By Tanul Mittal3 min read
"Send your biodata." "Please share your CV." "Attach your resume." Indian employers use all three, sometimes in the same week, and sometimes to mean the same thing. Sending the wrong kind of document won't always cost you the job, but it can make you look unprepared. Here is how to tell what they want.
A resume answers one question: why are you a fit for this job? It includes:
It usually leaves out personal details such as date of birth, religion, marital status and father's name, and it changes for each type of job you apply for. Our resume for freshers guide shows a standard layout.
In everyday Indian hiring, "CV" and "resume" are interchangeable. If a private company or recruiter asks for your CV, send your resume.
In academic, research and some medical settings, a CV is different: a complete record that can run to several pages. It lists all degrees, research, publications, conference presentations, teaching, grants and awards. If you are applying for a PhD, a faculty position or a research fellowship, this is the CV they mean.
A biodata (short for biographical data) leads with personal information. A typical job biodata includes:
You'll see biodata requested for some government and PSU posts (often through a fixed application form), for some school and college jobs, and by smaller local employers. Our biodata format for job guide has a full format.
A note on searches: "biodata" also refers to marriage biodata in India, which is a different document. Make sure you are using a job format.
Partly. Keep a standard resume as your main document, and a short personal details block you can add when a biodata is requested: date of birth, languages, address and a declaration. That way you are not maintaining two documents from scratch.
Don't add biodata-style personal details to the resume you send private-sector employers. They take space from your experience and aren't needed to judge your fit.
The same basics apply: a clean, single-column layout, consistent dates, correct contact details and a text-based PDF unless a Word file is requested. And for any private-sector resume, check it against the job description so the skills they ask for are visible.
Not quite. A biodata focuses on personal details such as date of birth, address, family and languages, with a short education and work summary. A resume focuses on skills, experience and achievements relevant to a specific job.
Most private companies in India use 'CV' and 'resume' to mean the same thing: a one or two page document focused on your experience and skills. Academic and research roles are the exception, where a CV is a longer, complete record.
When the employer asks for it, which is more common for some government, PSU, school and smaller local employers. For most private-sector jobs, send a resume.
Not for most private-sector jobs. Include them only if the employer or application form asks, as some government and biodata formats do.
When an Indian recruiter asks a fresher for a CV, they almost always mean a one-page resume. Here is the format section by section, a sample layout, and how to fix an old-style CV template.
Both formats work in most applicant tracking systems. What matters is how the file was made. Here is when to send a PDF, when to send Word, and how to export either one properly.
Before you worry about wording, get the format right. File type, length, section order and the small details that make a fresher resume easy to read and easy to parse.