RelokeaYou have a CV. It served you in France, Belgium or Germany, and you send it as it stands to a Luxembourg recruiter. That is the commonest cross-border mistake — and the easiest to fix, because Luxembourg is one of the rare markets where the public employment service publishes in black and white what it expects from a CV.
ADEM, the Agency for the Development of Employment, issues a forty-page guide. Here is what it says, and what that changes for you.
1. Never write «Curriculum Vitae» at the top of the page
The reader knows what they are looking at. Instead, ADEM asks for a headline that picks up the job title — the one in the advertisement if you are answering an offer, the one you are aiming for if you are writing speculatively — illustrated by a detail about your qualification, your experience or your strengths.
«Fund analyst, eight years in fund administration (NAV calculation, CSSF regulatory reporting).»
Three lines that replace a title which taught nobody anything. It is the first thing the recruiter reads, and it is exactly where ADEM places its warning: “30 seconds to capture attention”.
2. The Languages section is not a section like the others
It is THE section of the Luxembourg market, and it is where foreign CVs come off worst.
The country has three administrative languages — Luxembourgish, French and German, set by the 1984 Act — to which the financial centre adds English. A CV that writes «Languages: French, English» and stops there tells nobody anything.
What ADEM asks for:
- set your mother tongue or tongues apart from the rest. It is information in its own right, not one level among others;
- give a level for every other language, preferably on the European framework (A1 to C2), or as a graphical representation;
- stay honest. The guide insists on it, and the market checks: a phone interview here will happily switch language without warning.
3. Your work permit has no place there — with one precise exception
If you are an EU national, free movement exempts you from any work authorisation. Mentioning a permit, a status or an eligibility adds nothing and signals that you did not adapt your document.
It is one of the sharpest differences from a Swiss CV, where the G permit is on the contrary information the recruiter is looking for. Sending a CV written for Geneva to the Kirchberg shows up on exactly that line.
4. One page. Two in three named cases.
The default rule is one page. Two are accepted for a highly qualified profile, a position with responsibilities, or more than ten years of experience — and in that case ADEM specifies that the essentials must be gathered on the first page.
That is shorter than Swiss practice, where two pages are the norm. A two-page CV coming from Switzerland therefore arrives in Luxembourg with one page too many, unless one of the three cases above applies.
5. A sober email address, and a voicemail that sounds like you
The guide goes down to that level of detail, and not by accident: these are the two points of contact a recruiter uses before ever having seen you.
- The email address should take the form
firstname.lastname@…. Never a whimsical address. - The voicemail on your personal phone should carry a concise, serious message stating your name. A recruiter who reaches an anonymous mailbox rarely calls back.
6. Every role reads in action verbs and in figures
Reverse chronological — most recent first. For each position: start and end dates, the role, the employer, the town and the country. Then the tasks, in action verbs, with responsibilities and key figures.
The same requirement applies to education: reverse chronological, with the year, the qualification and its specialisation, the institution and its location. And a rule many people miss — if you hold a higher-level qualification, do not list the earlier ones.
7. Adapt to each advertisement, in its own words
The guide is explicit: every position calls for an adapted CV that picks up the terms and keywords of the advertisement, because keyword pre-selection is possible. Without jargon, though: the first reader is not always from the trade.
ADEM makes its ROME framework available to help you word your skills in the market’s terms — a public tool, free, and under-used.
The three sections where over-eagerness backfires
| Section | What the guide asks for |
|---|---|
| IT | Only software relevant to the position you are targeting. A graphical representation of the level is appreciated. |
| Soft skills | Sorted by the position. If the advertisement names some, pick up those that match — you will have to illustrate them with concrete examples at interview. |
| Interests | Never a political or religious association. Avoid platitudes (reading, walking). And invent nothing: better to drop the section. |
And one rule that sums up all the others
ADEM’s guide puts it in a single sentence: «on your CV, the truth, nothing but the truth». Every line of your document must be explainable at interview. That is also what makes rule 7 demanding: adapting is not embellishing, it is choosing what to bring forward among facts that stay true.
These rules come from the official guide «Réalisez votre Curriculum Vitae» published by ADEM, read on 25 August 2026. The agency itself notes in its foreword that this is not a universal method, still less a ready-made kit. Your judgement has the last word.
Frequently asked questions
Bring your CV in line with ADEM's rules The My CV module rewrites your document against these seven rules, section by section — and shows you every change before you approve it.
Official sources
- ADEM — «Réalisez votre Curriculum Vitae», official guide (40 pages) (accessed on 25/08/2026)
- ADEM — ROME framework, wording of skills by occupation (accessed on 25/08/2026)
- Act of 24 February 1984 on the language regime (Luxembourgish, French, German) (accessed on 28/08/2026)
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