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Country Guide Known as “hoja de vida”

Colombian CV Format: How to Write a Colombian CV (2026)

The Colombian CV Format is the first impression you make on Colombian employers. Getting the details right, from the photo rule to the date format, signals that you understand the local market and its expectations.

Length is a key signal in Colombia: 1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals..

Colombian recruiters value concise hojas de vida that are easy to scan.. The photo rule is Common. A professional 3x4 photo is traditional on the Colombian hoja de vida, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs..

If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.. Dates follow Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g. 15/06/2025), or written as “Junio 2025”. Month-year precision is enough for most roles.. These are the details recruiters notice first, so they anchor this guide.

Personal details follow a clear local standard: Name, phone (with +57 from abroad), professional email, city (e.g. Bogotá), and LinkedIn URL..

Never include your cédula number or bank details. Date of birth and age appear on traditional hojas de vida but are increasingly omitted...

Section order matters too: Datos personales (contact details) → Perfil profesional (2–4 lines) → Experiencia laboral (reverse-chronological) → Formación académica (education) → Habilidades (skills) → Referencias (references). Recent graduates may put Formación before Experiencia.. Each section below explains the reasoning behind the rule, not just the rule itself.

This guide covers the Colombian CV Format end to end, with example content for software engineer at every career level. Use it to write a hoja de vida that passes the first screening.

Use This CV Example Build Your CV Free

Colombian CV Format at a Glance

Document type
Hoja de vida: the standard term in Colombia is “hoja de vida” (literally “page of life”), not CV. Applications are written in Spanish, with English for tech and international roles. The reverse-chronological format is the norm.
Typical length
1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals. Colombian recruiters value concise hojas de vida that are easy to scan.
Photo
Common. A professional 3x4 photo is traditional on the Colombian hoja de vida, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs. If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.
Date format
Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g. 15/06/2025), or written as “Junio 2025”. Month-year precision is enough for most roles.
Paper size
Letter (8.5 x 11 inches).
Personal details
Name, phone (with +57 from abroad), professional email, city (e.g. Bogotá), and LinkedIn URL. Never include your cédula number or bank details. Date of birth and age appear on traditional hojas de vida but are increasingly omitted.
Section order
Datos personales (contact details) → Perfil profesional (2–4 lines) → Experiencia laboral (reverse-chronological) → Formación académica (education) → Habilidades (skills) → Referencias (references). Recent graduates may put Formación before Experiencia.
ATS friendliness
Growing; Colombian employers (Rappi, Bancolombia, Glovo, Grupo Éxito, plus a large nearshore development industry) increasingly screen with ATS. Use standard headings, a clean layout, no tables or graphics, and PDF export. Mirror keywords from the job description exactly.

Colombian CV Examples

Real Colombian CVs written to these conventions across three experience levels. Switch tabs to review each, then load it straight into the builder to make it your own.

V

Valentina Torres

Software Engineer (Graduate)

Entry Level [email protected] Bogotá

Professional Summary

Entry Level software engineer (graduate) with experience at Bancolombia (Colombia) and Glovo (Colombia) in Bogotá. Skilled in Go, TypeScript and React, with a focus on reliability and clean architecture. Following the standard Colombian CV Format.

Work Experience

Software Engineer (Graduate)
07/2025 – Present

Bancolombia (Colombia) · Bogotá

  • Ship customer-facing features in the search using Go, TypeScript and React, following team code review and CI/CD practice.
  • Reduced API response time by 22% by introducing response caching in a search endpoint.
  • Fixed 40+ production issues across two quarters, maintaining a 99.9% service uptime record.
  • Pair with senior engineers on system design and observability, contributing to the team's on-call rota.
Software Engineering Intern
01/2025 – 06/2025

Glovo (Colombia) · Bogotá

  • Built a reporting dashboard in React and Python that cut weekly report generation from 3 hours to 20 minutes.
  • Wrote 60+ unit and integration tests, raising feature coverage on the module to 92%.
  • Presented the project to 150+ staff at the local office; offer extended.

