How to deyankify a resume?

June 13, 2007 3:07 PM

What is the difference between an American resume and a British CV?

I am baffled that Googling has failed me so profoundly in my quest to reformat my American resume, which I am sending to contacts in the U.K. Can anyone explain to me what exactly is different about the two formats? Should I include personal details for British eyes that I wouldn't normally for American ones? Help greatly appreciated, especially from those who have worked in both places!

posted by catesbie to Work & Money (23 answers total)

British CVs are often longer. I remember being told to keep American resumes to one page, maybe two, but I've seen British CVs that are 3 or 4 pages long. Also, many British CVs include personal details such as date of birth, marital status, number of kids, etc.

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules though. My CV is 2 pages long and I decided to leave off age, marital status, etc.
posted by gfrobe at 3:23 PM on June 13, 2007

I have no experience with British CV's. However, here in the States, many people call a "resume" a "CV" (short for Curriculum Vitae). Some other people claim that the "CV" refers only to the portion of the resume where you list past experience (and perhaps education), as opposed to the statement of purpose and other such blathering and fluff.

Unless you have reason to suspect that the expected style is different, I wouldn't worry about it.
posted by Netzapper at 3:24 PM on June 13, 2007

I can't comment on the difference between UK and US CVs, but if you're applying for a job in the UK the obvious thing to do would be check UK job websites and see what tips they give for writing a CV. Example.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:26 PM on June 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

One difference (at least in academia in the US) is that a resume is specific to a job search, while a CV is more general. For example, an academic should generally keep an up-to-date CV even if s/he is not looking for a job.

I would agree that a CV is generally longer, but with somewhat different content. In academia, it would generally include a list of publications (or selected publications for the exceptionally well-established) but not "objectives."
posted by JMOZ at 3:35 PM on June 13, 2007

British CVs are often longer. Not entirely true. Most UK recruitment agencies will tell you to limit your CV to 2 pages max.
Generally speaking the advice usually goes something along the lines of

1. Name, address, phone, email, dob (only mention driving license if relevant to job)
2. Personal statement
3. Relevant Skills
4. Employment History
5. Education (if relevant - if you've 5+ experience in the field you're applying for you probably dont need to include this, unless your employment history is really short)
6. Personal Interests/Hobbies

Keep it short and to the point - particularly if you're going through an agency. If you're contacting companies directly you've more leeway to include more information, they're more likely to read it than a recruiter.
posted by missmagenta at 4:17 PM on June 13, 2007

For your purposes they should be pretty much interchangable.
posted by Artw at 4:17 PM on June 13, 2007

C.V. and resume are synonyms, except in the special case of academics (for which see JMOZ's post). Gfrobe is right about all the personal details common in a European resume that you wouldn't see in an American resume. And, increasingly, European and Asian resumes include photos, too -- one big pile of litigation waiting to happen, an American hiring manager would fear...
posted by MattD at 4:35 PM on June 13, 2007

BTW, anglisizing the spelling throughout is probably a good idea, if you've not already taken care of that.
posted by Artw at 4:47 PM on June 13, 2007

In .au, your CV is basically an extended version with focus on your education and publications. It's recommended that you have a resume which is shorter (max length around 4-5 pages).

Also, industry-specific resumes may have different requirements - I work in IT, and I have a 'skills' section, where I list the languages and applications I'm familiar with. That may or may not be relavent to your position, though.
posted by ysabet at 5:44 PM on June 13, 2007

CV and resumes may be synonymous, but the style varies between countries.

I have worked in both as a lawyer and a consultant, and for this the original advice is correct, a British CV is longer. My US resume was one side only, quite small font, listed facts only and was pretty bullet point based.

A UK CV I would still keep to two sides only, but that means you can afford a bigger font, a bit more about personal interests. There are not quite the same hang-ups about marital status etc so include if you want to, but not necessary. You should probably include nationality for work permit reasons.
posted by csg77 at 5:55 PM on June 13, 2007

Don't forget to include references. And yeah, use the Queen's English.

I think you can afford more than two pages. Definitely not more than four however.
posted by wilful at 6:52 PM on June 13, 2007

American CVs, at least in the academic world, can be big and long too.

The CVs I work with (for grant submission) include a selection of current peer-reviewed publications and current support, and educational/employment background, including committee and professional memberships and awards or honors.

In-house "CVs" are really just resumes and are shorter, sometimes including more personal data/formatting.
posted by rhoticity at 7:24 PM on June 13, 2007

I think it depends a lot on what field you're in as well. I'm a computer programmer, and (good) agents got me to do a long, detailed CV explainingly exactly what I did in various major projects. At school though, I was taught never to go over one page.

