How Should You Write a CV or a resume in 2021?

CV stands for Curriculum Vitae and it basically means “course of life”. Resume is a French word that means “summary”. Despite meaning quite different things, both expressions are used in the professional world to mean the same thing: the first document you send to a company to show who you are and what you are capable of.

Technically, there is a difference between the 2 terms. A “CV” is an extensive document highlighting all the relevant experiences and skills. A “resume” is typically 1 page long and only tackles your most important experiences for the job you’re applying for. In reality, most companies mean “resume” when they ask for a “CV”, so you don’t need to worry about this distinction. If you’re not sure, you can always ask your point of contact, but the answer will almost always be “only one page, please”.

So, just to be clear, in this article we’ll be discussing resumes, even if we use the term CV here and there. And the definition we used for “resume” already gave you 3 of the most important tips for creating an effective CV/resume:

Want to read the rest of the article? Head over to our new blog.