I have had recently a post about employers abuse & now comes new incidents that's been happening lately too.

I have been applying for several jobs via recruitment agencies (Big & Small ones).

I have just discovered that my applications wether sent via email or the agencies website portals have been deleted without even being opened.

I became suspicious about that, started to create new profiles & send my same C.V with a European name & guess what??, i have been contacted by them for more info.

I spoke to a friend working in the government & he told me there's absolutely nothing to do about it!!

My question is does it make a difference having an Arab or European names in Switzerland?

I'm living here since nearly 4 years now & i can see that it's getting more & more discriminating against certain races & ethnics, more jobs being posted now with Swiss, Permit C (EU) or Permit B (EU), aren't other nations holding permits legal residents here?.

As usual, i'm not moaning neither trying to create a scandal but more trying to get answers, if i'm not welcome here then maybe i should look for some other place which at least i will have some respect in.

Don't take it so personally. Applying is tedious and sometimes soul-destroying. It may be best not to look at the perceived negativity and focus on making more applications. Whether there is any mileage in what you're implying is, of course, up to you to pursue, but energy and money may be better spent elsewhere. Keep going!

Well, i think i have already applied to every single job advertised in my domain in the past 2 months (Since i finished with my last job), that's more than 250 applications sent.

Now there's no more new adverts on any site, some of the old post which i applied to keeps showing up again, but guess it's not for me!!.

I'm an absolutely positive person with so optimistic view for life, I love my work, i enjoy working hard (wife always complaints that i'm a workaholic) , but i'm just wondering if my plans should change to international posts, which means i have to be apart from my family here

That's a sad story. I can understand that a company would only hire people who already have a proper work permit, and in certain specific industries (like banking) that they even insist on a specific permit.

However I cannot understand how the same CV with different names would get a different treatment.

I've mostly been working with international companies here, where I guess people understand that as a company you want to hire the best talent, wherever it comes from, and whatever the ethnicity (or gender!).

Did you apply to smaller sized local companies or ones with a more international and open culture ?

While I agree that this practice is seriously unfair, it is not specific for Switzerland.

Driving through France I once listened to a radio report about a young French lady of North African descent who made excatly this issue the topic for her master thesis: She wrote applications with equally good CVs once with a French name and once with a typically Algerian name.
She evaluated the outcome scientifically (and made follow up calls with the employers) and the result was the same as you experience (while nobody wanted to admit it of course).

My name cannot be tracked to a specific culture, only sounds "foreign"... I am not sure if that is good or bad.

However, I applied over the years to hundreds of jobs and my suggestion to you is anyway: Try to find openings through existing contacts or apply directly at the companies, not through agencies. I met easily twenty agencies and had up to three follow up meetings per opening, it never worked out.
While the experiences ranged from "complete waste of time" to "good people but bad luck" I never had a measurable outcome, so I usually avoid them by now. If you want to use one, make sure the agency has a clear assignment, otherwise they are always a complete waste of time.

I have found that the one most important and most efficient thing when you apply for a job (regardless if directly or via agency) is to call up the contact person first. Talk about the job, ask some questions and then finish the call by agreeing to send in your CV.

If you take this step, I am convinced that your foreign name becomes much, much less important.

Consider all the hours chasing around with agencies and then ask if you're doing the same meeting people - the Vitamin B, as it's called in the German-speaking parts. You'd quite happily spend half a day dealing with visiting an agency, but would you spend that time having coffee with a few people who would be more personable to your situation and able to offer leads?

Meeting people and getting your message aired is the key. Applying directly is secondary, IMO.

I did call & discuss about the jobs alot of times, only worked twice Check Them Here

I have to say though that Switzerland is one of the few countries in my experience where you actually quite successfully can get a job via job ads or agencies. Networking is one way but don't totally rule out ads and agencies.

Personally I would say that I have gotten 25% of my jobs via networking and 75% via ads.

I were working at one of the biggest global multinational companys HQ in Lausanne, it was great & i did a good job (References speaks for itself), i did get this job through a US recruiter (So Swiss didn't do me no favor in the past 4 years), unfortunately it was a contract for 5 months & it's finished.

Well there is a preference for CH/EU people first and then the rest. This can be controlled by the government/canton at the permit application/renewal stage.

