A Swedish CV is short, factual and easy to scan. Recruiters here are wary of marketing language and long lists of adjectives. They want to see what you have done, where, and what came of it. Get the format right and your application will look like it belongs.
Keep it to one or two pages
The expectation in Sweden is a reverse-chronological CV of one page for early-career candidates and at most two for experienced professionals. Put your most recent role at the top. Anything older than fifteen years can usually be summarised in a single line or left out.
Lead with a short profile of three or four sentences that says who you are professionally, what you are looking for, and one or two concrete strengths. Avoid empty phrases such as “team player” or “results-driven” on their own. A Swedish recruiter reads those as filler.
What to include
- Contact details: name, phone, email and city. A Swedish phone number and a LinkedIn link help.
- Work experience: employer, job title, dates, and two or three bullet points per role describing your responsibilities and measurable outcomes.
- Education: degree, institution and year. International degrees are welcome; you can note the country.
- Skills and languages: list languages honestly with a level, for example “Swedish (basic)” or “English (fluent)”. This matters more than almost anything else for an international candidate.
The photo question
Including a photo is common in Sweden and broadly accepted, but it is entirely optional and never required. A neutral, friendly headshot is fine. Leave out personal details that recruiters in some other countries expect, such as date of birth, marital status or a national identity number. They are not used in Swedish hiring and can look out of place.
Tailor every CV to the specific advert. Swedish recruiters often map your bullet points directly against the listed requirements, so mirror the wording of the job description where it is honest to do so.
Get the references right
You do not need to print references on the CV itself. The line “References available on request” is enough. When you do share them, ask permission first and give your referee a heads-up about the role, since Swedish employers genuinely call.
Where to research roles and salaries
Before you write, read several real adverts for the kind of role you want. The national job board Platsbanken, run by the Swedish Public Employment Service, is the largest single source. To understand what a given profession involves and earns in Sweden, our sister site Allayrken.se profiles more than 7,000 occupations with salary and outlook data.
Once your CV is ready, the next step is the letter that goes with it. Read our guide to the Swedish cover letter, and when you are invited in, prepare with our walkthrough of the Swedish job interview.