I will be graduating with my bachelors degree from a US university, and have had some internship experience. From reading I think my current resume is too detailed, but I'm not sure how to cut it down without losing what I actually did at my jobs.
Thanks!
-in the US apparently there is an emphasis on keeping the CV limited to 1 page? In Switzerland there's more flexibility (2 pages is reasonable)
-putting a photo of yourself (a professional one) is recommended
-in job descriptions you might want to try using bullet points rather than detailed descriptions
-always include a motivation letter, and try and complement it to your CV so that you can emphasize some points in the letter and others in the CV
-try and include key words when describing your experience (things like project management, manufacturing, production, research, design or whatever it is that the job is linked to)
I am a Swiss Citizen but have spent most of my life in the US, which is why I would like to get back to Switzerland. Do you think that the 3 years experience must be a job after university? Because I do have internship/praktikum experience, one at an engineering research lab for 1.5 years (2 years by the time I graduate) at my university and one in Austria at a consulting engineering firm.
Be careful as people will find that your rightful pride in your education and 2nd country as bragging. It happened to my gf a few weeks ago during an interview - she noticed how the Swiss manager started playing up his own experience and she knew she wouldn't get the job before the interview was over. The headhunter had later told her that it was the most technical of all the interviews he had ever sat in on for that company. She has a masters of engineering in the subject.
Yes, his last name sounds very Swiss
Did you know that more and more people proud of their heritage are claiming Swiss citizenship, the land of their grandparents, great-grandparents and even further back. All you have to show is that you have close ties to Switzerland and that you can speak at least one of the Swiss languages... I have a Franco-American friend who claimed the Swiss citizenship last year. Her Swiss ancestors emigrated late 19th century to United States.
Then there is nothing you have to worry about. I assume you are also fluent in (Swiss) German.
Securing a job in Switzerland is close to impossible unless you are Swiss, a national of EU-17/EFTA (e.g. from the UK, Éire, Germany, Scandinavia etc...) or with a valid Swiss work permit (B or C-Bewilligung). Most Swiss employers are very reluctant to obtain work permits for non-EU/EFTA foreign nationals.
My sister who was born in the USA and who was an Auslandschweizerin most of her life, got a very good paying job in Zurich right after her MBA graduation last year.
You may also want to check this:
I am "fluent" in Swiss German. I only say it that way because I moved when I was 7 and feel that I have the grammar and vocabulary of a 7 year old :P I usually don't have a problem understanding or communicating in Swiss German though, because only speak Swiss German with my dad.
I don't know what your line of engineering is, but Switzerland generally has some good options for engineers and even more if you're interested in working slightly outside of your speciality (multinationals sometimes like to hire engineers in their training programs).
A few typical employers/industries would include Alstom and ABB in Baden (various backgrounds), the pharma industry in Basel (Novartis, Roche and others) for chem/biochem/biotech as well as Lonza, BASF and Syngenta among other companies.
Nestle is of course one of the biggest and best employers in the country. In the energy field we have Alpiq and BKW among others. Siemens covers quite a few sectors, and there's also Hilti who make power tools among other things.
I haven't gone into possibilities in IT, but I'd think there's some demand pretty much everywhere. Accenture, consulting companies (Deloitte, Bain, BCG, McKinsey) and the finance sector would probably be typical employers.
Please note that there are many more companies than the few I mentioned, this was just to give a general idea.
Aside from job-searching sites you could search the ETH website for a list companies who were or will be at the last or next job fair. Or you could search for different expos for their exhibitor list to see if something interests you. Sindex was an interesting expo here recently with a lot of focus on automation.
on your résumé (Lebenslauf): definitely yes
on the cover letter (Bewerbungsschreiben): up to you, your letter may include something like this:
... Tochter eines Schweizers und einer US-Amerikanerin ...
Believe me, your Swiss citizenship is one of your greatest assets, so why shouldn't you state it?
While EU-15 and EFTA citizens can enjoy virtually unlimited access to the Swiss job market, Swiss federal authorities will refuse to grant employment / residence permits to most Americans, Canadians, Australians and other non-EU nationals.
Here is a sample swiss résumé
Lebenslauf
Persönliche Daten Laura Muster
Adresse: Bernerstrasse 1, 8400 Winterthur
Kontakt:
Tel: 044 500 00 00
Natel: 079 500 00 00
E-Mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Geboren am 20. Dezember 1990 in Zürich
Schweizerbürgerin
Heimatort: Meilen (Kanton ZH)
Zivilstand: Ledig
Berufserfahrung ...
...
Ausbildung & Weiterbildung
- Nachdiplomausbildungen
...
... Any post bachelor degree (MBA, MA, MS, PhD)
...
- Studium
...
... College (BS, BA)
...
- Schulen
Weitere Kenntnisse
Sprachen:
Englisch: Muttersprache
Deutsch: mündlich sehr gut, schriftlich sehr gut
Französisch: mündlich und schriftlich gut
Spanisch: Grundkenntnisse
EDV / IT-Kenntnisse: Windows, MS Office, Linux, SAP ...
Nebenberufliche Tätigkeiten ...
Referenzen siehe separates Blatt