UAE CV Template In English: How-to-Guide
In the world-class professional arena of the UAE, where skyscrapers meet rising career opportunities, the humble CV is your passport to success.
Step into our guide of the quintessential UAE CV template in English, unlocking the gateway to your dream job in this vibrant landscape.
Let’s dive in!
Crafting Your Key to Success: A Guided Journey Through the Ideal UAE CV Template in English
What Is A Resume?
CV stands for ‘Curriculum Vitae’ – a Latin term that roughly translates to ‘course of life. It is a document that summarizes the significant professional achievements of your life.
If you are applying for a job, grant or another prestigious opportunity, you may be asked by the specific institute to submit a CV as part of your application.
What Should Be Included In A Resume?
A strong resume is especially imminent for jobs in education, where hiring managers are looking for skilled communicators who can engage students and engage them in learning.
Writing an appealing resume can initially seem daunting, but our easy-to-understand guidelines make it a simple task.
Review the Arabic teacher resume example below to familiarize yourself with the format and construction of a winning resume and the essential components to include.
Using this article as a sample and using the tips in this section, you can create a personalized resume that is tailored to your education, experience, and skills.
Personal Information
Your Name
Make sure to write your name in a larger font or use a bolder heading format that is in contrast to the rest of your resume to make it stand out.
After all, your resume is a marketing tool used to market who YOU are. Middle names are optional, but don’t be fooled by Frank ‘The Tank’ Ricardo.
Marital Status And Family
You do not need to provide complete and elaborate details of your marital status or whether or not you have a family.
However, you can do this if you think your status will make your application more attractive.
For example, being single may facilitate unsociable work hours, while having a family may mean you are in a more stable and committed situation and are more likely to be loyal to the company.
Birthdate
You can enter your date of birth if you want. However, this is no longer necessary as the Equality Act 2010 prohibits age discrimination in the recruitment process.
If you’re having trouble getting interviews, try removing it from your resume to see if it makes a positive impact.
Nationality
Except for government functions that may require this information, your nationality should be omitted. The above the law also prohibits discrimination entirely on the basis of race, colour or nationality (including nationality, ethnicity or national origin).
If you are either a native of the country you are applying for or can provide a suitable work visa, there is no reason to tell them where you are from.
Contact Information
The logic here is simple – don’t include just your work phone number or work email address.
Make sure to include your own personal contact information and/or email address or create a brand new account specifically for job hunting, especially if your current email address is something like foxybabe@webaddress.com.
Don’t forget to include your mobile phone number in your resume. And double check that you have the right number there!
If you’re worried about getting calls at work, you might want to use a time when it’s better for you to be contacted.
Personal Statement
Some people like to start or end their resume with a personal statement — a few lines depicting how they want to present themselves as a person.
This can be a little difficult for everyone to write because it’s hard not to sound boastful! If English is your second language and not particularly your strong suit, it’s probably safest to skip the “personal statement” section of your resume.
However, if you feel that your resume does not accurately describe who you are, then a complete personal statement can be used to highlight your best qualities.
As with the remaining part of your CV, try to avoid using any pronouns – write as if you were taking notes on a very impressive colleague. Here is an example:
A dedicated and detail-oriented researcher thoroughly committed to the study of art history. Extensive teaching experience at the university level, from peer mentoring to organizing seminars to lecturing large groups of students. Published in several academic journals and was a guest speaker at a number of important conferences.
Professional Experience
In this section, describe your career to date, starting with the most recent positions you held. For each position, list your job title, employer, location and dates. Try to format this information into separate fields so that it is understandable at a glance.
You can also list your primary responsibilities under each job title. Select the bullet points relevant to the role you are applying for.
For example, if you are applying for a teaching position, be sure to emphasize any teaching experience over your research skills.
It’s a good idea to start lining your bullet points with a past-tense verb (or a present-tense verb if you’re describing a current job role). You should make sure you avoid using the pronoun “I”, even though it may feel a little unnatural!
Education
Please note: if you are writing a resume for an academic job position, then the section discussing your previous education should precede your professional experience.
List all levels of education, starting with your most recent accomplishments.
If you have a master’s degree or higher, don’t include anything that is lower or less prestigious than a high school diploma. Again, you can include a bullet point or two regarding your key accomplishments in each learning experience.
If you have a Master’s or PhD, you should definitely add your thesis title and your supervisor.
Research/Field Experience
This category will be relevant to academics or those applying for research jobs.
If you have experience collecting data in your particular field, list it under a separate heading title in the same way you would do a job.
List the most recent experience first. As with employment, it’s a good idea to include a few points about your primary responsibilities and accomplishments.
Volunteer Experience
For some career paths, including specific specializations in therapy, psychology and the humanitarian sector, volunteering experience is essential. If volunteer experience is vital to your field, list it in your resume under a new heading.
For many other career paths, you may be able to include your past philanthropic endeavors or volunteering under different headings to keep things organized.
For example, if you are entering academia, any research opportunities that are unpaid could therefore be considered as ‘volunteer experience’, but for the direct sake of clarity, you can include them in the ‘research experience’ section instead.
