French CV format tips and requirements (2023)

Are you looking for a job in France, Canada or another French-speaking country? Are you applying for a position in a company with a strong international vocation? Please note that you will need to provide a Curriculum Vitae in French. The quality of the CV must be impeccable, under penalty of discrediting your level of French or even your general profile. How to write a resume in French? This article details the differences between a French CV and an English CV.

French resume example

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How to create a resume in French

There are important differences between a CV in French and a CV in English. When writing your CV in French, keep the following points in mind:

Curriculum Title

If you are used to putting a title at the top of your documents, be very careful with your CV in French. Do not write "CV" or "Curriculum Vitae" at the top of your CV, as it is quite recognizable without having to explicitly name it.

Instead, please indicate the position you wish to apply for, for example, "French-English Bilingual Medical Secretary." To choose your resume title, find the position described in the job posting and add something to differentiate it, if possible. Be careful, however, not to fall into clichés with adjectives such as "serious" or "motivated".

Whereas, the title of your English resume should contain your own name, which works as the main title, your professional title, and contact details.

Personal information

The amount of personal information that should be included on a French resume generally depends on the position you are applying for. At a minimum, you must include the following information:

• First and last name;

• Landline and mobile phone numbers;

• Email address;

• Full address;

• Era.

Depending on the characteristics you want to highlight for the position, you can add:

• Gender;

• Marital status;

• Nationality;

• Driver's license;

• LinkedIn profile (if updated).

For example, indicating that you have a driver's license is useful if your desired role requires business travel by car.

The personal information section of your resume is where you will probably find the biggest difference between an English resume and a French one. Most English resumes do not include marital status or nationality. For example, in the UK it is illegal to even discuss a candidate's marital status. In France, you can choose to tell the recruiter if he is single to highlight his availability/flexibility. On the other hand, being married can be seen as a test of stability or a sense of responsibility. Of course, whether or not to include this information depends largely on the requirements of the specific role.

Remember to include this information on your French resume, be honest about your nationality and whether you have a work permit.

photo

In many English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, laws prohibit employers from requesting a photo. A photograph is considered useless because it does not provide anything to inform the employer about your professional experience. However, this is different in France.

The anonymous resume appeared in France in 2006. This type of resume does not contain a photo, nor even the name and address of the candidate. The idea of ​​the anonymous CV is to eliminate all indications that may cause discrimination in hiring: physical appearance, gender, racial or ethnic origin, social level associated with the place of residence, etc.

However, this initiative had mixed results. Consequently, we see that the anonymous CV never really managed to establish itself in France. Therefore, Human Resources (and companies in general) always expect to find a photo on a French resume. The photo is considered an advantage because it helps make the resume more personal.

So keep this in mind: unless otherwise stated in the job offer, a French CV must include a photo of the candidate.

profile text

Your personal profile is possibly the most important aspect of a CV in English. Located at the top of the page, just below the personal information.

The resume profile section is not always present on French resumes. However, due to the Anglo-Saxon influence, it is increasingly common to write a text that summarizes your profile in a French CV. Although profile text is not widely used in France, it can only be an asset on your resume. This is a unique opportunity to outline your objectives in a few words. Also, this short quick read presentation gives the recruiter a brief overview of your resume. This is a little extra that can clearly make the difference between your CV and that of other candidates.

This text should be placed at the top of the page, just below the personal information. Keep it short, no more than six sentences. A successful personal profile gives the reader an idea of ​​her identity and outlines her skills and career goals. Focus on the facts, be specific, and give examples of your skills. When your profile is too generic, it doesn't stand out from other candidates. Your profile should only apply to you!

resume length

In most English-speaking countries, your resume should be one or two sides of an A4 page.

The terms resume and resume are often used interchangeably. However, in the United States, resume and CV are two separate documents. A "resume" is a concise one-page document that focuses on skills relevant to the job. While a resume provides a full background of your education, experience, skills, and qualifications and is typically much more extensive than a resume.

In France, this distinction between "CV" and "curriculum vitae" does not exist. The length of the resume must be one page.

general format

Despite its reduced format of one page, the French CV should be organized and have a light graphic. If you are very experienced, this can be a real challenge! To help make the page less confusing, use a very factual and direct style. Feel free to use bullet points without making complete sentences.

Spelling and language level.

In some countries, especially English-speaking ones, language flaws in a resume can be compensated for by other qualities of the candidate. Unfortunately, French recruiters tend not to be very forgiving in this area.

