CV and Résumé

After a conversation with a friend of mine from Singapore, a former British colonial piece of land in south east Asia peninsula, I learnt that they use the word Resume', instead of CV. Well, as we all know Resume' is an American English and Curriculum vitae is British English. But none of them are originally from America or Britain. Curriculum vitae is Latin meaning "course of life" and résumé is French meaning "summary".

Basically, dictionaries describe that CV is equal to Resumé. But according to my friend who arrived in Singapore lately and was applying for a job, it was advised that the short account of education, previous experience and jobs should be written in the way of Resume, not in the way of CV. That statement made me a bit confused. So I did a quick research. I found out the relevant information on wiki as below.

A résumé more often has a free-form organizational style and is used for seeking employment in the private sector, whereas a curriculum vitae has a more standardized look and format for the purpose of seeking positions in academic or educational institutions. Another difference is that a résumé tends to be more descriptive and tailored for a specific purpose or target audience, whereas a curriculum vitae tends to be organized in a way that presents data about one's self in a compact fashion, with a clear chronology. For example, a résumé may begin with a statement about a personal goal, followed by a list of most significant accomplishments or characteristics in order of significance, while a curriculum vitae often includes complete and unembellished lists of data such as educational institutions attended, degrees received, positions held, professional affiliations, publications authored, etc. A résumé may or may not be represented by the person as a complete history of themselves without omission, whereas a curriculum vitae usually implies that there are no omissions, and in particular, no temporal gaps.

According to that information, it is slightly different in CV and résumé in terms of presentations.

Moreover, the required facts in a CV would differ from one industry to another, one country to another. In some countries, putting photo together with CV is preferable. In some places, personal details are mandatory. But when I apply the job in England, I don't need to include my date of birth, gender and ethnicity in my CV. They can't take such facts into account in the consideration process for a post. The short listing panel can not discriminate against the race, age and sex. It's against the law. But the human resource department will keep those facts confidentially.