You might be wondering why I have put CV (curriculum vitae) & Resume separately. It is because they both are different in numerous ways.

A simple difference between the two is that a CV is submitted for jobs in academia, scientific research, and medical fields. In contrast, a resume is more like a 1-page marketing document to get jobs in all the other areas.

All right, let’s focus on what is essential here. I have included some free resources at the end of this blog for your reference.

CV vs. Resumes

	Academia, Faculty	Industry
Main Document for Experiences	CV	Resume
Employer Values in the Search	Detail & thoroughness, pedagogy & philosophy, shared decision making	Brevity, practicality, value added, efficiency; limited to 1-2 pages (2 for PhDs or for those with more experience)
Key Skills	Research, publishing, teaching	Varies based on position (example skills: analytical, interpersonal, teamwork
Additional Documents & Tools	Teaching statement/philosophy, portfolio, LinkedIn	Portfolio, LinkedIn used more widely

Resume

Marketing document for yourself; has to be one page unless you have over 6-7 years of experience; make it readable.

Fun Fact: On average, recruiters take about 7 seconds to get through

your resume to see whether they want to go with you or not.

Here is a snapshot of what a resume looks like in the US. This template is a standard one and helps people looking at your documents be more efficient. You can modify it according to what you want to highlight.

There’s no hard and fast rule to follow this template, but again, it just helps the recruiter look at your accomplishments, education, and skills more quickly. Here are a few points you’d like to keep in mind while writing a resume.

• MODIFY – Modify the Resume according to each company, the internship you are applying for. Here is a screenshot of the folder where I store my resume. As you can see, all of these are modified according to the company and the job title. You would want to highlight the skills and internships accordingly. Let’s say you are applying to an oil company full time, and you have experience in the course. We would leverage it to get ahead of the crowd.

• POWER VERBS – use power verbs such as determine, anticipate, conserve, expand, generate, compute, etc. These verbs always help. Use them to write the tasks and responsibilities you took. Avoid verbs like gain, responsible for, tolerate, work with, etc. You can find the list of power verbs right here.
• QUANTIFY YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS – Remember, your resume should not consist of your job responsibilities. The company you are applying for already knows the job duties you will have. They want to see how you took on those job duties and challenged yourself to do better. For example, in the resume sample above, one of the points says – ‘Managed the design, development of the utility system; wrote four chapters of a 13 chapter report. Coordinated submittal of a design report and associated CAD drawings.’ This quantification helps the recruiter understand how you can bring more value to their company.
• GRAMMAR & SPELL CHECK – Need I say more. The worst thing you can have on your application docs or resume is a grammar/spelling mistake. Revise, show it to your friends; because sometimes your friends and classmates may catch an eye on something you ignored earlier.

Here are some free resources you can use.

1. Resumepuppy.com – You can create a resume that gets past the ATS and into the hands of the people that matter. Their tools make it easy to build resumes with the right set of information to be picked up by the Applicant tracking systems.
2. Glasssquid.io helps you modify a resume as per the available job and matches you with over 200k jobs in IT.

CV 

Let’s talk about academia. This might be relevant if you plan to submit your document to colleges, professors, and everything in academia. Remember to create two CVs just like a resume.

1. Master CV – keep all your achievements & education in chronological order. It is a CV you provide for general needs.
2. Tailored CV – Modify your CV according to the academic position you are applying for.

Remember, CVs can be longer than a resume. Here is a sample CV for you.

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If you want to access the full version of this file and other samples, you can visit this link here.

Common CV Headings

• Name & Contact Information
• Education
• Dissertation Title or Topic
• Fellowships/Awards/Honors
• Research Experience
• Teaching Experience
• Other Professional Experience, e.g., Industry Experience, Government Experience
• Presentations
• Publications

Additional CV Headings to Tailor Your CV

• Skills – may include subcategories such as Computer, Languages, Lab Instrumentation.
• Professional Associations
• Leadership & Activities – or University Service
• Research Interests
• Areas of Expertise
• Prepared to Teach
• Works in Progress
• Languages
• Dissertation Abstract (sometimes included separately)
• References
• Others may include relevant global/travel experience, professional association memberships, hobbies, and personal interests.