Applying after 50: making experience visible, countering objections

Older jobseekers in Switzerland stay without a position longer than younger ones on average – the unemployment statistics of the Federal Statistical Office have shown this for years. At the same time, the employment rate of 55 to 64 year olds is high; so most do find a position again, it simply takes longer.

Legally: Switzerland has no separate anti-discrimination law for age. Protection exists through personality rights (Art. 328 CO) and through the abusiveness of a dismissal (Art. 336 CO), for example if a dismissal occurs solely because of age. In application procedures this is rarely enforceable – which makes your own positioning all the more important.

A 25-year CV with every position since your apprenticeship reads like a chronicle – and to HR managers it reads as "expensive and hard to steer". Two variants have proven themselves:

• Focus CV: the last 10 to 15 years in detail, older positions summarised in one block "Earlier positions".
• Competence CV: training and positions in chronological order, with a block "Core competencies" above it listing evidenced skills.

Leaving out the years entirely is no solution: gaps then become the issue. Better is concentration on relevance – and the willingness to talk about the older positions in the interview.

The decisive difference between "experienced" and "expensive" is evidenced impact. Formulate every key position with three elements: responsibility, action, result.

Instead of: "Head of purchasing, 12 employees."
Better: "Head of Purchasing (12 employees, CHF 40 million purchasing volume): supplier consolidation from 210 to 90 partners, purchasing costs −7 % at unchanged quality."

If you do not have such figures at hand, reconstruct them from old reports, annual financial statements or target agreements. Assumptions do not belong in a CV – verifiable orders of magnitude do.

HR managers check three questions with experienced applicants: do the expectations fit? Is the person motivated for the long term? And: will we agree on salary? The cover letter can answer all three without mentioning age.

• Fit: "The position corresponds exactly to what I have done over the last eight years – including the SAP implementation you mention."
• Perspective: "I am not looking for an interim solution, but for a role I can take responsibility for over the coming years."
• Salary: if the job ad states a salary band: confirm it. If not: clarify it in the interview, do not negotiate in the cover letter.

What you should avoid: "Despite my age I am flexible" – that sentence introduces the topic in the first place.

The higher the position and the longer the experience, the fewer positions are advertised. For applicants over 50 the hidden market is therefore often more important than job portals.

• Activate your network: contact 20 to 30 people from earlier roles – not with "Are you looking for anyone?", but with a concrete question about the industry.
• Executive search: consultancies for management positions work with candidate pools. A CV with result figures and clear positioning really does get filed there.
• Specialist talks and associations: visibility in your own industry generates enquiries that are never advertised.

Realistically: the hidden market needs three to six months of lead time. Anyone who starts only after being dismissed loses that time.

Rejections after applications over 50 are frequent – and rarely a question of qualification. Two strategies help:

• Seek feedback: a short, factual enquiry about the decisive criterion yields a usable answer in roughly one case out of three.
• Portfolio instead of single application: instead of concentrating on one position, apply in parallel to three to five suitable roles – and sharpen the application documents after every piece of feedback.

With the RAV: the number of documented applications is an obligation, quality decides success. Anyone who reacts exclusively to job ads satisfies the statistics but rarely the expectation – speculative applications and network contacts also count and should be documented.