A CV and a resume are the same document in the UK and Australia — and two different documents in the US. Here is how to tell which one an employer is asking for.
The words CV and resume describe the same document in some countries and two completely different documents in others. Sending the wrong one wastes an application, and the confusion is entirely avoidable once you know which convention the employer is working from.
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong, a CV is the ordinary one-to-two page document you attach to a job application. It is what an American would call a resume. The UK government's own careers service describes the CV as the standard application document and sets out the sections it should contain — personal details, a profile, work history, education, and skills — in its guide to CV sections.
In the United States and Canada, that everyday document is a resume. There, "CV" means something else: a long academic or medical record listing publications, grants, conference talks, and teaching history, often running to many pages and used almost exclusively for academic, research, and clinical posts.
So the same three letters mean "your normal job application document" in London and "your full academic history" in Chicago.
| CV — UK, IE, AU, NZ, SG, HK | Resume — US, CA | |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday job application | Yes, this is the standard document | No — that is the resume |
| Typical length | One to two pages | One page, especially early-career |
| Academic version | Called an academic CV | Called a CV |
| Photo, date of birth | Left off | Left off |
| Opening section | Short personal statement or profile | Summary, often optional |
The practical rule is simple: use whichever word the advert uses, and size the document to the market you are applying into. A British applicant who sends a two-page "CV" to a US startup will be understood, but a US employer who explicitly asks for a CV may genuinely want the academic version, and a two-page document where a one-page resume was expected can read as not knowing the local convention.
Recruiters pattern-match. An advert written by a British employer will say CV throughout; one written by a US employer will say resume. Mirroring the employer's own vocabulary is the same instinct that makes tailoring work in the first place — you are signalling that you understand the context you are applying into.
It also matters for applicant tracking systems. The major platforms — Workday, Greenhouse, Lever — are used on both sides of the Atlantic, and they match the text of your document against the text of the advert. If the posting repeatedly says "CV" and your document is headed "Resume", that is a small mismatch, and small mismatches accumulate. It is not the single thing that decides an application, but it costs nothing to get right.
This is where the two conventions genuinely diverge, and where copying US advice into a UK application does real damage.
Tailoring tends to make a document shorter rather than longer, because material with no bearing on the advert can be cut to make room for material that does.
Some things are omitted everywhere, and for the same reason: they invite discrimination and employers do not want them on file. In the UK the relevant framework is the Equality Act 2010, which defines the protected characteristics an employer must not make hiring decisions on. Acas, the UK's workplace advice body, sets out what a fair recruitment process looks like in its guidance on job applications and hiring.
Leave off:
Continental European practice differs here: the EU's own Europass CV format includes a photograph field, and in some European markets a photo is still expected. If you are applying into Germany or France, check local convention rather than assuming the UK rule.
Whatever you call it, the document has one job: to show an employer, quickly, that your experience lines up with what they asked for. That means mirroring the advert's language, leading with the results that matter to the role, and keeping the layout simple enough that parsing software can read it.
That is identical work in both conventions. Only the packaging differs — the word at the top, the page count, and the spelling.
If you are applying into a CV market, our guide to tailoring a CV to a job description covers the conventions and spelling in more detail. For US applications, start with how to tailor a resume instead.
Sources: National Careers Service — CV sections, Equality Act 2010, Acas — job applications and hiring, Europass CV.
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