How to adapt your CV to a Swiss ad without inventing experience?
Updated 26 September 2026
Adaptation changes order and wording, not facts. Anything that is not already in your track record stays out.
The reference CV is the limit
Start from the CV that describes what you have done: employers, dates, tasks, tools, training. The ad helps you choose what to put first, not what to add. A tool you have not used, a degree you do not have, a year of experience you do not have: that does not go in, even if the ad asks for it.
In My Swiss Career, that reference CV is the one on your profile. The application pack (adjusted CV, letter, email) is produced afterwards from that CV and a job already evaluated. It must not introduce a fact missing from the CV.
What you can change
Three moves are enough for most ads.
- Reuse the ad’s wording when it is the same work under another name. “Follow-up of manufacturing orders” can become “production planning” if that is what you did.
- Move the two or three experiences that answer the role’s tasks higher. The rest stays on the CV, lower and shorter.
- State a result only if it is already documented for you (a volume, a deadline, a scope). Otherwise describe the task without a number.
What you do not invent to “look Swiss”
A photo, date of birth, nationality or permit are common on CVs in Switzerland. Nothing in this guide makes them a legal obligation. If you include them, they must be accurate. The desired activity rate and languages with a real level (not a target level) help the reader see whether the ad’s framework fits you.
Sign-in required. Adapting to a specific ad happens later in the application pack, after a job evaluation.
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