Resumes and C.V.s -- What's the Difference?

By Peter Newfield, President, Career Resumes

According to the dictionary, a resume is "a summary, as of one's employment, education, etc., used in applying for a new position." Conversely, a curriculum vitae (C.V.) is noted as "a regular or particular course of study of or pertaining to education and life."

In other words, a RESUME is a career and educational summary meant to highlight your skills and experience and a C.V. is a list meant to document every job and degree you've ever received in your life.

When professionals working abroad decide that they want to seek out job opportunities in the U.S. and send out their C.V.s to American companies, they have no idea what Human Resource and Personnel Directors are looking for when reviewing these documents. In a typical C.V., the first category is Education, listing preparatory/college/university information and dates right up front. If the mechanical engineer or CEO sending this document graduated from university in 1974, that is not the most important piece of information that a headhunter or HR Director needs to know about this person.

The C.V. continues with Work Experience, often listing jobs going back to college days, and often listing them in chronological order (starting with 1976 for example, and ending with the 1997-Present position somewhere down on page 2 or 3). The C.V. is quite simply a listing of company names, job titles, dates of employment, and job responsibilities. Just the potatoes, without the meat and gravy, so to speak. A professional resume, on the other hand, does not require that you include every job you've ever held since being a counselor at Camp Thanksalot.

The C.V. is written in a paragraph style, not broken up with bulleted or italicized information to highlight any skills, accomplishments, or achievements for each specific position like a resume. Each paragraph lists the responsibilities from a first person perspective "I" and "my" - which is just not done in a professional resume. On this side of the Atlantic, a resume is written in the third person so as to appear more objective and factual.

The next faux pas of the C.V. is to include personal information in the document. The applicant lists marital status, nationality, height and weight, date of birth, and other information which is just not necessary or warranted when applying for a job in the U.S. Hobbies and Personal Interests are also often listed on C.V.s. But whether you play acoustic guitar or spin wool for cardigan sweaters, it does not belong on a resume.

A strong, professionally written resume, however, starts out with a brief Summary of Qualifications, next is a key word section listing your Areas of Strength or Industry Expertise, then Professional Experience where your career experience for the past ten to fifteen years is focused on and any experience prior to that may be summarized. The information listed under Professional Experience is written in reverse chronological order (most recent or present job first and going back from there) and includes a balance of responsibilities and accomplishments for each position.

After the work experience, Professional Affiliations, Computer Skills, and Education sections should appear. The best strong, to-the-point resumes should be one to two pages. Conversely, oftentimes C.V.s go on for three or four pages.

Keep in mind that resumes are intended to present a summary of highlights to allow the prospective employer to scan through the document visually or electronically and see if your skills match their available positions. A good resume can do that very effectively -- a C.V. cannot.

Tips on resume-writing
from JobStreet.com

Of course, you’d like to make sure your resume stands out, and you wonder if there are any new techniques you can try. The fact is, the rules on what makes a hot resume have hardly changed. It’s still knowing the essentials that will do the trick.

Make sure yours has these elements in the given order:

Job objective. State briefly the kind of job you seek so the employer will know if he has a match. Be specific and to the point. Never write obscure statements.

Pertinent skills. If you had work stints while studying, enumerate them here. List the employer’s name, address, dates of employment, and your job title and duties. Indicate relevant skills acquired and accomplishments made.

Education. List down in reverse order your educational attainment, the name of school and year of graduation. Include your G.P.A. (if impressive), honors, special projects and extracurricular activities. Positions of responsibility in school activities and organizations show you have leadership and people skills.

Personal background. Disclose only those details relevant to the position. It is all right to omit your parents’ names and occupations or your hobbies. Leave out something to talk about during the interview.

References. Skip this altogether or simply say that this will be available upon request. If you do include references, provide the complete name, title and contact details. (Get clearance from your references first! This way, they won’t be caught off guard and can prepare a good testimonial on your behalf.)

Some final useful tips:

Be brief and concise: You’ve got about 30 seconds to make your pitch so don’t beat around the bush.

Be perfect: Proofread ruthlessly. Weed out typos and grammatical boo-boos. Double-check dates and facts. Ensure punctuation marks are correct and in their proper places.

Be active: Go for action verbs. Delete personal pronouns and articles. These will invigorate your resume and free up space for more information.

Be inviting. Your resume must look attractive to be read. Use conservative fonts like Times New Roman or Arial, at least 10 in size. Include ample white space. Organize items under section headings to give the eyes a break. Print on crisp, white paper.
Remember, a crowded, cluttered, error-laden resume is a big turnoff.

Peter Newfield is President of Career Resumes, a leading resume writing service that provides cover letters, professional resumes, and Internet posting in all fields and industries. Career Resumes is a member of both the National Resume Writers' Association and the Professional Association of Resume Writers. For a free consultation and resume evaluation with a price quote, call 1-800-800-1220 or fax resumes to 1-800-927-4611.
URL: www.career-resumes.com Email: Peter@career-resumes.com