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Translating your resume for another country

Translating a resume is the easy half. The harder half is that resume conventions differ sharply between countries, and a perfectly translated document that follows the wrong conventions still reads as foreign.

Léa Fontaine · Careers writer3 min read

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The short version

  • Translate the content, never the proper nouns. Employer and institution names stay as they are.
  • Conventions matter more than vocabulary — a perfect translation in the wrong format still reads as foreign.
  • Photo, date of birth and nationality are expected in much of Europe and unwelcome in the US and UK.
  • Convert grades to the local scale, or state both. "2:1" and "GPA 3.8" each mean nothing to the other market.
  • State your language level in a recognised frame — CEFR, or "professional working" — not as a bar chart.

Translate the content, not the proper nouns

Job titles, responsibilities, and section headings should be in the target language. Employer names, product names, universities and technologies should not — "Kubernetes" is Kubernetes everywhere, and translating a company name makes it unsearchable.

Where a qualification has no equivalent, give the original and a short gloss: the reader needs to know roughly what level it represents, not a false equivalence to their own system.

Conventions that change by country

These vary more than people expect, and getting them wrong is a visible signal that you didn't research the market.

  • Photos: normal in Germany, France, Spain and much of the Middle East; discouraged in the US, UK, Canada and Australia
  • Date of birth and marital status: still common in parts of Europe and Asia, never included in the US or UK
  • Length: two pages is standard in Germany; one page is the norm in the US
  • Signature and date: expected on a German Lebenslauf, unheard of elsewhere
  • The word itself: "CV" means a short resume in the UK and a long academic document in the US

Register matters

Resume language is more formal in French and German than in American English, where a direct, achievement-forward tone is expected. A literal translation of punchy US bullets into French can read as brash.

This is the part machine translation misses most reliably. Read the result and ask whether it sounds like a document written in that language, or a document translated into it.

Say what your language level actually is

If you list languages, use a recognised scale rather than a personal estimate. In Europe the CEFR levels (A1 through C2) are widely understood; elsewhere "native", "fluent", "conversational" and "basic" are clear enough.

Be honest about it. Overstating a language is the one exaggeration that gets discovered in the first thirty seconds of a phone screen.

Before you send it to another country

Open your own resume beside this and work down it. Every line is something a reader or a parser acts on within the first pass.

  • Employer and university names left untranslated, with a gloss if obscure
  • Job titles rendered as the local equivalent, not word-for-word
  • Photo included or removed to match the destination convention
  • Date of birth and nationality included only where they are expected
  • Grades converted to the local scale, or both stated
  • Dates in the local order — day-month-year in Europe, month-day-year in the US
  • Phone number in international format with a country code
  • Language levels stated on a recognised scale
  • Read by a native speaker of the destination language, if at all possible

Templates for a European CV

The layouts that make room for a photo and personal details properly, which is what a German, French, Spanish or Italian application expects. Switch to a plain one for the US, UK, Canada or Australia — the content is shared.

Browse all templatesSee finished examples

Common questions

Should I send an English resume or a translated one?

Send it in the language of the job posting. If the posting is in English at a company in a non-English-speaking country, English is expected — but having a local-language version ready is rarely wasted.

Is machine translation good enough?

For a first pass, yes — modern translation handles resume content well. Have a native speaker read it before you send it, particularly for register and job titles, which are where the errors cluster.

Do I need to convert my qualifications?

Give the original name plus a short equivalence note. Claiming a direct equivalent you haven't had assessed can create problems later in the process.

Related guides

FormattingChoosing a resume formatThe three standard resume formats, which one suits your situation, and the layout decisions that follow — length, order, dates and section naming.GuideHow to write a resume, step by stepA practical order of operations for writing a resume from nothing: what goes on the page, what to cut, and how to make each line earn its space.AI writingHow an AI resume builder actually helpsWhat AI is genuinely good at when writing a resume, what it should never be trusted with, and how to use it without ending up with a generic document.

Put it into practice

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