CV vs. Cover Letter: Differences & Similarities

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Oliwia Wolkowicz

Career Expert

Updated: July 23, 2024

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Dominika Kowalska, CPRW

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When applying for a job, you have a couple of opportunities to show the recruiter your best side. Those two chances are your cover letter and your CV. Needless to say, you need to hit a bullseye with both of them. Otherwise, you’re just another application. To do that, you need to understand not just the difference between a CV and cover letter, but how they work as an awesome team. This guide will show you the differences, similarities, and definitions.

First look at both documents created in our builder. On the left—a resume, in the middle—a CV for academic purposes, on the right—a cover letter.

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Looking for CV and cover letter examples? Look no more:

Is a CV a Cover Letter?

A cover letter is brief while a CV is quite detailed and long. A CV includes detailed information about your work experience and academic background while a cover letter is a condensed document that explains why you’re applying for the given job.

But let’s park that for a minute and break it down.

What is a CV?

That actually depends on where you are. In contrary to a resume, that's used to apply for a job, a CV is used for academic purposes.

In the U.S., a CV (also known as a curriculum vitae) is a very detailed document that lists your work experience, skills, educational background along with other academic achievements and it used be people pursuing a career in academia.

In most of the rest of the world, a CV is for a job and looks exactly like it’s American resume counterpart. It contains information on your work experience, skills, and educational background in reference to a particular job you’re applying for.

For the sake of this article, we’ll be using CV to mean the curriculum vitae used in the academic community within the U.S.

A typical academic CV has the following format:

Contact Information
Research Profile
Education Section
Publications
Awards and Honors
Grants and Fellowships
Conferences
Teaching Experience
Research Experience
Languages and Skills

Impressive, no?

Given the large amount of information academic CVs contain, they can actually go on for several pages and it’s considered standard in academia.

When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional CV template here for free.

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So What Is a Cover Letter?

A cover letter is similar to what its name suggests— it’s a letter that covers the key points in your experience and skill set that prove you’re a great candidate for the job.

Unlike the bullet pointed list usually found on a CV, the cover letter reads like a letter and gives you an opportunity to deep dive into concrete examples of your expertise.

The general layout of a cover letter looks like this:

Cover letter header
Cover letter salutation
Cover letter introduction
Secondary paragraph that underlines your experience and expertise
Third paragraph that proves you’re a great fit to the company and role
Cover letter ending with a call to action
Professional sign-off

Compare this cover letter structure with the CV structure above and you can see how different they are.

CV vs Cover Letter—The Differences

Generally, the focus of a CV is your value to academia, while a cover letter goes right for the feels.

But nothing clears things up like a nice table of values.

Have a look at the table below to see a side by side comparison of the major differences between an academic CV and a cover letter.

Difference Between a Cover Letter and CV

	CV	Cover Letter
Content	Specific details	General information
Format	Lists and bullet points	Paragraphs and sentences
Length	May be several pages	Usually 1 page
Content	Facts and data	Examples and ideas
Purpose	Applying for academic jobs	Providing additional background information

But it’s not only the differences between a CV and a cover letter that are important.

Let’s see what makes them such a great pair.

CV vs Cover Letter—The Similarities

Just like it takes two to tango on the ballroom floor, the CV usually takes the lead in the dance across the recruiter’s desk. But without a cover letter, it’s just one dancer swirling around with air.

Together they prove your skills and career experience—the CV lists them and the cover letter describes them in action through compelling examples.

The result is a holistic picture of your expertise and what kind of employee you are.

And think about it—the more the recruiter knows from the get go, the more convinced they can be that you’re the candidate you’re looking for before you even step foot into the interview!

We evaluated 11 million resumes created using our builder and found that these are the top 10 professions that often include a cover letter:

Business Operation Specialists
Top Executives
Advertising, Marketing, and PR Managers
Clerks
Engineers
Retail & Sales Representatives
Healthcare Practitioners
Financial Specialists
Teachers and Instructors
Counselors, social workers, and social service specialists

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

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See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Key Takeaway

Let’s do a quick recap of what we’ve covered today:

In the U.S., CVs are used in academia. In most of the rest of the world, a CV is used to get a job.
Cover letters are letters that accompany CVs/resumes and go more in depth into your job experience and expertise.
CVs are focused on facts and data about your work experience while cover letters are centered around compelling examples of your expertise as well as your character.
A CV and cover letter deliver the most impact when they are tailored and sent together.

Thanks for reading! Are there any other differences or similarities between CVs and cover letters that you noticed? Let us know in the comments below!

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This article has been reviewed by our editorial team to make sure it follows Zety's editorial guidelines. We’re committed to sharing our expertise and giving you trustworthy career advice tailored to your needs. High-quality content is what brings over 40 million readers to our site every year. But we don't stop there. Our team conducts original research to understand the job market better, and we pride ourselves on being quoted by top universities and prime media outlets from around the world.

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