How to Write a Swiss CV in English: Format, Templates and Examples (2026)

What Swiss careers guidance says goes on the CV

berufsberatung.ch is run by the SDBB on behalf of the cantons, with federal support. Its CV page lists:

• Photo: a current colour photo with a neutral background, a friendly smile, a neat appearance and suitable clothes. No selfie.
• Contact: first and last name, address, mobile number, email.
• Personal details: your full date of birth; your place of origin if you have one in Switzerland, otherwise your place of birth; your nationality; and, if you are a foreign national, your residence permit, for example Permit C or B. Family details are optional.
• Languages: all of them, always starting with your mother tongue.
• Interests and hobbies: described briefly and factually.
• References: contact people with names and phone numbers, asked for their agreement beforehand.

One caveat: the page is written for school leavers applying for apprenticeships. What it gives you is the baseline convention Swiss applicants learn at school, which is why recruiters read CVs against it. I follow it for the photo and the personal details. For anyone with work experience, I depart from it on order and put experience above education.

Why the permit line and your certificates matter

According to ch.ch, EU/EFTA citizens can live and work in Switzerland under freedom of movement. For employment longer than three months they apply for a residence permit from their commune before starting work. Non-EU/EFTA nationals need a work permit even for short-term work, and only qualified people are admitted, for example managers, specialists or university graduates with several years of experience. The future employer has to show it cannot recruit the person it needs in Switzerland or the EU/EFTA, and it is the employer who applies to the cantonal authorities. Since 1 January 2021, UK nationals fall under the rules for third-country nationals, including quotas.

The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) adds two details that change how you should write the CV:

• "Qualifications are checked on basis of a person's CV, their education certificates and their employment references."
• "The authorities require copies of documents in their original language as well as translations into one of Switzerland's official language or English." Where a foreign education system is very different from Switzerland's, SEM says it helps if the documents explain the training institution and the length and content of the training.

SEM also sets out the precedence rule: a non-EU/EFTA national can be admitted "only if it is not possible to recruit a person who qualifies for precedence from the labour market in Switzerland or in an EU/EFTA state".

Two conclusions follow. First, the permit line is the first thing a Swiss recruiter needs, because for a non-EU/EFTA hire it decides whether the employer takes on a permit application at all. Leaving it out does not hide anything, it only makes the recruiter guess. Second, if you need a permit, your CV may be read by a migration officer as well as a recruiter, next to your diplomas and references. Dates, job titles and degree names should match those documents exactly. The Swiss work permit guide covers the permit process itself.

An annotated Swiss CV in English

The candidate below is invented for this article. Sarah Whitfield is a British data analyst in Manchester applying for a senior analyst role at a pharmaceutical company in Basel. As a UK national she would need a Swiss work permit, which makes her the harder case. Every company, name and number in her CV is fictional.

Where the Arbeitszeugnisse go: the rest of the dossier

A Swiss application is a dossier, not a CV. SEM names the three document types qualifications are checked from: the CV, education certificates and employment references. I would send them as one PDF in this order:

1. Cover letter
2. CV
3. Work certificates (Arbeitszeugnisse) or reference letters, newest first
4. Degree certificates, with transcripts if the ad or the role calls for them
5. Language and professional certificates

Certificates go directly behind the CV because a recruiter reads them as evidence for what the CV claims, job by job. If you have Swiss or German certificates, read them properly before you attach them: the Arbeitszeugnis guide explains the grading language and what to do about a weak one.

If you have never worked where certificates are issued, as Sarah hasn't, put reference letters in the same place. A former employer may confirm only your dates and job title; that is still worth attaching. Attach what you have, and add one sentence to the cover letter, for example: "UK employers do not issue work certificates, so I have enclosed reference letters and named referees on my CV."

On translations, SEM wants originals plus a translation into a Swiss official language or English for the permit application. An English degree certificate needs no translation for that purpose; a Portuguese one does. I would put the translation straight behind the original in the dossier. The employer will need the same documents if it applies for your permit, and having them ready removes one reason to pick another candidate.

Length, language and format

Length. Two pages for anyone with several years of experience; one for a first job. The certificates carry the detail, so a Swiss CV can stay tighter than its reputation.

Language. Write in the language of the ad. An English ad at a Basel or Zurich multinational gets an English CV. A German ad gets a German CV if you can do the job in German; if you cannot, the ad was probably not for you.

Format. Single column, real text in the PDF, no skill bars or graphics. If the application goes through an online portal, the file may be parsed into fields, and a layout that looks good but reads badly as text loses information. The guide to how applicant tracking systems read CVs explains why.

Mistakes I would fix before sending

• "Fluent German" with no CEFR level.
• No permit line, or a vague "open to relocation" in its place.
• Years only on job dates, which makes the CV impossible to match against certificates.
• A degree title that differs from the one printed on the certificate.
• Certificates attached in random order, or not attached at all.
• US-style self-promotion ("visionary", "passionate") where a number would do.

For the wider process, from where to find jobs to what happens after the interview, see applying for jobs in Switzerland as a foreigner.

Sources

• berufsberatung.ch (SDBB), Lebenslauf erstellen
• State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), Basis for admission to the Swiss employment market
• ch.ch, Working in Switzerland as a foreign national
• Europass, Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) self-assessment grids