CV vs resume: the difference, country by country

The two words describe overlapping documents, and which one you need depends less on the job than on where it is. A London employer asking for a CV and a Boston employer asking for a resume want much the same two pages. A Boston university asking for a CV wants something else entirely.

Where each word comes from

Curriculum vitae is Latin for “the course of one’s life”, and the original meaning holds in academia: a complete, chronological record of a scholarly career. Résumé is French for “summary”, and in North America it names a short document selected and tailored for one application. American English often drops the accents and writes “resume”.

Outside North America, “CV” drifted to mean the short document as well, which is where most of the confusion comes from.

What the words mean in each country

Country or region	Everyday job document	“CV” also means	Usual length	Photo
United States	Resume	A full academic, medical or research record	1–2 pages	Leave it out
Canada	Resume	Academic or research record, as in the US	1–2 pages	Leave it out
United Kingdom and Ireland	CV	The same short document; academics write a longer one	2 sides of A4 is common	Leave it out
Germany, Austria, Switzerland	Lebenslauf (CV), sent with a cover letter and certificates	Same	1–2 pages	Often included
France, Belgium	CV	Same	1 page is common early in a career, 2 later	Common, less expected than it was
Spain, Portugal, Italy	CV	Same	1–2 pages	Common
Australia, New Zealand	Resume or CV, used interchangeably	Same	2–3 pages is common	Leave it out
Academia worldwide	CV	A full record	No fixed limit	Rarely

The lengths are conventions, not rules, and individual employers vary. Photo practice is covered in more detail in which countries expect a resume photo.

The US academic CV is a different document

In the US and Canada, a CV is what you send for faculty posts, postdoctoral positions, research grants, fellowships and some medical and scientific roles. It is not edited down for each application; it grows with your career. UC Santa Barbara’s careers office puts it plainly: an undergraduate CV averages one to three pages, but has no maximum length, while an undergraduate resume is advised to stay at one page. USC’s career centre gives two to three pages as a typical CV length, with further pages as academic achievements accumulate.

An academic CV usually contains, in roughly this order:

• education, including thesis title and supervisor;
• academic appointments;
• publications, split into peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters and other output;
• conference presentations and invited talks;
• grants, fellowships and awards, with amounts where usual in your field;
• teaching, with course titles and levels;
• supervision of students;
• service: committees, peer review, editorial boards;
• professional memberships, languages and referees.

Nothing in that list is cut because it is old. A first publication from a decade ago stays.

The UK CV is a resume by another name

A UK employment CV does the same job as a US resume: a selective, tailored account of why you suit one role. The differences are small and mostly about personal information. The UK’s National Careers Service advises that you should not include your age, date of birth, marital status or nationality. Two pages is a widely used norm, and the opening paragraph is more often headed “Profile” or “Personal statement” than “Summary”.

UK academics write a long CV in the US sense when applying for lectureships and research posts, and a short one when they apply outside academia.

Continental Europe: CV, sometimes with more personal detail

Across much of Europe the job document is called a CV, and conventions on personal detail are looser than in the UK or US. A German Lebenslauf has traditionally carried a photo and sometimes a date of birth, though neither is legally required. The EU also offers the Europass CV, a free standard format you will meet most often in public-sector and cross-border applications; most private employers are just as happy with a well-made CV of your own.

Converting one into the other

US resume to UK CV. Change the page size from US Letter to A4, retitle the summary as a profile if you like, switch to British spelling, and remove anything that reveals age or family status. The structure can stay.

UK CV to US resume. The same steps in reverse: US Letter, American spelling, and keep it to one or two pages. Remove the photo if there is one.

Resume to academic CV. Do not trim; expand. Add every publication, presentation, grant and course, and move education to the top. Expect the result to be several pages longer.

Academic CV to industry resume. Cut publications to the two or three most relevant, translate research into outcomes an employer recognises (methods used, data handled, projects delivered), and bring it down to two pages. How long a resume should be covers the length evidence.

Making either document in the builder

The resume builder makes both, because the difference is mostly content and convention rather than layout.

• For a US or Canadian resume, choose US Letter; for a UK, European, Australian or most other CVs, choose A4. The page size is on the Design tab.
• For an academic CV, choose Academic and research under What do you do? on the Template tab. The Academic template puts education first, then appointments, publications and awards, and there are sections for publications, awards and references.
• The downloaded file is named “yourname-resume.pdf”, and the PDF’s document title says “Resume”. If you are sending a CV, rename the file before you attach it.

For the full writing sequence, see how to write a resume, step by step, which applies equally to a UK CV.