CV vs resume: what is a curriculum vitae and a resume?

A resume is a short, targeted summary of your experience and skills, usually one or two pages, rewritten for each job. A CV (curriculum vitae, Latin for “course of life”) in the strict sense is a complete record of your academic and professional history, which grows over your career and can run to many pages.

Outside North America, when someone says “send your CV” for an ordinary job, they mean the short, tailored document on the left of that table.

In India specifically, private companies, startups and IT services firms say “resume” and “CV” to mean the same 1–2 page document. Universities, research institutes, hospitals and some government bodies use “CV” for the longer academic version. A third word, “biodata”, survives in some government forms and older recruiters; it is a resume plus personal details like date of birth and father's name, and you should only use that format when explicitly asked.

Read the job post, not just the word it uses. A simple rule:

• A company job anywhere in the world (sales, engineering, finance, operations, marketing): send a 1–2 page tailored document, whatever the post calls it.
• A UK or European job asking for a CV: send a 2-page document in the same style as a resume. UK recruiters are used to a second page; American ones prefer one for early-career roles.
• A university faculty post, PhD, postdoc, research grant or fellowship: send a full academic CV.
• A doctor's, consultant's or clinical research role: a medical CV, which lists registrations, training posts, procedures and audits.
• A US job asking for a CV in a non-academic field: they almost certainly mean a resume. Send 1–2 pages.

When unsure, a 2-page document with a clear summary at the top works for nearly every non-academic job, in every country.

A resume is selective. You choose what serves this job and leave the rest out.

1. Contact details
2. Summary: 2–3 lines tailored to the role
3. Work experience: recent jobs with result-focused bullets
4. Education
5. Skills, matched to the job post
6. Optional: certifications, projects, languages

Our step-by-step guide on how to write a resume walks through each section, and the resume examples show finished resumes for 75 jobs, from software engineer to bank PO.

An academic CV aims to be complete. Typical sections, in a common order:

• Contact details and current position
• Research interests (a short paragraph)
• Education, including thesis titles and supervisors
• Academic appointments and positions
• Publications: journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, in a standard citation style
• Grants, fellowships and awards, with amounts where relevant
• Teaching experience: courses, levels, student numbers
• Conference presentations and invited talks
• Professional service: reviewing, committees, memberships
• Skills: lab techniques, software, languages
• References: often 2–3 names with contact details

Unlike a resume, an academic CV doesn't need to fit on two pages; it needs to be easy to scan. Use clear headings, consistent citation formatting and reverse-chronological order within each section. Our academic CV templates are built for exactly this, with room for publications and grants.

Researchers moving to industry, and professionals applying for a PhD or teaching post, often need to convert one into the other.

CV to resume

1. Write a 2–3 line summary that names the industry role you want, not your research field.
2. Turn research and teaching into work experience with outcome bullets: “Led a 3-person lab project that cut assay time 40%” instead of a list of methods.
3. Replace the publications list with a single line (“12 peer-reviewed publications, including Nature Communications”) or the two most relevant.
4. Move technical skills (Python, R, statistics, lab equipment) into a prominent Skills section, using the job post's terms.
5. Cut it to two pages. Remove references, conference lists and committee service unless they show something the job needs.

Resume to CV

Go the other way: expand education with thesis titles, add every publication and presentation in full citation style, list teaching and service, and add references. Keep your industry experience, but describe it in terms the committee cares about: research, analysis, writing, mentoring.

A UK CV for a company job looks like a resume with a little more room. Here is how the first third might read for an Indian engineer applying to a UK firm on a Skilled Worker visa:

Notice what is different from a US resume: the heading “Profile” instead of “Summary” (both are fine), a line on right to work, and the comfortable assumption that this will run to two pages. Notice what is the same: results, numbers, newest job first. Our CV maker uses A4 and these conventions by default.

• Reverse-chronological order: newest first within each section.
• Standard headings and a clean, readable layout. Fancy design costs more than it earns. See our resume format guide.
• A4 paper outside the US and Canada; US Letter inside them.
• PDF unless the employer asks otherwise.
• No date of birth, marital status or religion, unless a specific country's norms or the application form require it.
• Accurate dates and titles. Both documents get checked against background verification, which is standard in banking, tech and many other industries, and almost universal in Indian hiring.

Not sure if your document passes the software screen? Upload it to our free ATS checker: it reads resumes and CVs alike and tells you what to fix.

People also mix up a CV and a cover letter, but these are always two separate documents and most applications want both:

Send the cover letter as a separate file or in the email body, never as page one of your CV. Our guide on how to write a cover letter covers the structure, and the cover letter examples show finished letters by job.