Saturday, May 30, 2009

Difference among CV, Resume and BioData

People use the words RESUME, C.V., and BIO-DATA interchangeably for thedocument highlighting skills, education, and experience that a candidatesubmits when applying for a job. On the surface level, all the threemean the same. However, there are intricate differences.
RESUME
Resume Is a French word meaning "summary", and true to the wordmeaning, signifies a summary of one's employment, education, and otherskills, used in applying for a new position. A resume seldom exceeds oneside of an A4 sheet, and at the most two sides. They do not list out allthe education and qualifications, but only highlight specific skillscustomized to target the job profile in question.A resume is usually broken into bullets and written in the third personto appear objective and formal. A good resume starts with a briefSummary of Qualifications, followed by Areas of Strength or IndustryExpertise in keywords, followed by Professional Experience in reversechronological order. Focus is on the most recent experiences, and priorexperiences summarized. The content aims at providing the reader abalance of responsibilities and accomplishments for each position. AfterWork experience come Professional Affiliations, Computer Skills, andEducation

C.V CURRICULUM VITAE
C.V Is a Latin word meaning "course of life". CurriculumVitae (C.V.) is therefore a regular or particular course of studypertaining to education and life. A C.V. is more detailed than a resume,usually 2 to 3 pages, but can run even longer as per the requirement. AC.V. generally lists out every skills, jobs, degrees, and professionalaffiliations the applicant has acquired, usually in chronological order.A C.V. displays general talent rather than specific skills for anyspecific positions.
BIO-DATA
Bio Data the short form for Biographical Data, is the old-fashionedterminology for Resume or C.V. The emphasis in a bio data is on personalparticulars like date of birth, religion, sex, race, nationality,residence, martial status, and the like. Next comes a chronologicallisting of education and experience. The things normally found in aresume, that is specific skills for the job in question comes last, andare seldom included. Bio-data also includes applications made inspecified formats as required by the company.
A resume is ideally suited when applying for middle and senior levelpositions, where experience and specific skills rather than education isimportant. A C.V., on the other hand is the preferred option for freshgraduates, people looking for a career change, and those applying foracademic positions. The term bio-data is mostly used in India whileapplying to government jobs, or when applying for research grants andother situations where one has to submit descriptive essays.
Resumes present a summary of highlights and allow the prospectiveemployer to scan through the document visually or electronically, to seeif your skills match their available positions. A good resume can dothat very effectively, while a C.V. cannot. A bio-data could stillperform this role, especially if the format happens to be the onerecommended by the employer.
Personal information such as age, sex, religion and others, and hobbiesare never mentioned in a resume. Many people include such particulars inthe C.V. However, this is neither required nor considered in the USmarket. A Bio-data, on the other hand always include such personalparticulars.

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