Swedish recruitment emphasises clarity, collaborative contribution, and verifiable facts on a one-to-two page A4 CV—often paired with a concise one-page cover letter (personligt brev) or targeted screening questions on portals such as Teamtailor, Workday, and Greenhouse. Whether you apply in Swedish or English, using ISO yyyy-MM date ranges, clear section headings, and honest language proficiency helps hiring teams evaluate your application without friction.
| Part of application | Swedish standard | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Dates & header | Consistent yyyy-MM (or MMM yyyy) dates; city, +46 phone, email, and LinkedIn | Including your 10- or 12-digit personnummer on a CV PDF |
| Work experience & tone | Matter-of-fact bullets showing your contribution, tools, and verified results | Exaggerated solo credit for team outcomes or vague buzzwords |
| Personligt brev & references | Focused 1-page letter when requested; 'Referenser lämnas på begäran' or at offer stage | Publishing referees' private phone numbers and emails on a public CV without consent |
Use ISO yyyy-MM dates and a clean A4 structure without a personnummer
Sweden uses the ISO 8601 date convention (yyyy-MM or yyyy-MM-dd) across business and administration. Formatting your employment and education dates as 2022-04 – 2025-09 (or Apr 2022 – Sep 2025 on an English CV) keeps your reverse-chronological timeline immediately clear to Swedish reviewers.
Keep your Swedish personal identity number (personnummer), marital status, and religion off your CV. Place your name, city, +46 phone number, email address, and LinkedIn or GitHub URL in the top body of page one, followed by a brief profile summary, Work Experience (Arbetslivserfarenhet), Education (Utbildning), and Skills/Languages (Kompetenser & Språk).
Balance individual ownership with team collaboration in your bullets
Swedish workplaces operate with flat hierarchies and strong cross-functional teamwork. Write achievement bullets that state the concrete system, process, or project you delivered, the methods you used, and the verifiable outcome—while accurately crediting how you collaborated across engineering, product, operations, or client teams rather than using inflated self-promotional language.
List university degrees (Kandidatexamen, Magisterexamen, Masterexamen, Civilingenjörsexamen, or international equivalents) and relevant higher vocational qualifications (Yrkeshögskola — YH) with the exact institution and completion year, and state your Swedish and English CEFR levels (A2, B2, C1, C2, or Svenska som andraspråk / SFI progress) honestly.
Coordinate your CV with your personligt brev and Teamtailor/Workday portals
When a Swedish employer requests a personligt brev (personal letter), keep it to under one A4 page explaining why you are interested in the specific role and how your experience fits the team—never paste your entire CV into prose. Many Swedish companies also use Teamtailor (career.*) or competency assessments alongside CV uploads; run your exported A4 PDF through the browser PDF text check before applying.