A resume is a 1-2 page targeted summary of your relevant experience, rewritten for each job. A CV is a complete, chronological record of your academic and professional life with no page limit. Which word an employer uses depends mostly on the country you are applying in.
What is the difference between a CV and a resume?
The difference is length and purpose: a resume is a 1-2 page marketing document tailored to one specific job, while a CV is an unlimited-length archive of everything you have done, ordered chronologically. In the United States and Canada, a CV is used almost exclusively for academic, research, medical and grant applications, and a resume is used for every other job.
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, most of the European Union, Pakistan, India, the UAE, Australia and New Zealand, the word CV is used for what an American employer would call a resume: a 1-2 page document sent for ordinary commercial jobs. The name changes; the expectations behind it usually do not.
The practical takeaway is that you should mirror the employer’s own vocabulary. If the posting asks for a CV, attach a file named CV. If it asks for a resume, name it resume. The content you send should match the norms of the country the role is based in, not the country you are sitting in.
| Country | Word used | Typical length | Photo expected? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Resume | 1 page under 10 years’ experience, 2 pages above | No | Never include date of birth, marital status or a photo — employers avoid protected characteristics. |
| United Kingdom | CV | 2 pages | No | Two pages is the accepted norm; references are listed as available on request. |
| European Union | CV | 1-2 pages | Varies by country | Photos are common in Germany, Austria and Spain; France and the Netherlands are moving away from them. |
| Pakistan | CV or resume | 1-2 pages | Often yes | Photo, father’s name and CNIC are still requested by many local employers; omit them for multinational and remote roles. |
| United Arab Emirates | CV | 2 pages | Commonly yes | Nationality, visa status and availability to join are expected; a photo is standard practice in the Gulf. |
| Canada | Resume | 1-2 pages | No | Same rules as the US. Quebec applications may be submitted in French. |
| Australia | Resume or CV | 2-3 pages | No | Longer than the US norm; selection-criteria responses are often required for public-sector roles. |
When should you send an academic CV instead of a resume?
Send an academic CV when the role is judged on your research record: PhD and postdoctoral positions, faculty jobs, research fellowships, grant applications, clinical appointments and journal editorial roles. These readers want completeness, not brevity, and a 6-12 page academic CV is normal.
An academic CV adds sections a commercial resume never uses: publications with full citations, conference presentations, funding awarded with amounts, teaching load, thesis supervision, peer review activity and professional memberships. Nothing is cut for space, and the ordering is reverse-chronological within each section.
Sections an academic CV has that a resume does not
- Publications, formatted in the citation style of your field
- Grants and funding, with the amount awarded and your role on the grant
- Conference presentations, split into invited talks, contributed talks and posters
- Teaching experience, listing courses, level and student numbers
- Research supervision, naming degree level and completion year
- Peer review, editorial work and professional memberships
Which sections belong on a 1-2 page resume?
A resume needs five sections in this order: contact details, a 3-4 line professional summary, work experience written as measurable achievements, education, and skills. Everything else — certifications, languages, projects, volunteering — is optional and only earns space when it supports the specific job you are applying for.
The single biggest difference in practice is that resume experience bullets are selected, not exhaustive. You keep the 3-5 bullets per role that match the posting and drop the rest. A CV keeps everything.
| Section | Resume | Academic CV |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 1-2 pages, hard limit | No limit; 6-12 pages is common mid-career |
| Summary | 3-4 lines, rewritten per application | Optional research statement instead |
| Experience | 3-5 selected achievement bullets per role | Every appointment, with full dates |
| Publications | Omit, or one line for a flagship item | Full list in citation format |
| Skills | 8-14 keywords matched to the posting | Technical and methodological skills, grouped |
| Tailoring | Rewritten for every job | Updated cumulatively, rarely cut |
How do you convert a CV into a resume?
Convert a CV into a resume by choosing one target job, deleting every entry that does not support it, and rewriting the rest as quantified achievements until the document fits two pages. Expect to remove 60-80% of an academic CV in the process, and to rewrite the surviving lines rather than paste them.
A five-step conversion
- Pick the posting you are targeting and list the 10 requirements it repeats.
- Keep only the roles, projects and publications that evidence those 10 requirements.
- Rewrite each kept line as an achievement: action, metric, outcome.
- Replace the research statement with a 3-4 line summary aimed at the target job title.
- Collapse publications, teaching and service into one Selected achievements block of 3-4 lines.
Do applicant tracking systems treat CVs and resumes differently?
No — an applicant tracking system parses the file the same way whatever you call it, so the deciding factor is structure, not the title. Single-column layout, standard section headings, real text instead of images and a text-based PDF matter far more than the word at the top of the page.
Long CVs do carry one machine-level risk: a recruiter screening for a commercial role often scans only the first page. Anything on page 7 of a CV may as well not exist, which is why targeted resumes win for non-academic jobs.
Apply this in the builder
InstantCV is free, runs entirely in your browser and exports an A4 PDF with selectable text. Nothing is uploaded and no account is required.
Resume examples for this guide
- Recent graduate resume example for a first commercial application
- Data scientist resume example for converting a research CV
- Teacher resume example with teaching and curriculum detail
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Is a CV the same as a resume?
In the UK, Ireland, most of Europe, Pakistan, India and the UAE, "CV" is the everyday word for the 1-2 page document a US employer calls a resume. In the US and Canada an academic CV is a different, longer document that lists publications, grants and teaching.
Should a CV include a photo?
Include a photo for applications in the UAE, Pakistan, Germany, France and much of continental Europe, and leave it off for the US, UK, Canada, Ireland and Australia, where employers routinely ask candidates not to send one.
How long should a CV be?
Two pages is the UK and EU norm, one page is the US default under 10 years of experience, and an academic CV has no page limit because it is a complete record of publications and funding.
Do I need to change my resume for each country?
Change the page length, the personal details block and the date format. A US resume drops the photo, date of birth and marital status and uses month/day/year; a UAE CV commonly includes nationality and visa status.
Which format do applicant tracking systems prefer?
Both a CV and a resume parse the same way if they are single-column, text-based PDFs with standard headings. The country convention affects the content, not the machine readability.