CV stands for curriculum vitae, a Latin phrase meaning course of life.
A CV is a document that summarizes your work experience, education, and skills for an employer.
In the United States and Canada it is often called a resume, while an academic CV is a longer, more detailed version used in research and academia.
What is a CV?
Ask most American employers for a CV and they mean the same thing as a resume: a short, focused document that summarizes your work history for a job application.
The two words describe one document, not two.
A standard CV fits comfortably within one or two pages.
Our data puts the average resume at 1.6 pages (Resume.io Resume Statistics, 2025), which is about what a standard CV runs as well.
Five sections make up that document:
- Header with your name and contact details
- Summary, also called a profile or personal statement
- Employment history
- Skills
- Education
The guidance on how to write a resume applies here directly, since the two documents share the same building blocks.
Where do people use CV instead of resume?
Which word people use usually comes down to where they are applying.
Americans and Canadians use resume for everyday hiring and save CV for academic and research work.
Almost everywhere else, CV is simply the standard term for a job application document.
| Region | What CV means | What resume means |
|---|---|---|
| United States and Canada | Academic, scientific, or medical document | Standard job-application document |
| United Kingdom, Europe, Commonwealth | Standard job-application document | Rarely used |
| Academia, science, medicine (any country) | Detailed CV expected | Not used |
Our guide on CV and resume usage covers that overlap in more depth, and our United Kingdom page walks through the local conventions directly.
Content can differ by country even when the label does not.
American resumes leave out age, marital status, and similar personal details, since nondiscrimination laws keep those factors out of hiring decisions.
In many other countries, it is common to include a photo and other personal details that would raise questions in a US application.
Our international CV writing guide breaks down these expectations by region.
What does a CV include, and what does an example look like?
A standard CV rests on the same five sections wherever you apply.
A typical example includes a Header with your name, phone number, and LinkedIn profile, a two-line Summary, your recent roles under Employment history written as bullet points, a short skills list, and your degree under Education.
The skills section usually mixes two different things: hard skills, the software and technical abilities you can point to directly, and soft skills, the communication and teamwork qualities that are harder to prove but just as often screened for.
Most job seekers use a chronological resume / CV format, listing recent roles first.
A functional resume format can work better for career changers, since it groups experience around skills instead of dates.
Whichever format fits, tailor it for each application and expect it to pass through applicant tracking systems before a person opens it.
Our CV and resume tips page has more on matching your document to a specific listing.
What is an academic CV?
Academia asks for something else entirely.
An academic CV has no page limit and is meant to grow throughout your career, recording every publication, grant, and teaching post along the way.
Where a standard CV compresses your history into one or two pages, this version is built to be comprehensive.
Researchers, doctors, and anyone applying for a fellowship, grant, or medical or higher-education post will likely need one.
On top of the five core sections, expect to add:
- Research and teaching experience
- Published works and presentations
- Grants, fellowships, honors, and awards
- Memberships in professional associations
- References
A CV that runs to ten or fifteen pages would work against you in a corporate application, but a university hiring committee expects exactly that kind of detail.
Key takeaways
- CV stands for curriculum vitae, a Latin phrase meaning course of life.
- A standard CV and a resume are the same one to two page document in the United States and Canada.
- Most other countries use CV as the everyday term for that same document.
- Academic, scientific, and medical fields use a longer academic CV instead, with no fixed length.
- A CV's core sections are the header, summary, employment history, skills, and education.
Frequently asked questions
A few practical questions come up once you know what a CV is.
Can a CV look like a resume?
Yes, and for most jobs it should.
A standard CV and a resume follow the same format, so unless you are applying to academia, science, or medicine, your CV can look exactly like a one to two page resume.
Can I use a resume as a CV?
Yes, for any standard corporate or industry role.
Only academic, scientific, or medical positions expect the longer academic version instead of a resume.
How many pages should a CV be?
Follow resume length for a standard CV: one page for less experience, two for more.
An academic CV has no such ceiling, since it is meant to expand with your career.
