How to Write a CV for the Netherlands That Gets Noticed
You have spent years building your professional experience. You have developed valuable skills, managed responsibilities, achieved results, and perhaps even built an international career.
Yet, when you start applying for jobs in the Netherlands, something unexpected happens.
You send your CV. You wait. And often, you hear nothing back.
You begin to wonder: Is my experience not relevant? Am I missing something? Or is my CV simply not good enough?
For many international professionals, the challenge is not necessarily a lack of qualifications. It is learning how to communicate their professional value in a way that resonates with the Dutch job market.
Your CV is more than a document describing where you have worked. It is your opportunity to help an employer understand why your experience matters.
So how can you create a CV that does exactly that?
1. Understand What Dutch Recruiters Look for in a CV
Before changing the format, consider the person reading your CV.
Recruiters and hiring managers need to understand your professional background, relevant skills, and suitability for a role.
They are looking for answers to a few essential questions:
What is this person's professional expertise?
Does their experience match the position?
What have they achieved in previous roles?
Can they contribute to our organisation?
Is it worth inviting them for a conversation?
Your CV should make those answers easy to find.
In the Netherlands, a clear and concise CV is generally preferred. One or two pages are appropriate for many professionals, although more extensive experience or specialist positions may justify additional detail.
The goal is not to include everything you have ever done.
The goal is to communicate what is most relevant to where you want to go next.
2. Choose a Clear Dutch CV Format
A strong CV does not need an elaborate design.
In fact, complicated layouts, excessive graphics, and multiple columns can sometimes make your experience harder to read. They may also create difficulties for certain Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
A practical CV structure for the Netherlands includes:
Contact information: Name, phone number, professional email address, location, and LinkedIn profile.
Professional profile: A short introduction highlighting your expertise and professional value.
Work experience: Relevant positions, responsibilities, and achievements, starting with your most recent role.
Education and qualifications: Degrees, relevant courses, certifications, and professional training.
Skills: Technical skills, industry knowledge, tools, and competencies related to your target roles.
Languages: Your language proficiency, particularly when applying for international positions.
Depending on your profession, you may also include relevant projects, publications, volunteer experience, or professional memberships.
What about your photograph?
A photograph is not generally mandatory on a Dutch CV. Some candidates choose to include one, while others prefer not to. Your decision can depend on the industry, employer, and type of application.
More importantly, remember that your CV should be easy to navigate.
A recruiter should not have to search through several paragraphs to discover your most relevant experience.
3. Your Professional Profile: Make the First Impression Count
One of the most valuable sections of your CV is also one of the most frequently overlooked.
Your professional profile.
This short introduction, usually three to five lines, sits near the top of your CV and provides context for everything that follows.
Yet many professionals describe themselves using general statements such as:
"Highly motivated, hardworking professional with excellent communication skills and a passion for success."
The problem?
This could describe almost anyone.
Instead, focus on your professional identity, expertise, and contribution.
For example:
"International Marketing Professional with 7 years of experience developing digital campaigns, managing cross-functional projects, and supporting brand growth across European markets. Experienced in CRM, marketing automation, and stakeholder management, with a strong focus on data-driven marketing strategies."
Notice the difference?
The second example gives the reader a clearer understanding of the candidate's background and the type of value they could bring.
Before writing your professional profile, ask yourself:
What do I want to be recognised for professionally?
Which experiences are most relevant to my target roles?
What strengths consistently appear throughout my career?
What problems can I help an organisation solve?
Your professional profile should be a reflection of your professional identity, not a collection of attractive adjectives.
4. Focus on Achievements, Not Just Responsibilities
This is where many international professionals miss an important opportunity.
They describe their previous positions through responsibilities alone.
For example:
"Responsible for managing client relationships and supporting sales activities."
This explains what the person was expected to do.
But it tells us little about their contribution.
Consider a different approach:
"Managed relationships with 25 B2B clients across European markets, identifying growth opportunities and contributing to a 15% increase in annual account revenue."
This version provides context, scope, and a measurable outcome.
Not every achievement needs a percentage or financial result. You can also highlight improvements, successful projects, stakeholder relationships, processes developed, or challenges resolved.
For example:
Responsibility: "Coordinated recruitment processes."
Stronger positioning: "Coordinated recruitment processes across multiple departments, improving communication between hiring managers and supporting more efficient candidate selection."
The important question is:
What changed, improved, or became possible because of my contribution?
Use actual results whenever possible, and never invent numbers to make an achievement sound more impressive.
5. Make Your International Experience Relevant
If you have worked in different countries, you may have developed strengths that are particularly valuable in international organisations.
Cross-cultural communication, adaptability, market knowledge, multilingual capabilities, and experience working with diverse stakeholders are all potentially relevant.
But there is a difference between having these strengths and communicating them effectively.
Imagine a professional who previously managed projects in another country.
Their CV states:
"Project Manager at XYZ Company, 2019 to 2024."
For a Dutch recruiter unfamiliar with that organisation, the title alone may provide limited context.
