CV customs

How to write your CV is a matter of taste. If you ask 10 different people what your CV should look like, you probably get 10 different answers. But there are some criteria a CV should fulfill, no matter what kind of format you choose.

This is the tricky part, because these criteria change from country to country. Of course you should always include work experience, education and other qualifications like language and computer skills. But which personal information you should add, differs from country to country.

In Ukraine, personal information is usually put at the top of the CV, since Ukrainian employers consider issues like age and marital status as important information. In West on the other hand, a CV should always start with work experience and your qualifications which you consider important for the job applied for. If you are sending your CV to a company in another country, you should not include information like age, marital status, how many children you have or any physical disabilities of yours. This could, if even necessary, be discussed during the interview.

Whether to put your picture in your CV or not, is also a matter of different customs. In Ukraine, it is very common to put your picture on your resume. In many Western European countries, this is not the case. But be careful, in some countries, like Germany, including your picture is standard.

Therefore, to be on the safe side and make sure your CV doesn’t go directly to the recycle bin based on the first glance, do your homework well. A quick Google search on the internet can be very helpful to find the CV standards for the country of your interest. To be smart and play by the rules might take you one step closer to the job you want.