Write a CV that earns the interview

Your CV has one job: to get you invited to an interview. It should show the experience, knowledge and personal qualities that matter for this particular role, not your whole history.

Picture how it is read. A recruitment specialist at Arbetsförmedlingen, the Swedish Public Employment Service, describes spending somewhere between thirty seconds and a minute on each CV in the first round. In that time the reader compares you with the ad's requirements profile. Most ads separate two layers:

• Basic requirements. What you must have to be considered at all, such as a degree, a licence or a set number of years in a field.
• Meriting qualifications. Extras that put you ahead, such as experience with a particular method, system or sector.

If the reader cannot quickly find evidence for the basic requirements, you are unlikely to reach the deeper read that comes before interviews.

Length. One to two pages suits most jobs in Sweden. Choosing what to leave out is part of the work. Academic applications follow their own rules, covered further down.

Recruiters notice a one-size-fits-all CV at once: it lists every course and job, and leaves the reader to work out which parts are relevant. That costs them time and costs you points, because experience you have but did not describe for this role simply does not count.

Before you write, read the ad slowly:

1. Mark each basic requirement and each meriting qualification.
2. Read what the ad says about the organisation: its teams, its customers, how work is organised. Look for situations you have worked in before.
3. Note the words the ad uses for skills and tasks, and use the same terms where they honestly describe you.

Then write so that each requirement has visible evidence:

• Do not assume the reader knows your old job. A title like "process engineer" or "research assistant" means different things in different places. Say what you did, what you were responsible for, which problems you faced and how you solved them.
• Show, do not claim. Anyone can write "strong communicator". Compare: "Presented monthly results to a steering group of eight department heads and rewrote the reporting template they now use." A concrete situation proves the quality.
• Pick your best material. You have more strengths than one page can hold. Choose the few that matter most for this role, and leave the rest for the interview.

Selection questions instead of a cover letter. Many employers now ask screening questions in the application form, from simple yes/no items ("Have you worked with system X?") to open questions that ask you to explain your view. Arbetsförmedlingen has dropped cover letters in its own hiring, and the recruiter we cited sees the industry moving the same way. Treat these questions as the most important part of the application: they tell you exactly what the employer cares about. Answer each one fully with a specific example. Never write "see CV". Our cover letter guide covers employers who still want one.

Unsolicited applications. Sending a CV to an employer that has not advertised can work. Practice varies widely between a two-person firm and a large organisation, and some keep a pool of spontaneous applications to contact later. Tailor these too, to what you know about the organisation.

There is no single correct structure. Choose headings that suit the job and the picture you want to give, and keep them clear so the reader can scan. The sections below are the usual building blocks in Sweden.

Little work experience? Use the experience section for things you have done that show the qualities the employer wants: a student project that needed tight teamwork, an event you organised, a volunteer role where you had to work fast and accurately.

An "about me" paragraph. Keep it professional. A recruiter assesses your skills; your family situation, where you live and private interests do not help them and may distract. The personal meeting happens at the interview.

Photo. Optional in Sweden. Some recruiters prefer no photo so that appearance cannot influence their judgement. If you do add one, choose a professional, neutral picture. It can be relevant in sales or customer-facing roles.

Layout. A clean layout never hurts, and a ready-made template saves time. But unless you are applying for a design job, the reader is judging your competence, not your graphics.

Many companies and organisations publish free CV templates. Searching for "free CV template" in English, or "cv-mall gratis" in Swedish, turns up plenty.

Arbetsförmedlingen offers three free Word templates on its CV page, each in Swedish and English (switch the page language to reach the English files):

Each template contains placeholder text in curly brackets and an instruction box. Replace every placeholder, and delete the box and all instructions before sending. To put your own picture in the photo version, right-click the sample image, choose Change picture, then pick a file from this device. From the keyboard, select the image with Shift and the right arrow key and open the same menu with Shift + F10. Afterwards, update the image's alternative text. Arbetsförmedlingen also has matching cover letter templates: pick the CV whose look fits your letter so the two documents read as a set.

An EU alternative is the free Europass CV editor, useful if you apply in several countries.

A skeleton you can adapt

This example is for an engineer applying for an industry role. Swap in your own content and drop any heading that is empty.

• Amira Haddad, Gothenburg · phone · email · LinkedIn
• Profile
  • Process engineer with six years in battery and chemical production
  • Led scale-up of two production lines from pilot to full volume
  • Experienced with Six Sigma, root-cause analysis and Python data tools
  • Aiming for a lead process role in sustainable manufacturing
• Experience (newest first)
  • 2022 to present. Process engineer, Company A, Gothenburg. Owned yield improvement on line 3; cut scrap rate through a new inspection step.
  • 2019 to 2022. Production engineer, Company B, Cairo. Ran daily operations for a team of twelve; introduced digital shift reports.
• Education
  • 2017 to 2019. MSc in Chemical Engineering, University X. Thesis on electrolyte stability.
  • 2013 to 2017. BSc in Chemical Engineering, University Y.
• Courses and certificates. Six Sigma Green Belt; workplace safety course.
• Software. Python, MATLAB, Minitab, SAP.
• Languages. Arabic: native. English: fluent. Swedish: intermediate, studying.
• Positions of trust. Board member, local engineers' association.
• References. Available on request.

A CV goes out when you apply. A public profile works the other way round: employers searching for staff can find you.

Arbetsförmedlingen's skills profile (kompetensprofil). On the agency's personal pages (Mina sidor) you enter your skills, experience and education. Once you publish it, employers looking for staff can find and contact you, and you can print what you entered as a CV to use in applications. You do not have to be registered as a jobseeker with Arbetsförmedlingen to create one. There are two ways in:

• Swedish citizens and EU/EEA citizens log in with Swedish e-identification, such as Mobile BankID.
• People seeking asylum or new in Sweden use a version with help in seven languages, adapted to protect sensitive personal information. You need an email address and log in with a username and password.

Both routes start on the skills profile page.

LinkedIn and other networks. Keep profiles up to date: employers search them, and LinkedIn's own AI recommends contacts and jobs based on what you save and look at. What you post, share and comment on also shapes how others see you as a professional. Think of it as deliberate communication: decide what you want people to associate with your name. Be yourself rather than a polished version of yourself; the aim is to be clear about who you are and what you bring, not to embellish.

Your short introduction. Prepare a two-minute answer to "Tell me about yourself" that goes straight to why you fit the role, and a looser version for networking. In an association or sports club, start by showing interest in the other person and what they do; asking for a job tip comes later, if at all.

If you are stuck, ChatGPT or a similar tool can help in three ways:

1. Getting started. Ask for a draft summary or a short elevator pitch based on your background, goal and three strengths.
2. Feedback. Paste your text and ask whether it is clear, easy to read and makes your strengths stand out.
3. Language check. Ask it to review word choice, spelling and grammar, which is useful when you write in your second or third language.

Other useful requests:

• Paste a job ad and ask which parts of your experience to highlight.
• Ask which occupations might suit your background and strengths.
• Ask for a draft of the "About" text on your LinkedIn profile.
• Ask for professional forums and networks in your field, and for common networking mistakes and how to avoid them.
• Refine a draft with follow-up prompts: ask it to shorten the text, add a strength, drop a point or try another angle until it sounds like you.

Rules that keep this working for you:

• Make it yours. Read every suggestion and rewrite it in your own voice with your own examples. Employers often use recruitment systems with built-in AI support, and an entirely AI-written CV risks being filtered out.
• Protect your data. Share only what you would happily say out loud to an acquaintance in a shop. Leave out your personal identity number, address, phone number and anything sensitive. Find out who runs the tool and where your data goes before you try a new one.
• Save in a safe format. Save the final text as a Word file or PDF so it opens and displays correctly for the employer.

For lectureships, assistant professorships, professorships and many research posts, the one-to-two-page rule no longer covers the whole application. Universities ask for a qualifications portfolio, often with a fixed template and page limits per part, and the ad or the faculty's instructions decide the details. Three examples:

• KTH Royal Institute of Technology publishes a CV template for appointing and promoting teachers. Keep its numbering, write in English, upload the CV and attachments as one file and your publications separately. KTH checks references for the candidate it proposes.
• Lund University, Faculty of Science asks assistant professor applicants for a cover page, a personal letter of at most one page, a CV of at most two pages, a list of publications, a research plan of at most five pages, two pages on teaching, one page on leadership and engagement with wider society, and certificates. Senior posts use full portfolios for research, teaching, leadership and administration, and external engagement, plus up to ten selected publications.
• Karolinska Institutet requires its own qualifications portfolio for teachers and researchers. Only merits gained before the closing date count. External experts usually take four to six weeks to assess applicants, and a recruitment committee then interviews the shortlist.

What a strong academic application usually contains:

• CV. Degrees with dates and institutions, including where and when you earned your PhD, postdocs, your current position and earlier ones, and the docent title if you hold it.
• Publication list. Numbered, newest first, with all authors in published order and your name marked, plus journal or venue. Add your ORCID iD so assessors can check the record.
• Funding. Grants and awards with funder, amount if allowed, period, and your role.
• Research statement or plan. Your results so far and where your research is going, written for experts outside your narrow niche.
• Teaching portfolio. Courses taught and at which level, supervision of degree projects and doctoral students, course development, teacher training in higher education, and a short reflection on how you teach.
• Leadership, administration and outreach. Committee work, reviewing, collaboration with industry or society, patents, public engagement.

Where a template has a heading you cannot fill, keep the heading and say so instead of deleting it. Interviews for academic posts often follow a different format from industry interviews: see our job interview guide.

Specialist and industry roles. If you are moving from research to industry, shorten the publication list to the few most relevant items, translate research into outcomes (methods, tools, budgets, collaborations, results), and consider a compact skills table and a short projects section with certifications.

Swedish employers may not know how your degree compares with a Swedish one. You can make that easier:

• Degrees and other education. The Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) has a qualification assessment tool showing what many foreign qualifications correspond to in Sweden. You can also apply for an individual recognition statement covering upper secondary, post-secondary vocational or higher education, which UHR says usually takes about two to four months once your documents are complete, though it varies. You can download it as a PDF and attach it to applications. On the CV, write the original degree name and add the Swedish equivalent, for example "MSc (corresponds to a Swedish master's degree, 120 credits, per UHR)".
• Licensed professions. UHR does not assess qualifications for regulated professions. In health care, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) issues the licence to practise for professions such as physician, nurse, midwife, dentist, pharmacist, psychologist and physiotherapist. The route depends on whether you trained inside or outside the EU/EEA. State your licence status clearly on the CV, for example "Swedish licence as a registered nurse" or "licence application submitted".
• Vocational skills. Skills learned at work can be assessed through validation. The Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education (Myndigheten för yrkeshögskolan) coordinates industry validation but does not validate anyone itself. See our validation guide.
• Right to work. If you are not an EU/EEA citizen, employers may wonder about permits. A short line in your contact block, such as "Residence permit for research, valid to 2028" or "EU citizen", answers that early. Our work permit guide explains which permit fits which job.

• Proofread twice. Then let a spell checker, a friend or an AI tool take one more pass.
• Tailored? Check that every basic requirement in the ad is visibly covered.
• Template cleaned up? No curly-bracket placeholders or instruction boxes left.
• Selection questions answered in full, with examples, not "see CV".
• PDF. When you email your CV and cover letter, send them as PDFs with clear names, for example "CV Firstname Lastname".
• Deadline. Submit in good time, always before the last application date.
• Help from your union. If you belong to a trade union, ask what CV support it offers: many unions help members with their CV.
• References lined up. Ask your referees in advance. Our references guide explains how Swedish employers use them.

Ready to apply? Browse open positions.

Arbetsförmedlingen's Play section on CVs, applications and interviews collects free webinars and episodes of its job podcast, mostly in Swedish. Some videos have English subtitles, and the short webinar on CV headings, templates and tips is subtitled in Arabic, English and Swedish. Topics include:

• Writing the CV. Headings and templates; what makes a CV stand out; an expert's view on the common mistakes most applicants make; a live Q&A on CVs, interview preparation and when AI helps or hinders.
• Presenting yourself. Personal marketing, how to introduce yourself in different settings, and using AI for job search and networking.
• Staying the course. Finding motivation during a long job search, and job hunting after 55: long experience means you get up to speed fast and can mentor newer colleagues, which is worth stating on your CV.
• Next steps. Cover letters, common interview questions, five interview formats, video interviews, and how employers use references. These topics have their own guides: cover letter, job interview and references.