Education

Ingeniería de Sistemas y Computación
2021 – 2025

Universidad de los Andes · Bogotá

Focused on computer science fundamentals, distributed systems, and software engineering.

Skills

TypeScript & JavaScript (Experienced) React & Node.js (Experienced) Python (Skillful) SQL (PostgreSQL) (Skillful) AWS (S3, Lambda) (Skillful) Git & CI/CD (GitHub Actions) (Experienced)

Certifications & Links

  • AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials
  • GitHub portfolio with 25+ public repositories
  • LinkedIn profile linked in the header
Use This Example

How to Write a Colombian CV: Step-by-Step

1

Open With Datos Personales and a Short Perfil Profesional

Start with your name, phone (use +57 from abroad), a professional email address, city (e.g.

Bogotá), and LinkedIn URL.

Never include your cédula number or bank details.

Date of birth and age are traditional but increasingly omitted.

Follow with a 2–4 line perfil profesional mirroring job-description keywords.

Example

Software Engineer with 3 years of experience building payments platforms in Medellín. Skilled in Java, Kotlin, and AWS, with a focus on reliability and clean architecture.

Entry Level

Keep the summary to 2-3 lines: your degree, internships, and core languages.

Mid Level

Lead with years of experience, your stack, and the products or teams you have shipped for.

Senior Level

Summarise scope: systems owned, team size led, architecture decisions, and business impact.

2

List Work Experience Reverse-Chronological With Quantified Achievements

List roles most recent first with job title, company, city, and dates in DD/MM/YYYY or month-year format.

Write 3–5 achievement-led bullets per role;

“reduje el tiempo de respuesta de la API en 40% con caché” beats “encargado del backend”.

Colombian recruiters want results, not responsibilities, so quantify impact in every bullet.

Example

Software Engineer. Rappi (Colombia), Medellín, 06/2022 - Present. Migrated a payments service to Kubernetes, cutting deployment time from 40 to 8 minutes and improving on-call resolution by 30%.

Entry Level

Detail internships, attachments, and capstone projects with measurable outcomes.

Mid Level

Quantify features shipped, systems owned, uptime or latency improvements, and team collaboration.

Senior Level

Highlight architecture decisions, team leadership, mentoring, and business impact in revenue or efficiency.

3

Place Education Prominently

Colombian employers recognise Universidad de los Andes, Universidad Nacional, EAFIT, and Javeriana.

List your degree, institution, dates, and GPA where strong.

Recent graduates place education before work experience;

experienced engineers keep it after.

Mention certifications (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Scrum) in a separate line;

they carry real weight in the Colombian market.

Example

Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2019-2023. GPA 3.6/4.0. Internship at Rappi (Colombia). Capstone: fault-tolerant payments ledger.

Entry Level

Lead with your degree, GPA, and internships; include coursework relevant to the role.

Mid Level

Add professional certifications and continued education alongside the degree.

Senior Level

Keep education brief; lead with certifications and leadership training.

4

Show Key Skills and Languages

Use a skills section with 8–12 competencies mirroring the job description:

languages (Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, JavaScript), frameworks (React, Spring Boot), and platforms (AWS, GCP, Kubernetes).

A short languages line is standard:

Español (nativo) and English (avanzado, B2/C1) are essential for nearshore and international roles.

Example

Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, React, Spring Boot, AWS (S3, Lambda, ECS), Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), SQL (PostgreSQL), System Design.

Entry Level

List languages and frameworks from coursework and internships; include GitHub links.

Mid Level

Add depth: cloud certifications, distributed systems, observability, and testing practice.

Senior Level

Focus on architecture, scaling, security, and leadership skills (system design, incident command, mentoring).

5

Close With References and a Right-To-Work Line

The Colombian hoja de vida traditionally ends with a Referencias section:

two to three professional referees with role, company, and contact details.

For non-Colombians, add a right-to-work line:

“Visa de trabajo” (work visa) or “Permiso Especial de Permanencia”.

