Resumes by country: photo, age, page count

Resume conventions are not decoration: in several countries they protect the employer from legal exposure. In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, a photo, an age or marital status exposes the company to a discrimination claim. Many recruiters would rather drop a file containing those than have to justify disregarding them.

The short table

• France. Photo optional and increasingly rare. No date of birth, no marital status. One page under ten years of experience, two beyond.
• Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Photo expected, its absence is noticed. Date of birth common. In Germany the resume is dated and signed at the bottom. In Switzerland, nationality and residence permit gate hiring: leaving them out costs.
• United Kingdom, Ireland. No photo, no age. Two pages is the norm, not one. A short personal statement at the top is expected.
• United States. One page under ten years of experience. No photo, no age, no full postal address: city and state are enough.
• Italy, Poland. An explicit data-processing consent line at the bottom is standard practice. Its absence is noticed.
• Gulf states, North Africa. Photo is customary, civil status common, and nationality or visa status is expected because it gates hiring.
• Japan. The format is standardised. A free-form Western resume is poorly received in traditional companies.

The translation trap

Translating your resume is not enough: it has to be reshaped. A French resume translated into English is still a French resume, with its photo, its single page and its confusing headings. Conversely, an American resume sent to Germany looks rushed because it has no photo, no signature and no full dates.

What does not change

Three things hold everywhere. Quantified achievements beat job descriptions. One column reads better, for machines and humans alike. And a resume tailored to the posting beats a perfect generic one, in any country.