How can I improve my CV to get more interviews?

Tailor it to each job description, keep it to one page, lead each role with quantified outcomes, and run it through an ATS checker. enhancv.me does all four in under 30 seconds: paste the job, upload your CV, and get a clean ATS-ready PDF.

What is an ATS-friendly resume?

An ATS-friendly resume is a single-column, plain-text-readable document with no images, tables, headers/footers, or unusual fonts. Standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) and explicit dates make it parseable by Applicant Tracking Systems used by most companies.

How long should my CV be?

One page for under ten years of experience, two at most for senior roles. Recruiters spend six to seven seconds on initial screening, so density and relevance matter more than completeness.

Can I use enhancv.me to translate my CV?

Yes. enhancv.me supports English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and Swedish. Pick the target language and the entire CV — section headings and content — is rewritten in that language.

Yes, the free tier includes CV generation, ATS scoring, and PDF and DOCX export. There is no signup required.

What is the most common giveaway that my CV was translated?

Verb-noun pairs that are calques from the source language. 'Realized a project', 'effectuated changes', 'performed activities' — these read fine in Portuguese or Spanish but mark the CV as translated in English. Native English uses tight action verbs: 'Shipped', 'Built', 'Led', 'Cut', 'Doubled'.

Should I keep my Brazilian/Indian/LATAM company names or anglicize them?

Keep them as is. Anglicizing 'Nubank' to 'New Bank' or 'Mercado Libre' to 'Free Market' looks amateur and hurts you. Instead, add a brief parenthetical context the first time it appears: 'Nubank (largest neobank in Latin America, 100M+ customers)'. US recruiters increasingly recognize these companies and respect the scale.

Should I include my native-language proficiency as a skill?

Yes — list it as a hard skill, not a soft one. 'Languages: English (professional working proficiency), Portuguese (native)' belongs at the end of the Skills section. It signals you can communicate cross-border, which is a positive for any remote US role with global users or teams.

Should I use UK or US English on my CV?

Match the company. US companies expect US spelling and idioms ('organize', 'specialize', 'colleagues'). UK/EU companies expect UK English ('organise', 'specialise', 'team members'). Be consistent — mixing the two is the single fastest signal that the CV is non-native.

Published May 2026 · 7 min read

9 English CV mistakes non-native speakers make (and how to fix them)

If your CV is in English but reads as translated, US recruiters notice in the first six seconds. Here are the nine giveaways that mark a CV as non-native — and the exact rewrites that fix each one.

You can have a brilliant CV that gets you nowhere because of language. A recruiter at a US tech company scans 100+ resumes a day. They are not editing for typos — they are pattern-matching for fluency. Within six seconds they have decided whether you write like someone who can collaborate across timezones with native-English teammates. If the answer is no, you go to the bottom of the pile no matter how good your experience is.

The good news: native-English phrasing on a CV is a learned skill, not a born one. The patterns are predictable and fixable. Here are the nine most common giveaways.

1. Verb-noun calques

Calques are phrases translated word-for-word from your native language. They are the single biggest giveaway.

Translated: "Realized a project to migrate the backend." → Native: "Migrated the backend to Go."
Translated: "Effectuated improvements in performance." → Native: "Cut API latency 47%."
Translated: "Performed activities related to user onboarding." → Native: "Owned user onboarding for 500K monthly signups."

Native English uses tight action verbs (shipped, built, led, cut, doubled, owned) followed by the concrete outcome. The verbs "realize", "effectuate", "perform" — common in Romance languages and Indian English — read as bureaucratic in US English.

2. Articles in the wrong places

Native speakers of languages without articles (Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, most Slavic languages) consistently drop "the" or "a" where English requires them, and add them where it doesn't. Two examples that flag the CV instantly:

Wrong: "Led migration of the legacy system." → Right: "Led the migration of a legacy system." OR "Led legacy system migration." (compressed)
Wrong: "Achieved the 30% growth in the revenue." → Right: "Achieved 30% revenue growth."

CV style compresses heavily — when in doubt, drop both articles and tighten the sentence: "Led migration of legacy auth system handling 50M monthly requests."

