CV is short for Curriculum Vitae which is according to the Cambridge Dictionary means:

“a short-written description of your education, qualifications, previous jobs, and sometimes also your personal interests, which you send to an employer when you are trying to get a job. In the US, curriculum vitae is mostly used when applying for academic teaching jobs; resume or résumé is used for other jobs”

For us in the middle east a CV And a Resume are really synonym, but different countries use a different name.  I haven’t seen much difference in either. Except maybe you can have more things listed in the description about yourself.

A “Resume” is used for any other job, and it must be short and to the point, if one is applying for an accounting job, then we need to emphasize our accounting skills, studies and attributes that make us fit for the job.  However, we need to be aware that in some jobs a CV is a resume too, were we need to show all our attributes.

Even though the Cambridge dictionary says that a CV is for academic positions and a resume is for other jobs, I personally feel that a CV can be sent to any job a person wants.

To me a CV resembles a life story, we need the recipient of our CV to know everything about our life, what did we study, what our hobbies are, where did we travel, what books did we read, our blogs, our love for cars (for example), if we love fashion, what Genre of books do we like, our attempts in learning languages and the reasons for that. Our CV is the book of our life, and we must make it so clear to the company we applying to.

Here is what you need to have on your CV:

1. Your name of course
2. Your gender and age (some people do not encourage mentioning your age; however, I do feel it is important to have it as some jobs do need a young person or a mature person)
3. A list of your academic journey, from school to university and any other studies related to your academic life
4. Any other courses that you did outside your academic studies, for example you could have studied film making, computer programming, photography, cross stich etc. then mention these in here
5. Conferences, symposiums, and seminars that you had attended, whether it was in school, college, or after graduation. This proves your love of learning.
6. Any volunteering programs that you have helped with during your young life, it doesn’t need to be something like the Duke of Edinburgh program, even if you helped in teaching children art or reading, or maybe teaching English or any other language. Many students have joined IESEC and many of them omit to mention it on their CV, which makes me sad as its almost 6 months of their precious lives
7. List your sporting activities, even your gym membership can provide a snippet about your life and how you organise it. Also driving as, a sport, companies like to know if you drive, and how you drive to (EG if you are applying to Ferrari company)
8. Talk about your environmental activities like cleaning the beaches or recycling of materials or helping communities to grow trees in their neighborhood.
9. A list of your various jobs, even if it was opening boxes of your dad’s container.
10. A list of your hobbies (e.g., reading, writing, travelling, space gazing, model building, helping charities, etc)
11. An account of what you want to be in the future, your ambitions, and your aspirations (if you aspire to be a novelist or a photographer or want to go to Mars with Elon Musk, then write it here)
12. Mention the best place you have gone to and why did you like it
13. Do not forget any details of your life since you were born and till the date you are applying for the job

A CV can be helpful if you want to write your memoire, as it will remind you of what you wanted to be and what you ended up doing. Finally, remember that you are special and unique and there is not anyone in this world who is like you, you even have your own fingerprint, thus you will need to show how different you are and how good you are. Focus on how good you are. While writing your CV you will detect something that can make you start your own business, most people discovered their love for a certain business while pondering their CV. Enjoy your job hunting, and good luck.