How to Write Your CV in English (With Example)

CV or résumé: which English CV are you writing?

English-speaking countries do not agree on what a CV is. Decide which version you need before you translate a single line, because it changes the length and the personal details.

If you apply to an international company in your own country, ask yourself where the recruiter sits. When in doubt, the UK-style CV is the safe default in Europe.

What to remove from your current CV

Many continental European CVs carry details that UK, Irish and US employers do not expect, and in the US they can make a recruiter uncomfortable, because anti-discrimination rules discourage them from seeing them at all.

• Photo: leave it out for the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada.
• Date of birth, age, place of birth and marital status: remove them.
• Nationality: only mention your right to work if it matters, for example "EU citizen, eligible to work in Ireland".
• Full postal address: city and country are enough.
• Signature, place and date at the bottom: not used in English CVs.
• Children, religion, parents' names, ID number: never.

Section titles in English

Use the plain, standard titles. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems look for them, and a creative heading only slows them down.

Job titles: translate the role, not the words

A literal translation of a job title often sounds odd, and sometimes means a different job. Use the title a recruiter in that country would type into a search box. Look at five or six real job ads for your role in English and copy the title they use.

Titles that are already used in English in your country, such as Product Manager, Key Account Manager or Software Developer, stay as they are.

• Keep seniority words people search for: Junior, Senior, Lead, Head of.
• Avoid internal grades nobody outside your employer understands: describe the level instead.
• If your official title is unusual, write the common equivalent and keep it consistent across your CV and LinkedIn.

Degrees and grades

Qualifications are where a CV loses most of its meaning in translation. The rule: give the closest English equivalent, keep the original name in brackets, and add one line of context if the system is not well known.

Do not convert grades into a scale they were not awarded in. Writing a German 1.7 as a GPA or a French 14/20 as a percentage invites mistakes. Write the grade as it is, with its scale, or describe it in words when an official equivalent exists.

Applying for a regulated profession such as nursing, teaching or engineering? You may need official recognition of your degree. The ENIC-NARIC network lists the recognition office in each country.

Write the bullet points the English way

English CVs have their own grammar, and getting it right is what makes a CV read as written in English rather than translated into it.

• Start each bullet with an action verb: managed, built, reduced, launched, negotiated.
• Past tense for past jobs, present tense for the job you have now.
• No "I" and no full sentences with a subject: "Reduced delivery time by 20%", not "I was responsible for reducing".
• Numbers as digits, with a comma for thousands: 12,000 customers, €1.5m budget.
• Dates as month and year: Mar 2022 – Present. Most recent job first.
• One spelling throughout: British (organise, programme) for the UK and Ireland, American (organize, program) for the US.

False friends and typical mistakes

Some words look English but mean something else. Translators, human and machine, still let a few of them through, so check your CV for these.

Languages: use CEFR levels

Words like good, fluent or advanced mean different things to different people. The A1 to C2 levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) are understood by employers across Europe and by most international companies elsewhere.

• Write Native for your mother tongue.
• Give every other language a level: English C1, German B2.
• Add a certificate if you have one: IELTS 7.5, Cambridge C1 Advanced, Goethe-Zertifikat B2.
• Be honest: a recruiter can test your English in the first five minutes of the interview.

Before and after: a translated line vs an English one

A word-for-word translation is usually correct and still sounds foreign. Here is the difference on four typical lines.

Example of a CV in English

Here is a short UK-style CV for a marketing specialist from Spain applying in London. It follows every rule above: no photo or date of birth, standard section titles, an English job title, a Spanish degree with its equivalent and languages with CEFR levels.

Add your own email address to the contact line. Notice what is not there: no photo, no date of birth, no signature and no "Curriculum Vitae" heading. The name is the heading.

How to translate your CV quickly

You have three options. Writing the English CV yourself gives the best result if your English is strong. A translation app or a chatbot is fast, but you lose the layout and have to paste everything back into your template.

A CV translator built for CVs keeps the design and translates field by field: Cvida makes a translated copy of your CV in the same template, keeps your name, employers and dates as they are, and leaves the original untouched. Whichever route you take, read the result once with this guide next to you.

• Job titles match real job ads in that country.
• Degrees have an equivalent plus the original name.
• No photo or date of birth for the UK, Ireland or the US.
• Every bullet starts with a verb, in the right tense.
• One spelling, British or American, throughout.
• The page breaks still fall in sensible places, since English is often shorter.