Curriculum Vitae (CV) vs. Resume

I believe they are interchangeable terms.

In either case I would say that if it runs to 4 pages it need sumarizing (as a front shheet), so that a prospective employer can quickly put you on the 'yes pile'.

(Unless the 4 pages is very well laid out)

no the four pages are not very well laid out. they are detailed. the employer will not be interested in all this details, and would rather know about it in an interview.

but i thought that i have read or heard somewhere that there was a difference between a resume and a CV where one is detailed and the other is a summary.

guess i have to do both and submit both also.

It hardly matters...

Follow the principle of good technical writing.

Brief summary/extract.

Full detail

Conclusion/summary.

Or in lecturing terms...

Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em.

Tell 'em.

Tell 'em what you've told 'em!

Presentation is key if you want to get in the 'yes pile'.

I always think that a pile of CVs will all probably have the relevant educational qualifications (or close equivalent) So it's experience, specific acheivements and hobies/interest I look for. So it's a quick scan of the summary and then look for the sections that I'm interested in....if I can't find 'em...I'd think....

'If this guy can't be bothered to present the information in a way that it can be found, I can't be bothered to search for it.....next'

I think you are right to be concerned about the term of use, and the presentation of, your work experience.

1. Are you out of work and seeking employment now? This will make a difference on the intensity of your search, and the nature of how you present yourself via paper and other communications.

2. Are you seeking 'any' work? Or, do your have a very strong desire to work in specific areas? Are you a 'known' personality?

* I would have both a 'resume' (SHORT: a set of accomplishments) and a 'curriculum vitae' (LONG: an account of one's career and qualifications.)

* I would seriously have someone (professional) help you. This help does not have to be a professional resume consultant (employment counselor,) but, it would help. Use eLance or ScriptLance to bid it out. *This is especially important: if you do not have a simple, professional website then, have that built as well. (In fact, get all this together anyway: become an 'expert' even while employed. Show it to your managers, let them know that you are somebody - should they not already recognize it now. You have far more power as a recognized expert.)

I would have a better idea of how to answer your question, once you have replied.

In resume writing I have found that even if I got to do a hundred really cool jobs that were outside my description, don't put them in your resume. Leave something for the interview. That's where I told them about the testing I did to help out QA, and the time I went to the wall for Engineering.

This is impressive in an interview, and tedious in a resume.

Hope this helps.

A CV emphasizes skills, experience, patents, professional memberships and publications rather than a resume, which is more a listing of employment history. In a CV you list first what your qualifications are including education, patents, professional orgainization memberships and publications. You also list a concise statement of your skills. That is followed by a more detailed experience listing, emphasizing items like world class product development, unusual accomplishments requiring rare skills, and the like. Threreafter, give a VERY brief history of employers and companies you have formed if a consultant, and a brief description of duties and accomplishments.

A CV is more apropos for consultants, while a resume is probably better for a staff position. At a certain level of experience and expertise, however, a CV format may be better for a higher level staff position.

Hope this helps.

BernieK

Woof!!! I'm glad I never had to write a CV!!! The resume is bad enough. And being both an individual contributor and a manager, If I didn't see a bullet point mentioning a various skill, into the round filing cabinet it would go... Too over worked.

If I brought you in for an interview, and you told me about the cool stuff you were allowed to do, I got really excited!!!

Use of resume vs CV has always been confusing to me and tends to vary across countries/cultures.

However, I was once told that CV is generally used in academia, whilst resume is used in the commercial world....that has been good enough for me.

Assuming you are in the USA, a great resource for how to compose a resume is the manager tools podcast (www.manager-tools.com). There was one or two podcasts specifically on putting a resume together.

I am in Australia and can tell you that expectations are very different here. They do like more detail, 3-4 pages. Use reverse chronological order naming the company, position(s) held, a brief statement of responsibilities and 2-3 achievements for each position.

Hope this helps.

Cheers from Down Under

However, I was once told that CV is generally used in academia, whilst resume is used in the commercial world....that has been good enough for me.

That's generally the way it is in the US too. Probably 1-5% of commercial ventures will ask you to submit a CV, with the vast majority using the term resume.

But there are certainly exceptions in the US, and in many places in the world, the terms are used interchangeably. In the US, long resumes are often viewed as pluses in academia, and as negatives in the commercial world. In the US even business plans (traditionally 60 pages) are getting down to one page (far to brief, in my view).

My understanding from talking with several persons in academia is that CV is generally reserved for higher level academic positions while resumes are for staff positions.

Here in the US we use the "one resume, one page" motto. If you exceed one page, you can pretty much bet you just lost your audience - your prospective boss. You need to tailor your resume to the prospective job category and add elements that make your qualifications stand out from the pack.

sternk13,

That used to be the policy, and as a hiring manager, I am still a bit prejudicial toward the "one-pagers." However, people have many more jobs during their working lives than they used to (at least in the Silicon Valley). So now multi-page resumes are acceptable (also because they come off the web). BUT! That multi-page resume better be really specific and to the point. If it's just a lot of run-on, into the round filing cabinet it goes.

