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Resume or CV?
Turning your American-style resume into a CV should not be a much-dreaded
ordeal. The changes may simply be a matter of expanding job descriptions, adding
personal details and including a summary of your skills and experience. Here is
a how-to guide to help you in the process:
Do You Need a CV?
Quick Tips
You've spent the last weekend writing and rewriting
your resume, and now you learn you need something else entirely -- a
curriculum vitae. Take a deep breath, calm down and prepare for some
reassuring advice:
A curriculum vitae is essentially another name for a
resume. In other words, you don't need to prepare for a wholesale
reworking of your resume, so much as you need to think about adding
detail and reordering what you already have.
- Is your brief, American-style resume acceptable to
a potential international employer? It may be. Check with the
company.
- US companies looking for workers to live abroad
will still want a US-style resume. Don't bother with a CV.
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1. At the start of your CV (along with your address and
contact information) include personal details typically left out of a resume --
namely, your marital status and nationality.
2. Write a summary of your skills and experience as an
introduction to potential employers. Our sample CV accomplishes this with a list
of positions held and an overview of the applicant's previous responsibilities,
accomplishments and skills. Think of this information, along with the other
details in the first one or two pages of your CV, as a quick guide to the more
in-depth descriptions that follow.
3. Add considerable detail to job descriptions. An
American-style resume emphasizes brevity; a CV does not. In a CV, job
descriptions, rather than telegraphing details, should explain employment in
depth, with references to specific projects, responsibilities and
accomplishments. Consider the differences between the following two job
descriptions. The first describes the position adequately for a resume, but the
second (for the CV) enhances the description, giving the potential employer a
much deeper sense of the applicant's work experience.
Resume-style:
Ecco Software Enterprises, Inc. (Feb. 1997 to March 1999)
Software Developer
Created Java applications for client Web sites, including database-driven
programs to allow clients to update Web pages. Worked with project manager to
assure quick response to client-requested updates.
CV-style:
Ecco Software Enterprises, Inc. (Feb. 1997 to March 1999)
Software Developer
Served as lead developer on a six-person team charged with building a suite of
Web applications for use by Ecco clients. Ecco provides its clients, including
several Fortune 500 companies, with high-end Internet tools, consulting and
services for maintaining and updating Web sites. As lead developer, tasks
included working with the project manager to assess goals, interpret client
requests and construct a plan for meeting deadlines. Project included the use of
Java, DHTML, SQL Server and JavaScript. Managed prelaunch testing with
nontechnical end-users at Fortune 500 financial company. Project delivered two
weeks in advance of deadline. Following project delivery, work continued on
fine-tuning application and testing with additional clients. Delivered
presentations to small groups of end-users on use of application.
4. Consider including a section with publications, speeches,
training courses and other accomplishments. Depending on your field -- and your
accomplishments -- this section can be crucial in giving a potential employer a
sense of your qualifications. If you have given six speeches at conferences, for
instance, provide the topics, the locations and brief descriptions of each. The
same goes for publications and courses you have completed.
5. Include details about any other special skills, interests
and hobbies. You need not limit yourself to a single line outlining personal
interests. Describe interests in detail, especially if they have some relevance
to your potential success in an international position.
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