Making resume is one of the first things we have to do as soon as we jump start our career.
It’s the first formal form of communication with our prospective employer. Many people are not aware about the difference between resume and CV.
There are some points that differentiate the two application documents. Americans and Canadians hardly use CV.In our nation these two terms are used interchangeably.
In many nations, resumes are not used at all.
The major differences are in:
- Length
- Content/Layout
- Purpose
What is a Resume?
A resume or résumé is a brief note about education, skills and experience. This report must provide the reader all details about the employee in a glance. The document should be of one or two page maximum as it is intended that reader will not dwell on the document for long and one has stand out from crowd with the help of the resume.
What is CV?
A Curriculum Vitæ or CV means course of life in Latin, is a detailed document that can be laid out for two or more than two pages. It covers career history, education, awards, honors and other details in depth in chronological order.
Differences:
As stated above, there are three major differences. Resume is brief summary of skills and experience over one or two pages. A CV is more detailed and is stretched beyond two pages.
Resume content will change according to the type of job role. For CV one has to simply change the content in the cover letter and not in the main body of CV.
A CV has proper chronological order about the person’s career and resume can be shuffled accordingly.
So in short CV is a long detailed document that covers entire career and is static whereas resume is short, customizable and skills and achievements mentioned are according to the particular job role.
