Your CV for working abroad: what really changes in each country

CV or résumé: writing in English for the UK and for the US

Many jobs abroad, including at German, Irish or Dutch companies, ask for a CV in English, and that raises the first question: there is no single CV in English. In the US the document is called a résumé. Pomona College's guide for international students puts it this way: what you may know as a CV is, there, the résumé, and it is limited to one or two pages. In the UK it is still called a CV.

The personal details change too. For the US, Pomona College says not to include a photograph, your age or date of birth, marital status, race, religion or visa status. For the UK, the National Careers Service, the government's careers advice service, says you should not include your age, date of birth, whether you are married or your nationality, and that you should include your name, phone number, email address and a link to your work network profile.

What does not change is how you translate: name the role as the same job would be called there, give your degree its official name and length, and explain an employer nobody knows in half a line. Our approach: pick one variety of English, British or American, to match the destination, and do not mix them in the same document.

If you apply in English to a country in the European Union, Europass is a free tool from the European Commission for storing your experience and creating several versions of your CV. It helps; it is not a requirement: send what the advert asks for. And before you send anything, check the destination's official source: EURES for the EU, Make it in Germany for Germany and the National Careers Service for the UK.

CV for working abroad: the country of the job sets the rules

The most common mistake when applying abroad is sending the same CV that works at home. It is not badly written; it is written for someone else. The person reading it in Madrid, Berlin or Austin has different customs, different laws on what they may ask and, above all, has never heard of your employers, your university or what your job was called where you worked.

Our rule is simple: the CV follows the customs of the country where the job is. If you live in Manchester and apply to a company in Hamburg, your CV is a German one even if you have never lived in Germany. If the job is with a foreign company but remote from the UK, look at the language the advert is written in and at who will decide: that tells you whose customs apply.

Moving for work is common. According to Germany's statistics office, around 7.3 million EU citizens were working in another EU country in 2025, and Germany was the destination that took the most. The UK is outside those figures, but the habit of reading foreign CVs is the same.

We have covered photos, columns and layout in our CV format guide, and length in our guide to how long a CV should be. This guide is about what you cannot see at a glance: what changes when a CV crosses a border.

What changes depending on where you apply

This table brings together what public employment services and official or university guides say about the document and personal details in each destination. It is not a list of preferences: every row comes from a source listed at the end. Where a source says nothing, the table adds nothing.

Notice that the biggest differences are not in the design but in the personal details. What counts as a courtesy in one country is something a recruiter would rather not see in another, because it has no bearing on the decision.

Translating a CV is not just changing the language

When a CV changes language, the temptation is to translate word for word. The result is understandable, but it does not read like a CV from that country. A recruiter in Germany does not know what a «Higher National Diploma» is worth, and cannot tell whether «area manager» at a firm in Leeds meant managing people or was just a title.

What you translate is the meaning. The job title becomes the one used there for the same work, with the original in brackets if it helps. The employer gets half a line of context: sector, size and country. Figures for your achievements go in percentages or in a currency the reader understands, noting that it is a conversion.

Your qualification and experience: how they read abroad

Recognition of a foreign qualification is an official process that depends on the country and the profession. To find your way there is the ENIC-NARIC network: national information centres on the recognition of qualifications, now in 56 countries. In Germany, the official portal «Anerkennung in Deutschland» has a finder that tells you whether recognition is possible and whether your profession needs it.

For the CV, what matters is that the qualification is understood: official name, institution, country and years of study. If you already have recognition or an equivalence, say so on the same line, because it saves the reader a question. If you do not, there is no need to explain it on the CV: that is for when the employer asks.

Certificates work in a similar way. EURES says that in Spain you do not normally attach copies of qualifications to the CV unless the advert asks for them. In Germany, by contrast, applications usually include copies of qualifications and certificates, and Make it in Germany recommends having them translated into German or English in good time so you do not miss the deadline.

The cover letter and what goes with the CV

In some countries the CV travels alone; in others it has company. In Germany, according to EURES, a written application includes a cover letter of no more than one side of A4, the CV with a photo and copies of qualifications and certificates, and if it goes by email, a single PDF of up to 2 MB is best. Make it in Germany adds references from previous employers, if you have them.

In Spain, EURES asks for a concise, formal letter tailored to each vacancy rather than a generic one. For other destinations our approach is simple: if the advert asks for a letter, write one for that company; if it does not, a few lines explaining why you are applying to that country answer the question everyone asks when reading a foreign CV.

Contact details, location and availability

A recruiter abroad asks three questions before reading your experience: where you are, when you could start and whether they can call you easily. Answering them at the top, in the contact line, changes how everything else reads.

Give the city and country where you are now and, if you plan to move, the expected date or your availability to relocate. The phone number goes with the international code, and use an email address you check every day. For the US, Pomona College's guide is clear that visa status does not go on the résumé: if you are asked, it is answered during the process, not on the document.

• Current city and country, and your planned moving date if you have one.
• Phone number with +44 and a personal email address.
• Languages with a level that is understood abroad, for example on the Common European Framework (B2, C1).
• A link to your professional profile, if it is in the language of the advert.

The Cernoria approach: one master version and one per country

You do not need to write a new CV for every country. What works is having one complete master version, with all your jobs, achievements and studies clearly explained, and deriving one version per destination: the language, the personal details that go in or stay out, the photo where it is usual and the order of achievements according to the advert.

What never changes between versions are the facts: job titles, employers, dates and figures. The words used to name them change, and so does what you explain. If a fact has to change for the CV to fit a country, the country is not the problem.

A worked example: the same CV for Berlin and for Austin

An invented case to see the decisions in practice. Tom Example is a data engineer in Bristol with seven years at Westcountry Grocers, a supermarket chain nobody has heard of outside the South West. This week he applies for two jobs advertised in English: a logistics firm in Berlin and a tech company in Austin.

1. 1
   Start from the master version

   Tom has a complete CV with all his jobs and achievements. He derives both versions from it, without touching dates or figures.

2. 2
   Explain what is not known

   Under Westcountry Grocers he adds «supermarket chain, 4,000 staff, UK». His degree goes with its length: three years, plus a one-year master's.

3. 3
   Adjust the personal details

   For Austin there is no photo and no date of birth, just as in the UK. For Berlin he adds a professional photo, as is usual there, and signs and dates the CV.

4. 4
   Put together what goes with it

   For Berlin he writes a one-page cover letter and attaches his degree certificates in a single PDF. For Austin, just the two-page résumé, because the advert does not ask for a letter.

The check before you send it abroad

Before sending it, read your CV as someone from that country who knows neither you nor your employers. If any answer is «no», that line needs fixing.

• Is it in the language of the advert, with job titles named the way they are named there?
• Does every little-known employer have its half line of sector, size and country?
• Are the personal details the ones expected in that country, and not one more?
• Are the figures in percentages or in a currency the reader understands?
• Does the phone number have the country code, and does it say where you are and when you can start?
• Does it include what that country expects alongside the CV, such as a letter or copies of qualifications?