Resume vs CV

When a job posting asks for a CV, the word can point to two very different documents, depending on who wrote the posting and where. And yet applicants often guess, sending a two-page resume to a university hiring committee or a twelve-page academic record to a sales manager. Neither lands well.

In the US, a resume is a short summary of your work that you rewrite for each job. A CV (short for curriculum vitae, Latin for "course of life") is the full record of an academic or research career, and it grows with every paper, grant and class you teach.

What a resume is in the US

A resume is selective by design. It usually runs one or two pages, covers the work that matters for one job and gets reworded for the next posting. Nearly every job outside universities and research labs expects one, from retail and the trades to nursing, accounting and software.

Because a resume is a sales document, you decide what goes in, and early jobs, unrelated side work and minor awards can all be left out without anyone thinking twice. Our Resume Writing Guide covers how to build one from scratch.

What a CV is in the US

A US CV aims to be complete. It lists your whole academic record, usually section by section with the newest item first in each, and there is no page limit. A graduate student's CV may fit on two or three pages, while a senior professor's can run past twenty.

You will need one for faculty jobs, postdoctoral and research scientist posts, graduate school and fellowship applications, grant proposals and some medical and scientific roles. The content stays the same from one application to the next, but the order can shift: a teaching-focused college will look for your teaching near the top, and a research university will look for publications and grants first.

Expect some or all of these sections.

• Contact details and your current position
• Education, with your dissertation or thesis title and advisor
• Research interests
• Publications and conference presentations
• Grants, fellowships and awards
• Teaching experience and courses taught
• Service, such as committees, peer review and professional memberships
• References, often listed in full at the end

What CV means in the UK and Europe

In the UK, Ireland and much of Europe, CV is simply the everyday word for a resume. A British employer who asks for your CV wants the same kind of document a US employer calls a resume, usually two pages long, tailored to the job and focused on work history, education and skills.

Local habits still differ. Some countries expect details that a US resume leaves out, such as a photo, date of birth or nationality, while the UK, for example, follows the US in leaving them off. The European Union also publishes a standard CV layout called Europass, which some employers and universities there ask for. When you apply abroad, read a few local job ads first and match what they ask for.

Which one should you send?

Read the whole posting before you decide. In some cases the job itself tells you more than the word the employer chose.

• Faculty, research, postdoctoral or fellowship post in the US: send a full academic CV
• Business, trade, healthcare or office job in the US that asks for a CV: send your resume, since many US employers use the two words loosely
• Staff job at a university, such as admissions, IT or facilities: a resume is usually right
• Job based in the UK, Ireland or elsewhere in Europe: send a CV of about two pages, written in the local style
• Still unsure: ask the contact person named in the posting which document they want

Turning one into the other

Moving from academia to industry means cutting a CV down to a resume. Expect to cut hard. Keep the research, teaching and management work that matches the job, and shrink a long publication list to one line or a short Selected Publications section. Describe lab work the way an outsider would, in budgets managed, people trained and deadlines met.

Going the other way, a resume grows into a CV as you add full lists: every publication, presentation, course taught and committee served on. Give each list its own heading, keep the newest item first and check every citation against one style guide.