What's a Vita and do I need one?

I frequently hear a great deal of confusion about the differences between a curriculum vitae (vita) or CV and a tradition resume. Let's clear it up.

A CV is a document used frequently by academics, (and in Europe) to detail your work experience. Unlike a resume a vita offers up excruciating details about every aspect of your professional life
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The phrase “curriculum vitae” comes from the Latin meaning “life’s course,” and that’s really what it is. It is a document that lays out the path your life has taken over the years. Unlike a resume where employers aren’t very interested in what you did ten years ago, a CV tracks all of your education, writing, teaching, research, and work experiences. It provides information about everything you have written or said for public consumption and information about your educational pedigree, awards, and experiences.

CVs are popular in academic circles because the amount of work you have done has more to do with getting a job than a specific skill set would. Academics are typically judged on the depth and breadth of their expertise. The types of classes they have taught, books and articles published, grants awarded, and conferences in which they have participated. Their CVs can be 5, 10, or even 30 pages if they have enough publications and experiences to share. Unlike resumes, in the word of CVs, more is more.

I receive a lot of requests from academics or recent PhD graduates for help in translating their CVs into a resume. It can be a tough task. The key is always to go back to the first principal of this chapter: your resume is designed to sell you for a job. Turning a CV into a resume is a matter of understanding what skills and experiences you have had in the academic world and how they add up to make you a desirable candidate for a specific job.

CVs are also more modest in tone. In a resume you are constantly pitching and selling in the language. In a CV, you are stating things factually with the assumption that the information will speak for itself. If you were to describe yourself as "a prominent scholar in the field of biotechnology with a strong history of innovative research" you would sound a bit like a braggart to your academic colleagues. You would be more likely to win them over with a simple statement of fact such as: biotechnology scholar who uses grant funding to find new research methodologies.

The massive difference between CVs and resumes is one of the top reasons I give students for shying away from asking your college professor for too much help in formatting a resume. If your professor has never written his or her own resume and worked outside of a university or research setting, it’s a good bet they don’t really have the expertise to guide you. It’s a little like taking combat advice from an Army reservist who has never been to war.