Instead, explain the scope of your work.
What industry did the company operate in?
How large were the projects?
Who were the stakeholders?
What responsibilities did you manage?
What outcomes did you deliver?
For example:
"Led cross-functional project teams of up to 12 professionals, coordinating digital transformation initiatives across three international markets."
Now the reader has something concrete to evaluate.
Your international background is part of your professional value. Help employers understand how it connects to their needs.
6. Optimize Your CV for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
Many employers use recruitment software to manage applications.
These systems can store candidate information, extract details from CVs, and help recruiters organise or search applications.
However, not every ATS works the same way, and not every organisation uses automated CV screening.
To make your CV easier for both software and recruiters to understand:
Use familiar headings such as Work Experience, Education, and Skills.
Use a clear, readable layout.
Include relevant terminology from the job description when it accurately reflects your experience.
Avoid placing essential information only in graphics, text boxes, or complicated tables.
Follow the employer's instructions about accepted file formats.
Use consistent job titles and employment dates.
For example, if the vacancy asks for experience in "stakeholder management" and you have genuinely developed this skill, make sure it appears clearly in your CV.
But avoid simply copying keywords from a vacancy without context.
Keywords help communicate relevance. Evidence helps establish credibility.
Remember that your CV is ultimately written for a person, even when technology is involved in the recruitment process.
7. Tailor Your CV Without Rewriting It Every Time
You may have heard that every application requires a tailored CV.
And yes, tailoring matters.
But this does not mean creating an entirely new document for every vacancy.
Start with a strong master CV that captures your complete professional experience.
Then, for each relevant position:
Review the responsibilities and requirements.
Identify which of your experiences best demonstrate suitability.
Adjust your professional profile to reflect your target role.
Prioritise the most relevant achievements and skills.
Check that your terminology aligns with the vacancy.
For example, someone with experience in both sales and customer success may highlight different achievements depending on the position.
For a sales role, commercial development, revenue generation, and pipeline management may receive greater emphasis.
For customer success, client retention, relationship management, and customer outcomes may become more prominent.
The experience remains the same.
The perspective changes.
This is not about presenting yourself as someone you are not.
It is about helping recruiters recognise the most relevant parts of who you already are professionally.
8. Avoid These Common CV Mistakes
Even experienced professionals can unintentionally weaken their applications.
Here are some of the mistakes worth reviewing before sending your next CV.
Including too much information
Your CV does not need to contain every responsibility from every position. Prioritise relevance and reduce unnecessary detail.
Using generic descriptions
Phrases such as "team player" or "results-oriented professional" become more meaningful when supported by examples.
Making career direction unclear
If you are targeting a new position or changing industries, your professional profile should help explain that direction.
Using unfamiliar job titles without context
Different countries and organisations may use different terminology. Clarify your responsibilities rather than assuming every recruiter understands the title.
Ignoring language requirements
Make your language proficiency clear and accurate. For international roles, employers often need to know whether you can communicate professionally in English, Dutch, or other languages.
Sending the same CV to every vacancy
A generic CV can make even valuable experience appear less relevant than it actually is.
Before submitting an application, consider whether the document answers the employer's most important questions.
9. What If Your CV Still Isn't Getting Interviews?
You have updated your layout.
You have improved your professional profile.
You have highlighted your achievements.
And yet, the interviews are still not coming.
It can be tempting to keep changing the same document, searching for the perfect wording.
But sometimes the challenge is not limited to your CV.
It may involve the positions you are targeting, how your experience aligns with those opportunities, your professional positioning, or the way you approach the job market.
For example, are you consistently applying for roles that require expertise you have not yet developed?
Are you targeting employers that are unlikely to consider your language profile?
Does your CV communicate a clear direction, or does it reflect several different professional identities?
These questions are worth exploring before making another round of changes.
A stronger CV can improve how your experience is presented. A stronger career strategy helps ensure you are presenting it to the right opportunities.
Your CV Should Reflect the Professional Value
Your career is more than a timeline of positions, employers, and responsibilities.
It is a collection of experiences, choices, challenges, achievements, and lessons that have shaped the professional you are today.
And when you are building a career in a new country, it is especially important not to lose sight of that value.
The purpose of your CV is not to fit yourself into a template.
It is to communicate your professional story in a way that is clear, relevant, and meaningful to the people who need to understand it.
Sometimes, that requires looking at your experience from a different perspective.
Recognising strengths you have taken for granted.
Finding the connections between what you have done and what you want to do next.
And learning to communicate your value with greater clarity and confidence.
Ready to Strengthen Your Professional Positioning?
At LOGIN Coaching, I support international professionals navigating the Dutch job market.
Combining my recruitment background with professional career coaching, I help clients look beyond the surface of their CVs and explore the bigger picture: their professional identity, unique value proposition, career direction, and job search strategy.
Together, we work on communicating not only what you have done, but what makes your experience relevant to the opportunities you want to pursue.
Because a strong CV is not simply about getting noticed. It is about being recognised for the value you bring.
