CV and cover letter in English: don't translate from Italian

The CV in English is the document on which I see most Italians lose opportunities, and almost never because of their level of language. The problem is further upstream: they take the Italian CV and translate it word for word. The result is grammatically correct and completely wrong, because an English CV is not an Italian CV in another language — it is a different text type, with different rules on what to put in, what to take out and how to word each line.

The same goes for the cover letter, which in Italy is often dismissed with three lines of accompaniment and which in the English-speaking world is instead half of the application.

Let’s look at both, with concrete examples.

First rule: what you must remove

The Italian CV contains information that in an English CV (above all UK, Ireland, USA, Canada) is not only useless but penalises you — in many countries, because of anti-discrimination law, recruiters are trained to discard applications that contain it.

Remove without hesitation:

• the photo (compulsory in Germany, effectively banned in the UK and USA);
• date of birth, age, place of birth;
• marital status, children, nationality (if needed, it is enough to state “Eligible to work in the EU/UK”);
• the Italian tax code, driving licence (unless the role requires it), military service;
• the sentence on the processing of personal data (the Italian GDPR disclaimer has no equivalent and jars);
• your school-leaving grade (the maturità mark) and the details of upper secondary school, if you already have a degree.

An English CV fits on one page if you have under ten years of experience, two at most if you have more. The six-page “Europass CV” is a document that is simply not used in the English-speaking world: sending it signals that you don’t know the context.

Pay attention to the name of the document too: in the USA it is called a resume (a CV there means a long academic document); in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe it is called a CV. Adapt the word to the country you are writing to.

The structure that works

An effective English CV has this order:

1. Name and contact details — name, phone with international prefix, professional email, city and country, LinkedIn. No full address.
2. Personal statement / Professional summary — three or four lines, no more. It is the part everybody gets wrong: see below.
3. Work experience — in reverse chronological order, most recent first.
4. Education — below the experience, unless you are a new graduate with no experience.
5. Skills — technical skills, languages with the CEFR level, certifications.
6. Optional: Projects, Publications, Volunteering.

The personal statement is not an emotional declaration of intent. In Italian you write things like “I am a dynamic and motivated person, looking for new stimulating challenges”: translated into English it is the most tired formula a recruiter can read.

❌ “I am a dynamic and motivated young professional looking for new stimulating challenges in a growing company.”

✅ “Marketing specialist with four years’ experience in B2B SaaS, focused on content strategy and lead generation. Grew organic traffic by 60% at my current company. Looking to move into a product marketing role.”

The difference: the second says what you can do, with what numbers, and what you are looking for. The first describes a character that anyone can claim.

Action verbs: the heart of the difference

In the Italian CV people often write in the passive or descriptive form: “responsible for managing the team”, “I took care of…”. In English every line of experience begins with an action verb in the past (or the present for the current job), with no subject and no initial article.

❌ “I was responsible for the management of a team of five people.” ✅ “Managed a team of five, reducing project delivery time by 20%.”

❌ “Dealt with the customers and their problems.” ✅ “Resolved 40+ customer support tickets per week, maintaining a 95% satisfaction score.”

Verbs that work well, by category:

And a golden rule: whenever you can, put in a number. Percentages, budgets, how many people, how many clients, how much time saved. Numbers are the only thing that distinguishes a credible CV from a list of good intentions.

A spelling note: if you write for the UK use organised, analysed, programme, centre; for the USA use organized, analyzed, program, center. Choose one variant and stay consistent throughout the document — mixing is the mistake that is noticed most.

The cover letter: three paragraphs, no more

The English cover letter has an almost fixed structure and is written in half a page.

Opening. If you know the name: “Dear Ms Patel,” — with the comma, with no full stop after Ms in British style. If you don’t: “Dear Hiring Manager,”. Never “Dear Sir or Madam” (it sounds old-fashioned) and never “To whom it may concern” (very cold, used for references, not for applications).

First paragraph — why you are writing. The role, where you saw it, and a sentence that says why that company. ✅ “I am writing to apply for the Junior Data Analyst position advertised on your careers page. Your recent work on open transport data is exactly the kind of project I want to contribute to.”

Second paragraph — why you. Two or three concrete examples linked to the advert, not a summary of the CV. ✅ “In my current role I build weekly reporting dashboards in SQL and Power BI for a team of twelve, and last year I automated a manual process that saved around six hours a week.”

Third paragraph — closing. Short, cordial, with a next step. ✅ “I would welcome the chance to discuss how my experience could support your team. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

Close with “Yours sincerely,” if you used the person’s name, “Yours faithfully,” if you wrote Dear Sir or Madam (in British style); “Best regards,” always works and is the safest choice in emails.

The mistakes I see most often

• The false friend actually. ❌ “Actually I work as a consultant” means “in fact”, not “currently” (the Italian attualmente means “currently”, which is where the confusion comes from). ✅ “I currently work as a consultant.”
• The present perfect for past work. For a job that has ended you need the past simple: ❌ “I have worked there from 2020 to 2023” → ✅ “I worked there from 2020 to 2023.” The present perfect goes only on the current job: “I have worked here since 2023.”
• Years of experience. ❌ “I have 5 years experience” → ✅ “I have five years’ experience” (apostrophe after the s).
• Capitals everywhere. In English job titles are capitalised only when they are precise titles (Senior Developer at Acme), not in the middle of a sentence: ❌ “I worked as a Senior Developer and a Team Leader in different Companies.”
• Very long sentences. Professional Italian loves the subordinate clause; professional English rewards the short sentence. If a sentence goes over twenty-five words, split it.
• Copying the same cover letter for everyone. It always shows, and in many selections it is the first criterion for rejection.

Before you press send

Reread the text aloud: errors of rhythm and over-long sentences are heard before they are seen. Then check one thing at a time — verbs, prepositions, capitals, UK/US consistency — instead of looking for “all the errors” in one pass.

And a practical tip: have the CV read by someone who knows both the language and the genre. The automatic spellchecker will never tell you that “I am a dynamic person” is a wasted line, because it is perfectly correct.

When the application works you move on to the job interview in English. For writing the email you send the CV with, the right tone is in the post on work emails in English; for what you say once you are in, meetings and calls.

If you are preparing an application in English and want to work on your real CV and cover letter — not a generic model — you can do it in English lessons: we start from the advert you want to reply to and build the two documents together, line by line. If you want to understand whether it makes sense for your goal, write to me and we’ll talk.