Curriculum Vitae (CV) Explained

The main distinguishing features of the CV are outlined in brief below:

The Curriculum Vitae is a list of all your achievements until the date you are submitting it, presented in reverse chronological order (i.e. the latest achievements first) The Curriculum Vitae is ideally two pages in length, though it can sometimes go up to three to five pages The Curriculum Vitae would include everything that you have done and can be classified as work outside the home – whether paid or unpaid; hence, it is okay if the Curriculum Vitae contains voluntary and honorary positions and work done in such positions The Curriculum Vitae structure is very systematic and is generally drawn in a specific order The Curriculum Vitae is normally accompanied by a cover letter, which summarizes what it contains and points out the match of the applicant with the job A Curriculum Vitae can be written in the following three styles: functional CV, targeted CV and performance CV.

 Résumé Explained

The main distinguishing features of the Résumé are as below:

A resume is a precise and very brief document representing at-a-glance your key skills and main achievements A resume should not be longer than one page, unless in rare exceptions A resume would contain of only what is strictly relevant to the job applied and nothing else – it is more important here to have all the information contained within one page (or two pages very rare cases), than representing the information in totality The resume would highlight your skills and achievements above all other things The resume is usually presented without a cover letter because the main reason you are submitting the resume, is fast processing; a cover letter would defeat the purpose A resume usually can be written in three very different styles – (i) Chronological resume – whereby your skills and main achievements are listed by date starting with the most recent ones first, (ii) Functional resume – whereby your skills and experience are more highlighted than anything else and (iii) a combination of both – whereby both skill and achievements are presented hand-in-hand.