CV conventions across Europe: how expectations differ in Germany, France, the UK, and Spain

Why the same CV does not travel well

European employers share the same broad goal when reading a CV: understand your education, experience, and skills quickly. What differs is format. Photo conventions, length, personal details, and whether a cover letter is mandatory vary by country, sometimes because of local anti-discrimination law, sometimes because of long-standing hiring culture. Adjust your CV per country rather than sending one version everywhere.

Germany

German employers expect a tabellarischer Lebenslauf, a tabular, reverse-chronological CV listing education and work experience with exact dates. A professional photo (Bewerbungsfoto) remains common in Germany even though it is not legally required, and many applicants still include one in the top corner. German CVs typically run one to two pages and end with a place, date, and signature line, a formality that surprises applicants used to other markets.

Structure your German CV with clear sections in a fixed order: personal details at the top, then work experience, education, and skills, each listed with exact start and end dates. German employers also expect you to attach copies of your degree certificate and references as annexes (Anlagen) when applying by post or as a combined PDF, not just the CV alone.

National guidance is available through the Bundesagentur für Arbeit , Germany's federal employment agency.

France

French CVs stay short: one page for a student or early-career applicant, rarely more than two for experienced professionals. A photo used to be standard but is now optional and increasingly left out to avoid discrimination concerns, so follow the employer's lead if a job posting does not mention it.

France treats the lettre de motivation as mandatory alongside the CV, not optional. Employers expect a short, specific letter connecting your background to the role, and skipping it signals a weak application even when the CV is strong. Guidance is available through France Travail , the national employment service.

French CVs organize experience under clear headings such as formation (education), expérience professionnelle, and compétences (skills), often including language levels and software skills as a dedicated block. Keep the layout clean and avoid dense blocks of text, since French recruiters tend to scan quickly for structure before reading detail.

The UK

UK CVs avoid a photo, date of birth, age, marital status, and nationality, largely because of equality legislation that discourages employers from seeing this information before shortlisting. A UK CV runs to a maximum of two pages, opens with a short personal statement, and lists references as available on request rather than naming them directly.

Prospects , the UK graduate careers service, publishes detailed CV guidance for students and recent graduates.

Write each bullet point under work experience around a specific result rather than a duty, since UK recruiters and applicant tracking systems both respond better to concrete outcomes. Match your wording to the language used in the job posting where it genuinely applies to your experience, since many larger UK employers screen applications with keyword-based software before a human reads them.

Spain

A Spanish currículum commonly includes a photo, and some applicants also add a date of birth, though this is shifting as more employers move toward blind screening for early-stage roles. Spanish CVs run one to two pages, and larger companies increasingly expect a carta de presentación (cover letter) alongside it, similar to French practice.

The SEPE (Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal), Spain's public employment service, offers job search and CV resources for jobseekers.

Spanish CVs commonly include a dedicated idiomas (languages) section and, where relevant, a driving licence line, since both count as practical qualifications for many entry-level roles. List your education in reverse chronological order and keep formatting simple, since a clean, readable layout counts for more than visual design.

Quick comparison

How to adapt your CV per country

1. Check whether a photo is expected before you add or remove one.

2. Cut length to the local norm rather than keeping every detail from a longer version.

3. Write a new, short cover letter for each country instead of translating one template word for word.

4. Remove personal details the local market does not expect, such as age or marital status for a UK application.

General rules that hold everywhere

Regardless of country, a few habits work well across every European market. Keep your CV free of spelling and grammar mistakes, since even one error signals carelessness to a recruiter reading dozens of applications. List your most recent experience first everywhere, since reverse-chronological order is the shared standard across Germany, France, the UK, and Spain.

Save your CV as a PDF unless an employer specifically asks for another file type, so formatting stays intact across different devices and operating systems. When you apply to a country outside your own, write your CV in the local language unless the job posting is in English, since a CV in the wrong language often gets filtered out before a human even reads it.