Five paragraphs are sufficient.
- Add your contact information in the last paragraph, especially your phone number and email ID. Make sure your email sounds respectable, and the name is memorable. Email addresses like ‘sexynancy@gmail.com’ are not acceptable.
- Avoid slang and casual writing style. You are a professional, so behave like one! Even if you are from Generation Y or Z, remember that this is a letter and not a chat. The person you want to date might be the age of your parents.
Here’s to the sunny weather, boosting your energy to take that next important step: preparing your application file. I hope these tips help you write the best cover letter you can write to catch the Swiss recruiters’ attention, get to the “dessert” stage, and get you the job you are hoping for!
HireMeExpress 2022 – Pre-Workshops for all Club Members
I will teach you insights on
Workshop No. 1: Partnering Masters – Building Effective Relationships
Workshop No. 2: Powerful Missions – Having a Voice in a Sea of Noise
Workshop No. 3: Persisting Mindsets – Designing Work to Support a Global Lifestyle
All invites will be shared when you sign up on our HireMeExpress list.
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Reminder: Sign up here to find out everything you need to know in order to land a job in Switzerland or another market you are not familiar with. We will send you our 19 Fresh Resume Checkpoints and further material such as videos. In case you have any questions you can email us via angela@globalpeopletransitions.com.
Offline and Online Presence is the Way Forward
These days, if you’re not on LinkedIn or any equivalent jobs platform, you’re either sitting on a large inheritance or seriously out of touch with the industry. For freelancers in particular and job seekers in general, having a digital presence is now perhaps as essential as being qualified to work, to begin with.
A network of peers and industry members is something that was essential in the offline era, does it not make sense that professional networking would be more important in the digital age? I remember starting online networking in 2004, a move that was particularly helpful for me – as I moved cities and countries, I was able to remain in constant touch with my established network, able to leverage it for various purposes as the need arose. For us nomads a network that travels everywhere with us is priceless.
Looking back at that time and analyzing the power that was afforded to me by my digital professional network, I got to thinking about how this could be used to empower job seekers everywhere. That is how HireMeExpress was set up: allowing professionals to hack the Swiss Job Market with strong business connections, both offline and online.
Pinpoint the platform where you will find Hiring Managers and Clients for your industry
LinkedIn may be the ‘de facto’ professional networking platform for the masses, but certain industries are known to frequent alternative digital platforms. The publishing and writing industry, for instance, can be found on Twitter and Goodreads. Photographers and videographers have made their home on Vimeo, YouTube, and Instagram. The bottom line: Inhabit the right digital spaces so you can make the right connections.
Understand that a digital presence takes longer to pay dividends.
The internet era is the era of scams and fake profiles. It takes longer to build trust with a stranger than it would through only real-world meets. You can speed the process along by building your digital home, ideally a blog or a Youtube channel that acts as a thorough resume for visitors. Once you’ve interacted with someone online, directing them to your blog would allow them to access not only your professional biography but a way to contact you.
Remember to use tools to set up a sign-up form so you can start building your list of followers.
Support and develop the community.
Self-promotion is a big turn-off, you should instead focus on promoting other people’s work. A great way to be a positive influence in your network is to endorse other people’s work (on LinkedIn or otherwise). It is especially helpful for people who are modest or doubt their own achievements (a condition known as “imposter syndrome”). By fostering a communal and supportive network, you can create goodwill among colleagues and with peers in general. It is essential to create the right image online.
Be genuine when you meet people IRL (In Real Life).
A general assumption about digital presences is that they are heavily curated, that is, they contain cherry-picked information that may not be representative of the entire picture. By showing that you’re as nice, if not nicer, in real life will be a pleasant and welcome surprise to all who meet you. Be genuine in providing help, be genuine in general and good things will happen to you.
You will eventually generate an income
We developed our #HireMeExpress program so that we can help expats and digital nomads with a minority background in the new country to generate an income.
The HireMeExpress program gives you immediate access to a trusted circle of like-minded professionals. We can help you expand your networks faster! In any group, shared experiences are the key to building relationships and trust, while also providing growth opportunities through feedback from the group and the coach. The group gives you accountability and paces your efforts at the same time. Sometimes, especially when you would like to give up, the group carries you to the next step.
I hope the tips above can help you identify and maximize your digital presence.
Have you ever dreamt of being your own boss and opening your very own food business or culinary establishment? Whether your dream is a restaurant, a bakery, a bar, or a coffee shop – here are four useful tips to help you set up your business in Switzerland.
#1 Decide on the Location
If you decide that you want to start a gastronomic business, one of the first questions you should ask yourself is where to open it. The right location plays a significant role as you are participating with many other businesses for customers and they might not allocate value to taking a long way to your shop. Especially as most of your customers will probably be walk-in customers. However, you should also not invest too much into the rent of your location. This link might help you to get a feeling of the differing rent prices across the country:
https://www.alle-immobilien.ch/en/rent/trade-industry/subcategory-restaurant/
#2 Create a Business Plan
To not get lost in a crowd of culinary establishments it is important to work on a business plan that lets you stand out from the rest. To achieve this, you will need to think of a unique selling proposition. You could think of what kind of customers are likely to purchase your products in the location you have set on before. Are there rather people that might for example need a quick coffee on the go or will your customers be happier with a full menu set up?
#3 Legal Requirements Needed
This point might be one of the most cumbersome ones that also takes a lot of time to handle. All cantons will require an operating license and a hygiene concept for self-monitoring also called the HACCP concept (Hazard, Analysis, Critical, Control, Points). This concept should be personalized and adapted to your business. The following link will lead you to a HACCP Template:
https://gastropedia.ch/hygienekonzept-erstellen-selbstkontrolle-in-der-gastronomie/65/
Moreover, depending on the canton you will also be required to hand in further documents and certificates. These might be a host patent, a capability statement, a retail approval for a liquor pub (in case you will sell alcohol), and in some cases, you will have to undermine an assessment regarding food hygiene and addiction prevention. Where you get all documents and have to hand them in is listed in the link below:
https://www.wirtepatent.ch/de/wissen/bewilligungen-gastronomie-145.html
https://www.wirtepatent.ch/de/wirtepatent-3.html
#4 Create a Budgeting Plan
Finally, budgeting is an important topic and you should definitely create a detailed and well-thought-out budget plan to avoid any surprise costs. Furthermore, you should prepare yourself well for pitching your idea to your investor as they will also ask unpleasant questions for certain. For this event, you can also set an appointment for a personal consultation concerning the financing of your business.
https://gastropedia.ch/finanzierung-gastronomie/1862/
