CV vs resume: which one are you supposed to send?

If you have ever asked "is it a CV or a resume?", you are not confused, you are stuck between two countries. Both terms describe the same kind of document. The catch is that they describe slightly different defaults depending on where the hiring manager sits, and a candidate who gets it wrong signals "not familiar with our market" before a single bullet has been read.

This is one of the easier wins on the job hunt. A few minutes of attention to the right name, length, and format gets you past the silent first filter that nobody warns you about.

In the United States: send a resume

The American convention is tight. A resume is a 1-2 page, bullet-point summary of your most recent and most relevant experience. Anything over two pages reads as not-targeted, and a meaningful share of US recruiters will skim only page one.

• Length: 1 page if you have under 10 years of experience, 2 pages if you have more. There are exceptions for executives and senior researchers.
• Title: call the file FirstLast-Resume.pdf. The header on the document itself does not need a "Resume" label; your name plus contact info is enough.
• Photo: do not include one. US employers actively avoid photos to reduce bias-related liability.
• Personal details: no date of birth, no marital status, no nationality. None of these belong on a US resume.
• References: do not list them. Do not write "References available on request." That phrase has felt dated for at least a decade.

The one place where Americans use the word "CV" seriously is academia, medicine, and senior research. A professor's CV runs 10+ pages and lists every paper, grant, and conference talk. That is not what a normal job application wants.

In the UK: send a CV

The UK uses "CV" as the universal term for what Americans call a resume. Same length, same structure, same bullet-point format. The word "resume" is barely used in British job ads, and you would not call your document one.

• Length: 2 pages is standard. 1 page is fine for early-career roles. Consultants and executives sometimes go to 3.
• Title: FirstLast-CV.pdf. The document itself usually opens with your name and a 4-6 sentence Personal Statement or Profile, the British equivalent of the US Professional Summary.
• Photo: no, unless the industry explicitly asks for one (modelling, acting). Most British employers treat photos the same way US ones do.
• Spelling: British English. "Optimised", not "optimized". "Programme", not "program" (unless you mean code, where "program" is universal). This is small and easy to miss. Recruiters spot it.
• References: more common to list 1-2 named referees with contact info. Less critical than it once was, but still expected at senior levels.

In Europe: depends on the country

Continental Europe uses "CV" as the standard term, but the conventions inside the document vary more than they do between the US and UK.

• Germany, Austria, Switzerland: 2-3 pages, a professional photo on the top right, date of birth, and a structured layout that looks more formal than what Americans are used to. The Europass template gets used a lot.
• France: 1-2 pages, photo expected, structured by section the same as the UK but with a French touch on the personal-statement opener.
• Netherlands, Nordics: closer to the UK version. Two pages, no photo by default, Personal Statement at top.
• Italy, Spain, Portugal: photo expected, 2 pages, slightly more personal-info-friendly (date of birth common). The Europass standard is widely accepted.

If you are applying to a multinational based in Europe, default to the local convention of the office you are applying to, not of the company's headquarters. A London team at a German bank will run a UK-style hiring loop.

What about the actual content?

Across all three regions the content is roughly the same. Name and contact at the top. A short summary. Experience in reverse-chronological order with bullets that lead with strong verbs and quantify wins. Skills. Education. Optional sections for projects, awards, languages, certifications.

The one big content difference: the US version is more ruthlessly trimmed. Two pages of British CV often becomes one page of US resume by cutting older roles, dropping early-career bullets to one line each, and removing referee blocks. If you are flipping the same document between markets, expect a meaningful trim, not a tweak.

Tailoring across markets is mostly cutting. The British CV is the longer document; the American resume is the same content, compressed.

When "CV" really means an academic CV

This is where the word actually changes meaning. In academia, medicine, and senior research, a curriculum vitae is a long document that lists everything. Publications, conference talks, grants, teaching, supervised students, peer review work. It starts at 5 pages and grows. There is no expectation to trim.

If you are applying for a tenure-track position, a postdoc, a research fellowship, or a clinical role, this is the document you want. If you are applying for any other kind of job and someone says "send your CV", they almost certainly mean the 1-2 page version, not the 12-page academic record. When in doubt, ask.

The 30-second pre-send checklist

• The file is named with the word the job ad used (CV vs Resume).
• The length matches the regional convention (1 page US early career, 2 pages UK/EU).
• Spelling matches the local English variant.
• Photo and personal details match the local norm (no photo for US/UK, photo for DACH/France/Italy).
• The document opens with your name plus contact info in the body of the page, not in a header (header text gets dropped by ATS parsers in both regions). For more on that see our ATS resume guide.

Get the regional packaging right and your document earns the same look that any local candidate gets. From there it is the content that decides the rest, and that is what most of the rest of this blog is about.

A note on naming: we call the product CVHive because "CV" is the more internationally recognised term, but everything we ship works for a US resume too. If you are in the US, treat every "CV" on the site as "resume". Same templates, same score tool, same PDF.