Reading Ricky’s Post , an old friend from same university, reminded me something in past about resume or Curriculum Vitae. That time I did not know the the difference between them, and always used “Resume” whenever I posted an application. Right now as the personnel who is given responsibility in charge in recruiting committee and I have seen this same mistake is conducted from most of applicants countless. And the truth, I don’t bother with them, but that’s me, not the others.
The Difference Between Resume and Curriculum Vitae (CV)
So what are the differences between them? I try to answer this one in simple way. The most thing we can see directly is the lenght of the letter. Resume can be said a brief or summary of a Curriculum Vitae so you can make it only in one to two pages. Please don’t make resume more than two pages, people only want to read the summary or brief, not the detail information..
The other difference is in the content. Resume usually only focus on education, experience and related skills and of course all of them are aligned to the goal, the job or position applied. In curriculum vitae (CV) we can find more detailed information on educational and academic backgrounds, non working or professional experience such as teaching, researching, or social organization involvement which are not related with the goal. Not only experience and background, we can find achievement too such as awards, honors, and publications and some personal information such as affiliations.
Which One is Better?
Considering the same function they have, providing information about you, usually curriculum vitae is better than resume. Better to provide more rather than less. If you want to apply for jobs or positions that you don’t have any clue about it, go with CV, not with your resume. If you want to apply for scholarships or grants, using CV is a must!
Not only CV gives more detailed information, in CV you can tailored it with some “spices” that make you look better such as honors, awards, and others. I know a friend who has many honors and awards, but the funny thing is all of them do not have relation with his profession. He is an engineer who won writing contest, poems, and other. Ok, let me take another sample, myself. My research was published in national conference in 2003, it was about chemical engineering and right now my expertise are in business development, HR and Financial management, and Project Management. Does research publication relate with my expertise? of course not, but It makes me look better :)
I am not saying that we always go with CV. If a person who ask you a resume, give him resume. That’s all. Resume works better in tender document, direct job application (through reference), and others. There is time when reading CV is annoying. So give attention which one that requested from you.
Some Tips
- Always update your CV. You can make resume from your CV, but not vice versa.
- Know your condition. If you are a fresh graduate or just person with 1-3 years experience, put focus on your educational background. But if you are an experienced one, don’t put too much focus on education background, it makes you like a person who lives in past.
- Don’t rely on one CV or Resume for all. Learn and study about the organization where you are going to send your CV (or resume), and make custom CV for each of them. You need to tailored and adjust your CV according to them, and the position you are applying for.
- Make theme for your CV. Don’t make your CV like a plain letter, make some design or template about it. But its not about design only, you should make your CV structured, sectioned and organized so all the information can be separated and easily found.
- The last one is personal, avoid using inappropriate photo. I hate seeing a beggar’s photo or sleepy faced photo and I prefer to throw the application directly to my paper shredder. I don’t mean that only the good looking one I want to accept, but please make it appropriate, OK ;). Anyway I won’t choose a secretary just because some girl put her bikini’s photo section in her application :)) , just joking. The point is photo is not important but can give you bad result too.
I know some of my readers are more expert about this field than me. So feel free to drop any comment or inputs, just for sharing and discussion. Thanks.
Nice article, may I put my $2?
My first attempt making a CV, it looked like a BIODATA hahaha (that’s what this bapak said, whom then became my boss).
“Make your CV structured, sectioned and organized so all the information can be separated and easily found.” Agreed, make it easy to read, the person who’s gonna review your CV usually have 50 others in their inbox waiting to be read as well so they usually only spend not more than 3 minutes giving a glance at your paper.
“Don’t rely on one CV or Resume for all.” Agreed. Also, when applying for a job, make as detailed as possible on the “job descriptions” for each position you’ve held in the past, highlight the part where it match the position you’re applying for. And if you have more time, you can actually write one or two lines giving some praise or two about the company you’re applying at :P
“The last one is personal, avoid using inappropriate photo.” Agreed. For some people they don’t think it matters, but for many people in many case, the picture on your resume is the first impression. So please, put on some nice shirt/blouse, and shave. Hehe.
oh I see. I know the difference now. So for so long I’ve never made any CV. All are just resume :mrgreen:
To be honest making a resume (even a CV) is really annoying. I really don’t like it at all. Maybe that’s why i’ve never moved on to another company :mrgreen:
this might be OOT but I’d like to ask, for HRD actually which one got appreciated more, printed application letter+resume, or online/softcopy application letter/resume?
btw, you can write about chemical engineering while your expertise is actually in HRD/finance? Great! You have multidimensional expertise then :)
If someone ask me what my expertise is, I will answer business management, especially in HR and Finance. My chemical engineering knowledge will become my supplement, not core expertise.
