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by metters 1354 days ago
I think this guide is not too bad [1]. Some stuff depends on the business you are in and the company you are applying at. Listing the marital status used to be very important, but I don’t believe it still is.

German companies love official certificates, as if they really prove something (most time it doesn’t imo)

As most people here, I am working in IT. Since there is a demand for us, I don’t feel like I really have to stick to those rules. For example, I gave up on having a German CV, even for non international companies. I was tired of curating two CVs. Companies expect us to be proficient in English anyway, so I expect the same.

[1] https://hallogermany.com/blog/cv-lebenslauf

2 comments

Just to back this up, Jana is a fairly experienced career coach. Her advice is definitely worth listening to.

However, I suspect that resume cultural differences aren't that big of a deal. I've seen my share of resumes, and they tend to be bad in a universal way.

It turns out that most people aren't great writers, so they just emulate what they think business letters sound like. It reads equally weird in every country, like any DIY promotional material.

This is correct. IT professionals are such in high demand, that company might indeed overlook the "American CV Syndrome" a lot more for them.
> IT professionals are such in high demand

This is a myth (Fachkräftemangellüge) and utter nonsense. If it were true, IT professional salaries in Europe/Germany would explode to the insane heights we read about from the bay area and FAGMAN companies. I can provide you infinite sources that explain that the average salary for software engineers in Germany is somewhere around 65.000 euro a year, before taxes. Even the vast majority of IT employees with "architect" in their name won't even make 100.000.

My international company based in Austria, Vienna has no trouble at all to fill vacancies and we usually get several fitting candidates we can pick from.

It’s just a pain in the ass to have a team over there.
In Europe? Why?