Your personal details are an essential part of your CV. Employers need to know who they are dealing with and how they can contact you. Your full name, address and contact details are therefore mandatory on your CV. Any additional information beyond this is optional. However, in many cases it helps if you reveal a little more about yourself.
Example of personal data in the CV
Name: Max Example
Date of birth: 13/08/1995 in London
Adress: Bahnhofstraße 42, 20095 Hamburg
Phone: 0176/1234567
Email:maximilian.example@provider.de
Personal details in your CV: This information is required
Certain personal information about the applicant is essential, as the job application must be clearly identifiable. This is why the personal details are usually placed at the top of the CV. The recruiter should be able to immediately identify who is applying, their address and how they can be contacted. No CV is complete without this essential information. However, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Full name
State your first name and surname and do not use abbreviations or acronyms. It is also possible to include academic degrees. Whether or not this is an advantage depends on the industry and the position you are applying for.
Postal address
Enter your full postal address. For city names where there is a risk of confusion (Neustadt, Kirchdorf, Frankfurt, etc.), additional information will make it easier to clearly assign the address. You only need to state the country if your live abroad or if you are applying for a job abroad.
Telephone number
You should provide a telephone number where you can be reached during the day. What use is your landline number to the recruiter if no one picks up before 6 pm? If in doubt, your mobile phone number will suffice.
Nowadays, every applicant should include an email-address in their CV - even if the job application is sent by post. However, make sure that you use a reputable e-mail address: max.example@provider.com is good, maxi95@provider.com is not.
Optional personal details on your CV
The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) states that no applicant may be discriminated against based on their appearance, gender, age, nationality, religious denomination, marital status, or number of children. Personal details of this nature are therefore not legally required in a job application and must not be requested by the employer. Nevertheless, it remains common practice for applicants to provide some of this information voluntarily. Anyone deviating from standard application practice should have good reasons for doing so.
Date and place of birth
The date of birth continues to be a common and integral part of the vast majority of job applications. Despite the legislation, an applicant's age naturally plays a major role in the employer's considerations - be it because of the age structure in the department or because of long-term plans. As a general rule, you should only omit your date of birth if this is explicitly requested in the job advertisement.
Nationality
Hiring employees without German citizenship means additional bureaucratic for the employer - this applies in particular to non-EU foreigners. If you do not have German citizenship, you should therefore provide additional information. Some first names and surnames, on the other hand, may mislead the employer into thinking that the applicant does not have German citizenship. In these cases, it is also worth providing information to avoid misunderstandings. Please also remember: nationality should be stated as an adjective, i.e. "German", "Polish" or "Turkish" and not "Germany", "Poland" or "Turkey".
Marital status and number of children
Whether you are married or have children says nothing about your professional qualifications. It does not make you any more or less suitable for the position you are applying for. In the past, single people were often seen as flexible, married people as stable, and young women without children were seen as having one foot in the delivery room. However, these assumptions about the meaningfulness of marital status as part of the personal information on the CV have no reasonable basis and are largely irrelevant today. You can still choose to include personal information about your marital status and the number of children you have in your CV - but you can also refrain from doing so with a clear conscience.
Religion, political affiliation, etc.
Your religious beliefs are not relevant in most job applications and do not need to be included in your personal details. However, it can be an advantage for jobs with a church sponsor (e.g. many hospitals or nurseries). The same applies to a suitable political party affiliation and job applications to certain foundations or trade unions. However, always bear in mind that if the person in charge does not share your personal world view, information of this kind can quickly become a disadvantage - despite all the legal regulations.
Personal data in your CV: avoid these details
Your CV should be as concise and clear as possible. Filling it with irrelevant personal information will not leave a good impression. There are also details in the personal data section that are unlikely to help your job application.
Parents and siblings
In the past, it was normal for CVs to include personal details of parents (and sometimes even siblings) and their occupations. Coming from a 'respectable' background was seen as an indication of personal aptitude. Today, this view is outdated, and such personal information is no longer in demand. On the contrary: personal data of this kind inflates the CV and also suggests that you are not up to date with the current employment situation. You should therefore always refrain from giving personal details about your parents or siblings.
Spouses and partners
The age and occupation of your spouse or partner is irrelevant to your employer. It says nothing about you or your professional qualifications. Like information about your parents, this very personal information has no place in your CV.
How to optimise the presentation of personal data in your CV
Ideally, personal data should appear at the beginning of your CV, where it can be found immediately. In terms of layout, personal data is often combined with the job application photo, especially in tabular CVs: the personal data is placed on the left and the job application photo on the right or vice versa. Which version is best also depends on the overall design of the CV. Some applicants swear by a header when designing their CV, while modern templates in particular bundle the personal information in a sidebar, separating it from the rest of the CV data. For larger job applications, this personal information can also be moved to the cover page.
It is crucial that your personal information does not appear twice in your CV. If you have already included your contact details in a header, do not include them again in the personal details section.
Professional CV templates are a great help. They are designed to prevent applicants from falling into these typical traps. The same applies to the visual appearance of the application portfolio: very few people conjure up visually appealing CVs using Word or another word processing software. However, as HR professionals place great importance on correct formatting and presentation, nothing should be left to chance.