If someone goes with multi core expertises, usually HR people will dislike to take that person into their organization. Its like a signal that its hard to make that person as a long term asset of the company.
Just IMHO
Hmmm, dunno about this, I’ve just seen the format and make it suit with my own, tralala…..
I have no idea about this.. I’ve already got the format from my friend of my friend of my friend – - – etc… and it called “males mikir dot com” hehehe…
hooo.. baru ngerti juga apa itu resume n’ apa itu CV. Hehe.. Brarti selama ini, yang kukira CV itu ternyata resume tooh..
Kalo CV jadinya berapa halaman tuh kk? O_o
Hmm.. kalo tips no 4 itu, bikin theme gmn maksudnya? boleh pake border gambar bunga” gitu? :P
Tapi aku jarang deh kyknya liat perusahaan minta resume *ato aku aja yg ga perhatiin* ? coz biasanya orang bilangnya CV CV dan CV.. -____-
pake gambar2 ok, asal jangan bikin illfeel. Klo untuk engineer, jangan dibunga2in deh :D
CV terpanjang yang pernah saya lihat itu 15 halaman. Tapi sebaiknya 4-6 halaman saja. seperti kata sheilla, rata2 mereka hanya punya waktu membaca 3-4 menit saja ;)
langsung mata terbuka membaca postingan ini.
dilemaku antara resume sama CV jelas…sudah terpecahkan ;)
oow! I’ve just known that. Your information is usefull! Bookmark this post is a must.
Okay, let me think… CV or Resume I have to write now?
Of course, CV! I don’t know what the details of job I want.
Nice post! I’ve to bookmark this.
So that’s the difference between CV and Resume. Thanx a lot.
Hmm… It means, I have to write a CV. (*busy-writing-a-cv*)
That’s good information :)
According to my experience… foreign company, embassy and international organization just need the resume.
yup, and some other organization that you need references to pass pre screening…
Then I know the difference now…
weks, I just know the differentiation between resume and CV. I got the point know. Thanks for your information
Very good information… I should keep it in mind to always keep my resume simple and short then..
Thanks
oh yes….
yes…
…yes
avoid using inappropriate photo
Yap, I’m agree with you, we should invest a little money to make a good photo with good impression.
Ow yeah, don’t use cute email address like : “sweety_cute@kittymail.com” .. Ewww.. !@#$
Use a formal one, like : “susi.susanti@gmail.com” :D
I just got applicant who used Mad_doctor@…. and another one used dosengaul@….
does all of the recruiter conscious about this? I mean I’m afraid that they don’t know the difference between resume vs CV at the first place.
so, when it comes to the recruitment process and they put ‘resume’ on their ads and we are giving them our resume, hence they feel disappointed with our application because what they want is a clear background about us (as in CV), instead we only giving them a very brief description (as a resume).
complicated. . .
You have good point here, I know some recruiters can not differ them at all. That’s why I said before you should go with CV if you are unsure about the condition. That’s what you should do, as long you are still in Indonesia.
i got no idea
Your post make a clearer difference between CV and resume. For me, at least.
My work sometimes put me to deal with applicants, and the simplest method to have a vision about them is understanding how good they convey messages on their CV or resume.
sometimes we don’t care either they submitted CV or resume, just like you said… but I’ve met a few people who will take this seriously when they face applicants :D
di amerika aku belom pernah sih nemuin yg minta CV. resume doank. dan juga, kalo lebih dari 1 lembar, sering gak dibaca hehehe bosen mereka kepanjangan.
nice posting guys
Kalo gw selalu membuat resume tidak lebih dari 1 lembar. biar yg interview ga capek baca. Toh mereka hanya butuh tahu pendidikan terakhir kita, ga perlu tahu kita sd smp sma dimana. Mo sd nya sd mahal, ato smpnya smp favorit, tetep aja yg dilihat Pendiikan Terakhirnya darimana.
Yg paling males ya itu, updated. Jd pas tiba-tiba butuh, baru deh buru2 updated… pake acara salah lagi kekekek……