What’s The Difference Between a Resume and a CV?

What’s The Difference Between a Resume and a CV?

While you are scanning a variety of job postings, you may have noticed a number of employers asking for a resume, and others ask for a CV. While both resumes and CVs are used for a variety of job applications, these two forms of documents have some clear distinct differences.

To assist in ensuring that you’ve prepared the correct document for your job applications, here is some clarification on the difference between having a CV and a resume.

The term CV is an abbreviation for the Latin word curriculum vitae, or “course of life”). This document is a detailed document that shares not only your career history but also your education, memberships, skills, awards, special honours, grants or scholarships, research or academic projects, and publications. A CV will also include employer references, projects or dissertations, hobbies and interests and a personal profile that lists your skills and positive personal characteristics. A CV is chronological and often begins with your personal profile, if you’re a graduate then your education would follow, then your skills, internships, projects and then references. If you got some experience under your belt then your CV would have your education placed on the last part of your CV.

A resume is a document that summarizes your career history, skills and education. A resume may also list relevant professional jobs or volunteer work that may also include an objective statement that will describe your professional ambitions. The term resume originates from the French word résumé, which translates to “abstract” or “summary.”

In most cases, job seekers would carefully list their professional career experience on a resume in reverse-chronological order, beginning with their present or most recent job post. If you are a fresh graduate with little or no professional experience, then you would start with your formal education and then collate a list of any relevant internships, work experience or apprenticeships.

The key differences between a resume and a CV include the length and the ability to customize layout options. Additionally, the region and career path of the individual must be taken into account when deciding which is appropriate to use. Here are some things to closely consider.

  • CV Length:While most people endeavour to keep their resume as concise as possible, preferably only one to two pages, a CV can run several pages in length. This is because a CV includes more detailed information than a resume.
  • Ability to tailor: A CV is regarded as a static document that often does not change. You may add new information to a CV throughout your professional career, but the information will not change based on where you’re applying. A resume, on the other hand, is often tailored to highlight specific skills or experience relevant to the position or industry.
  • Geographic location:In countries across the world, such as the UK, New Zealand and parts of Europe, employers often use the term CV to describe both CV and resume-style documents and don’t use the term “resume” at all. In South Africa, Australia and India, the terms CV and resume are often used interchangeably. But, in the US, a resume and CV are two distinctly different types of documents.

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