Most explainers on this question open with page counts, which is the least useful part of the answer. The same two-page document is called a CV in Manchester and a resume in Chicago, and nobody in either office thinks they are describing something exotic. What is actually going on is a split between hiring markets, not between two document formats.
The words describe markets, not layouts
In the United States and Canada, "resume" is the default word for the file you attach to a job application. It is expected to be short, aimed at one specific role, and stripped of personal data that could create a discrimination claim: no photo, no date of birth, no marital status, usually no full street address.
In the UK, Ireland, most of continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand and across the Gulf, the same document is called a CV. Two pages is normal rather than indulgent, and in several European countries a photo and a date of birth still appear without anyone blinking.
Then there is the third meaning, which is where the confusion gets expensive. In North American academia, medicine and research, a CV is a genuinely different document: an exhaustive record of publications, grants, teaching, conference talks and committee work, running to six, twelve or thirty pages. An American professor's CV and an American engineer's resume are not the same species of file.
So there are two axes, geography and sector. Get both right and the question mostly answers itself.
What each market actually expects
United States and Canada
One page under roughly ten years of experience, two beyond that. No personal details block. Lead with a short summary or go straight into experience, and quantify outcomes, because North American recruiters read for results rather than responsibilities. Leave the photo out. Plenty of recruiters will discard a file with a headshot rather than carry the bias exposure.
UK, Ireland, Australia
Two pages is the norm, and a single page can read as thin for a mid-career applicant. A short personal statement at the top is standard. "References available on request" is dead weight, so drop the line. No photo here either, though for a different reason: it is an equal-opportunity convention rather than a legal risk.
France, Germany, Spain, Italy
CV is the only word in use, and local expectations diverge from the Anglo ones more than people assume. German applications often still want a Lebenslauf with a photo and a signature, plus scanned certificates attached. A one-page CV is common and well regarded in France. Spain and Italy sit somewhere in between.
Academia and research, anywhere in the world
Full academic CV, no page limit, reverse-chronological publication list. If a university, hospital or lab asks for "your CV", they mean the long one, including in the US.
A decision rule you can run in ninety seconds
- Is the employer a university, hospital, research institute or lab? Send the long academic CV and stop reading here.
- Otherwise, find where the hiring office sits, not where the company is headquartered. A role advertised in Dublin is a Dublin hiring process even if the logo is Californian.
- Office in the US or Canada: one to two pages, no photo, no personal data, results first. Name the file resume.
- Office anywhere else: two pages, local conventions on photo and personal details, name the file CV.
- Genuinely cannot tell? Default to the North American version.
That last step matters more than it looks, because the two formats do not fail symmetrically. Sending a tight, photo-free resume into a CV market costs you almost nothing; a British recruiter will read it and move on. Sending a five-page European CV with a headshot into a US pipeline gets you filtered out for reasons nobody will ever explain to you.
The job ad usually leaks the answer
Read the posting as a document rather than skimming it for the requirements, and it tells you which market you are in.
- The word it uses. "Submit your resume" from a company with a London address usually means the hiring manager or the applicant tracking template is American. Follow the word they chose.
- The apply link. Greenhouse, Lever and Workday URLs point to a US-headquartered process even when the role itself is in Europe.
- Compensation vocabulary. An hourly rate, 401(k), PTO or "at-will" language is American. Notice period, annual leave counted in days, or a "package" is British and Commonwealth.
- A photo upload field or a date-of-birth box in the form. That is a continental European process, and you should give them what they ask for.
- "Please include your publication list" or a request for a teaching statement. Academic, so send the long version.
One caveat worth internalising. If the ad says CV and the company is in Austin, still send the two-page targeted document. They are using the word loosely. The word tells you what to call the file; the market tells you what to put inside it.
Converting one into the other
Going from a European CV to a North American resume is mostly subtraction, which is why people underestimate the job and then do it badly.
Cut the photo, date of birth, nationality, marital status and street address. Keep city and country. Cut hobbies unless one is directly relevant to the role. Compress the education block to degree, institution and year, and delete secondary school entirely once you hold a degree.
Then add the thing that is almost always missing: numbers. European CVs tend to describe duties, American resumes describe outcomes. "Responsible for the customer support team" becomes "Led a 6-person support team and cut first-response time from 14 hours to 3."
Going the other way, resume to CV, is mostly permission to breathe. You get a second page, room to expand earlier roles, and a short profile paragraph at the top. If you are rebuilding the document from scratch for a new market, starting from your LinkedIn profile is faster than surgically editing a file you last touched in 2021. That is the workflow Postulit is built around, pulling the profile into a formatted document you then trim for the market you are targeting.
What to do before your next application
Check two things: the location of the hiring office, and whether the employer is academic. Those two answers determine everything else on this page.
Then build two master files and keep them both current. One North American resume with no personal data, two pages maximum and quantified bullets. One CV with the second page, the profile paragraph and whatever local details the market expects. Applying then becomes a choice between two files rather than a rewrite you resent doing at eleven at night.