Cover letter: the structure that gets read in Switzerland

Recruiters read your CV first. The letter answers a single question: why you, for this job, at this company. Here is how to answer it in one page.

Updated on 11 October 2026

What the letter is for

The CV says what you have done. The letter says what you will do for them. It links two or three requirements in the ad to evidence from your career, and shows that you know where you are applying.

A letter that could go unchanged to a competitor does not do this job. It is the first thing a recruiter notices.

The four-paragraph structure

One page, four paragraphs. Each one has a specific job.

The opening. The job you are applying for and what draws you to this company in particular: a product, a project, a stated value, a piece of news.
What you bring. The two or three requirements that keep coming up in the ad, and for each one a fact from your career: a task, a figure, a result.
Why them. What you know about the company and what the job would give you. One or two sentences are enough.
The close. Your availability and a clear request: an interview to talk about it.

The Swiss layout

A Swiss letter follows a few conventions that recruiters notice when they are missing.

Your details at the top left: name, address, phone, email.
The recipient's address on the right, level with the window of Swiss envelopes.
Place and date: “Lausanne, 11 October 2026”.
The subject line, in bold: “Application for the position of accountant (ref. 2026-114)”.
The salutation: “Dear Sir or Madam,” or, if you know the name, “Dear Ms Rochat,”.
Your signature below the closing, and the line “Enclosures: CV, work references, diplomas”.

A complete example

For an accountant job at a small Geneva company. The names are fictitious.

Example

Dear Ms Rochat,

Your ad for a full-time accountant caught my attention: Atelier Mabillard SA is moving to project-based cost accounting, and that is exactly the project I have led for the past two years.

At Fiduciaire du Molard, I keep the books for fifteen small companies, from the journal to the year-end close. I introduced monthly closes in Abacus for four of them, cutting the reporting time from twenty days to eight. I also prepare the quarterly VAT returns and am the auditors' contact during audits.

Your growth in Geneva and the importance you give to ongoing training make me want to put this experience to work for a single company, for the long term.

I am available from 1 January, with a two-month notice period. I would be glad to present my background in an interview.

Kind regards,

Julien Favre

Complete examples for 81 jobs: cover letters by job.

What a Swiss recruiter wants to know

Some information saves a back-and-forth. Put it in the letter or the CV, but put it in.

Your status: Swiss nationality, or a B, C or G permit. Without it, some recruiters set the application aside.
Your availability: a date, or your notice period.
The workload you are aiming for, if it differs from the ad.
Your salary expectations, only if the ad asks for them: a range in gross annual salary, stating whether it includes a 13th-month salary.

The closing

In English, “Kind regards” or “Yours sincerely” works. For a letter in French, the long formula remains correct: “Je vous prie d’agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations distinguées.”

In French-speaking Switzerland, a shorter formula is common and well received: “Avec mes meilleures salutations” or “Meilleures salutations”. Pick one and use the same in the covering email.

The mistakes that cost an interview

A generic letter that names neither the company nor the job.
Repeating the CV line by line instead of choosing two or three pieces of evidence.
Adjectives without facts: “dynamic, motivated, versatile”.
More than one page.
Another company's name left in the text from a previous application.
A pleading tone instead of an offer.
Typos. Have someone proofread it, or read the letter aloud.

Letter as a PDF or in the email?

When you apply by email, the letter goes as an attachment, in a single PDF with the CV, references and diplomas. Name it clearly: Favre_Julien_Accountant.pdf.

The body of the email stays short: the job, one sentence on what you bring, the list of attachments. When the company requires an online form, use it, even if it duplicates your application.