You most likely searched for the word resume on your way here, if not then you can have searched for Curriculum Vitae, but whats the difference?

Definition - Curriculum Vitae (CV): - A special type of resume traditionally used within the academic community. Earned degrees, teaching and research experience, publications, presentations, and related activities are featured. Unlike a resume, a CV tends to be longer and more informational than promotional in tone. Note: The CV required in theses and dissertations follows a very explicit format.

In the United Kingdom, and many other places, the description Curriculum Vitae applies to any resume type document, its important to understand that in some countries the terms are interchangeable.

The description above explains that usually the CV is usually used by the academic community, but it is not limited to them.

It is usually focused on teaching and research knowledge; as such it will have a grand deal of explicit knowledge relating to specialist subject matter.

The amount of detail required usually means that the CV is longer that the resume, but how long?

In truth, the ideal resume should be just a single page in length, its true to say that there are those that make use of two pages.

The CV is ideally a two page document, no more.

Basically, anyone who uses more than two pages should make a close examination of the content.

I do recall a 30 year old man who presented me with a 6 page resume and said "I dont understand why I dont get any interviews, my resume tells them everything they need to know".

Imagine being the HR person who is faced with reading 6 pages to decide if this person matches the job requirements. Where would you document the resume or CV of that length?

Whats the solution to a long resume or CV? The solution is to change its format and study the type of job you are applying for, once you have done that you can focus more on whats required and less on what might be interesting.