How to apply for jobs in Poland

EURES describes the Polish CV as concise, one or at most two A4 pages, covering personal data, professional experience, education, professional qualifications and additional skills. The cover letter justifies why you picked this offer, is a little more personal than the CV and normally takes one A4 page. Send both the way the advert says: in person, by post, by email or through the employer's own system. The Polish CV format guide shows the layout, and the cover letter builder writes a first draft of the list motywacyjny from your resume.

The consent clause under the CV causes more confusion than anything else. EURES still recommends a signed statement consenting to the processing of your data for recruitment. The Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) disagrees in its guide for employers: putting such a consent in a CV or cover letter is not the right practice, because the data the Labour Code lists are processed without consent. Extra ordinary data you volunteer, such as a photo, are processed on the basis of consent shown simply by sending your application.

Two cases do need a written consent. If you want the employer to keep your documents for later vacancies, add a separate sentence such as "I consent to the processing of my data for future recruitment by [Company] for the next six months"; without it, the employer should delete your data once the recruitment ends. Special-category data, such as health, need an explicit, separate consent, or the employer should delete them. In practice, copy the clause the advert asks for and leave it out otherwise. EURES also points to Europass for CV templates.^{[1][2][3][10]}

Article 22¹ of the Labour Code lists the personal data an employer requests from a job applicant: name and surname, date of birth and the contact details you choose, plus education, professional qualifications and employment history when they are necessary for the type of work or the position. Pay in your current and previous jobs is expressly excluded from that history, so you do not have to disclose your salary. Anything else, such as marital status, nationality or a photo, is voluntary.

Article 18³a requires equal treatment when a job is filled, regardless of sex, age, disability, race, religion, nationality, political beliefs, trade union membership, ethnic origin, creed, sexual orientation or the type of contract. Under article 18³d, a person treated unequally has a right to compensation of at least the minimum wage.^[2]

Since 24 December 2025, article 18³ca gives every applicant the right to information about the starting pay or its range, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, and about the relevant collective agreement or pay regulations. The employer gives it in the advert, or else before the interview, or at the latest before the employment starts, early enough for an informed negotiation. Use that range as your anchor, and log each figure you are offered in the job tracker.

The contract of employment (umowa o pracę) is the basic form of employment and is concluded in writing. Mandate and specific-task contracts (umowa zlecenie, umowa o dzieło) are civil-law contracts, and the Labour Code generally does not apply to them, so check which one you are offered.

A trial contract (umowa na okres próbny) lasts at most three months under article 25. It is limited to one month when the employer plans a fixed-term contract of under six months, and to two months for a planned contract of six to twelve months; the parties can extend those two limits once by up to a month if the type of work justifies it. Under article 34, notice during a trial contract is three working days for a trial of up to two weeks, one week for a longer one and two weeks for a three-month trial.^[1][2]

Nationals of EU and EFTA member states may work in Poland without a work permit, on the same terms as Polish nationals, and register their residence if they stay longer than three months. Other nationals need a residence document that allows work. In most cases the employer also obtains a work permit, a seasonal work permit or a declaration on entrusting work, or the worker holds a single residence and work permit. Holders of permanent residence or EU long-term resident permits do not need a work permit. The government's guide for foreign nationals lists every case.

Residence permit applications go to the Office for Foreigners (UdSC) system: since 27 April 2026 they can be filed only through its online MOS module. How a foreign diploma is recognised for work depends mainly on the country where you obtained it and on whether your profession is regulated in Poland; NAWA explains each route. If your CV is not in Polish yet, translate your resume and keep the English version for international employers.^[1][4][5][6]