After finishing school or higher education, almost everyone looks for work, and nowadays, almost every industry requires a CV or resume that shows their skills, achievements, work experience, etc., to apply for any job position in the market, so we will see what can be best for any job position in the market. In this article, we will be discussing whether we should use “a CV or a resume.”
What is Resume?
“Resume” is a French word that means “summary.” A resume is a one- or two-page summary of your academic qualifications, work experience, and background as they relate to the job for which you are applying. A resume starts with our career objective, and for most, it can be kept to a single page. In short, the resume is a targeted list of your skills, work experience, and achievements, and when creating a resume, try not to exceed two pages. However, the length of a resume may depend on the years of work experience that you have.
Note: In a resume, we should include only those details about the work experience that are relevant to the job opening.
Components of Resume:
- Personal details, like full name, date of birth, gender, caste, and religion
- Contact details, like address, mobile number, and email id
- Educational Details, like Details of Degrees and Examinations passed, Year of Passing Examinations
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Work experience, like the time that you have spent working in various institutions and companies, depends on the position you are applying for.
What is Curriculum vitae (CV)?
CV is the short form used for Curriculum Vitae. In Latin, CV is also called the “course of life.” A CV is a detailed history of your qualifications, work experience, skills, and achievements, including your scholarships and awards. A CV contains a higher level of detail about you than a resume. It has a clear chronological order that highlights your whole career. A CV is normally up to 2-3 pages, but depending on your work experience, skills, and achievements, it can be extended as the CV has no specific length limit.
Note: A CV is a fixed document that does not change for any position. A CV is expected to follow the chronological order of the applicant’s career.
Components of CV
- Contact details like your email ID, mobile number, and address
- Education details
- Professional and academic details
- Scholarships and awards
- Books and book chapters
- Work experience and skills
- Non-Academic Activities
- Languages that you know
- Hobbies and Interests
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References
What should I use? “Resume or CV”
After going through the following differences between Resume and CV, you’ll able to understand, which one is better for you.
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A resume is one or two pages, whereas a CV can be two, six, or eight pages depending on the professional experience and achievements. CVs are used mostly in academia, where people are being considered for faculty positions in teaching or research, but nowadays, both public and private sector employees mostly use the chronological CV format, as it is easier for the employer to screen and shortlist the best candidates for the required position.
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As a fresher, you can bring a resume because it contains a summary of your profile, such as skills, work experience, and academic qualifications, whereas a CV is suitable for those who have professional work experience in the related field.
- If you have too many gaps in your education or work history, you can give preference to a resume over a CV, as in a resume you do not have to describe your career history step by step, and the resume is not a lengthy document, so you can easily hide your gaps and highlight your skills and work experience to the employer as per the requirements of the job.
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If you want to apply for any position and your past experience is not relevant for that role, you can include a resume with your job application, and you can mention your skills as per the position requirements. Whereas, if you prefer a CV, you will have to provide all the details about your career step by step, and due to this, the task of rejecting your application is easier for the employer. However, the best way, in this case, is a functional resume format, as it is one of the most ideal if you are changing careers or have little work experience and want to focus more on your skills and experience than your employment history.
For example: Let’s say you’re applying for a software developer role and you have experience in the marketing field; your experience in the marketing field will be irrelevant experience, and due to that, your job application might get rejected by the employer. In this case, you can also use a resume rather than a CV because if you mention your irrelevant work experience on the CV, the employer might reject the job application, as your experience will not be useful to them.
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While writing a CV, we should always try to use a chronological format. A graduate or a new employee with minimal experience may only need to use one side of an A4 sheet. However, a three-page or more-page CV might be needed for those in high-level roles or for people who have gained a lot of experience or worked in multiple jobs over the last five to ten years.
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When it comes to higher posts, experience is a must, and our skills and achievements matter. In this case, a CV highlights our work experience and our career history, so a CV is always a better option to apply for a higher designation or a responsible position.
There are a few points that are to be remembered while making a CV or a resume:
- In a CV, the position of our academic qualification should be at the top of the page, while on a resume, we can mention it in the middle section of the page after the work experience details.
- In a CV, importance is given to the educational and co-curricular journey of a person, skills, and experience; in the case of a resume, it is given to the education details, work experience, and skills.
- In a CV, you can give your previous company’s references, but in a resume, you do not have to give any references.
- A CV includes a detailed description of the job profile and personal information, whereas a resume is a summarized profile of a person’s job history.
Lastly, to summarize it in a simple way, “whenever you find a job posting on any website or in the newspaper, the employer instructs you to submit a resume” or “CV,” so whatever the employer is asking you to submit, you should follow his instructions and submit the same document.” Also, we should always try to highlight our work experience, skills, and achievements as per the position’s requirements so that the application does not get rejected.