CV vs Resume: The Difference, and Which One the UK Wants

CV stands for curriculum vitae, Latin for roughly 'the course of one's life'. Resume comes from the French résumé, meaning a summary. The names describe the original difference: a CV was the full record, a resume the short version.

In everyday UK use that distinction has disappeared. A UK CV is a two-page summary of your experience, written for a particular role, which is exactly what an American would call a resume.

UK employers, recruiters and careers services say CV. A UK CV is usually two sides of A4, in reverse-chronological order, with a short personal statement at the top, your experience, education and skills, and no photo, date of birth or marital status.

If a UK advert asks for a resume, it almost always means a CV; the word is borrowed, not a request for a different document. Send your normal CV. Our UK CV formatting guide covers the conventions, and how long a CV should be covers the exceptions to two pages.

In the US a resume is the standard job application document: one page for early career, two for experienced candidates, focused on results and tailored to the role. US employers generally do not expect a photo, date of birth or personal details.

A US CV is a different, longer document used mainly for academic, research, scientific and medical roles. It lists everything: degrees, publications, conference talks, grants, teaching and professional memberships, and it can run well past two pages. If an American employer outside academia asks for a CV, it is worth checking whether they mean a resume.

The difference between resume and CV conventions is clearest laid out by market: a UK CV and a US resume are close cousins, and the US academic CV is the odd one out.

Outside the UK and the US, the word and the conventions both shift. The table gives the usual pattern in the markets people most often apply to from the UK. Treat it as a starting point: individual employers, sectors and adverts vary, and the advert and the country's own careers guidance always win.

Two differences catch people out more than the word itself. One is personal details: employers in parts of continental Europe and the Middle East may still expect some of the details a UK CV leaves out. In Germany, for example, the 2006 equal treatment law (the AGG) means a photo is no longer required, but many applicants still include one. The other is length: a US resume for an early-career applicant is often a single page, shorter than the UK two-page norm, while senior candidates in most markets use two.

Even where the two documents do the same job, the small conventions differ, and a recruiter notices them. If you are applying across the Atlantic, these are the details to change rather than the content.

Education is the most visible one. A UK CV lists degree classifications (2:1, First) and, for early-career candidates, A-levels or GCSEs; a US resume lists a GPA if it is strong and never mentions A-levels. References are another: many UK CVs end with 'References available on request', which US resumes simply leave out. Neither market wants the referees' names on the document.

Within the UK, yes: they are the same document. For a US application, a UK CV usually needs a few changes rather than a rewrite.

Going the other way, a US resume becomes a UK CV with the reverse changes: switch to UK spelling, check the length fits two A4 pages, and add a personal statement if the resume opens with an objective.

Here is what the changes in the checklist above look like on one CV, and what the difference between a CV and a resume means in practice. Our fictional candidate, Priya, is a UK management accountant applying for a financial analyst role in Boston.

Her UK CV opens with 'Personal statement: Chartered management accountant (CIMA) with eight years in FMCG, running month-end close for a three-site business.' On the US resume that becomes a 'Summary' with the result first: 'CIMA-qualified financial analyst who cut month-end close from nine days to five across three manufacturing sites.' The facts are identical; the order leads with the outcome, which is the US convention.

Her education section loses the A-levels and keeps the degree, with the classification explained ('BSc Accounting and Finance, First Class Honours') because US readers may not know what a First means. 'Organisation' becomes 'organization', the dates become 'March 2021 to Present', the paper size changes from A4 to US Letter, and the full home address shrinks to 'Leeds, UK (relocating to Boston)'. The two pages stay two pages, because with eight years of experience a two-page US resume is normal.

What she does not change is the substance. A US resume is not an invitation to inflate titles or invent figures, and a recruiter who checks a reference will find the difference. If you use software or AI to help with the conversion, check every figure, title and date against your original.

The sector you apply to can matter as much as the country. In most private-sector jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, the document is the same two-page summary whatever it is called. A few sectors work differently, and it is worth knowing before you send anything.

In healthcare, US doctors and scientists generally use a CV in the academic sense, listing training, licences, publications and research, while many UK NHS roles are applied for through an application form on NHS Jobs rather than with a CV at all. In teaching, UK schools often use their own application forms too. In tech, the document is short in both markets and links to work you can show, such as a portfolio or code repository. In creative roles, the CV is short and the portfolio carries the evidence. In academia, both markets expect the long academic CV described below.

An academic CV is the one place where the old meaning of curriculum vitae survives on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US it is the document that sets a CV apart from a resume. In UK universities it is still called a CV, but it is longer and organised differently from a UK job-hunting CV, because it is a record of a research career rather than a pitch for one job.

Length follows the record. An early-career researcher's academic CV may be two or three pages; a professor's can run much longer. What keeps it readable is a consistent order and a clear heading for each kind of output, so a selection panel can find publications or grants in seconds.

UK research funding has also moved towards a narrative format. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) uses the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI), based on the Royal Society's Résumé for Researchers, in funding applications that ask for a track record. It asks for written evidence of contributions to knowledge, to other people's development and to the wider research community, rather than a list. If a call asks for one, it replaces the traditional academic CV for that application; the word limit is set in the funding opportunity.

It is usage, not a difference in quality. British English settled on CV; American English settled on resume and kept CV for the academic document. Europe, the Middle East, Africa and much of Asia lean towards CV, and the EU's free Europass builder produces a standard CV format used across European countries. Australia and New Zealand use both words, often interchangeably.

The practical rule: use the word the advert uses, and follow the conventions of the country where the job is.

ConnectIQ is built for both conventions: the UK side of the site says CV and the US side says resume, because the words mean different things to the people reading them. Upload your existing document, check what was read from it, and set it in any of our UK CV templates or US resume templates, then export PDF and Word. Your first conversion is free with no card.