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Tabular, two pages, dates on the left: the German CV
Written by
Janine El-Saghir
Janine El Saghir is an editor at How-to-Germany.com, where she specializes in the practical aspects of daily life and integration for expatriates. With years of...
Reviewed by
Erkan Boga
Erkan Boga is the founder and CEO of qmedia GmbH, the publishing house behind How-to-Germany.com. He established the platform with the clear vision of creating...
Edited by
Sadie Voss
Content Lead & Editor
Sadie Voss is the Lead Editor for How-to-Germany.com. As an expat who carved her own way into Berlin from the United States, Sadie is deeply...
- Format: a table, newest job first, at most two pages. Dates on the left as month and year, employer, position and three to five tasks on the right.
- Photo, age, marital status: none of them is required. Employers may not base decisions on age, origin, gender, religion, disability or sexual identity, and you may leave those details out.
- Attachments: German recruiters expect your certificates behind the CV, merged into one PDF: degree, training certificate and the reference letters from previous employers.
A German CV is a table, not a story, and recruiters expect the same sections in the same order. The template below follows the Federal Employment Agency’s guidance, adapted for people whose education and work history began abroad. Fill it in, then run the salary in the offer that follows through the salary calculator, because German job ads quote gross figures.
The template
| Section | What goes in | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Header | The word “Lebenslauf”, your name, address, phone number and email. Photo optional, top right. | Lebenslauf · Priya Nair · Musterstraße 12, 10115 Berlin · +49 30 1234567 · priya.nair@example.com |
| Persönliche Daten (optional) | Date and place of birth, nationality. You may leave all of it out. | Geboren am 03.05.1994 in Pune, Indien |
| Berufserfahrung | Newest job first. Month and year on the left, then employer, city, position and three to five tasks or results. | 03/2023 – heute · Example GmbH, München · Data Analyst · built the monthly reporting for 40 retail stores · led the migration to a new BI tool |
| Ausbildung | Degrees and vocational training with dates, institution, city and country. Final grade if it helps. For a foreign degree, give the original title and, if you have one, the German recognition statement. | 09/2012 – 06/2016 · University of Pune, Indien · Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science) |
| Kenntnisse | Languages with their level on the A1 to C2 scale, software, driving license if the job needs it. | Deutsch B2 · Englisch C1 · Hindi Muttersprache · Python, SQL, Power BI |
| Engagement und Interessen (optional) | Volunteering and hobbies, only where they fit the job. | Mentor at a coding school for refugees, since 2024 |
| Ort, Datum, Unterschrift (optional) | City, date as day.month.year, signature. Shows the version is current. | Berlin, 12.03.2027 |
| Source: Federal Employment Agency, guidance on the Lebenslauf and the “1×1” of application documents, retrieved 4 November 2026. The example person is invented. | ||
The habits that differ from other countries
- Table, not prose. No summary paragraph, no “objective”. Achievements go into the bullet points of each job.
- Gaps are named, not hidden. A period without work or study gets its own line, for example “08/2024 – 02/2025 · Relocation to Germany, job search, German course B1”. Recruiters read an unexplained gap as something to hide.
- Dates are exact. Month and year for every station, the full date in day.month.year format where a date is needed.
- Certificates travel with the CV. Behind the CV come the reference letters from your last employers, up to three, and the certificate of your highest degree. School certificates only if asked for. Scans, never originals, merged into one PDF. How to read a German reference letter: the Arbeitszeugnis.
- Language follows the ad. A German ad gets a German CV, an English ad an English one. Section headings in German help even in an English CV, because HR software and recruiters look for them.
- Recognition helps. For regulated professions and many skilled jobs, an official statement that your foreign qualification is equivalent opens doors. Where to get it: finding a job in Germany.
Photo, age, marital status: what you can leave out
The photo is no longer a must, in the Federal Employment Agency’s own words. If you add one, it goes top right or on a cover sheet, and it should be a professional headshot. Date of birth, marital status, children and religion are not required either. The General Equal Treatment Act forbids employers to disadvantage applicants because of ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual identity, and job ads may not ask for those characteristics. Anonymized application procedures, which the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency promotes, leave out photo, name, address, date of birth, family status and origin altogether. In a normal application you choose. Many applicants in Germany still include a photo and a date of birth. Leaving them out is your right.
Europass or German style?
The Europass CV is the EU’s free online format, available in 31 languages, and German employers know it. For a job in Germany the two-page table above is still what most recruiters expect, so use Europass as a tool to collect your data and export the German-style version from it, or use it as it is for applications across several countries.
Bottom line
Go with the table format for any job in Germany, and keep Europass for applications across several countries. Photo and date of birth are your call, but name every gap, because recruiters read an unexplained one as something to hide.
Part of working in Germany. Next: the cover letter · where to apply · reading the offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Attach scans of the originals and add a translation where the recruiter cannot read the language. For the official recognition of a foreign qualification, the recognition portal lists exactly which documents and translations the responsible authority needs, and those requirements differ by profession and state.
No, it is optional. If you use one, it carries your name, the job you apply for, your contact details and the photo. Then the photo does not go into the CV a second time. Many applicants skip the cover sheet to keep the file short.
An employer may not base a hiring decision on your age, origin, gender, religion, disability or sexual identity, and a job ad may not ask for those characteristics. You can leave the photo and the date of birth out of your CV without giving a reason. If a portal has a mandatory field for them, that is worth questioning.
Give the original title, the institution, the city and the country, and the dates. If you hold a statement that the degree is equivalent to a German one, add that line below. Do not translate the title into an invented German degree name.
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
- Federal Employment Agency, creating the perfect CV: tabular and chronological, at most two pages, sections, month and year per station, photo no longer a must, signature optional, naming gaps (in German).
- Federal Employment Agency, writing an application: order of stations, attachments, copies instead of originals (in German).
- Federal Employment Agency, the 1×1 of application documents: photo top right, cover sheet optional, up to three reference letters, highest degree certificate, one PDF file (in German).
- General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz), § 1, § 7 and § 11: protected characteristics, ban on disadvantage, job advertisements.
- Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, questions and answers on anonymized application procedures (in German).
- European Union, create your Europass CV: the EU format in 31 languages.
- Recognition in Germany, the official portal on the recognition of foreign professional qualifications.
Further sources (retrieved on 4 November 2026). The template and the example person are our own; language levels follow the A1 to C2 scale used across Europe.