My 2 cents to the discussion ....

Based on my personal experience, being hired is not that much about having the "best" CV, but more about having a resonably good one (a good match for the position) and being at the right time in the right place ... In my opinion, having a (good) Network can help you achive "right time" and "right place" by telling you about positions before they are advertised in the job market. Additionally, your Network could be vouching for you without being asked .... which could outweight any reference you could have in your CV ....

Certainly you can get a job without a Network, but in such a small place like Geneva with high  salaries attracting plenty of candiates, every little help you can get counts ....

Hi Roma

Good luck with your job search

I moved to Geneva with my  partner at the bginning of February. I applied for tons of jobs directly with the company and also registered with several recruitment agents. I eventually found a job through an agent.

Doesn't networking always help you get a job? With one exceptions, all my jobs I've got through networking, not by applying for a post. I'd be very surprised if I'm an exception to the rule.

Job market in Geneva has been tight for years.  Any posted job ad nowadays gets 30 - 50 CVs on average, and the most prestigious job openings (for instance those for engineers at CERN) receive from 300 up to 1000 CVs.  Which such an amount of competition it's clear that candidates with an extended network have better chances.

Moreover, Geneva is a place where personal connections are extremely important (some would even say that it's the mafioso mentality) as your chances to get a job, rent an apartment or buy real estate mostly depend on who you know.   

In my experience a good relationship with someone at an agency is better - the main problem is that agencies invariably act like guardians and not that open to that personal link and you will be just fobbed off with the standard "check our website regularly..." nonsense. Agencies are far less "open" here than in the UK

Some companies are ANTI networking - I used to work in a growing company in the UK and at the start it just accepted current employees recommendations...great...then the company realised it was employing f--king idiots to be frank ONLY because that person was a friend of someone already there. They quickly stopped that...did some quite brutal culling of staff and then started using agencies exclusively

If networking was the panacea companies like Nestle would NEVER use agencies

the main problem with networking is that you become aware of jobs you cannot do...or you know someone who is looking for work but it dont fit - you dont simply get a job because you become aware of it

imho here is the bare minimum necessary to stand a decent chance in the Swiss job market

You MUST  be bilingual, better make that TRI-lingual Of course make that second language appopate for the area you live in

You MUST have a degree - its laughable that jobs i have done in the UK without a degree are advertised as requiring a degree here - Without going into detail a formr job was basically copy and pasting between Excel and emails - it was brain dead yet "required a degree" Oh that degree needs to be recognised too! Educated in some third world country? Good luck in convincing people its more than a piece of paper

You MUST be willing to accept a salary a lot lower than you think...you want that 50 hour a week job? Be prepared to bite the bullet and fight it out against people who WILL do that for 3500 CHF

Do NOT be non-white or old, this is young WASP-land

Make sure your application dossier is complete. Yes apaprently some companies are interested in what you did 20 years ago...

I would advise anyone looking for work get to speak to someone knowledgable about their CV and letter of motivation. I was told on both that they were good for the UK but lacking for Switzerland. There are certain expectations about both in content and presentation - Far too big a subject to go into here

Be prepared for MULTIPLE interviews - they are obsessed with making sure they get the right person and as a show of faith in their own system (Yes I am being very sarcastic here) you will be rewarded with a try and hire contract as minimal as possible

The standard stuff for getting a job applies too - have the soul of a drone, a willingness to put up with anything, an ability to suck up to the right people at the right time...you know soft skills

The job market is basically a lottery and you can do tweaks to help it a little bit but you are still just 1 person in 50 or more applying for that job where your CV will either be scanned electronically for keywords within seconds or visually scanned in less than 10. By all means network but it is basically you are right person at the right time

Thank you all for your very interesting answers. I agree with all what you guys said, and I find it very sad. Once I went to a job interview and the interviewer asked me if it was me the recommended candidate .  Of course I wasn't, and of course I didn't get the job.

Networking is good, but I have alwas find it kind of embarassing to be connected with people just professionally, and the whole linkedin thing also scares me hell of a lot. I guess I have no other choice than doing what every other unemployed does, but -believe me- I would rather not to.

Also, recruitment agencies here in Geneva are a joke, as you said, I have always been told to check the website regularly. Although I applied trillions of times, I never even got one single interview with them.

It's frustrating, It seems I am never enough qualified or always too qualified to do anything.

I guess that a lot of this discussion also depends on the 'industry' in which you work and what is your work experience.

I work in the regulated side of pharma (such as clinical trials, drug safety, manufacturing) and never got a job through networking. In pharma the hard core networkers tend to end up in market access and marketing. 