Therefore, you should be careful to remove any spelling, grammar, or conjugation errors from your resume. Use simple sentence structures to make sure you don't make mistakes. If necessary, ask someone to review your resume for you.

Education

In France, the attention of recruiters is particularly focused on education. While professional experience is slowly beginning to gain value, education remains key. Please list educational achievements, including training, and remember to specify:

• Name of your school or university;

• Exact title of their diplomas or certificates;

• Classification or results obtained (indicate the equivalent in French).

career continuity

Finally, you must indicate the start and end dates of each of your professional experiences. Please list your experience in chronological order, most recent first. If possible, list your experiences continuously, without leaving a year blank. This is extremely important as it is frowned upon in France to leave a "gap" in your professional record. If your background is shaky or not fully up to date, be prepared for this to be brought up during the job interview.

How to translate your English to French with CVMaker

Most of the time, you will need to use your existing English CV to translate it into French. CVmaker is an online service that helps you write your CV in English and translate it into French. This service is provided by professionals and takes into account not only language differences, but also cultural differences between countries to create a suitable CV.

If you have already produced your resume in English through CVmaker, it will be very easy to translate it into French. To do this, you must go to "My CV" and choose "duplicate" the CV in English. You can transform the duplicate by applying a French format to it ("Personal Data" and select "French"). Headers and titles will be automatically translated. You will have to translate the content.

French translations of main words

To help you translate your CV into French, we have provided a list of frequently used words in a French CV below.

General terms

• Education–School training

• Training, race qualification training

• Certificate, Grado–Diplôme

• Skills

• Professional experiences – Professional experiences

• Interests, hobbies–Interests, hobbies

• Interview–Interview, job interview

language skills

Language skills: Language skills\Mother tongue, Mother tongue, Native speaker: Fluent mother tongue, Almost mother tongue: Fluency\Competent, Advanced: Very good proficiency\Intermediate level: Intermediate\Basic, Elementary: Elementary level Reading: Lu\Written language , writing–Écrit\Spoken language, speech, verbal communication–Parlé

profile text

• Eager to learn, curious, studious–Studieux

• Motivated, eager – Motivated

• sensible-sensible

• Leadership, taking the initiative, giving direction, managing, executing–Capacité à manager

• Communicative-Communicant

• Stress proof, stress resistant, able to work under pressureAbility to work under pressure

• Results oriented, focus on results

• Reliable, Reliable-Reliable Reliable-Reliable

• Customer Friendly, Customer Oriented – Customer Relational Qualities

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• Knowledge-Knowledge

Personal information

• Personal and Personal Data – Personal Information

• First name

• Surname, Surname, Surname – Nom de famille

• Email, email address–Email

• Phone, phone number, phone number–phone number

• Direction Direction

• Postcode, postcode, postcode–Postcode

• Street name, street name–Nom de rue

• Place of residence, city, county–Place of residence

• Date of birth, date of birth–Date of birth

• place of birth, place of birth

• Gender, sex – Sex

• Marital Status – Family Status

• Nationality-Nationality

Professional experience

• Work experience, career summary, employment history – Expérience professionnelle

• Function, position–Position

• Currently, present, current position, “year/date” onwards–En cours

• Schema, Feature Description/Summary: Post Description

• Responsibilities, main responsibilities - Responsibilities

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• Achievements, achievements–Results / Successes

Common professions/jobs

• Cashier, girl/boy cashier – Caissier

• Sales Representative, Sales Clerk – VRP

• Warehouseman, shelf stacker – Warehouse

• Customer service representative, customer service agent–Agent de service à la clientèle

• Biker-Driver

• Hospitality – Hospitality professions

• Waiter, Waitress–Waiter/Waitress

• Construction worker, builder–Construction worker

• Carpenter-Charpentier

• Mechanical-Mechanical

Education

School education is the most difficult to translate as there are as many school systems as there are countries! Therefore, it is generally not possible to find an exact translation for every course you have taken or every degree you have earned. However, below you will find some translations of words commonly used on a French CV:

• Education–Training

• Practices, Practices, Practices – Practices

• Elementary school - Elementary school

• Institute of secondary education

• A-Levels-Bachelor

• University–University

• Bachelor's degree - Professional license

• Master of Engineering

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• Dissertation - Master's Dissertation

• Dissertation - Doctoral Thesis