Resume

The French resumer derives from the Latin resumere, combining re (again) and sumere (to take). The original sense in both Latin and French was to take up again or to summarize. When the word entered English, it functioned as a general term for any condensed account or abstract of a longer work. The spelling in English omits the French accents, following the convention established for common loanwords.

The transition from general summary to personal employment document occurred gradually in the twentieth century. Leonardo da Vinci's 1482 letter to Ludovico Sforza, in which he listed his capabilities as a military engineer, is sometimes cited as a proto-resume, though it bore no resemblance to the standardized format that would emerge centuries later. The formalization of the resume as a required component of the hiring process tracked the growth of personnel departments and standardized hiring in the early twentieth century.

By the mid-twentieth century, the resume had become a standard document in white-collar job applications. The format consolidated around conventions: reverse chronological order, standardized headings for education and experience, and a length constrained to one or two pages. These conventions reflected the needs of the hiring system more than the complexity of any individual's working life.

The word "curriculum vitae," from the Latin for "course of life," serves a parallel function in academic and European contexts, typically with greater length and detail. In the United States, the resume and the CV developed as distinct documents: the resume as a concise marketing tool for corporate hiring, the CV as a comprehensive record for academic and research positions. LinkedIn, launched in 2003, created a digital equivalent that made the resume a living, public document rather than a private one sent to specific employers.