Résumé

A résumé (also known as a curriculum vitae or CV) is a document that details an individual’s educational qualifications, skills, job experiences, and other credentials. It is most commonly used when applying for a job or a grant application or to demonstrate a candidate’s competency to undertake a particular task. In situations in which decent job opportunities are scarce, people make considerable efforts to keep their résumés updated and burnished as a possible means of gaining a crucial advantage over rival applicants. Numerous agencies, many of them online, purport to offer advice and support to produce a superior résumé, and most schools and colleges will also offer at least introductory lessons in their production.

Overview

Since there is such a wide range of different jobs and a very diverse range of people who might be applying for them, it is not meaningful to try to identify a standard format and structure to which every résumé should adhere. Indeed, individuals will often vary the size, appearance, and content of their résumés so as to fit better with what they believe will be required for a given position. In some cases, it is necessary to alter just a few lines to do so. In the case of an academic or a professional in a technical occupation, listing all the many papers, presentations, qualifications, training sessions, and so on that might be involved can lead to a résumé dozens of pages in length. A full résumé of this sort will generally only be requested after the candidate has passed an initial screening.

In general, a résumé has three principal areas: educational, work experience and achievements, and personal details. In situations where education is the main determinant of success, items will be ordered chronologically. When experience—particularly recent experience—is more valued, then the items are likely to be listed in reverse chronological order. Applicants need to think carefully about the manner in which they present themselves. It is always wrong to falsify a résumé by adding qualifications or experiences that are untrue; a person found guilty of doing so may be fired or prosecuted. Omitting some items considered undesirable is allowable, but failure to add, for example, a period of imprisonment or some kinds of debilitating medical conditions may also result in dismissal. This depends to some extent on employment laws and the ability of the individual to obtain support in upholding their rights.

From a practical perspective, the number of applicants for an attractive position may greatly outweigh the positions available and the ability of the assigned staff to study all résumés thoroughly. Therefore, a first screening of applicants will take place to disqualify those without proper qualifications. Some applicants will have an incentive to blur the lines somewhat to avoid being excluded without actually misstating the facts.

The type of information included in the personal section of the résumé may vary significantly depending on social and cultural conditions. In Western countries, the need to avoid discrimination has led to the minimization of personal details such as gender, ethnicity, and age on résumés, but this is not true everywhere. In many East Asian countries, for example, it is still common for applicants to include not just a photograph of themselves but also their height, weight, and blood type. In some cases, employers are permitted to hire people based on their gender or ethnicity or may operate according to a quota. In the digital age, everyone, and especially young people, should construct their résumés believing that a potential employer will be able to find out everything they have done in the past and even issues such as sexual orientation or political beliefs that they may prefer to keep private. It is important, therefore, for people to study any contract they might intend to sign seriously so they will be aware of the consequences of any omissions that might be revealed during the hiring process. This is a situation that has continued to change very quickly, and employment law will only follow social mores and assumptions when these have settled themselves sufficiently in different societies.

Also, due to the increased accessibility and versatility of the internet and other digital media, not only have paper and postal submissions of the résumé decreased significantly, but digital forms of résumé submission other than email have become popular with both employers and job seekers. For example, users all over the world maintain a profile that can serve as a live, engaging, and thorough résumé on the professional networking site LinkedIn. With this site, those looking for employment can include all of the details of their résumé while adding more specific and universal information and being able to directly connect with other professionals in a wide variety of fields with one effort. Still others have found creative ways to substitute a résumé through social media sites such as Facebook. Additionally, since communication and personality are typically top criteria considered by employers, some job applicants submit brief video résumés as a way to differentiate themselves from others.

By the 2020s, the proliferation of digital artificial intelligence (AI) also meant that some companies had begun using these systems to conduct at least an initial screening of submitted résumés. While difficult to adhere to the criteria the AI may be programmed to scan for, experts have increasingly recommended keeping such technology in mind when approaching the résumé process.

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