What is the difference between a CV and a resume?
In the US, a resume is a short, targeted summary of your experience, usually one or two pages, rewritten for each job. A CV (curriculum vitae, Latin for “course of life”) is a full record of your academic and professional history, used mainly for academic, research and medical roles, and it has no fixed length. Outside the US, “CV” often just means a resume.
So the honest answer to “CV or resume?” depends on two things: the country you’re applying in, and whether the job is academic.
Which one should you send for a job application?
Send whatever the posting asks for, and when it says “CV” for a non-academic job, send a resume-style document of one or two pages. Most employers outside universities and research use the words interchangeably. Nobody in a corporate hiring process wants your full publication list.
- US corporate, tech, nonprofit or government job asking for a resume: send a resume.
- US job that says “CV” but isn’t academic or medical: send your resume. You can name the file “CV” if you like.
- US academic, research, grant or medical position: send a full academic CV.
- UK, Ireland, Europe or Israel: send a CV in the local sense, which is close to a US resume in content and usually two pages at most.
- Not sure: follow the posting’s wording and the norms of the country where the job is.
How is the word “CV” used in different countries?
- United States: “resume” for almost all jobs. “CV” means the long academic document.
- Canada: mostly “resume”, with “CV” for academic roles and in Quebec, where CV is the everyday word.
- United Kingdom and Ireland: “CV” is the everyday word. The usual advice from UK university career services is two sides of A4 for most graduate roles, and one side for many part-time jobs.
- Continental Europe: “CV”. Some employers and public bodies use the EU’s Europass CV format, which has standard sections and is longer than a typical US resume.
- Israel: “CV” (in Hebrew, korot chaim) is the common term. Expect a short document, often one page and rarely more than two, focused on recent roles.
- Australia and New Zealand: “resume” and “CV” are both used for the same short document.
- India: “resume” and “CV” are both used, and some sectors still ask for a longer “biodata”.
What goes in an academic CV that isn’t in a resume?
An academic CV lists everything relevant to an academic career, usually in reverse chronological order within each section, and grows over the years. A resume selects; a CV records.
- Education with dissertation or thesis title and advisor
- Publications, in the citation style of your field
- Conference presentations and invited talks
- Teaching experience and courses taught
- Research experience and grants or funding received
- Honors, awards and fellowships
- Professional service: peer review, committees, editorial roles
- Languages, lab or technical skills, and references when requested
How long should a CV be compared with a resume?
A US resume is usually one page with under about 10 years of experience and two pages at most. An academic CV has no real page limit: an early-career CV may be two pages, and in some fields a senior professor’s runs past 20. A UK or European CV for a non-academic job is usually two pages at most.
Do you include a photo, age or date of birth?
In the US and UK, no. US employers generally avoid photos and personal details to reduce the risk of discrimination claims, and the UK’s National Careers Service says not to include your age, date of birth, marital status or nationality. Some countries in continental Europe still commonly include a photo. Follow the local norm for the country where the job is, not where you live.
Should you convert your CV to a resume when you move?
Yes, and it’s mostly cutting. If you’re moving from academia to industry, or from a country with long CVs to the US, turn your record into a targeted document:
- Cut publications to the two or three most relevant, or a single line (“12 peer-reviewed publications in computational biology”).
- Turn research into results an employer understands: methods, tools, scale, outcomes.
- Put skills that match the posting near the top.
- Remove photo, date of birth, marital status and nationality for US and UK applications.
- Keep the full CV saved for grant and academic applications.
Our guide “The resume that gets read in 7 seconds” covers layout and bullets once you’ve made the cut.
What about a cover letter: is it part of a CV?
No. A cover letter is a separate one-page letter that explains why you want this specific job and points to your best proof. You send it alongside a resume or CV, not inside it. In the UK and Europe, “CV and cover letter” is the standard pair; in the US it’s “resume and cover letter”. Academic applications often add a research statement or teaching statement as well, and those are separate documents too.
Does the format of a CV and a resume differ?
The layout rules for getting parsed and read are the same for both: one column, standard headings, a readable font, contact details in the body rather than the page header, and a text-based PDF unless the employer asks for Word. What differs is the content and the order.
- Resume order: name and contact, headline, two- or three-line summary, experience (most recent first), skills, education.
- Academic CV order: name and contact, education first, then research, publications, presentations, teaching, grants, awards and service.
- UK or European CV order: like a resume, sometimes with a short “personal profile” instead of a summary, and languages listed near the end.
- Europass CV: fixed sections generated by the EU’s online editor. Use it when an employer or program asks for it, and a normal two-page CV otherwise.
Which does Screenpass make?
Screenpass writes a tailored resume for each job, which is also what most non-academic employers mean when they ask for a CV. For academic posts, keep your full CV as its own document, and use a tailored resume for industry roles.