If it's at all possible, you should try to get advice from someone in your field. Generic advice may not be that useful.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 10:56 PM on June 13, 2007

I'm an American working in Banking in London and would posit that modifying your CV to a "British" standard isn't of so much importance.

Most fields these days are global and any hiring manager worth his/her salt won't focus so much on the details of presentation as they will on content.

That being said, European CVs in general have far more personal details than US, including things you can't ask about back in The States (e.g., age, marital status).

I've hired lots of people in Banking and we don't pay a second though to the presentation style. If some info is missing that we need - work permit status comes to mind - then I ask.

I also teach Finance part time at a University here in London and every year submit an updated CV - American style - to my manager. She's never asked me to modify it to British standard, and they have to present a lot of information, CVs included, to the body that regulates University's here in the UK.

So I wouldn't worry about it so much unless you're pitching for a job in a very staid and conservative field. Which ain't Banking by the way!
posted by Mutant at 11:51 PM on June 13, 2007

I'm British and work for a US company. I didn't make any significant changes to my resume when applying for US jobs. Not even the spelling. I didn't include one of those 'personal statements' - they make me squirm inside, so perhaps that's your litmus test for inclusion/exclusion right there!

When I rejigged my resume recently I did read some US-centric advice that outside work interests (sports, travelling) aren't relevant and I think that they are in the UK as they can be seen as rounding out your character.

I've applied for jobs and got interviews on both sides of the Atlantic with the same basic resume, having tailored the content slightly to suit each position.
posted by poissonrouge at 12:58 AM on June 14, 2007

Recruitment chappy here. I've written (and read) a lot of CVs, including ones from Americans. Keep it short, omit extraneous detail (I don't care how many kids you have, or how old you are in fact - legally, we're not allowed to ask in the UK under age discrimination legislation).

Quite simply, you're selling yourself, so it's a fine line between self-aggrandisement and modesty. One tip I always give people is to talk with numbers. Don't say 'In this role I had a wide remit of training tasks and led a small team'. Say 'Over my two years at X Corp I planned, developed and delivered training courses for over 500 staff, working as the lead of a team of four.' You'll have less than 20 seconds to make an impression on your average snowed-under recruitment person, so keep it short, succinct, accurate and relevant.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:46 AM on June 14, 2007

Oh, yeah, and it's all about the tailoring for specific roles. Emphasise what you think will impress for each specific role. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT go for a shotgun blast of identical CVs across dozens of organisations - wastes time and paper.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:47 AM on June 14, 2007

One important point alluded to by csg77 is that UK CVs are normally printed on A4 paper (297mm X 210mm) while American ones are on Legal (216mm X 279mm). If you use A4 you get 4% more space to talk about yourself - but if you use Legal then your CV will may stand out from others in the pile. Your choice as to which is best.
posted by rongorongo at 2:35 AM on June 14, 2007

If you're applying for a job in the UK, use UK paper sizes. Standing out from the pile is less important than not pissing off the secretary who's only going to be photocopying your cv to circulate to the panel who read the cvs - and it's going to end up on plain A4 paper anyway through the photocopying process. The only person who sees the original sheet of heavyweight manilla legal paper is the secretary who has to run it through the photocopier, so you've wasted your time and effort. Same reason you never use staples.
posted by talitha_kumi at 3:21 AM on June 14, 2007

legally UK CVs can not have any age data on them, this includes even the date you got qualifications and degrees.

We also don't put our previous employment salaries.

We only have a brief one personal summary at the top of our CV instead of a whole cover page.

I work for an HR company
posted by complience at 7:46 AM on June 14, 2007

complience wrote "legally UK CVs can not have any age data on them, this includes even the date you got qualifications and degrees."

Wha? So I'm breaking the law if I put my DOB on there?
Surely you need dates on the degrees so you can see if the applicant finished university and went straight into a job, or has a huge unexplained gap of 2 years in between.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:43 AM on June 14, 2007

anglisizing the spelling throughout

You get a concurisation from me. Also, the advice about setting correct print sizes is spot-on. With electronic US-formatted CVs, unless the printer driver has been pre-configured to select scaling, or the person printing has been smart enough to select it, the printer will often hand with "load letter" or some other annoying comment. People will usually just hit cancel - some printers will go ahead and print anyway, while others will drop the job.
posted by meehawl at 12:43 PM on June 14, 2007

Endsofinvention wrote "Wha? So I'm breaking the law if I put my DOB on there?"

No not you personally.. but if you gave your CV to an recruitment company who then started to give that CV to clients they would liable to litigation and the companies who looked at the CV.. so they won't accept them unless the date is removed.
posted by complience at 2:31 PM on June 14, 2007