Danish CV guide
Show Danish employers what you can do
You do not need more impressive wording. You need to show how your education, projects, student work, volunteering, or international experience proves that you can do this job.
Workindenmark advises applicants to identify the main hard and soft skills in a vacancy, state the strongest professional match early, and support skills with specific examples. You do not need to meet every listed preference.
Read the official guidance →What employers asked for
A focused snapshot of large-company hiring
We reviewed 41 vacancy observations from ten large employers in Denmark. The sample contains 21 active roles and 20 recent 2026 roles or programmes. Most were student jobs and internships, with ten graduate or entry-level observations.
What this means for your CV
Employers repeatedly asked for communication, collaboration, analysis, structure, and project work. These are not keywords to paste into a skills list. Each one needs a short example that shows what you did, how you worked, and what you produced.
Sample boundary: This is a focused employer panel, not the complete Danish labour market. It covered LEGO, Vestas, Arla Foods, Systematic, Danfoss, Deloitte, Maersk, Novo Nordisk, EY, and PwC. Absence from the sample does not mean an employer does not hire internationals.
Step 1 · Read
Find the proof they want
Do not begin by rewriting your CV. First identify the five to seven requirements that appear most important. Separate them into three groups.
Degree, current enrolment, language, location, work hours, security conditions, or another requirement that determines whether you can be considered.
Tasks such as analysing data, coordinating activities, preparing presentations, supporting stakeholders, or testing solutions.
Communication, collaboration, initiative, accuracy, curiosity, and the ability to organise work.
Important: “Preferred,” “an advantage,” and “nice to have” do not mean the same thing as “required.” Do not reject yourself because you lack one preference.
Step 2 · Prove
Your best evidence may be hiding in plain sight
Workindenmark explicitly treats student jobs, volunteering, internships, fixed-term work, and degree projects as experience. The useful question is not “Was this a professional job?” It is “What does this example prove?”
Analysis, research, teamwork, presentations, deadlines, methods, tools, and written deliverables.
Reliability, accuracy, customer communication, handovers, problem-solving, and working under pressure.
Coordination, ownership, communication, event planning, and working with people outside your course.
Language skills, unfamiliar systems, cross-cultural teamwork, adaptation, and knowledge of another market.
Analytical, structured, and a strong communicator.
Checked 12,480 sales records for missing values and duplicates in Excel, then presented the project's findings and limitations to the class.
One example may support several requirements, but every claim must remain interview-defensible. If you cannot explain how you did it, narrow the wording.
Step 3 · Arrange
Make your strongest proof impossible to miss
There is no mandatory Danish CV template. Use a simple structure and let relevance decide whether education, projects, or work experience appears first.
Phone, professional email, current city, and an up-to-date LinkedIn profile when it adds value.
Your strongest relevant qualification, two or three supported competencies, and the type of role you are targeting.
For many students this is education and selected projects. Move experience first when it proves more.
Student work, volunteering, tools, languages, courses, and interests that help this application.
Two pages is a useful target, not a national rule
Aalborg University reports that 73 percent of employers in the recruitment research it cites prefer no more than two pages. Use less when the evidence fits clearly, and always follow the vacancy instructions.
Step 4 · Write
Give every sentence a job
Workindenmark describes the profile as a top-of-page summary, commonly four to eight lines. It should change for each serious application and place the primary match near the beginning.
International MSc student in Business Intelligence with academic experience analysing retail data in Excel and SQL and presenting findings through Power BI. Brings practical coordination and customer communication experience from student work and volunteering. Seeking a business or data student-assistant role in Denmark.
For experience bullets, name the action, context, method, and deliverable or supported result. Explain unfamiliar organisations and foreign job titles briefly. Use numbers only when you know where they came from.
Avoid: unsupported claims such as “increased efficiency,” “drove strategy,” or “managed stakeholders.” When no measured result exists, describe the deliverable, scope, decision, or observable outcome.
Step 5 · Check
Employer instructions override general convention
Large employers do not all request the same application package. Some ask for a CV and transcript. Some use application questions instead of a cover letter. Current Vestas postings also instruct applicants to remove photos and several personal details. Read the vacancy before relying on a general Danish convention.
Optional and context-dependent. Omit it when the employer asks you to, or when you prefer not to share one.
observed practiceKeep disclosure minimal. Never include a CPR number, passport number, health information, or another sensitive identifier.
official guidanceAn English vacancy normally supports an English application unless the employer says otherwise. State language levels accurately.
editorial inferenceSubmit exactly what is requested. A transcript, application question, CV, and cover letter serve different purposes.
observed practicePrefer a readable one-column layout, clear dates, consistent headings, and wording that accurately matches the vacancy.
observed practiceSource ledger
What this guide relies on
- Workindenmark: your CVOfficial guidance. Checked 16 August 2026.
- Workindenmark: a good personal profile countsOfficial guidance. Updated 25 March 2026.
- Workindenmark: work experienceOfficial guidance. Updated 12 March 2026.
- Arla Foods: Learning Analytics and Operations student roleOfficial employer vacancy. Included in the 16 August 2026 snapshot.
- Vestas: student worker application instructionsOfficial employer vacancy. Included in the 16 August 2026 snapshot.
- Deloitte: Finance Consultancy ProgrammeOfficial employer programme evidence. Reviewed 16 August 2026.
- Aalborg University: CV guideUniversity guidance. Employer percentages cite recruitment analyses from 2020, 2022, and 2024.