Résumé

A résumé (often spelled resumé or resume) is a document containing a summary or listing of relevant job experience and education, usually for the purpose of obtaining an interview when seeking employment. The word résumé is used especially in the United States and in English Canada; the Latin term curriculum vitae (often abbreviated CV) is used in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in the academic fields in North America, and the Netherlands.

Often the résumé is the first item a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker, and therefore a large amount of importance is often ascribed to it. Traditionally, résumés or CVs have been, like careers themselves, oriented towards what a person has accomplished thus far. In most contemporary career consulting the trend is to fashion the document towards what that person can accomplish in a particular job going forward. This is sometimes called a Targeted Resume.

Different forms

In American English usage, a CV is a longer document than a résumé, and will include a comprehensive listing of professional history including every term of employment, academic credential, publication, contribution or significant achievement. In certain professions, it may even include samples of the person's work and may run to many pages. In contrast, a résumé is a summary typically limited to one or two pages highlighting only those experiences and credentials which the author considers most relevant to the desired position. CVs are the preferred recruiting tool for academic and medical professions while résumés are generally preferred for business employment.

In many contexts, a résumé is short (usually one or two pages), and therefore contains only experience directly relevant to a particular position. Many résumés use precise keywords that the potential new employers are looking for, are self-aggrandizing, and contain many action words.

Traditionally, résumés have rarely been more than two pages, as potential employers typically did not devote much time to reading résumé details for each applicant. However, employers are changing their views regarding acceptable résumé length. Since increasing numbers of job seekers and employers are using Internet-based job search engines to find and fill employment positions, longer résumés are needed for applicants to differentiate and distinguish themselves. Since the late 1990s, employers have been more accepting of résumés that are longer than two pages. Many professional résumé writers and human resources professionals believe that a résumé should be long enough so that it provides a concise, adequate, and accurate description of an applicant's employment history and skills.

It is important to note that several types of résumés, such as résumés for medical professionals, professors, and artists, may be comparatively longer. For example, an artist's résumé may run longer as it will contain a list of solo and group exhibitions (and will typically exclude any non-art-related employment), which may be more or less extensive.

As with résumés, CVs are subject to recruiting fads. For example,

In German-speaking countries a picture was a mandatory adjunct to the CV for a long time; in Germany it still is.
Except for the theatrical professions, including a picture is strongly discouraged in the U.S. CVs, as it would suggest that an employer would discriminate on the basis of a person's appearance -- age, race, sex, attractiveness, or the like.
For non-academic employment in the U.S., the newest entries generally come first (reverse chronological).
The use of an "objective statement" at the top of the document (such as "Looking for an entry-level position in ___") was strongly encouraged in the U.S. during the mid-1990s but fell out of favor by the late-1990s. It is not prevalent elsewhere.
A profiling statement (or thumbnail description) was a protocol developed by placement agencies in the late 1980s. Many candidates now open their CV with such a statement. This can be a short paragraph or a handful of bullet points delineating the candidat's most desirable skills and experiences.
Listing of computer skills (such as proficiency with word processing software) was a strong differentiator during the 1980s but was considered passé for most professional positions by the 1990s.
In most circumstances, a chronological order is considered the norm but at certain times in certain professions the preferred order was "functional" - experiences clustered to illustrate a particular skill or competency. This format may also be used by students who have not built a strong career but wish to emphasize the skill acquired through education and internship.
Description of a Career (DOAC) is a format to share the job seeker's curriculum on the hypothetical semantic internet so it can be accessed by nearly any employer.

A British curriculum vitae

A standard British curriculum vitae, more widely known as a CV, has the following points:

Personal details at the top, such as name in bold type, address, contact numbers and, if the subject has one, an e-mail address. Photos are not required at all, unless requested.
A personal profile, written in either the first or the third person, a short paragraph about the job seeker. This should be purely factual, and free of any opinion about the writer's qualities such as "enthusiastic", "highly motivated", etc.
A list of the job seeker's key skills, bulleted
A reverse chronological list of the job seeker's work experience, including his or her current role. The CV should account for the writer's entire career history. The career history section should describe achievements rather than duties.
A reverse chronological list of the job seeker's education or training, including a list of his or her qualifications such as his or her academic qualifications (GCSEs, A-Levels, Highers, degrees etc.) and his or her professional qualifications (NVQs and memberships of professional organisations etc.). If the job seeker has just left the place of education, the work experience and education are reversed).
Date of birth, gender if you have an ambiguous first name, whether you have a driving licence are standard.
The job seeker's hobbies and interests (optional)

It is obligatory for it to be typed or word-processed, not hand-written.

There are certain faux pas for CVs:

The CV is longer than 2 sides of A4
Writing anything negative.
If applying for a specific position, giving without a cover letter explaining one's suitability.
Using in the wrong envelope -- CVs are put in C4 envelopes .

Lying on a CV (on the work experience or the education/training) in order to get a job or anything else of value is fraud, a serious criminal and civil offence. An employer has right to dismiss an employee or claim money from him or her in a civil court or even get the employee arrested for making false statements or fraud.

The Europass CV was developed by the Council of Europe and replaces the European CV, launched in 2002 by EU parlament. In January 2005 Parlament have updated the format of Europass CV.

Internet résumé

A variation on a traditional résumé, focused on making the résumé effective in a commercial and/or employer's résumé database and protecting the privacy of the job seeker from scammers trolling for victims. Converted from the "pretty" word-processed résumé version to "plain ASCII text" format for easily transiting through the various e-mail and spam filter systems. Some job seekers prepare their résumés in HTML as a Web page or as a collection of Web pages, frequently called a "résumé portfolio."

Some career fields include a special section listing the life-long works of the author. For computer-related fields, the softography; for musicians and composers, the discography; for actors a filmography.

A format of resume that is growing in popularity. This has become more and more widespread for individuals who can benefit from the pictures and other detail that can be accomplished by using an HTML resume. Such professions include: actor/actress, graphic designer, developer, dancer, etc.

The idea behind the HTML resume is that you deliver the information by using .htm and .html as a file extension. The basic format is that you include:

1) A homepage that serves as an overview and menu 2) All resume text 3) Additional HTML tags for formatting pages 4) Resume content delivery tags already formatted (.txt,.doc,.xls, etc) 5) Links to downloadable attachments and files

Job seekers are finding an ever increasing demand to have an electronic version of their resume available to employers at any time. Internet resumes differ from conventional resumes in that they are comprehensive and allow for self-reflection. Unlike regular 2 page resumes, which only show recent work experience and education, Internet résumés also show an individual’s skill development over his or her career.

Another advantage to internet resumes is the significant cost savings over traditional hiring methods. The average cost of recruiting online is $152 dollars compared to $1383 through traditional methods. This in turn has cut costs for many growing organizations, as well as saving time and energy in recruitment. Until the development of résumés in an electronic format, employers would have to sort through massive stacks of paper to find suitable candidates without any way of filtering out the poor candidates. Employers are now able to set search parameters in their database of résumés to reduce the number of résumés which must be reviewed in detail in the search for the ideal candidate.

Etymology

The word résumé is directly from French and means "summary" (but the French never use it with the same meaning as Americans and English Canadians; they say CV). Curriculum Vitae is Latin for "course of life". The plural is curricula vitae.

Usage note

A curriculum vitae may be called a vita, but should not be called a curriculum vita or just vitae; the former is ungrammatical Latin and the latter is nonsensical.

External links

About.com - Lots of CV and résumé information.
A useful article from a top jobsite on the major reasons why CVs get dumped.
The Riley Guide - A résumé and job seekers guide
Monster Resume Center - Articles on resume writing techniques

Employment | French words