Free resource
European CV Template
A complete CV structure with examples you can copy and adapt for your international applications.
Header — Contact Information
- ✓ Full Name — use your legal name or the name on your passport and diplomas
- ✓ Target Role Title — e.g., 'Senior DevOps Engineer' or 'Product Manager'
- ✓ Location — 'Lisbon, Portugal' or 'Open to relocation in Europe'
- ✓ Phone — include country code: +351 912 345 678
- ✓ Email — professional format: firstname.lastname@email.com
- ✓ LinkedIn URL — linkedin.com/in/yourprofile
- ✓ Portfolio / GitHub — optional but recommended for tech roles
Professional Summary
- ✓ 2-4 sentences max. Start with your role and seniority level
- ✓ Example: 'Senior DevOps Engineer with 8+ years of experience designing and managing cloud infrastructure across AWS and GCP. Proven track record of reducing deployment times by 80% through CI/CD automation and infrastructure-as-code. Passionate about building reliable, scalable systems for international tech companies.'
- ✓ Focus on: years of experience, key skills, industries, and what you are looking for
- ✓ Tailor this summary for each application — it is the first thing recruiters read
Work Experience
- ✓ Company Name | Location | Dates (Month Year – Month Year)
- ✓ Role Title — use the market-standard title for your target country
- ✓ 3-5 bullet points per role using the CAR format (Context, Action, Result)
- ✓ Example bullet: 'Designed and implemented a multi-region AWS architecture serving 2M+ users, reducing infrastructure costs by 34% while improving availability from 99.5% to 99.95%'
- ✓ Example bullet: 'Led a cross-functional team of 12 engineers across 4 countries to deliver a GDPR-compliant data migration project on schedule'
- ✓ Example bullet: 'Automated 85% of manual deployment processes using Terraform and GitLab CI/CD, cutting release time from 3 days to 4 hours'
- ✓ Include: scope (team size, users, systems), tools (AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform), and measurable results (%, time, cost)
Skills
- ✓ Technical Skills — list by category: Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Containers (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD (GitLab, Jenkins), IaC (Terraform, Pulumi), Monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana), Languages (Python, Go, TypeScript)
- ✓ Professional Skills — cross-cultural communication, remote collaboration, stakeholder management, agile methodologies
- ✓ Keep skills relevant to the target role — do not list everything you have ever used
Education
- ✓ Degree | Institution | Location | Graduation Year
- ✓ Example: 'M.Sc. in Computer Science | University of Lisbon | Portugal | 2018'
- ✓ Include relevant coursework or thesis only if you have less than 3 years of experience
Languages
- ✓ Use CEFR descriptors for precise proficiency levels
- ✓ Example: 'English — C2 (Proficient), German — B2 (Intermediate), French — A2 (Basic)'
- ✓ Avoid vague terms like 'fluent' or 'conversational'
Certifications (Optional)
- ✓ List only active and relevant certifications
- ✓ Example: 'AWS Solutions Architect — Professional (2024)', 'Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)', 'Terraform Associate'
- ✓ Include the issuing body and year of certification