Mostly geography, not substance
If you've seen both terms used for what looks like the same one-to-two-page document, you're not imagining it — in most of the world they genuinely are the same thing, just called something different depending where the job posting is from. There's one real exception worth knowing about, covered below.
| Region | What they call it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| UK, Ireland | CV | The standard one-to-two-page application document for almost every job. There's no separate "resume" concept — CV covers it all. |
| US, Canada | Resume | The standard short application document for most jobs. "CV" is reserved for a longer, different document (see below). |
| Most of Europe, Australia, NZ, India, South Africa | CV | Same as the UK — CV is the everyday term, and it means the short document, not the long academic one. |
In practice: outside North America, "CV" almost always means the same one-to-two-page document Americans call a resume. Use whichever term matches where the employer is based, and the format expected usually follows the same regional split — for example, a photo is common on CVs in parts of Europe but generally discouraged on US resumes.
In the US and Canada specifically, "CV" refers to something genuinely different from a resume — a comprehensive, often multi-page document listing your full academic and research history: publications, conference presentations, grants, teaching experience, and so on. It's used almost exclusively for academic, research, medical, or scientific positions, and it grows over a career rather than staying to a page limit. If you're applying for an academic post in the US, that's the document being asked for — not a longer version of a resume.
For the vast majority of job applications worldwide, the practical document — sections, structure, one-to-two pages, tailored per application — is the same regardless of which name you use for it.
In the US and Canada, a resume is a short (one to two page) summary of work experience used for most job applications, while a CV (curriculum vitae) is a longer, comprehensive document used mainly for academic, research, or medical positions. In the UK, Ireland, and most of Europe and the Commonwealth, 'CV' is the standard term for the same short one-to-two-page document Americans call a resume — the two words mean the same document, just with different regional names.
Match the term and format the local job market expects: use 'resume' and US conventions (no photo, brief format) for US/Canada applications, and 'CV' with UK/European conventions for the UK, Ireland, and most of Europe. The underlying one-to-two-page document is usually the same; only the name and a few regional formatting conventions change.
FreeShelf's 250 designs work for a CV or a resume — pick a template, fill in your details once, and export whichever the application expects. No account, no watermark.
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