Employers routinely ask about work authorization;

being explicit saves everyone time.

Example

References available on request. Right to work: Non-Colombians.

Entry Level

Use your university career center and an internship supervisor or lecturer as referees.

Mid Level

Prefer two professional referees: a current engineering manager and a senior colleague.

Senior Level

List a director of engineering and a peer tech lead who can verify leadership outcomes.

6

Use Spanish, Letter Size, and an ATS-Clean Layout

Spanish is the working language of most Colombian companies;

English is used in nearshore and international tech.

Use a clean 10–11pt font, standard headings (Perfil profesional, Experiencia laboral, Formación académica, Habilidades), and a single column.

Avoid tables, graphics, and headers or footers that confuse parsers.

Save as a PDF named Nombre_Apellido_HojadeVida.pdf.

Mirror the exact wording of the job description for the best ATS match.

Proofread carefully.

Example

Save as Valentina_Torres_HojaDeVida.pdf and mention relevant keywords from the job description.

Entry Level

Have your university career center review the document before applying.

Mid Level

Check every date and certification is exact; gaps read as hiding something.

Senior Level

Verify all certifications have current dates; keep it to two pages.

What Makes the Colombian Hoja de Vida Different

The Colombian CV Format stands apart from its neighbours in a few concrete ways.

The length rule (1–2 pages;

1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals.

Colombian recruiters value concise hojas de vida that are easy to scan.), the photo stance (Common.

A professional 3x4 photo is traditional on the Colombian hoja de vida, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs.

If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.), and the date convention (Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g.

15/06/2025), or written as “Junio 2025”.

Month-year precision is enough for most roles.) all signal local awareness.

Write every experience bullet with numbers.

Colombian recruiters compare candidates on measurable outcomes:

latency reduced, revenue grown, costs cut.

Each bullet should start with a strong action verb and end with a quantified result.

Finally, tailor the document to the specific job ad.

Identify the top three requirements and mirror them in your summary, skills, and experience bullets.

Generic CVs are screened out quickly in this market.

Colombian software engineer salaries in 2026 run roughly COP 36M–60M for juniors, COP 60M–108M for mid-level, and COP 108M–180M+ for senior roles (Levels.fyi, 2026), and Bogotá and Medellín host Rappi, Bancolombia, and one of Latin America's largest nearshore engineering industries.

Key Skills Valued in Colombia

Technical Skills

Programming languages relevant to the roleCloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)Container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker)CI/CD and IaC (GitHub Actions, Terraform)Databases and data pipelines (PostgreSQL, Kafka)Observability (Prometheus, Grafana)

Soft Skills

Clear written and verbal communicationTeam collaboration and code reviewProblem-solving under pressureTime management and delivery focusStakeholder communicationContinuous learning

Keywords and Terminology for Colombian Hoja de Vidas

Using the right keywords is the only way to pass an ATS screen and reach a human recruiter.

Extract them from the job description and mirror the exact wording:

job title, required skills, and tools.

Job-ad keywords (mirror the wording exactly)Languages and frameworks the team usesPlatforms and tools (cloud, CI/CD, databases)Practice terms (agile, testing, observability)Local qualification and certification terms

How Experience Is Presented in a Colombian Hoja de Vida

Experience is the core of the document, written reverse-chronologically with the most recent role first.

Each role shows the job title, company, city, and dates, followed by achievement-led bullets with numbers.

Entry Level

Focus on internships, projects, and transferable skills; show reliability and a fast learning curve.

Mid Level

Show ownership: features shipped, systems run, and improvements measured in numbers.

Senior Level

Show scale: teams led, architectures owned, budgets or revenue impact, and mentoring outcomes.

Tailoring Your Hoja de Vida to Colombian Employers

Tailoring means adjusting the lens, not rewriting your history.

Identify the top three priorities in the job ad and make sure they appear in your summary and your first skills.

Match the ad's language exactly.

