Table of content:
- What are recruiters looking for in a resume?
- What is the format to write a German resume?
- How to write a German resume in 2022?
The resume is the first thing that a potential employer will see about you. It is more than just a list of your accomplishments. It is an opportunity to show an employer that you’re the right fit for the job.
Therefore, it is essential to have a resume that makes a good impression. It should not be a simple copy of your career path. The resume is part of your personal branding and should summarise all your skills, experiences and education in a way that makes you stand out.
This article highlights some tips to perfectly write a German resume.
1. What are recruiters looking for in your resume?
Before writing a German resume, you need to know who will read your application. And depending on that, you need to adapt it to them and make it as easy as possible.
Your resume also needs to match the job offer you are applying for.
Recruiters usually take less than a minute to read a resume. They need to find all the information they need and to be interested in your profile very fast. This means that you need to write your resume so that they can easily find out why you could potentially do the job.
In a resume, recruiters are looking for the following information:
Picture:
The first impression of a resume is as important as the first impression during an interview. Adding a picture is a good idea and can give the recruiter a first positive opinion of who you are.
But it is important to know that in Germany, it is not compulsory to add one. It is your own choice. But if you do so, you should take a professional picture, not one of your holidays!
Experience:
The second thing that recruiters are looking for, is your experience and your skills. To see if you fit the job or not.
Job-hopping:
Recruiters need to understand your whole career path to decide if you could fit in for the job. Running from job to job can be seen as negative but you can also have a very good reason for each job change (economic layoff, personal reason…).
“In the last 8 years, I worked for 5 different companies. I already got some negative feedback from companies who were looking for long-term contracts, which I wanted to. The reasons why I changed jobs had nothing to do with me. Between, bad management, internal harassment, covid, etc most of the reasons were due to my employer or external causes.” – Margaux S.
The gap in your resume:
If you have a gap in your career path, we also advise you to explain it. From 3 to 6 months, it is not necessary but for more than 6 months, explain what happened during this time off. Or at least prepare the reason for the interview. Reasons can be various: unemployment, travel, training, parental leave…
2. What is the format to write a German resume in 2022?
Format:
A4. Use a clear and simple format. Avoid too many colours or very heavy designs. Keep it simple!
Contact information:
Put them at the beginning, usually on the left: phone number, address, e-mail, date of birth, residence, nationality, and marital status.
Picture:
As explained above, they are not compulsory; if so, make a professional one.
Short profile description:
The point of the short profile description is to show very fast who you are. Recruiters don’t always read cover letters, and this is a good way to tell them more about you. Describe in a few bullet points and max 3-4 sentences.
Experience and studies:
This is the most important part. Always describe chronologically, from the most recent to the oldest experience.
For this part, use the same keyword on your resume as on the job description. Again, recruiters don’t take much time to read a resume and are looking for specific keywords.
Don’t simply write your whole experience, select in your career path what makes sense for the job. If you are applying for an I.T. job, you don’t need to explain that you did a summer job at a bakery.
Skills:
For many jobs, hard skills are not the only important ones. Nowadays, employers are also looking for profiles with soft skills such as team player, negotiation skills or even empathy. It is important to mention them. If you want to know more about skills, read our article “Job skills: hard, soft and mad skills – What is the difference?”
This is also the part where you add other knowledge skills like I.T., CRM or for example Adobe software tools.
Don’t forget to sign and date when you sent your resume to show that you updated it.
You can also create different resumes depending on what type of job you are looking for. For example, if you work in marketing, you can create a resume for positions like E-Commerce Manager, Marketing Manager or Performance Marketing Manager.
Advice: always adapt each resume you send to the job offer. Don’t send the same resume to all applications.
3. How to write a German resume?
Before you start to write a German resume, collect information about yourself, as well as information about the organisations you are applying to. Based on this information, decide what to include and exclude.
Keep your resume brief and to the point
If you want to impress potential employers, your resume should be around two pages and clear and organised (unless you have many years of experience). If you need more space, you can have more, but we advise a maximum of 3 pages.
Summarise your key points
Employers only have a limited amount of time to review resumes and decide whether to invite candidates for interviews. Therefore, you have to make sure that they can read your resume and get the key points about you fast. Focus on highlighting your most important accomplishments, achievements, and skills.
Use bullet points
Bullet points are much easier to read. They also help to make a point or to describe an accomplishment. Make it clear and concise, using only the most important keywords.
For example:
- Trained over 200 new employees on the use of Microsoft Excel
Use action verbs
Action verbs are words that describe actions, such as achieve, accomplish, and many more. When you use such verbs on your resume, you are telling the reader what you have done.
Avoid using passive verbs such as “was responsible for” or “took part in”. Instead, use action verbs such as “achieved” or “managed”.
For example, instead of writing “Was responsible for implementing new sales procedures”, write “Implemented new sales procedures that resulted in a 30 % increase in sales.”
Use numbers and KPIs
Numbers are powerful.
When you use numbers in your resume, you are telling the reader that you are quantifying your achievements and the value of your accomplishments.
“Increased sales by 30% for 5,000 customers” is much more powerful than “Served as a member of the team that increased sales”.
To conclude, a German resume needs to be concise and simple to allow recruiters to find the right information in a short amount of time. They need to find on your resume, the same keywords as the job description to convince them to meet you for an interview.
Are you looking for a job? Don’t hesitate to contact us, our consultant will call you back to advise you about your career.
German Resume Templates
You can download 2 Word templates of a German resume in English and German by simply filling in your name and your e-mail address in the following form. The links to download the templates will be sent to you by email.
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LHC International is a leading executive search firm for the hospitality and operational real estate industry.
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