A US resume should run one page for most candidates and never include a photo or date of birth; a UK CV allows one to two pages and also omits a photo; and CVs in much of continental Europe are commonly one to two pages, sometimes include a photo depending on the country and industry, and more often include a full Europass-style personal information block. These aren’t arbitrary style preferences — they follow from real differences in hiring law and recruiter expectations, and using the wrong country’s convention can quietly work against you even when the content underneath is strong.
United States: short, achievement-led, no personal details
US resumes are typically one page for anyone with under ten to fifteen years of experience, and even senior candidates rarely exceed two. Photos, date of birth, marital status, and nationality are left off entirely — not as a stylistic choice but because US anti-discrimination law makes employers cautious about receiving information that could later be construed as a basis for a hiring decision. The format favors achievement-led bullet points with quantified results over the narrative style common in other regions, and it’s called a “resume,” not a “CV” — the two terms mean different documents in an American context specifically.
United Kingdom: two pages is normal, still no photo
A UK CV comfortably runs to two pages for anyone with meaningful experience — trying to force ten years of relevant work onto one page is a common own-goal for candidates used to US conventions. Like the US, UK employers generally don’t expect a photo, and including one can read as slightly out of step rather than helpful, though this varies more by industry (creative fields are more relaxed about it) than US practice does. “CV” is the standard term for the UK job-application document, covering what Americans would call a resume — UK job seekers don’t typically maintain a separate long-form academic CV unless they’re in academia specifically.
Continental Europe: more variation, often a fuller personal block
Practice varies more by country here than the US/UK split suggests. Germany traditionally expects a photo and a formally structured *Lebenslauf*, often with a signature and date at the bottom, though this is loosening somewhat among younger applicants and in tech-sector hiring. France favors a concise, one-page CV as the norm, with photos increasingly optional rather than expected. Many EU public-sector roles, university programmes, and Erasmus-related applications ask for the Europass CV format specifically by name — a standardized template with its own set section order that’s worth using exactly when it’s requested, since deviating from it can read as not following instructions rather than as creative formatting.
The photo question, specifically
This is the detail that trips up the most cross-border applicants. Including a photo on a US or UK application can look uninformed about local norms; leaving one off a traditional German application can occasionally read the opposite way, though this is changing. When in doubt, look at the specific posting and company rather than defaulting to your home country’s convention — a multinational company’s US office and its Frankfurt office may genuinely expect different documents for the same reason the language does.
Practical rule when you’re not sure
Match the convention of the country where the job is based, not where you live or where you learned to write a CV. If you’re applying across borders regularly, it’s worth keeping a base CV and producing a tailored copy per region rather than sending the same document everywhere — our CV Studio keeps every version in one dashboard so you can duplicate and adjust without starting from scratch each time, and switch straight into the Europass format for the applications that specifically call for it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it ever safe to include a photo on a US resume?
Generally no. US employers are trained to be cautious about protected-class information, and a photo is one of the more common reasons a resume gets set aside unread by companies with strict compliance processes, regardless of the applicant’s qualifications.
Do I need a different CV for every European country I apply to?
Not necessarily a different CV, but check the specific posting for format requests (particularly “Europass” by name) and adjust length and photo conventions per country when you have reason to believe they differ meaningfully from your default.
What’s the actual difference between a US “resume” and a UK “CV”?
In American usage, a CV is a long, comprehensive academic document (publications, grants, full teaching history) used mainly in academia, while a resume is the short, tailored document used for most jobs. In UK usage, “CV” refers to what Americans would call a resume — the same short, job-specific document, just under a different name.