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I am applying for MS program in Germany. I have gone through Duden books and University websites, and found out that the format for German CV ("Lebenslauf") differs from one University to the other. So, I have some queries about the tabular Curriculum Vitae ("Tabellarischer Lebenslauf ").

A. The Format for Education section (i.e. "Ausbildung / Studium") und Work Experiences section (i.e. "Berufliche Werdegang")

  • Format for Education ("Ausbildung") on the right column after "MM/YYYY–MM/YYYY":

Format 1:_

Universität/Hochschüle, Ort
Studiengang (z.B. Bachelorstudium)
Studienschwerpunkte:
Abschlussnote:
Thema der Bachelorarbeit:
Note:

Format 2

Studiengang (z.B. Bachelorstudium)
Universität/Hochschüle, Ort
Studienschwerpunkte:
Abschlussnote:
Thema der Bachelorarbeit:
Note:

  • Format for Work Experiences ("Berufliche Werdegang") on the right column after "MM/YYYY–MM/YYYY": :

Format 1

Musterstelle
Musterfirm, Ort
~ Tätigkeit 1
~ Tätigkeit 1

Format 2

Musterfirm, Ort
Musterstelle im Bereich, Abteilung
~ Tätigkeit 1
~ Tätigkeit 1

My Question: Which one should I use for "Ausbildung" and "Berufliche Werdegang"? Should I format the Lebenslauf in according to the each of the university?

B. Page Margins (Seitenränder) for German CV ("Lebenslauf") and Cover Letter ("Anschreiben")

For cover letter "Anschreiben", I've used the DIN 5008 standard (with the side margins as 4.5cm on the top, 2.0cm on the bottom, 2.5cm on the left, und 2.0cm on the right).

My Question: For the Lebenslauf (CV), should I use DIN 5008 or should I use 2.5 cm on all sides? Or can I reduce the margins to around 2.0 cm?

External Sources (that I have gone through):

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  • Are you expected to write this in German? (If yes, also have a native speaker proofread it.) If you just want to demonstrate your knowledge of German - exercise caution, having parts of your application in German just for the point of it and then having mistakes leaves an odd impression.
    – user151413
    Sep 17 at 18:15
  • Yes. I intend to pursue a German-taught MS program and require a German CV and cover letter. So, I am preparing for TestDaF (German language proficiency test).
    – Celestial-Voyage
    Sep 17 at 21:40
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    Then let a native speaker proofread it; I immediately spotted two mistakes in what you wrote above.
    – user151413
    Sep 17 at 21:57

2 Answers 2

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The main thing you should watch out for is consistent formatting. As you have noticed, there is no single fixed standard for the formatting of tabular CVs in Germany, and anything that is reasonable is fine. Unless the university explicitly requires specific formatting in their application documentation, you are free to choose it yourself.

All of the options you mentioned are consistent with typical formatting in a tabular CV in Germany, so I would just choose one consistent ordering of job/degree title & company/university, and choose a reasonable margin too (the three options you mention are all perfectly fine and anything reasonable goes, you just shouldn't make it a 1cm or a 5cm margin).

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  • Another small question: How should I format the "irrelevant" work experiences under "Berufliche Werdegang": (A) similarly to other relevant experiences or (B) just in one line (stating only the Position and Firm Name without the "Tätigkeiten")? I cannot remove the work experience entirely.
    – Celestial-Voyage
    Sep 9 at 11:30
  • Again, I'd say that both options you list are fine. If you think it could still be somewhat relevant (e.g., experience doing research in another unrelated field), I'd add a short description - if not, leaving out the details seems reasonable, as it wouldn't add useful information
    – Stefan Baumann
    Sep 9 at 11:35
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I'd think that the really important thing is to stick to the explicit requirements of the institution you apply to. If something is not explicitly specified by the institution, you have some freedom how to do it. Things are not unified in Germany, there is much regional autonomy, and if they don't specify something, they will get all kinds of versions anyway and will have to work with them.

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