Hey all,
A friend of mine requested a zwischenzeugnis and thanks to this forum I had found out that these often contain flags or keywords that HR departments are familiar with. At the bottom it says 'This zeugnis is uncoded' but we are not sure if that is the case.

I'm just going to post the main thrust of this letter and hope someone can tell me if this is a good reference letter. He can request another and has been told so by his supervisor but isn't sure how this first one stacks up. He had to wait 6 weeks for it as well.

"Herr Rggggg erledigt seine Aufgaben selbstständig und zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit. Er verfügt über gute fach-und Berufskenntnisse, welche er gezielt einzusetzen weiss. Herr Rggggg analysiert klar wie auch systematisch, entwickelt Eigeninitiative und setzt diese direkt und erfolgreich um. Er verarbeitet dank seiner guten organisatorischen Fähigkeiten, grosse Arbeitsvolumen effizient und in guter Qualität.

Herr Rggggg ist offen für Neues und erledigt die ihm übertragenen Aufgaben mit grossem Engagement sowie sorgfältig und exakt. Unsere Kunden betreut er in den Sprachen Deutsch und Englisch".

There is another short paragraph I can add in too but don't want to write too much. My German isn't good enough to assess this well enough to be able to read through the lines, so to speak, so any help or ideas would be really appreciated.

This construct, I believe, was used at one time to signal lack of initiative. It implies that he does only what is put in front of him. But have a look yourself, here for instance http://www.personalradar.ch/arbeitsr...ungshilfe/1024

zu unserer vollen Zufriedenheit
is one level bellow zu unserer vollsten Zufriedenheit
which is one level bellow stets zu unserer vollsten Zufriedenheit

Thanks to you both! Sounds like he was right to be suspicious. I guess the 'this is not coded' at the bottom is there for legal reasons.

I was told that when "only" the word "gut" appears, well, that's a bad sign.

Er verarbeitet dank seiner guten organisatorischen Fähigkeiten, grosse Arbeitsvolumen effizient und in guter Qualität.

IMHO, this means that you are doing an ok job.

However, there are circles who say that's nonsense, arguing that, "Was voll ist, kann nicht noch voller werden, und schon gar nicht vollst" (What's full cannot get any fuller, let alone fullest.")

Sounds like you know some German teachers. I can relate.

That was discussion I had with a company in ZH about 8 years ago.

The bit at the end which the OP did not include could also be important, especially if there is a statement about how eager the employer would be, should the opportunity arise, to re-employ the person.

The bit about waiting for it is normal, they make you wait to be sure that you're not looking for another job. If you keep asking about it, they know what's up.

There are two types of language used, one codified the other not. If uncodified the Zeugnis should say something like "dieses Zeugnis ist nicht kodiert". If that is the case interpretations such as those on personalradar.ch should not apply.

I found that RAV gave very good advice about the "Zeugnisse" The lines you have quoted sound OK to me, but it is worth running them past an HR person to see if there are any red flags or glaring omissions. "No coded" is there for legal reasons but you have to take it at face value