When you think you have finally managed everything when it comes to your Curriculum, what you should include and what you should not, the length of it, how to organize it… You suddenly step on international job vacancies where a new element appears, that brings you right back to having doubts. This is, the Resume.
Some of you may be asking yourself, what is a resume? Well, first of all, you can relax, and calm yourself, because this new element will not make your curriculum vary a lot, it can only replace it.
The Resume or Resumé is a type of document that gathers all the relevant information of a person when it comes to his or her experience or educational background, to create an specific approach for a concrete job position. One of the differentiation aspects from this document in comparison to the CV, is its geographical scope of use. When it comes to North American companies, specially in the US, it is normal that they may ask to handle in this document to people that are applying for their job vacancies, while in the rest of countries, Curriculum stays the indisputable leader. However, we would be lying to ourselves, if we do not acknowledge that globalization of the world and markets, has led to an increase of international mobility, that is the reason why some european or asiatic companies have started to ask the Resume to candidates as a requirement.
As we have stated before, geographical differences are an important factor to distinguish between these two documents, that seem so similar at first glance. But there is also another key point that will help us not to get crazy if the moment comes when a company rejects our CV, and asks instead for a Resume: its length. This is probably the most important difference. The reason is because for a Curriculum to be considered as ‘good’, must contain not only the complete information about your experience and educational background from the individual, but also the details of it. On the other hand, the Resume is totally the opposite, what companies are seeking is conciseness. You need to mention the most relevant experiences that could set you up as the appropriate person for that vacancy, trying to avoid every piece of information that could be irrelevant for this concrete case. To be more illustrative, let’s say that the whole document must fit in a DIN A4 paper sheet. On the other side, it is important to mention that, in some cases, there is people that include in their Resume some brief lines at the beginning of the document, where they write a short description of their professional profile, followed by their interests or professional motivations, what reasserts the persuasive intention of the Resume. To finish it up, we have to remind you that this section is not compulsory to be fulfilled, but it can certainly help when it comes to convincing the recruiter that you should be the one to hire.
That is why, you don’t need to get crazy when you are asked for a Resume instead of a CV in any job vacancy you are applying for, just follow these simple steps we have brought you today and we are sure you can come out well from this situation!