3. Verbose where native English is terse

Spanish and Portuguese CV culture favors longer, formal descriptions. US CV culture favors maximum compression — every word earns its place.

Verbose: "I was responsible for the development and implementation of various features in the platform." (16 words)
Tight: "Shipped 4 platform features used by 200K monthly users." (9 words, more information)

Rule: if a sentence has more than 20 words, you can probably cut it in half and add a number.

4. Soft verbs masquerading as achievements

"Participated in", "contributed to", "supported the team" — these are humility markers in many cultures, but they read as low-impact in US CVs. The recruiter assumes you did the minimum.

Soft: "Participated in the redesign of the checkout flow." → Strong: "Co-led the checkout redesign, cutting cart abandonment 22%."
Soft: "Contributed to the open-source library." → Strong: "Shipped 6 PRs to [library name], including the X feature now used by 12K projects."

If you can't claim full ownership, claim partial — "Co-led", "Owned the X portion of", "Drove the Y decision" — but always with a quantified outcome.

5. Date formats from your home country

"01/05/2024" means May 1 in the US and Jan 5 in most of LATAM and Europe. The ATS parser usually defaults to US (MM/DD/YYYY), which means your job dates are silently scrambled.

Use unambiguous formats: "May 2024 – Present" or "05/2024 – 03/2025" (with the month always first). Avoid "Q1 2024", "1H 2024", or quarterly fiscal notation entirely — recruiters do not parse them and ATS systems fail on them.

6. Translated company names

Do not anglicize. "Nubank" stays Nubank. "Mercado Libre" stays Mercado Libre. "TCS" stays TCS. Translating to "New Bank" or "Free Market" looks amateur and erases the brand recognition that actually helps you.

What works: add a one-line context the first time the company appears: "Nubank (largest digital bank in Latin America, 100M+ customers)" or "Mercado Libre (e-commerce platform, $14B GMV)". US recruiters increasingly recognize the big LATAM/India/MENA brands and respect the scale.

7. Mixing UK and US English

"Specialise in optimisation of the colour palette" mixed with "Organized a workshop to maximize impact" reads as inconsistent — and inconsistent reads as non-native. Pick one register and apply it ruthlessly across the whole document.

US: organize, specialize, color, center, behavior, license (noun), license (verb)
UK: organise, specialise, colour, centre, behaviour, licence (noun), license (verb)

Default: match the country of the company you are applying to. US companies expect US English. UK/EU companies expect UK English. Default to US if unsure — it covers the largest remote-job market.

8. Section headings in your native language

"Experiência" instead of "Experience". "Formación" instead of "Education". This is the single fastest ATS failure — most US ATS parsers cannot map non-English headers to the expected fields, so your work history disappears from the parsed CV.

Use the standard English set: Experience, Education, Skills, Projects, Certifications, Languages. Even if the company is European, default to the English headers for ATS safety.

9. Phone number without country code

"11 99999-9999" or "987654321" means nothing to a US recruiter. Always include the international format with country code: +55 11 9 9999-9999 for Brazil, +91 98765 43210 for India, etc. This also makes the CV WhatsApp-actionable, which is increasingly how international recruiters reach out.

The two-pass review

Once you have applied the fixes above, do two passes:

The recruiter pass. Read the CV out loud at the speed of a sprint — 30 seconds for the whole thing. Could a US recruiter understand what you have actually done and at what scale? If not, the sentences are too long or too vague.
The ATS pass. Run it through an ATS checker. enhancv.me scores against format, content, sections, skills, and style — and will rewrite the document if needed, in 30 seconds, free.

FAQ

Do US recruiters really notice if my CV reads as non-native English?

Yes, in the first six seconds. A CV that reads as translated triggers a quick "not a native communicator" filter, and the candidate is deprioritized even if their experience is strong.

Should I include my native-language proficiency?

Yes — as a hard skill at the end of the Skills section. "Languages: English (professional working proficiency), Portuguese (native)". It signals cross-border communication ability, which is a plus for remote roles.

Is it OK to use AI to rewrite my CV?

Yes, with care. Generic LLMs over-correct — they invent metrics, substitute buzzwords, and add layouts that break ATS. Use a tool specifically built for ATS-safe CV rewriting.

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