The main "problematicalness" with multi page resumes--deserved or not--is that first lookers will tend to see the extra pages as a dead give-way...of one's age. The general rule of thumb is one page per decade--of an advancing career that is. So, if one's resume--in pica or elite--covers significant space, say, on that third page, one might be pegged as being in the 3rd decade of work after schooling--or in one's fifties. Not that that's bad, but one had better be pursuing a position where the competition will generally be in that age range (as in senior position), otherwise (if, say, 30-somethings are expected to be in the running) submitting that third page could amount to self-sabotage at the starting gate. This is not to say that employers are so inflexible that they will not understand if extra page space is needed to give a good accounting. But the preceding page(s) had better be gripping enough with respect to the job opening, and show sufficient career progress (no redundancy) to draw a reader to turn to that next page.

Sorry I didn't get past the first line.... (joke)

Then you might try starting at the last line... (no, really!)

You need an extremely good cover letter, ( The cover letter will make or break your chances) concise and informative enough to get a prospective employer to even look at the rest of your resume.

Should include Past employment success's, current successful employment, all should be very positive. Very important are your off work interests and activities. These do not need to be work related.

The resume should be no more than "ONE" carefully constructed page. Very few hiring managers have the time to wade through a poorly planned and constructed resume.

I have seen the term CV -- not really sure if it a locality type thing but I think it is the same thing as a resume here in USA.

There are many very good sites on the www on this subject -- the more you look the more info you will get to add to your strategy.

1 Cover Letter

2 One page resume detailing the items in the cover letter.

3 Interview effectively if you get a callback.

THE KISS OF DEATH...

This is at least true in the Silicon Valley - many of us with a single job description often get to do other jobs of great value and experience that we would normally outside of our job description. If you start thinking about "And I did that, and that other thing, and also that and..." STOP! While these things are really cool and would impress someone, try your best to leave them off the resume. You don't want to blur your main goal to a possible employer. If you did your job well, concentrate on that, and save the "and I did this..." for the interview. It's one of the hardest things to do, but the ancillary jobs that made you a valued contributor work best during face-to-face talk.

It doesn't really matter what it's called. Its purpose is to get the interview.

1¹/₂ pages is ideal. Any longer than two and "I haven't got time for all this" applies, and it will go into Write-Only-Memory in deference to those others that are around that length.

"If you want me to read something, keep it brief", with apologies to the late Winston Spencer Churchill.

Yeah, but I thought a "vitae" was something for bodily hygiene?

I have hired many people in the past and three things come to mind concerning a resume' and CV. Unless you have very little work experience, leave the items not pertinent to the job off the resume'. If it is too long the person who is going over them will usually pass over it unless he has a lot of time. (which is never the case if he has several hundred.) If you are asked to bring a CV or what we distribute as a 991 to each qualified individual, FILL IT OUT! Several times these were not completed or brought to the interview and the person came across as just being lazy.

Professional resumes will be more like 4 pages. Since they need to demonstrate some breadth and depth in experience. Also, no one interviews several hundred professional engineers for a position (just not going to be that many available in your area for the position). Other professions, Doctors, CPAs, etc. are likely similar. You should tailor your resume, but for a professional position don't cut it so short they never fly you down for interview because they don't think you ave enough experience.

Along the lines of what some have said, the CV and resume are somewhat interchangeable terms with the resume being a brief summary and the CV a more descriptive text.

Most prospective employers want a bit of both, but not too much. The cover sheet should exhibit employment and education chronologically. It shows 'where you've been' in a quick glance format. The following page or two will expound upon the first showing 'what you accomplished'. Give patterns of advancement and experience growth. Be concise and save the descriptions for the interview.

They are the same.

Generally speaking you should highlight the unique experience you have to offer as long as it adds value to the position. Always list the related experience for the specific opportunity.

If you have multiple CV's, they can be designed to meet objectives of the position you are competing for.

Big mistake that everyone makes is using the same cover letter and resume for every position they apply for.

Ask yourself what the position requires and then convey the message on how you can meet or exceed their objectives.

Good Luck

I am a professional recruiter who has hired many engineers within the last 12 years. This is my opinion and how I generally do things.

1. CV and Resume are interchangable. Regardless of which you choose to call it, it should be detailed enough to fully illustrate your education and work experience. You should not write a book for each job, but rather sum up the key facts/contributions.

2. Length: It is acceptable to have a 2-3 page resume/cv. I typically will not read anything past page 3 on a resume.

3. I don't place too much weight on a cover letter. I don't read most of them. I do, however, skim it. I'm typically looking for something in the cover letter that tells me why they are leaving and/or interested in my opportunity. I don't want to read a cover letter and then read a resume that says the same thing.

My resume is right at 3 pages, One thing I do to keep it short and believe me it's not easy is to mention only a few things I did at each position. For example, I do Lean and Continuous improvement in my past three positions, but I only needed to mention it once for one position and leave the rest for the interview.

When you do get the interview, take control of the interview. By that I mean let them ask you a question, then not only answer the question, but fall back into your experience and give an example of how you handled it in the past and the results you got (always emphases the success, in an interview you've never had a failure, even if they ask, your only failure was a result of you working too hard.) Don't ever just answer the question and leave it at that, be talkative. Look everyone you meet in the eye.

By the way, I have a perfect record, every interview I ever went on, I got an offer. I didn't always accept the job, but I got the offer. So even if you don't think you want the job, but they offer you an interview, take it for the interview practice.

CV = Resume.