Job seekers need to be aware of the differences between CVs and resumés

By Dave MacFadden, Postmedia News

So, here’s a job-related, multiple-choice question to help stimulate the grey matter during the mid-winter lull. In job ads where an applicant is asked to submit a “CV,” the two letters stand for:
a) Career Vision: a written explanation of your personal career goals and how they will help you succeed in the posted position;
b) Curriculum Vitae (Latin for “course of (one’s) life”): a detailed summary of academic and other accomplishments;
c) 105 (in Roman numerals): refers to Form 105, a standardized job application form used by many larger companies; or
d) Core Values: a statement of no more than 500 words, which explains how your personal values fit with the job applied for.

If you answered “b,” give yourself a gold star.

There was a time when I thought that “curriculum vitae,” sometimes shortened to “vita,” was just a more pretentious way of saying “resumé.” It’s certainly easy enough to confuse the two terms, given that they are often used interchangeably. (Confusing matters even further is the fact that in much of Europe, a CV actually is the rough equivalent of a resumé, since employers on that side of the Atlantic tend to ask for greater detail and more personal information than you’d see on North American resumés.)

In our part of the globe, there are differences between CVs and resumés that job seekers should be aware of.

One key difference is length. A resumé should never be more than two pages long, since it is, at least initially, generally scanned by employers rather than read in full.

A key goal of preparing a resumé is therefore to make it brief and concise – something that can be digested by the employer a minute or less.

By contrast, a curriculum vitae is a longer document which expands the traditional resumé format to include the following elements:
- research and teaching experience;
- publications, grants and fellowships;
- professional associations;
- licences and awards; and
- other, largely academic-related information relating to a particular job.

Given these criteria, it’s no surprise that CVs in Canada are principally requested in job ads for academic, scientific or research positions, or from applicants who are pursuing fellowships and grants.

Further, since a CV is a more specialized format than a resumé, most employers who want to see one will request it specifically in the job ad. On occasion, you will have the option of submitting either a CV or a resumé as part of your job application.

In any case, whether you’re preparing a CV or a resumé, you should begin with your name and contact information, and follow this up with an overview of your education, skills and experience relating to the position applied for.

Both CVs and resumés are most effective if they are targeted to a specific job posting – or at the very least, to the specific type of job you are applying for. I generally recommend that applicants start off by writing down all of their background information, then taking some time to organize it into categories.

If you find yourself needing to put together a CV and need some guidance, there are a number of resources available to
assist you. There are several worthwhile websites devoted to the subject, including quintcareers.com.

Even if you go through your whole working life without ever having to write a CV, and admittedly, many of us do, knowing what it stands for, and having an idea of what goes into it, will at least keep you on your toes if it happens to crop up during a job interview.

© Postmedia News. Article appears on www.working.com.