Remember when I said that there is an exception to every rule in the résumé business? Well, here's another one. In most cases, résumés should be concise and limited to one or two pages at the most. You will carefully select your information to provide a synopsis. In the professions, however, a much longer résumé is expected and the longer the résumé, the better your chances of getting an interview. Those industries generally include medicine, law, education, science, and media (television, film, etc.). If you are applying for a job in a foreign country, long résumés with more detail and a considerable amount of personal information are the norm.

Such a professional résumé is called a curriculum vita (CV) from the Latin meaning "course of one's life." For those of us who have trouble knowing how to spell the word, vita is singular and vitae is plural.

A successful CV will include not only education and experience but also publications (books, magazines, journals, and other media), certifications, licenses, grants, professional affiliations, awards, honors, presentations, and/or courses taught. Anything relevant to your industry is appropriate to use on a CV, and the résumé can be as long as it needs to be to present the "course of your life."

A CV--or any résumé with multiple pages for that matter--must contain a header with your name and page number on each successive page. Should the pages become separated, the reader should be able to easily put your subsequent pages in their proper order and with your résumé!

Sample CVs:

• Sample CV - Film Professional
• Sample CV - Registered Nurse
• Sample CV - Lawyer