CV vs Resume

Three major differences between CVs and Resumes are the length, the purpose and the layout. A resume is a brief summary of your skills and experience over one or two pages, a CV is more detailed and can stretch well beyond two pages. The resume will be tailored to each position whereas the CV will stay put and any changes will be in the cover letter.

 

A CV has a clear chronological order listing the whole career of the individual whereas a resume’s information can be shuffled around to best suit the applicant. One might say the main difference between a resume and a CV is that a CV is intended to be a full record of your career history and a resume is a brief, targeted list of skills and achievements.

 

What is CV?

CV is a long application document and may be even 5 pages long. It covers in-depth all information including academic background, research experience, awards, honors, publications, teaching, volunteering experience and other specific accomplishments.

Commonly it is used to apply for some academic, educational, governmental or scientific positions. CV is used when applying for grants, scholarships, internships and fellowships. It will come in handy for people working in medical field as well.

CV is also required for overseas job openings. If you want go international, employers from Europe, Asia and Middle East will certainly require a CV instead of a resume.

 

 

What is Resume?

On the contrary, resume is the most common document required from job applicants.

A resume is a brief summary of your skills, abilities, qualification, work history and educational background of a candidate. It might be customized to the specific job opening and may contain only relevant information to the current position.

 

There are 3 main resume formats:

• chronological resume format
• functional resume format
• combination resume format

In addition, you may write a creative resume and include graphics, pics and non-standard resume fonts for it.

Also, it has differences in its structure, for ex., you may mention your biggest professional achievements, or include objective/summary section in a resume.

Traditionally, resume shouldn't be longer than two A4 pages. It’s intended to be short, as a recruiter spends only around 8 seconds to skim applicant’s resume.

It’s important to adjust a resume to a specific position in order to fit the needs and requirements. If you think that some of your past career experience won’t make any difference to an HR — erase it.

 

How long is a CV?

By definition, it is more detailed than a resume. It usually has two or more pages, and it should include in-depth information about  your previous achievements, education, professional work experience, personal projects, skills, extracurricular experience, awards, publications, extra courses, volunteer work, etc.

 

How long is a resume?

By contrast, a resume has fewer content sections, and the preferred length for recruiters is one page. Because of the, short format this means that you need to be selective about the content that is included, prioritizing information relevant to specific positions. Many people find this shorter format challenging.