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Mauro, a Milan Business English Network member, asked: Are there many difference between an Italian cv and an English one?

Thanks for your question, Mauro. There are lots of differences between writing a Curriculum Vitae in Italian and doing it in English.

Writing your CV in English

The most important difference is that in Italy, a curriculum vitae (usually abbreviated in English to CV, but never referred to as “a curriculum”) is usually much more formal and technical. (And that’s not just true of CVs, but of business documents in general.) While in Italian it is perfectly normal (and expected) to use lots of complicated, important-sounding words and abbreviations (without explaining what they mean), in the Anglo-Saxon world this is the kind of thing that makes it difficult (or impossible) to read your CV.

I think another important difference is that very few Italian people have a personal profile at the beginning of their CV. The personal profile is really your “USP” (Unique / Universal Selling Proposition). E.g. (for example), if you are engineer who has worked with other people on a lot of different projects and you can explain very technical information to your clients, you could write:

Resourceful engineering professional with significant experience of leading teams on successful projects. I can communicate complex information in a clear, simple way and build strong relationships with clients.

It’s often the case that other people applying for the same job have similar qualifications and professional backgrounds. What sets you apart (differentiates you) from other candidates, therefore, is your personal profile (and your covering letter).

There are lots of small differences, mainly due to the different education systems used in Italy, the UK and the US. Explaining what you have studied at university and the mark (nota) you received, for example, can be confusing to an Anglo-Saxon reader unfamiliar with scores out of 110, Italian expressions such as “con lode” (distinction) and in particular the whole question of what an “undergraduate thesis” (tesi di laurea) is. (In Britain and the US the word “thesis” (tesi) is only used in relation to post-graduate research (specifically, people who have been awarded a PhD, also known as doctorate, who have submitted a thesis, or doctoral dissertation). (This whole may be worth a later post to itself, by the way.)

Having helped thousands of people write a really effective CV and covering letter, I have to say that the main difference between an Italian Curriculum Vitae and an Anglo-Saxon one is that the British and Americans are far more assertive (not necessarily aggressive), but generally more focused and targeted than their Italian equivalents, which tend to be more general and (occasionally) slightly random. With a highly-competitive global marketplace for executive jobs, particularly in the banking and finance sector, as well as among large insurance and consultancy firms, you really need to design and execute your CV with “military” precision. When you write a CV you have one main objective, which is to get the interview. And while a good CV can get you in front of the person who will decide if you are what they are looking for, it’s really your performance in the interview that will determine whether or not you get the job

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