How to Position Your CV and LinkedIn for the Dutch Job Market
Your CV can be professionally written and still not be effective.
Your LinkedIn profile can be complete and still not attract the right opportunities.
The problem is often not the quality of the writing.
It is the positioning behind it.
For international professionals searching for work in the Netherlands, your CV and LinkedIn need to do more than document where you have worked.
They need to help someone understand, quickly:
Who are you professionally, what value do you bring, and where could you create that value next?
Your CV is not your career archive
Many experienced professionals approach their CV chronologically.
They start with their first role and try to capture everything that happened afterward.
Every responsibility.
Every project.
Every promotion.
Every training.
The result can be accurate but difficult to interpret.
A recruiter does not need your complete professional history during the first thirty seconds.
They need relevance.
Your CV should therefore be viewed as a positioning document.
Its purpose is not simply to prove that you have experience.
Its purpose is to make the right experience visible for the role you want next.
Lead with professional identity
Imagine someone reads only the first third of your CV.
Would they understand what kind of professional you are?
Your profile should establish this quickly.
Compare:
“Experienced professional with excellent communication and interpersonal skills looking for a challenging position in an international company.”
With:
“Commercial strategy and business development professional with eight years of experience developing B2B partnerships across European technology markets.”
The second version gives the reader something concrete.
Professional identity.
Function.
Experience.
Market context.
The strongest positioning is usually specific enough to create recognition without becoming so narrow that it eliminates relevant opportunities.
Translate responsibilities into contribution
One of the biggest differences between an average CV and a strong one is the way experience is described.
Average CVs describe activity.
Strong CVs demonstrate contribution.
Consider:
“Responsible for client accounts and business development.”
Compare that with:
“Managed strategic B2B accounts across three European markets, strengthening existing partnerships while identifying new commercial opportunities.”
The second statement gives the reader scope and direction.
Where possible, go further.
What size portfolio?
How many markets?
What revenue?
What improvement?
What complexity?
What changed?
Not every achievement needs a percentage.
Context itself can demonstrate seniority.
International experience needs context
This is particularly important when your career was built outside the Netherlands.
Do not assume that a Dutch recruiter understands the significance of your previous employer, university, position, or market.
Help them.
If you worked for the largest provider in your industry in your country, consider communicating that context.
If you managed clients across multiple countries, make the geographic scope visible.
If your title sounds junior but the actual responsibility was senior, allow the description underneath it to communicate the true level.
Your CV should reduce the amount of interpretation the recruiter needs to do.
Your LinkedIn profile has a different job
Your CV responds to an opportunity.
LinkedIn can help opportunities find you.
That distinction matters.
A strong LinkedIn profile should contain the language recruiters and hiring managers use when searching for people with your expertise.
Your headline should therefore say more than:
“Looking for new opportunities.”
Being available is not your professional identity.
Consider the difference between:
“Open to Work | Looking for opportunities in the Netherlands”
and:
“Supply Chain Professional | Demand Planning | S&OP | Inventory Optimisation | FMCG”
The second profile is easier to understand and easier to discover.
Your About section should tell a professional story
Your About section should not simply repeat your CV.
It should connect the pieces.
Where have you built your expertise?
What kinds of challenges do you solve?
What strengths characterise your work?
What direction are you moving towards?
What environments interest you?
Your professional story should feel coherent even if your career has not been linear.
Career changes do not automatically weaken a profile.
Unexplained career changes do.
The job of positioning is to help another person understand the logic.
Your CV and LinkedIn should recognise each other
If I read your CV and then open your LinkedIn profile, I should feel that I am meeting the same professional.
Not identical documents.
The same professional identity.
The same strengths.
The same level.
The same direction.
Your CV may be more targeted.
Your LinkedIn may be broader.
But your positioning should remain coherent.
Ask one powerful question
When reviewing your profile, stop asking:
“Does this sound good?”
Ask instead:
“What conclusion will a hiring manager reach about me after reading this?”
Will they understand your level?
Will they recognise your expertise?
Will they know where you fit?
Will they understand what differentiates you?
Will they see evidence rather than adjectives?
That is the standard your professional profile should meet.
Your CV does not need to tell your entire story.
It needs to make someone interested enough to hear the rest.
Because good positioning is not about making yourself sound impressive.
It is about making your professional value easy to understand.
At LOGIN Coaching, I work with international professionals and expats navigating career change, job search, and the Dutch labour market. Combining career coaching with practical job search strategy, I support professionals in clarifying their direction, strengthening their professional positioning, and securing roles aligned with their experience, ambitions, and values.
Next in the series: Networking in the Netherlands: How International Professionals Find Opportunities Beyond Job Boards
