A curriculum vitae, Latin for "course of life", often shortened as CV or vita, is a written overview of someone's life's work. Vitae can be plural or possessive. Vitae often aim to be a complete record of someone's career, and can be extensive. They are different from a résumé, which is typically a brief 1–2 page summary of qualifications and work experience for the purposes of employment, and often only presents recent highlights. In many countries, a résumé is typically the first item that a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and is typically used to screen applicants, often followed by an interview. Vitae may also be requested for applicants to postsecondary programs, scholarships, grants and bursaries. In the 2010s it became popular for applicants to provide an electronic text of their CV to employers using email, an online employment website or using a job-oriented social-networking-servicewebsite, such as LinkedIn.
Contents
In the United Kingdom, most Commonwealth countries, and Ireland, a CV is short, and therefore contains only a summary of the job seeker's employment history, qualifications, education, and some personal information. Some parts of Asia require applicants' photos, date of birth, and most recent salary information. CVs are often tailored to change the emphasis of the information according to the particular position for which the job seeker is applying. A CV can also be extended to include an extra page for the jobseeker's publications if these are important for the job. In the United States, Pakistan, Canada, Australia, Germany, India, Cuba, and Russia a CV is a comprehensive document used in academic circles and medical careers that elaborate on education, publications, and other achievements. A CV contains greater detail than a résumé, a shorter summary which is more often used in applications for jobs, but it is often expected that professionals use a short CV that highlights the current focus of their academic lives and not necessarily their full history. A CV is generally used when applying for a position in academia, while a resume is generally used when applying for a position in industry, non-profit, and the public sector.
Etymology, spellings and pronunciation
Curriculum vitae is a Latin expression which can be loosely translated as course of life. In current usage, curriculum is less marked as a foreign loanword. Traditionally the wordvitae is rendered in English using the ligatureæ, hencevitæ, although this convention is less common in contemporary practice. The plural of curriculum vitae, in Latin, is formed following Latin rules of grammar as curricula vitae, and is used along with curricula vitarum, each of which is debated as being more grammatically correct than the other. In English, the plural of the full expression curriculum vitae is seldom used; the plural of curriculum on its own is usually written as "curricula", rather than the traditional curriculums.
