Make a resume in Spanish, German, French, Polish or Serbian

Applying for a job in another language means more than translating the page. The resume has to read as if it was written in that language, and it has to match what that posting asks for. SnugCV can write your tailored resume in the language of the posting, or in one you pick.

This guide covers the setting, what it changes and what it leaves alone, how one plain bullet reads in each language, how CV habits differ from one country to the next, and how to check a resume in a language you may not read fluently. If you are new to tailoring, how to tailor your resume to a job posting in about a minute shows the whole flow first.

The languages available

In Settings, under Resume preferences, the Resume language option offers:

• Auto-detect
• English
• British English
• Polish
• German
• French
• Spanish
• Serbian

British English is its own option, so British spelling such as organisation and programme is a choice you can make without writing in a different language. The list has no regional variants of Spanish, French, German or Serbian, so check regional vocabulary yourself, such as words that differ between Spain and Latin America or between Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Option one: let it follow the posting

Leave the setting on Auto-detect. SnugCV writes the resume in the language of the job posting. Paste a posting written in Spanish and you get a Spanish resume. Paste one in German and you get a German one, whatever language your profile is in.

This is the easiest way to apply across several countries, because you do not need to change anything between applications. A posting from a company in Madrid, one from a firm in Berlin and one from a London employer come back in three languages with no visit to Settings in between.

One case needs care. A posting may be written in English by a company that hires locally, for a team that works in another language. Auto-detect follows the posting, so you get an English resume. If you know the team works in German, choose German yourself.

1. 1

   You paste a posting

   In any language, from the web app or the Chrome extension.
2. 2

   SnugCV reads its language

   With Auto-detect on, the posting's language is used. With a language chosen, your choice wins.
3. 3

   The resume is written

   The summary and the reworded bullets come back in that language.
4. 4

   Facts are copied across

   Employers, titles, dates and education are taken from your profile as written.

Option two: choose a language

If you want a Spanish resume for a posting written in English, for example because the company works in Spanish, choose Spanish in the setting before you tailor. Every new resume and cover letter will follow it until you change it back.

Remember that the setting applies to new documents only. Documents you have already made are not changed.

How to make a resume in Spanish, step by step

1. Build your profile from your current resume. See how to upload your resume and build a reusable profile.
2. Open Settings, set Resume language to Spanish and choose Save preferences.
3. Open Tailor resume, paste the posting and generate the resume. See how to tailor your resume to a job posting.
4. Read the result closely and edit anything that does not sound right.
5. Download the PDF.

The same steps work for German, French, Polish or Serbian. Only the language in step 2 changes. If you tailor from the Chrome extension, it uses the same setting, so a language chosen in Settings applies there too. See tailor your resume from LinkedIn and Indeed.

What changes and what stays the same

Your facts do not change with the language. Employers, job titles, dates and education are copied from your profile as they are written. That means a job title you wrote in English in your profile stays in English in a Spanish resume. If you would rather have a local-language title, change it in your profile before you tailor, or in the document afterwards.

Here is the whole picture, part by part.

Three of those rows deserve a second look before you send anything.

A job whose bullets were not reworded keeps its profile text exactly. If your profile is in English, that job can show English lines inside a Spanish resume. Read every job, including the older ones.

Dates are copied as you wrote them. A range such as Mar 2021 - Present keeps the English word Present in a German resume. Replace it in your profile with a word from the language of the resume.

Skills keep your profile's wording. SnugCV may reorder them for the posting and may leave out clearly irrelevant ones, but it does not rename them. If you want a skill named in the local language, rename it in your profile. Tool and product names such as Excel or SAP are usually left in English in every language, and that reads as natural.

1. 1

   Marta Ruiz | Valencia | marta.ruiz@example.com | +34 600 555 010

   Header

   Name, location, email and phone are copied from your profile.

2. 2

   Summary

   Section heading

   Headings come from the layout and are in English, whatever the resume language.

3. 3

   Agente de atención al cliente con experiencia en soporte por teléfono y correo electrónico para una operadora de telecomunicaciones. Resuelve reclamaciones, gestiona la cola de incidencias y forma a nuevos compañeros.

