"I Sent 5 Applications a Day and It Worked" — Interview with a Swiss Hire Kit User

I didn’t really have a strategy at first — just panic. I was sending maybe two emails a week and waiting. But then a friend who had been through the same process told me: "You need to treat this like a job. Five applications a day, every day, for two months."

So I did that. I made a spreadsheet and set a rule for myself. Every day I had to send five. Didn’t matter if I was tired or busy. Even on weekends. Some days it was hard to find relevant openings, so I would look for speculative opportunities.

That rejection is normal. You can’t take it personally. But what you can do is ask for feedback.

I started writing short follow-up emails when I got rejections. Something like: "Thank you for your reply. If you have 30 seconds, could you please tell me one thing I could improve in my application?"

I was surprised how many people actually responded. One HR manager said: "Your portfolio looks great, but since we’re based in Zurich, we need everything in German."

That was a lightbulb moment. I had sent everything in English. After that, I translated my CV, motivation letter, and renamed all files the way it’s expected here.

Honestly? The little things. I didn’t know that CVs in Switzerland are supposed to be two pages max. Or that you need to use formal greetings like “Sehr geehrter Herr…” instead of “Hallo.”

I once sent a document named “Resume_Final_V3” and only later found out that Swiss HR systems often scan filenames — that probably looked terrible. Now I name everything like “250413_Arjun_Patel_Lebenslauf.pdf.”

I printed out a list of 300 Swiss companies in my industry and crossed them off one by one. I made a system of sorting them: Rejection, In process, Interview, Offer. That helped me feel like I was moving forward.

And when I got my first interview invitation after weeks of nothing, it felt like a win. Even though I didn’t get that job, it showed me that I was doing something right.

The CV section — no question. Seeing an actual example of a Lebenslauf in German made everything clearer. Also, the list of phrases for email greetings and closings saved me so much time.

But most of all, the checklist before sending an application. I taped it to my wall. Every time before I hit send, I looked at it to make sure I didn’t forget anything.