Curriculum Vitae, Resume, and Cover Letter: What is the Difference?

Some fresh graduates may be unfamiliar with the terms of a cover letter, resume, and curriculum vitae. These are introductory documents for a job applicant. Some job applicants who are still confused about the concept usually only attach two of those documents. If you attach all of the documents, your application will be more attractive to the prospective employer.

Those documents generally have the same purpose of introducing yourself as a job applicant to a prospective employer. Let’s consider the explanation below and find out the difference.

Cover Letter

A good cover letter consists of self-promotion related to your skills in accordance with the position applied for. This document is intended to persuade the prospective employer that you are a good candidate for the required position. The prospective employer will consider your candidacy and review your resume in detail.

The cover letter is written in paragraph form. It reflects your organizational experience and communication skills. Thus, it is important to organize the right words and proofread them carefully. A cover letter, in general, contains where you get the job vacancy information, the position applied, your skills, and the advantages of recruiting you. In this part, you are allowed to promote yourself as best as you can.

Resume

The same as its name, a resume contains summaries of your personal information, educational background, experiences, and skills. A resume is briefer than Curriculum Vitae. Only your abilities matching with the position applied need to be included on the resume. The content can be adjusted. Thus, when the prospective employer reviews your resume, he will know whether you are a good match for the position in question or not.
 

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum vitae (CV) contains the outline of the job applicant’s life, including identity, personality, educational background, which is usually from senior high school, work experience in general, informal educations, a list of achievements gained, organization, and others. You can also cite some additional information such as social media profiles, LinkedIn profile, hobbies, and reference’s phone number. However, remember not to include irrelevant or even false information on your curriculum vitae. 

You can add any relevant information you want to your CV. Nevertheless, be careful in including any information in your CV. Some companies conduct background checks based on the job applicant’s curriculum vitae as one of the recruitment processes. A discrepancy of information can knock you out of the recruiting process.