Awards
It is vital to mention any certifications or awards you have received. If you don’t have enough achievements to fill an entirely separate section, try merging them in with the “grants and scholarships” heading.
Include the name of the award, the awarding body (or college/university), its location and the date of the award.
Grants And Scholarships
If you have received grants or scholarships for your work, please include them in the shortlist. Don’t forget to mention smaller grants like travel funds and scholarships.
Please include the name of the grant you received, the awarding body, the seat of that body and the year you received it. Remember to capitalize the name of the grant and the awarding body or institute.
Membership/Affiliation
If professional organizations, trade unions, or unions in your field have a lot of prestige, it pays to include a section that displays your membership. This is often true in fields such as medicine and academia.
Simply make a list of the groups or foundations you are a member of and put their initials at the end in parentheses. No need to enter a date if your membership is ongoing.
Professional Qualifications And Certificates
This is the section for any training outside of your academic background that is specifically relevant to the position.
Examples include your driver’s licenses, language certificates and professional training you’ve received at work. You can mention any courses you have taken in ‘soft skills such as leadership, communication or creative thinking.
As a general rule, include the name of the qualification and the sponsor. You do not need to enter a specific date unless your qualification is meant to expire after a certain point. You may want to specifically format the awarding body differently to make sure show that it is different from the award title.
References
References are something individuals can support your direct claim to expertise.
Many of your job applications will require you to submit references separately, so you may not need to list them as a separate section on your resume.
However, if it is not mentioned in the description of the application, then it is a particularly good idea to include some links at the end of the application.
Select 2-4 people you have worked with, preferably those who have a higher position than you.
Anything less than two means that not many people trust your professional record, but having more than five is unnecessary.
If you are a professional academic, one of them should be from a recent academic supervisor; if you are a professional, then one of them should be a fresh manager.
Be sure to contact your references to make sure it’s okay to include their contact information on your resume. Most people will be perfectly fine with it.
At a minimum, make sure to include your reference’s name, along with the job title, the email address, and their professional connection to you.
You can also then include their phone number and contact address if they are comfortable with that. It should look something like this:
Research Interests
If you are choosing to apply for an academic position or research role, you may want to include a section about your clear research interests.
Some candidates tend to have a preference to have this particular section listed at the top as an introductory field before “Education”.
However, your resume can flow quite better if you manage to place it at the end, under the sections about your publications and conference presentations.
These can be topics you have already studied or interests you want to pursue in the future.
Either way, you should be aware enough to know about these topics to convince an expert that you are passionate about them in an interview.
If you are not sure how specifically you want to do research, try browsing the list of academics on the university website. Remember to capitalize all proper nouns.
Hobbies And Interests
Some people tend to include a concise note about their hobbies and interests at the end of their resume. Other people feel that it derails from the professional focus of the document.
As a rule, Arabic institutes place less emphasis on “extracurricular programs” than European ones.
It’s a matter of purely personal choice, but if you choose to include a section about your interests outside of work, keep it brief.
As with describing your previous jobs, try to start each sentence with an actual verb and omit the personal pronoun “I”.
Other Information You Can Include In Your Resume
If the job you’re looking for requires you to drive, you’ll probably want to reassure them of your clean driving record.
If you’re going for a web designer role, you might want to direct them to a website you’ve created. Whatever you decide to include, make sure it helps and doesn’t hinder your application.
It is up to you whether you include this personal information at the beginning or at the end of your resume. Just make them easy to find
Arabic Or English – In Which Language Should You Write Your CV In?
If you are applying for an English-speaking job, it is a good idea to write your CV in English. Since you are applying for a job in the UAE, it is likely that an Arab will check your CV.
If you are learning Arabic, making sure to highlight your Arabic skills prominently on your CV can be very good for a relevant job related to the language.
Applying for any job in the UAE is basically the same as anywhere else in the world – with just a slight subtle difference.
Jobs are almost always advertised, and individuals are marketed in English, as it is the primary business language of the UAE.
But you know what?
Submitting the Arabic version of your سيـــــــرَة آذِيَــــة (CV) is actually even more impressive!
Regardless of the language you choose for your CV, follow the standards that Arabic hiring managers expect.
Summary
After applying for a job in English, you can expect to send a CV and cover letter (and sometimes a specific application form). If a company is interested, you usually go through a series of interviews (they can be over the phone, online or in person) and sometimes a test or assessment.
At this stage, you will probably need to provide references before they make an offer. The entire recruitment process in the UAE usually takes more than a month.
Successful candidates will normally be contacted by telephone with a brief offer before being sent an email with an initial offer and contract. Most unsuccessful applicants will not be contacted.
As we draw the curtain on our guided tour of crafting the perfect UAE CV in English, it’s clear that your journey to career success in this land of opportunity has just begun.
Remember, a CV is more than just a document; it’s your personal billboard in the bustling job market.
Armed with these insights, it’s time to transform your CV into a key that opens the doors to your UAE career dreams. Good luck, and here’s to crafting a resume that truly stands out in the professional dunes of the UAE!