Applying in hospitality: find jobs, prepare your documents

Jobs in the kitchen and in service: which qualification for which job

In hospitality, the job ad usually states exactly who the business is looking for: a cook with a completed apprenticeship, a kitchen helper, a trained server or someone for the buffet. So name your qualification and your station in the very first sentence of your letter. If you are starting without a qualification, write instead how long and in what kind of business you have already worked.

• Kitchen assistant EBA (Küchenangestellte or Küchenangestellter EBA, federal VET certificate): two-year basic training, working in a team with the cook. After that, a shortened apprenticeship as a cook EFZ is usually possible.
• Cook EFZ (Koch or Köchin EFZ, Swiss federal VET diploma): a three-year apprenticeship, in demand in restaurants, hotels, hospitals and canteens.
• Restaurant assistant EBA (Restaurantangestellte or Restaurantangestellter EBA): the two-year way into service.
• Restaurant specialist EFZ (Restaurantfachfrau or Restaurantfachmann EFZ): a three-year apprenticeship for service, advising guests and stock management in restaurants, bars and hotels.
• Professional examinations (BP) after a few years of practice, such as head chef BP, diet cook BP, restaurant section manager BP or hospitality business manager BP.
• Advanced professional examinations (HFP) for management positions, for example executive chef HFP or catering manager for institutional catering HFP.

Where hospitality jobs are advertised

Restaurants and bars, hotels, canteens and staff restaurants, hospitals and care homes, catering companies and chain restaurants are all hiring. The work varies a lot: in an à la carte restaurant, speed in the evening counts; in institutional catering, large quantities at fixed times; in a hotel, often both, plus breakfast.

The job ads are spread across the big job portals, the Job-Room of arbeit.swiss, cantonal job boards and the career pages of hotel groups and catering companies. Many smaller businesses only advertise on their own website or locally. Temp agencies also place people in hospitality, for example for short assignments and events. Search with several terms, for example “Koch EFZ”, “Commis de cuisine”, “Jungkoch” and “Chef de Partie”, because every business names the job a little differently.

What belongs in your application file in hospitality

Hospitality businesses often decide quickly. A short, complete file that shows at first glance where you have worked gets you further than many pages. Save everything as one PDF or as clearly named separate files.

• Cover letter, one page at most, tailored to the job and the business.
• CV with your previous employers, the type of kitchen or service (à la carte, banqueting, institutional catering) and your station.
• Certificate of proficiency or federal VET certificate; for further training, the relevant certificates.
• Arbeitszeugnis (Swiss reference letter), including from seasonal jobs. They show that you have proven yourself in different places.
• Courses that count in daily work, for example on hygiene, allergens, wine or barista skills.
• For jobs with guest contact: your languages and how well you speak them.

The cover letter in hospitality: four points that count

Head chefs and hosts often read applications between two services. So keep it short and concrete. These four points belong in almost every letter:

• Qualification, station and type of business in the first paragraph, for example “cook EFZ with three years of experience as chef de partie saucier in a hotel with banqueting”.
• Your availability: from when, which workload, and whether you take evenings, weekends, public holidays and split shifts.
• Something you are really good at, with brief proof: a station you ran on your own, a menu you helped develop, or a banquet where you coordinated the service.
• Why this business: the cuisine, the produce, the location or the guests. One sentence is enough, but it has to fit exactly this place.

Seasonal jobs, working hours and hygiene

In tourist regions, many hotels and restaurants are only open during the season. So businesses put their team together before opening, not once the guests are there. If you are looking for a seasonal job, apply early and state clearly for which period you are available, whether you need accommodation from the employer and whether you have worked seasons before. If you are looking for a permanent job after the season, give the end date of the current season so the new business can plan.

Working hours in the kitchen and in service are irregular: shifts, Sundays and public holidays, and the hours change with the season. Every employer knows that. You stand out if you state plainly what is possible for you, instead of leaving it open.

On hygiene: food businesses in Switzerland are required to carry out self-checks and apply the HACCP system. In daily work, this means checking goods on delivery, storing them as required, watching use-by dates, checking the kitchen and storage regularly and keeping checklists. If you have kept such checklists or introduced new colleagues to them, it belongs in your CV. For jobs with responsibility, such as sous-chef, it almost always comes up in the interview.

Trial shift and interview

In hospitality, the application is often followed by a trial shift, in the kitchen as well as in service. That is where it shows how you organise yourself, how cleanly you work and how you talk to the team under pressure. Clarify beforehand when you should arrive, which clothes and shoes to bring and whether you need your own knives. Stay at your station during the shift, clean up as you go and rather ask once too often where something is.

Practical questions often come up in the interview: What do you do when ten orders come in at once? How do you handle a complaint at the table? How do you find out whether a dish contains allergens a guest is asking about? Think of a real example from a business you have worked in for each question.