   Summary text

   Written in the language you chose, for the posting.

4. 4

   Customer Support Agent, Lumen Telecom, Mar 2021 - Present

   Job line

   Title, employer and dates are copied as written. Edit them in your profile if you want local wording.

5. 5

   Resolví reclamaciones de clientes por teléfono y correo electrónico y mantuve bajo control la cola diaria de incidencias.

   Bullet

   Your own bullet, reworded into the chosen language.

6. 6

   Zendesk · Customer onboarding · Conflict resolution

   Skills line

   Skill names keep your profile's wording. They may be reordered for the posting.

One bullet, five languages

Here is one made-up bullet for each language, shown beside the English bullet it grew from. They show how a plain bullet reads in each language. They are illustrations, not output copied from the product, and your own result will use your own facts.

Four things to notice.

• Past-tense verbs carry gender in Polish and Serbian, and titles carry it in French, German and Spanish. Check that every form matches you.
• The German and French lines drop the subject pronoun and use participles or noun phrases. That is a common way to write a CV line in both, and it keeps the line short.
• German postings often add (m/w/d) after a job title to show the role is open to everyone. It belongs to the posting, so leave it off your own titles.
• Product names, certifications and tool names stay as they are. A resume that is in one language apart from those terms reads naturally.

How CVs differ from country to country

A resume in another language is also a resume for another country, and the habits differ. What follows are general conventions. They vary by employer, industry and region, so treat them as a starting point and then look at how the employer's own site and postings write.

One thing is shared. The Europass CV tool, which many European applicants know, advises listing experience in reverse chronological order, most recent first. That matches how the upload step orders your profile, newest first.

Some of those conventions have a place in a layout and some do not. This table shows what SnugCV's resume layout holds.

The layout holds your name, location, email, phone, links and the sections listed in Settings. If an employer expects a photo, a date of birth, a signature or a consent line, find out how the application wants it supplied, for example in an upload field or in the form itself.

For language levels, the Europass tool uses the six levels of the Common European Framework (A1 to C2) and asks you to rate listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production and writing separately. The Languages section in your SnugCV profile takes any text, so you can write a line such as Deutsch (B2) and it is copied as typed. Rate yourself honestly. A language line is something an interviewer may test in the room.

If you are unsure whether a document should be called a resume or a CV where you are applying, CV vs resume explains the difference.

Check the result

A resume in a second language deserves a closer read. Look for phrasing that is correct but not what a native writer would choose. If you can, ask someone fluent to read it. You can edit every line in the document before you download it. See how to edit your tailored resume.

Before you send a resume in another language

• Every job's bullets are in the language of the resume, including the oldest job
• Verbs and job titles match your gender in the languages that mark it
• The word Present, or any month name written in English, is replaced in the date ranges
• Titles, employers and degrees are exactly as they were, with a short gloss only where the local reader needs one
• The Languages line shows levels you could demonstrate
• The script is the one the posting uses (Serbian)
• Your name and the first lines look right in the downloaded PDF
• A fluent reader has seen the summary

0 of 8 done

If you ask a friend or a colleague to read it, make the request easy to answer.

A message to a fluent reader

CopyPrint

Hi [name], I am applying for a [role] position at a company in [country], and the posting is in [language]. Could you read the attached resume as if you were hiring for this job? Please mark anything that sounds unnatural, too formal, too casual or like a literal translation, and tell me if something a local employer would expect is missing. Thank you.

Mixing languages

These are the common cases and what to do in each.

Keep your profile in the language you can check best. The resume is built from it, so a profile you can verify line by line gives you a resume you can verify line by line.

Troubleshooting

Mistakes that cost interviews

About the interface

The SnugCV interface itself is in English for now. More interface languages are planned. Resumes can already be written in the languages above.

Keep going

Once the language is right, the next question is the shape of the page. Resume formats explains chronological, functional and combination orders, and how to choose your resume template, font and section order covers the layout settings. If the application also wants a letter, how to write a tailored cover letter shows how it is written from the same posting.