I am aware of a situation recently where a non-CH/non-EU asian tried to get their permit renewed and the employer was told:

Due to the forthcoming recesssion they have restricted the work permit contingent for non EU citizen. Only highly specialzed people from non EU countries have a chance to get a permit.

They would consider a new application


- a regular Swiss work contract with a minimum salary of CHF XX,XXX

-a very detailed petition letter why only this person can do the job
-prove that employer could not find anyone with that skill set within Switzerland and EU countries
-university diplomas

bill

I think that mostly depends on what you are applying for.

IT jobs are a bit critical in terms of security.

I understand the worry about the data security, specially that my skills includes Ethical Hacking & Computer Forensic Investigation (Guess my risks are higher then my benefits!)

As a matter of fact, usually a first preference in terms of employment goes to the local people with stronger permits holders (citizens, C, B and etc), then possibly to the neighbouring countries' residents who speak one of the official languages, then further from other EU countries and eventualy this circle expands further and further to non-EU... If there is not enough of local talents on the market then the agencies look for employees to be outsourced from the outside...

I work for international company where knowledge of English is mandatory to be able to communicate with quiet understanding that speaking German is an obvious advantage for incumbents...

At least it was a situation before the worldwide economic crunch, but it might have change eversince as the jobs have become more scarce.

I think there maybe good reason you suspect what you're suggesting but I honestly think you are partly searching for a problem. It can be any number of reasons why they 'bin' a persons CV.....& like you have been advised, there is nothing you can do about it.

If like you say, you have applied for so many jobs then I think it is near impossible to chase all of these up personally & you may need to be more specific & create more 'target' jobs & pursue them more rigorously.

I don't think also you also have to be negatively thinking that applying for international jobs means you may have to spend more time than necessary away from your family. I know of many jobs where International companies are trying to set up offices in Switzerland (mainly Zurich but all over CH), some are huge companies probably attracted by this country's economic stability through a really tough global recession,tax concessions and of course (in IT) they want to service companies here who are wanting to turn their Swiss organisations into global concerns (there are many innovative ideas/products here just ripe for the world market but lack the knowledge or know-how bigger countries have to do that).

If what you are suggesting is true, then I would see this as a positive thing, they are shortlisting your applications for you as you have to value yourself higher than a measly few agencies who will certainly fall by the wayside when things get worse as their strategy for recruiting employees on behalf of employers who live in the stone-age is based on what you are called rather than who you really are. I wish you all the best luck & I hope soon you will find what you were really looking for.

I think this case doesn't apply on me, I'm living here since 4 years, married to a Swiss, my kid is Swiss, my permit is valid apart from being employed or not.

Excuse me for stating the obvious, but do you put that in your CV and expect to get a job?

Well i have studied & worked in this field in my last project here in Switzerland, the project was to provide sufficient data & electronic evidence for a law firm to be used in cases being prosecuted at the US Federal Courts

I'm having my official certification in April in this field.

Don't see any reason to refuse me for this, it's a very well respected domain serving justice & increasing network & data securities after all, isn't it?

I don't think there is a recruitment agency in the world that would NOT throw out your cv with the word 'hacking' in it! No matter how reputable and certified you are at doing it! Surely some combination of the words: forensic, security, investigator, inspector, auditor, etc etc would be much much better.

with recruitment agencies in particular and most HR departments at the first cut they look for the minimum that the job requires, and reject all that don't fit, including those that may allude to a dubious background i.e. hacking.

Unless you are directly talking to the person you will be with/for using that word is a no no!

Unless you are not only in IT, but in security, most will not know what ethical hacking is and at best will view it as some altruistic pentest (even the term pentest will be greeted with confusion by many).

Recruiters are primarily salespeople who sell their services to companies, actual knowledge in the area they are recruiting for is often limited at best, especially in smaller firms where the same recruiter probably covers both marketing and IT accounts at the same time.

When writing a CV, this needs to be taken into account, that it will pass through multiple stages of ignorance and expediency before getting to someone who is actually in your field.

Well thats what i'm writing as skills but the certificate i'm having is called "Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator" & i definitley can't tell them to change the name cause Swiss agencies doesn't like the word hacking