First of all, I would like to strongly advise you to always use a German version of your CV when applying for a job in Germany – unless, of course, the job advertisement is in English or an English version is expressly requested. The reason for this advice is that most employers in our country expect very good or even fluent German language skills. However, as many candidates nowadays apply with no or only rudimentary knowledge of German, appllications written in English are mostly rejected straight away. So if your CV is in English (and perhaps not in the usual German tabular form), you risk HR staff not even reading your application because they don’t expect you to have the required German skills at all.
Typically, a CV or resumé has in Germany a tabular form, and – apart from the motivaation or cover letter – it often has also a cover sheet. A cover sheet is not mandatory, but it has the advantage that you can place the most important information “at a glance” in this first page, which includes:
- Your profile photo – although it is no longer a must, I highly recommend you to add a professional picture of yourself in which you smile friendly, as this has usually (albeit unconsciously) a positive effect on HR Managers
- Your name, including your birth name in case you have changed your name due, for example, to marriage (this is important especially when it differs from your birth name, which might be stated in your certificates)
- Your qualification (for example Computer Scientist, IT System Administrator etc., Key Account Manager, …)
- Your main focus (positions and roles)
- The targeted position
- Your birth date and birth place (optional)
- Your contact data (your full address and, especially, your e-mail and mobile number)
- Optional: A link to your Linkedin and/or XING profile (if given and if properly maintained, what I highly recommend you to do)
Important: The following details are not relevant and should be omitted in your CV:
- Any details about your parents or siblings
- Any details about your religion affiliation
- Any details about your primary school
Although many applicants tend to state the following optional information, it is recommendable to omit them:
- Marital status and children (in case you absolutely want to mention your children in your CV, please do not state their names or ages)
- Hobbies (however, if you absolutely want to mention your hobbies, please state not more than 3 hobbies and only at the end of your CV. If possible, try to mention only hobbies that could be relevant for the targeted position, which support your health or which are carried out in a team. Very general hobbies such as reading or listening to music are irrelevant, as they say nothing about you (everybody listens to music and reads something…)
After having listed the above mentioned “at-a-glance information” in your cover sheet, you can now start listing your professional experience in the next page. As mentioned at the beginning of this page, CVs in Germany have a tabular form. And they are listed in reverse chronological order, so that your last job appears at the top of the list. Please create a table with two columns and place the relevant information as follows:
- The period of the respective job is stated in the left column (which is usually narrower). Please use the format “month/year – month/year” and make sure that the statements are formatted uniformly. This looks proper and makes it easier to read the document. But what is even more important: Please make sure that the data stated in your CV correspond exactly to those in your certificates and work references! (You have no idea how often it really happens that statements in CVs don’t match with the corresponding documents, which often leads to rejections from the decision-makers!)
- Your position or role in the company
- The name of your employer (please make sure to state the full company name including its corporate form. If the company has changed its name, please state this in your CV so that the corresponding work reference can be identified)
- Your most important tasks (even if it is not so easy: Please only mention the most relevant tasks. If you are applying for a specific job, make sure to state in your CV your past responsibilities that match with those of the job description. If you have a long list of tasks and jobs, it is enough if you only list the tasks of your last jobs. (However, you shouldn’t leave out the jobs, just keep the list of tasks short so that the document doesn’t become unnecessarily long)
- Ideally and depending on the targeted role: your achievements
If you have exercised any side jobs or (relevant) voluntary activities, you can state them in a new list after your professional experience.
The next list includes your qualification (vocational training), which is listed in reverse chronological order as well and in the following order:
- Period (in the left column, same as in the list with your professional experience)
- Course of studies
- Name of the institution
- Degree / title
- Final grade (however, if you finished your studies many years ago, you don’t need to quote your grade, except, of course, if it is a specially high degree)
- Title and grade of your thesis (this is optional and should only be stated if relevant for the targeted position or if you are a recent graduate)
- If you already have gained some professional experience, information about your school graduation is either necessary nor relevant
After your vocational training, please list any further training or specialized certifications you might have.
Then, in a new table, please list your hard skills such as IT and language skills. Don’t forget to indicate your corresponding level of experience such as “expert”, “good knowledge”, “basic knowledge” etc. – as well as “native speaker”, “fluent”, “good knowledge” etc. for your language skills. Not relevant skills can and should be omitted.
As for your soft skills, please do not list them in your CV! Because almost everybody does it, and – let’s be honest: everybody can claim to be success-oriented, communicative or a team player. But it sounds just like empty words. If you want to prove that you really have such skills, then try to describe those skills stating a few convincing examples of your working life. You can place these examples either in your CV or in your cover letter – wherever they fit better.
And last but not least, here some tips concerning the formatting of your CV:
- Please use for the whole document a font type that looks serious and is easy to read. It should not be too small (at least font size 10, rather 11 should be suitable). The font type and size should be uniform in the whole document. The titles can, of course, be larger, but they should be consistent with each other. The same applies for the line and paragraph spacings. So your documents not only will look proper, but also facilitate and motivate the reader to continue with the reading
- Please don’t use too many colors in your CV. If you want to use two or even three different colors, then use neutral ones. The combination black (for the text) with dark blue and/or grey (for the titles) has, for example, a serious and soothing effect. Red, in contrast, appears aggressive, while other colors such as green, pink or turquoise will most probably appear too playful and might have a negative effect
- Please make sure that titles are never at the end of a page. In Microsoft Word documents, you can set your own page break with the key combination „Ctrl“ and „Enter“
- And one more tip: Do not copy the logo of the company where you are applying nor the logos of your past employers in your CV: That was once customary, but now, it is definitely out
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In case you still need some help with the preparation of your CV, just contact me: Based on your experience, strengths, aims, ideas and targeted position, I also offer a ghostwriting service for your individual CV.
Here you will find more information about my Services for Job seekers. And in my Terms and Conditions, you will find a price list for my services concerning the preparation and, if wished, the translation of your CV and other application documents.
And here, you can find some useful tips for the other elements for your application:
