Nordic CV format: what each country’s employment service asks for

First step: choose the country, then read its own service

There is no shared Nordic template. Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland each run a public employment service, and each publishes its own CV advice. Those four sets of advice overlap on structure and part ways on the personal block at the top, which is the part a foreign applicant most often gets wrong.

1. Note the language of the job ad. All four services write their main advice in the national language; the ad tells you which language the employer reads.
2. Open the advice for that one country (links in the table below) and decide what goes in your personal block.
3. Write a summary of three to eight lines that answers this ad, not your whole career.
4. List languages with a level for each, including your mother tongue.
5. Check whether you need a permit to work there before you spend time on a tailored CV.

Left to other guides

Apostilles, translations and the work status line are covered in the guide to CVs for jobs abroad. Language levels have their own guide, and so does the Europass format. This page only covers what differs between the four countries.

How each service describes the CV

Sweden: Arbetsförmedlingen

Arbetsförmedlingen, the Swedish Public Employment Service, says one to two pages is enough and that you do not need to list everything you have done. Its common headings are Education, Experience, Contact details and a short Summary; languages, computer skills and associations get headings of their own. It offers three free Word templates, one with a photo box and two without, and asks for the CV as a PDF named along the lines of ‘CV Forename Surname’ when you apply by email. It also warns that a text written entirely by AI risks being sorted out by recruitment systems, and points union members to their union for CV help.

Norway: NAV and arbeidsplassen.no

NAV's CV article on arbeidsplassen.no starts the personal block with name, date of birth, email, phone and address. It then asks for craft or master certificates (fagbrev, svennebrev, mesterbrev) and any authorisation, a driving licence where useful, certifications such as a forklift licence, and each language with its spoken and written level, mother tongue included. The summary is called key qualifications and should be rewritten for every job. NAV's English page for newcomers adds that a cover letter is common in Norway and that some ads marked superrask søknad take no CV at all.

Norway: where Work in Norway went

The workinnorway.no portal was shut down on 2 March 2026; its closing page sends readers to nyinorge.no, which in turn links to arbeidsplassen.no for vacancies and CV advice. Older guides that cite Work in Norway point to a dead site.

Denmark: Workindenmark

Workindenmark, the Danish job search service that is part of the EURES network, puts a personal profile of four to eight lines at the top, sometimes next to the photo. It should name your top three competences for this job and, often, why you want to move to Denmark. Its do and don't page warns that a profile full of career goals reads as a lack of relevant skills. For each past job it asks you to explain a foreign employer (what it makes, its size, where it is) and to say if a job was a student job, internship or fixed term, because a bare entry is read as a normal full-time paid job.

Finland: InfoFinland, Job Market Finland and Work in Finland

Finland's advice is split across three public sites. InfoFinland, run by the KEHA Centre, gives the CV as usually one to two pages, newest first, with Finnish courses under a separate heading, licences such as a hygiene passport under other skills, and referees named only with their permission. It says a photo is allowed but some recruitment is anonymous. Job Market Finland, the public employment portal, repeats the one-to-two-page length and asks applicants who studied abroad to describe what the degree covered, since titles vary between countries. Work in Finland, run by Business Finland and the KEHA Centre, lists jobs for English-speaking professionals.

The comparison table: four services on one page

Each cell paraphrases the official page linked at the end. ‘Not stated’ means the page read for this guide says nothing on the point, not that the country forbids it.

The biggest split: what goes in the personal block

Denmark is the outlier. Workindenmark says Danish employers want to know about your family and spare time because it helps them judge whether you will settle and stay, and suggests telling them if your spouse would relocate too. InfoFinland, by contrast, lists family, religion and political activity among the things a Finnish employer may not ask in an interview. Writing the same personal block for both countries means getting one of them wrong.

One applicant, four headers

The sample person is invented: Elif Kaya, a mechanical engineer from İzmir with six years at a wind turbine parts maker, applying in English. Only the top of the CV changes; the experience section stays the same in all four.

The experience line Workindenmark asks for

04/2020 to present Production Engineer, Örnek Rüzgar A.Ş., İzmir, Türkiye. Örnek Rüzgar makes steel towers for onshore wind turbines and employs about 600 people. I plan the welding line for tower sections and lead weekly supplier audits; rework fell from 7% to 3% in 2025. Full-time, permanent.

The second sentence explains the employer and the last two words say what kind of job it was, the two things Workindenmark says a Danish reader cannot guess. The figures are part of the invented example; use your own.

Sources, with their dates, read on 13 October 2026

Permits: where each country sends you

• Sweden: the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) handles work permits and residence permits for work.
• Norway: nyinorge.no says anyone from outside the EU and EEA needs a residence permit to work or live in Norway.
• Denmark: the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) handles residence and work permits, including for unpaid work.
• Finland: Work in Finland points to the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) and its application finder, and notes that a specialist residence permit is not subject to labour market testing.

Permit rules change often; read the linked official page on the day you apply.

Where this comparison stops

• Iceland is not covered; none of the sources read here speak for it.
• Regulated professions such as nursing need recognition first. NAV points to the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, and InfoFinland notes that recognition of a foreign degree is charged for.
• An employer’s own application form overrides all of this; fill in the fields it asks for.
• This is advice from public services, not law. A Danish employer may still prefer a CV without family details, and a Swedish one may never look at the photo.

Next steps and other ways to build it

• Arbetsförmedlingen's three Word templates, or a skills profile on its My pages that prints as a CV.
• NAV's Min CV, which NAV can share with employers if you agree; you need a Norwegian electronic ID to log in.
• Workindenmark’s CV pages, including its do and don’t examples for the personal profile.
• Job Market Finland’s applicant profile, which employers can search.
• CitedCV, if you want the English CV drafted from facts you confirm, with EU conventions. It writes in English, Turkish and German, not in a Nordic language.

If the ad wants a Europass CV or a CEFR level for each language, the guides below cover both.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Arbetsförmedlingen, Writing a CVarbetsformedlingen.se/other-languages/english-engelska/cv-application-and-interview/writing-a-cv
2. Arbetsförmedlingen, Skriva cv (Swedish)arbetsformedlingen.se/for-arbetssokande/jobbansokan/skriva-cv
3. NAV / arbeidsplassen.no, Slik skriv du ein god CV (Norwegian)arbeidsplassen.nav.no/slik-skriver-du-en-god-cv
4. NAV / arbeidsplassen.no, Applying for a jobarbeidsplassen.nav.no/en/work-in-norway/applying-for-job
5. workinnorway.no, closure noticewww.workinnorway.no/en/
6. Ny i Norge, New in Norwaywww.nyinorge.no/en/
7. Workindenmark, Personal details in your CVworkindenmark.dk/job-search-in-denmark/your-cv/personal-details-in-your-cv
8. Workindenmark, Work experienceworkindenmark.dk/job-search-in-denmark/your-cv/work-experience
9. Workindenmark, A good personal profile countsworkindenmark.dk/job-search-in-denmark/your-cv/a-good-personal-profile-counts
10. Workindenmark, Personal profile: do’s and don’tsworkindenmark.dk/job-search-in-denmark/your-cv/a-good-personal-profile-counts/dos-and-donts
11. InfoFinland, Job application and CVinfofinland.fi/work-and-enterprise/find-a-job-in-finland/job-application-and-cv
12. Job Market Finland, Job search in Finland: five tipstyomarkkinatori.fi/en/news/tyonhaku-suomessa-viisi-vinkkia-kansainvaliselle-tyonhakijalle
13. Work in Finland, About uswww.workinfinland.com/en/about-us/
14. Work in Finland, Open jobswww.workinfinland.com/en/open-jobs/
15. Swedish Migration Agency, Workwww.migrationsverket.se/en/you-want-to-apply/work.html
16. SIRI / New to Denmark, Work permitwww.nyidanmark.dk/en-GB/You-want-to-apply/Work