Common Colombian Hoja de Vida Mistakes to Avoid

Avoid these errors that regularly get applications rejected in Colombia:

1. Getting the length wrong: 1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals. Colombian recruiters value concise hojas de vida that are easy to scan. is the local standard.

2. Ignoring the photo rule: Common. A professional 3x4 photo is traditional on the Colombian hoja de vida, especially for customer-facing roles, but many tech companies accept photo-free CVs. If you include one, use a clean, professional 3x4 photo.

3. Using the wrong date format: use Day / Month / Year (DD/MM/YYYY, e.g. 15/06/2025), or written as “Junio 2025”. Month-year precision is enough for most roles. consistently.

4. Including personal details that local practice excludes: Name, phone (with +57 from abroad), professional email, city (e.g. Bogotá), and LinkedIn URL. Never include your cédula number or bank details. Date of birth and age appear on traditional hojas de vida but are increasingly omitted.

5. Listing duties instead of achievements; quantified results win every time.

Colombia Job Market and Salary Outlook

The Colombia job market in 2026 remains active for software engineers, with demand concentrated in the major cities.

Understanding the typical salary brackets for your level helps you calibrate your examples and negotiate with confidence.

LevelTypical annual salary (COP)Typical hoja de vida length
Entry LevelCOP 36,000,000–60,000,0001 page
Mid LevelCOP 60,000,000–108,000,0001–2 pages
Senior LevelCOP 108,000,000–180,000,000+2 pages

Source: Levels.fyi Colombia + Glassdoor Bogotá + Tecla software engineer salary data, 2026 (approximate gross ranges, see sources)

Key Tips for Writing a Colombian CV

  • Tip 1: Save as a clean, selectable PDF named FirstName_LastName_Role_Hoja de vida.pdf.
  • Tip 2: Use a professional email address; never a personal-sounding handle.
  • Tip 3: Include the correct international dialling code on your phone number.
  • Tip 4: Keep the length to the local standard: 1–2 pages; 1 page for graduates and junior roles, up to 2 for experienced professionals. Colombian recruiters value concise hojas de vida that are easy to scan..
  • Tip 5: Mirror the job ad's keywords verbatim for ATS screens.
  • Tip 6: Have a careers service or a trusted colleague proofread before sending.

Frequently Asked Questions

¿Necesito una foto en mi hoja de vida en Colombia?

Es común. Una foto 3x4 profesional es tradicional en la hoja de vida colombiana, sobre todo para roles de cara al cliente, pero muchas empresas de tecnología aceptan hojas de vida sin foto. Si la incluyes, usa una foto limpia y profesional 3x4.

¿Debo incluir mi número de cédula en la hoja de vida?

No. Nunca incluyas tu número de cédula ni datos bancarios en la hoja de vida. Fecha de nacimiento y edad son tradicionales, pero cada vez se omiten más.

¿Qué tan larga debe ser una hoja de vida en Colombia?

De una a dos páginas: una para recién graduados y roles junior, hasta dos para profesionales con experiencia. Los reclutadores colombianos valoran hojas de vida concisas y fáciles de escanear.

¿Qué formato de fecha se usa en las hojas de vida colombianas?

Día / Mes / Año (DD/MM/AAAA, por ejemplo 15/06/2025), o escrito como “Junio 2025”. Precisión de mes y año es suficiente para la mayoría de los roles.

¿Cómo se ve una hoja de vida de ingeniero de software en Colombia?

Una hoja de vida de 1–2 páginas, limpia y compatible con ATS, en una sola columna: datos personales (ciudad, sin cédula), perfil profesional, experiencia en orden cronológico inverso con logros cuantificados, formación (Andes, Nacional, EAFIT), habilidades, idiomas y referencias.

Los salarios de tecnología en Colombia van de COP 36M–60M en nivel inicial, COP 60M–108M en nivel medio y COP 108M–180M+ en nivel senior, así que adapta tus ejemplos al nivel al que aplicas.

Conventions verified for 2026 and based on well-established Colombian recruitment practice.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the following authoritative sources.

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