Arabic or English CV: which one to send

In Egypt and the Gulf you will often need both. Here is how to decide, and how to keep the two versions consistent.

When to send English

The ad is in Arabic, or the role is in government or the public sector.
The job is customer-facing in Arabic, such as legal, teaching or local sales roles.
The employer asks for it.

Same jobs, dates and numbers in both. A mismatch looks careless.
Keep company, tool and certificate names in their official spelling in both versions.
In the Arabic version, check that digits, dates and the phone number display in the right order.

In the English version, write your name exactly as it appears in your passport.
Use the same spelling on your CV, LinkedIn and certificates, so background checks match.
For job titles, use the Arabic title that Arabic job ads use. Keep the English term in brackets when there is no common Arabic one.

The layout should run right to left, with email addresses, links and phone numbers kept left to right.
Pick one digit style, Eastern Arabic or Western numerals, and use it everywhere.
Rewrite, do not machine-translate. Read the Arabic out loud and fix anything that sounds translated.
Test your PDF: copy its text into a plain text editor. If the letters come out broken or reversed, screening systems will see the same thing.

It is better to keep two separate files. Mixing directions on one page makes it harder to read and to parse.

Many can, as long as the PDF contains real text. A scanned or image-only PDF cannot be read in any language.

Send the CV in the language the ad is written in.

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