CV · annotated sample
CV for a Master's in Germany
What a tabular academic CV for Germany looks like, and which Indian resume habits to drop.
Closest to you if you are turning an Indian resume into a CV for German universities.
Aarav Kulkarni (fictional) · the same applicant as the SOP for M.Sc. Embedded Systems · 236 words
Notes reviewed by Ankit Jaiswal (M.Sc. Embedded Systems, TU Chemnitz · guiding Indian students since 2018) · September 2026
Fictional sample. Aarav and every college, company and number here are invented. Learn from the structure, but write your own words: many universities check applications for copied text, and a borrowed story will not survive an interview question.
The document, with reviewer notes
Curriculum Vitae
Personal information
Aarav Kulkarni
Pune, Maharashtra, India
+91 [mobile number] · aarav.kulkarni@example.com
[LinkedIn or GitHub profile URL]
Nationality: Indian
Note 1Name, city, contact details and nationality are enough. A professional email address matters; an old nickname address does not look serious.
Work experience
08/2023 – present
PCB Design Engineer
[Company name], Pune, India · industrial electronics manufacturer
Design 4- and 6-layer boards for motor drives and power supplies (Altium Designer)
Wrote a design-for-manufacturing checklist that reduced re-spins from three to one on two product lines
Write C test firmware for STM32 board bring-up with the firmware team
Note 2Most recent first, with the dates in their own column so a reader can scan the timeline in seconds. Each bullet starts with a verb, and one has a measurable result.
Education and training
08/2019 – 06/2023
B.E. Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
[College name], affiliated to [University], Pune, India
CGPA 8.1/10
Main subjects: Microcontrollers and Applications, Digital Signal Processing, Control Systems
06/2017 – 03/2019
Higher Secondary Certificate (Class XII), Science
[Junior college name], Pune · Maharashtra State Board · 84%
Note 3The grade exactly as it appears on the transcript. Add a German-scale grade only if the programme asks for one; universities and uni-assist usually convert grades themselves. Main subjects make the fit with the programme visible.
Projects
2022 – 2023
CAN-bus battery monitor for an electric three-wheeler (final-year project)
Measured cell voltages on an STM32 and estimated state of charge by coulomb counting
Found that the estimate drifted over longer drives; a Kalman filter was the next step, not finished
Note 4The same project the SOP describes in its education paragraph, with the same honest limit. A committee reads the CV and the SOP together, so they have to tell one story.
Language skills
Mother tongue
Marathi
English
C1
IELTS Academic 7.0 (2025)
German
A1
Goethe-Zertifikat A1 (2025) · A2 course in progress
Hindi
C2
Note 5CEFR levels, with the certificate and year where you have one. Listing German, even at A1, shows you are preparing to live there.
Digital skills
Hardware
Altium Designer, KiCad, oscilloscope and logic analyser, EMC pre-compliance testing
Software
Embedded C, STM32 HAL, FreeRTOS (basic), Python for test automation, Git
Note 6Grouped and honest. "Basic" next to FreeRTOS matches the gap described in the SOP; claiming expertise the SOP says you lack would contradict yourself.
Activities
01/2022 – 06/2023
Volunteer, embedded systems lab
Helped junior students debug microcontroller boards
2021 – 2022
Member, IEEE student branch
Organised two workshops on PCB design
Note 7Only activities that say something relevant about you. Leave out school-level prizes once you have a degree.
Pune, [DD.MM.YYYY]
[Signature]
Note 8Some German universities ask for a signed and dated CV. When yours does, add the place, date and your signature here.
Made with the CV Creator
Aarav's Indian resume, turned into a German CV
We uploaded the resume on the left to the CV Creator, added a placeholder photo and pressed Enhance once. The two CVs beside it are its Word exports, unedited. Your text stays in the language you wrote it in; the German version translates the headings and fixed labels.
BeforeIndian resume format 
AfterEuropass CV, English 
AfterTabular CV, German headings
- The "career objective" became a short About me, built from his degree, skills and current job.
- Father's name, marital status and the declaration are left out. German universities do not ask for them.
- English is shown as CEFR C1, taken from his IELTS 7.0 score.
- Every fact and number stays as he wrote it. Nothing is invented.
Before you borrow this structure
- Keep the tabular layout: dates on the left, details on the right, most recent first, two pages at most.
- Use one date format throughout (MM/YYYY) and make every date match your certificates and your SOP.
- Leave out father's name, religion, marital status, a career objective and a "declaration". German universities do not need them.
- Add a photo or date of birth only if the programme asks for them. Sign and date the CV when it asks for a signed CV.
Write your own version
Start from your own profile, not from Aarav's.
Build yours with the CV CreatorDownload as Word (free account)The Word file includes these notes at the end, and a fill-in outline is there too.
Want an expert to read your draft? CV writing: A German-style academic CV, formatted and positioned for your programmes.
More samples
All samples- Statement of purposeSOP for M.Sc. Embedded SystemsHow to turn work experience into a clear "what I know, what I lack, why this programme" argument.
- Statement of purposeSOP for M.Sc. MechatronicsHow to build a strong SOP without work experience: one project, one internship, and the gap they showed you.
- Statement of purposeSOP for M.Sc. Computer ScienceHow to use one incident at work to show an academic question, and how to handle weaker early grades in a single sentence.