Difference between a CV and a Resume

Difference between CV and Resume

While most of us use the terms ‘Curriculum Vitae’ (CV) and ‘Resume’ interchangeably, there is a difference between these two documents. All over the world (including India) except the US, employers ask potential employees for a CV while applying for a position. While both documents are used in the job application process, There is a difference in what the contents of each should be.

To understand this, let us look at the literal meaning of these two terms:

• Curriculum Vitae: The course of life;
• Resume: Summary

A close look at the meaning of these terms makes things clearer. While a CV discusses the course of life of a person, his Resume is a brief summary of his skills and achievements. The meaning of the words offer the basic differences between the two:

• While a CV is detailed, a Resume is to the point
• A CV is longer than a Resume. Usually, a CV is two or more pages long while a Resume is essentially one page long.
• A CV can contain some information about other facets of your life such as hobbies and extracurricular activities. A Resume strictly contains information relevant to the job.
• A CV is usually used in USA only for academia and when you are required to apply for a government grant. Potential employers usually ask for a Resume there.
• This means that while your CV when applying to two different jobs could be same, your Resume has to be different, highlighting different achievements in different cases.

So, what term should you use? While most times you will be asked for a CV all over the world, you have to be cautious if you are in the USA. In the USA, employers expect you to abide by the rules when they ask you for your Resume.

Courtesy: REDIFF

Accenture Adobe ADP Allahabad Bank Amazon Andhra Bank ASHOK LEYLAND Bajaj Bank Bank of Baroda BHEL Birla Bosch Bosche BPL Brakes India BSNL C-DAC C-DOT Cadence Calsoft CANARYS Capgemini Caritor CDAC CGI ChangePond Cisco CitiCorp CMC Compaq Convergys COSL Covansys CSC CTS DBSS DELL Deloitte Delphi Deshaw Deutsche DHARMA Digital Globalsoft DOEACC DRDO DSQ Epson Essar EvalueServe FCG Flextronics FREESCALE Future Soft FXLABS Genpact Geometric Global Edge GLOBAL LOGIC Google GRAPECITY HAL HCL Hexaware HFCL HP HSBC HUAWEI Hughes i-Flex i2 Technlogy IBM IBS SOFTWARE ICICI INFOSYS Microsoft Mindtree Mistral Motorola Mphasis NAGARRO NESS Technologies NFL NIIT Nokia Novell NTPC Nucleus Nvidia ONGC ONMOBILEÂ Oracle Patni PeopleSoft Perot Persistent Polaris ProdEx Quark QUINNOX Qwest RAMCO Reliance Robert Bosch RRB RRB Bhopal RS Software SAIL Samtel SAP Sapient Sasken Satyam SBI Bank Scandent Sun Microsystems Sutherland Syntel TataElxsi TATAINFO TATA INFOTECH Tata Power TCS Tech Mahindra Telco Telserra Texas THOROGOOD TISL Triad Trilogy Ubinetics Vedanta Verizon Vernalis Virtusa Visualsoft VSNL WepIndia Wilco Wipro Xansa Yahoo Yantro Zensar ZTE