If agencies in Geneva are a joke, then try to look for the same job in Switzerland advertised by a non-Swiss agency. At least in pharma, there are tons of UK and German based recruitment agencies advertising for posts in Switzerland. They love placing people in Swizterland as they get a nice 16-20% commission on your Swiss yearly salary (and you don't even have to stay in the job for 6 months...).

Perhaps it would also help you if you considered how you would go about recruiting someone. You said 'I have always find it kind of embarassing to be connected with people just professionally', which seems to indicate you like working with people you are connected with non-professionally. That may give you an insight as to why others take a certain approach. 

As for LinkedIn, you should look at it differently: 

- many companies now post job adds on LinkedIn as they do not want to pay the hefty commission to the said agencies. So really I think you are missing out on a lot of opportunities due to a preconception.

- there's nothing wrong about connecting with people only professionally. If I had a personal connection with all the people I work with I'd go totally crazy and I'm sure the same is true for those who work with me.  I'd hate to work with friends and prefer to keep a healthy 'boundary' between work and personal life. That doesn't mean that I have not made great friends at work, but that was an unexpected bonus.

- there are a lot of people/companies scanning profiles on LinkedIn, so if you have a good profile (with a PHOTO and meaningful keywords) then someone may find you.

- use your LinkedIn profile to do some benchmarking: looking at the profiles of your peers may show you how you rank within your industry. It may be a tough exercise, but if you want to know how to target your applications you need to do some background work. 

Good luck with your job search

> Once I went to a job interview and the interviewer asked me if it was me the recommended candidate.  Of course I wasn't, and of course I didn't get the job.

> Also, recruitment agencies here in Geneva are a joke, as you said, I have always been told to check the website regularly. Although I applied trillions of times, I never even got one single interview with them.

> It's frustrating, It seems I am never enough qualified or always too qualified to do anything.

Because of the huge number of applicants, companies now consider almost exclusively candidates that are a perfect fit with the desired profile.  Concerning the job in which I'm currently working (and which I adore), I got hired because I matched 100% of the requirements. 

My suggestion: apply only for jobs for which you match at least 90% of the requirements, and take at least one whole day to research the company and write your CV and motivation letter.  Better have a laser-like focus on one job opportunity than spending the same amount of time sending a dozen of generic candidatures.

Geneva (and to a lesser extent Vaud) is quite special in Switzerland for recruiting. Don't forget it border France, a job market of 40 millions active workers with (at least) 4 millions people looking for jobs.


Some poster was speaking about 30 to 50 CV for each job opening, from what I've seen in the company I work, it's more 100 to even 200 and sometimes more than 4/5 are coming from France.

I'm not saying that to criticize France or the french doing it as I'm one of them, but competition is harsher than ever and the number of job openings is currently decreasing.

That being said, there are still some oportunities and I really hope you'll succeed in you research.

You must, must, must have contacts. You might want to consider a head hunter, but they can be picky.

Roma,

Please don't take this the wrong way as I am hoping to help. But would it be fair for me to assume that English isn't your first language? 

Your comments are full of spelling and grammar mistakes, which I think is fine on a messageboard. However, if your Cover Letter and CV reflect the same then you're in trouble.

So please have someone with an extensive grasp of the English language look over your documents. And I don't mean someone that merely speaks English. I mean, an expert. 

With that said, my second assumption is that you don't speak French fluently. 

From my experience, it's rare (but not uncommon) to find people that don't speak either French and/or English fluently finding a job in Geneva. For those that do, they usually seem to speak at least German/Italian/Spanish. Being bilingual is almost the bare minimum here. 

3 tips of advice:

1)    If you don’t speak French : start taking classes (paid/professional ones) immediately. I personally believe that it lets employers know that “yes, you might not speak French” but you’re trying to get there. Shows great initiative.

2)    Write specially tailored CV's for each specific job you're applying to. I’ve seen too many CV’s that are obviously templates where the applicant merely changed who they’re addressing their CV to.

3)    Stay strong. Confident and hopeful. It’s possible!

A couple of other questions to ask of Roma:

Are you an EU national?

How long have you been resident in CH and what is your permit status?

What is your sphere of activity and how

long have you been looking for employment?

It’s not uncommon for well-qualified and experience d EU candidates having to wait several months before they find the right niche for their skills.

Vacancies are not necessarily advertised on the open market.  Many employers give preference to staff members who can fit the job.

And even in situations where jobs must be advertised publicly, there may be someone in the wings who’s been earmarked for the post, which is one of the reasons why networking is important.

Not only do you get to know of vacancies in the offing, you also get wind of organiztions to avoid, i.e., the ones that hire and fire rater  easily.

