Question:
Is there a difference between European CV's and United States CV's?
In the U.S., CV's (or Vita's for short?) may be much longer than a resume.
CV's cover one's whole life experience, whereas a good resume is targetted
to a particular job.
Or do I misunderstand?
Answer:
-It *does* help to do something like addressing the envelope to an individual.
It is clear to me that the term "covering letter" is being used to mean
different things in North america than in the UK.
-It would seem that a resum'ee ("resume" is a verb!) is a lot shorter,
terser and more formal in the US than I had realised.
I frequently get sent CVs that are a dozen or more pages long.
To answer the specific question, certainly I would look at the CV, and if
it was suitably expansive to give me a good feel for why you were more
suitable than Person Z, then you would be quite likely to get an interview.
We don't keep CVs on record for very long (in general), though, because
people's situations change so much.
-Now, in the UK this would be considered part of the CV. A covering letter
generally says no more than
It is better to put the information in the CV, I think, because then it is
all in one place for easy reference. The CV will get passed around, but
the letter may well stay in the waste-paper basket or the recruitment file.
But that implies a longer CV -- again, as long as all ofthe personal details
(subject to local laws) are on the first page, like an at-a-glance summary,
I see nothing wrong with a five-page CV.
Not double-sided please, as I will then only photocopy one side, not
noticing the other side! [this has happened, although I did not believe it
possible]
If you are applying for a specific job, obviously you must always make
that clear! Large companies will send you a job application form in any
case, and the people who do that are not making any decisions at all --
simply sending out forms. They probably throw away both your letter and
your CV.
When you return their form, it will have sections in which you will have
answered such questions as
What do you consider your most serious failings?
and
What work would you most like to do?
to their satisfaction [or else :-)].
So a CV (resum'ee) or covering letter might well be completely out of
place there.
I should probably also admit that most of the CVs I see come from agencies.
Some agencies are better than others. For example, one always adds
"Unix experience" to every CV, as far as I can tell, because they know
that this is worth a higher salary... Others always use a word processor
(or even handwriting)...
You are trying to do (at least) the following
* Make me *want* to read your CV
* Show me clearly what is different about you
* Make me remember you
A long covering letter does not do any of those by itself unless it contains
at least some of the information that should be inthe CV. But a half-page
or a page of letter is OK, if you are a verbose sort of person.
When I said
>#But a covering letter is not needed really.
I did *not* mean
>#But a covering letter is a bad thing, should not be enclosed
only that if you don't send one, you haven't "blown it".
I don't think it ever hurts to enclose a short note, provided your CV
contains enough information [and no split infinitives/speling misstaykes/etc --
including the accents on words like r^ole and resum'ee... 0.5 :-) ].
[ I accept that "resume" might be a normal America spelling, however ]
As I said when I posted my earlier article, my viewpoint is Anglocentric,
because I have never interviewed anyone in outside England.
