Original Reddit post

Hi Guys Small preview: I’ve been in Switzerland since 2013, and am now officially Swiss. Finding jobs along the way was on the same scale as getting approved on a good appartment rental deal in Zurich Stadt. What should we do? — Problems —

  1. Most job listings are generated by AI, but employers detest when your job application is made with AI. Fair right? Connected to that are the HR employees who are usually interns or good friends of other managers. Most job listings require X years of experience. IDK about you guys, but most employees with X years of experience that I met, still have no idea about what they are doing (except niche professions, of course). I am sure most of you who are employed often ask yourselves how your X or Y colleague got their job and not yet fired. A lot of jobs expect you to be Einstein, but actually want you to be an NPC (NPC = bot basically). From reading thousands of articles and talking to hundreds of people, I came to realize that getting a job doesn’t mean actually proving you’ll be a fit, but playing word games with the employers, like a game of chess. — Questions —
  2. How do people with real potential get through all the problems mentioned? I’m not saying I have real potential, or that I’m some kind of Superman, but I definitely suck at getting noticed, even after trying to act like a bot, like an expert, like me, or like another. I seem to be very lucky at nailing the right application method that will definitely get rejected. If you’re a Swiss employer reading this - Could you perhaps give us 1-2 insights into how you are filtering applicants? We could maybe then understand why some of us never get noticed If you had the same issue as me and changed something, that made you have greater success in getting noticed, what was it? If you are a manager/ recruiter, and know that your staff turnover is bad, could you tell us if you are doing anything differently/ changing perspective? Or are you usually relying on the thought that “people are difficult”? — Optional to read it’s my most recent job experience — I had a Teams interview for an IT job, and was very clear that I no longer code manually, showing what I build with it. I got invited to a “Von Ort” 2nd interview, where one of the devs started asking about manual coding. I was honest again, and I stated my opinion that manual coding is no longer something that I embrace. I even showed them what systems I built and the workflows I follow. I gave valid explanations to whats and whys and even provided knowledge that, surprisingly, they didn’t have, although posing as “experts”. So, of course, I didn’t pass the interview because for some reason, and from my experience, 9/10 Swiss-born “seniors” I interacted with, would not even be open to thinking about a different approach, even though it’s quit justified, and would rather keep being classic and narrow into their own perspectives.

From my personal experience, not saying that this is the current truth, but from my vew, the whole Swiss system seems to work like this: Call A -> A doesn’t know, he’s just a Sachearbeiter/ Intern -> Redirect to B -> IF B responds, Oups, wrong department because A is just a Sachbearbeiter/ Intern and doesn’t know how to properly redrect -> redirect to C -> C has a bit more knowledge but ruquires you to make an appointment with D or send an email -> D is usually skipped for some reason. E calls / contacts you back, but will usually not be able to give you the full answer before consulting with F, who is usually in holiday, so you end up having to call A again and repeat the loop, till you MAYBE reach some kind of F who can help you. Right or wrong? — Potential Solutions —

  1. Call before applying. If you can’t reach a supervisor/ manager who you’d potentially work with while on he job, chances that the applicaton will be looked at are low.
  2. Try to be through the first applicants. For some reason their algorithms sometimes try to prioritize filling up the slot quickly and may push your application to a “Fallback” state in case you’re not betwen the first 5-10ish…
  3. Call after applying - ask if you can already prepare/ work on something in the meantime relevant to the position, to give a hint that you clearly want that job
  4. Practice word games and mind games. Being close to a politician will most likely improve your chances to get in. If the answer to their question would put you down, then give an answer to a question they didn’t ask, but that would rank you up. They usually forget what they even asked.
  5. Experimental: be late. My wife was always late at interviews, always got accepted. I have to try as well
  6. Polish that CV like crazy. Make it super appealing for the ATS algorithm, which is most commonly used in classifying applicants. Make sure to not have a spaghetti mix of, for example: waiter, admnistrator, CEO, flight attendant, club fighter. Employers are like stock investors, they want to see booring and consistent.
  7. Don’t spend too much time with Motivation Letters - nobdody usually reads them. Show practical examples of your experience (if any) or send at least a polished video of yourself talking about why you’d be great for the role. I would prefer to keep this topic as a learning material, not a complaint hub, but as a disclaimer, if it is not an appreciated materiial, I will take it down after 5-10 downvotes. submitted by /u/symgenix

Originally posted by u/symgenix on r/Switzerland