Best wishes, R. 

Dear All,

Thanks again for your advices, and sorry for the many spelling mistakes I have made. I don't have a spell check. I definetely type too quickly and without revising, my bad.

As for my background, English is not my native language nor is French. I speak both languages and I am enrolled in the Faculty of English Literature at the University of Geneva (about to finish my mèmoire). I have been taking French classes since I moved here in 2010 (took a DELF test too). I also speak Italian (my native language) and some Arabic.

I have been interning and working for NGOs in Egypt, India and Geneva for 3 years before I decided I had enough. I could not find any other job in the communication/marketing/admin field, so I went back to Uni, and here I am. Now I am about to finish my master, and before I can apply to the IUFE (Institute Universitaire Formation Enseignants, that will be closed for the two next academic years) I am really working hard to find work.

Besides the in-progess Master, I hold a BA in Oriental Studies and a Master in Political Science.

Not enough, apparently..

I will do my best to taylor my CV and cover letter for each job application, as many of you suggested, and I will do my best to connect with people despite it feels strange to me to talk to them because I know they can somehow get me a job or introduce me to the right person.

Many of you described the job market in Geneva as a war, so here I am-ready to fight! ;)

Best,

roma

While I do appreciate the trouble you have taken to explain your situation in some detail, if I had received your post as an HR manager I would have discarded it after the first two lines, which – hopefully – you will understand if you care to re-read them.

Having a fistful of university degrees is of no avail if you fail to observe the courtesy of precision in communication in all its forms.

Not having spell-check and typing too fast are lame excuses that you can easily rectify if you choose and will stand you in good stead for many purposes.

As for your reluctance to network, how would you go about finding employment in your home country which, incidentally, is .. ?  A mother- tongue doesn’t necessarily mean nationality.

Hard as it may be to accept, it might perhaps be useful to lower your expectations of the work immediately available to you in a city where the competition for employment has always been fierce.  Why not also apply for positions for which, academically, you are over-qualified?  There are countless people in the world who have had to accept down-sizing in order to pay the rent.  And it’s when you’re in work that other offers come along.

But none of this will have any worth if you do not learn to revise ad correct before you hit “send”.

R.

Thank you again for the contribution to this thread.

Despite what it may seem, accuracy was never a issue. I often get invited to interviews, but my problem is that at the end of a usually long and stressing hiring process, finally someone is always chosen over me.

Firstly I thought it was because of my French. So I took intensive classes (and I still do) and a DELF test. Now they tell me my French is OK.

Then I though it was because of my application or poor interview skills, so I asked an expert friend of mine to reharse together. He explained the mistakes I was making and told me how to present my self in a better way. As a result, now I usually get to a second-round interview.

Then I though maybe I was applying for positions I was under-qualified. Now I apply for jobs like receptionist/secretary/administrative assistant. Recently I got to the third and final interview for a 40% job as administrative assistant for a farmaceutical company. Finally, the other candidate was chosen over me as he had more experience in the field.

This is when I thought to share my experience in this forum, and it was very useful. Now I know I was wrong underestimating networking, and I was wrong to think it's a bad thing to talk to people and connect to them for work-related reasons. I will attend more events and try to shake hands with professionals and see whether this will give some results.

Ritchie, I don't know how I would go about finding work in my home country, which is Italy. I left in 2007 and the situation was bad already. However now all my friends and former university class mates have either left or are unemployed. Typically they still live with their parents or in the flat their parents bought for them and pay bills out of the family savings. Very sad indeed. 

Thank you again.

roma

Roma,

IF you are getting interviews and keep getting called back for the inevitable series of multiple interviews IT IS NOT YOUR SKILLS that are the issue

You will be relieved to know that its unlikely to be anything personal you can actually do anything to correct...given the choice between generally equal candidates employers will choose the one they feel will easily integrate with the existing team...something you basically have NO idea about and NO control over...your personality or style simply may not match the teams. Having seen HR departments in action and a previous manager discuss a replacement for myself when i left that job...fitting in is MORE important than skills...its fair though as i'd rather work with someone I liked and could be trained to handle and skill shortcomings than some arrogant a-hole who is perfectly qualified...sadly anotherapsect thats a lottery in gaining a job

can't we trim quotes?

Agencies are not bad BUT you MUST have someone in the agency rooting for you...not just in a BS way that they are trained to dish out, but at a level which is personal. A good contact within an agency KNOWS what the client company wants and that connection usually will mean they will INSIST on tailoring your application so you go further in the process and they are more likely to get their dosh...sadly MOST employees in agencies are terrible rarely doing what they say they are going to do