What is a CV: a short history of curriculum vitae

Everyone knows one: a multi-talented entrepreneur with enough skills and interests to fill an encyclopedia — let alone a single side of A4. It’ll come as no surprise, then, to find out that the original ‘renaissance man’, Leonardo da Vinci, was the one who invented the CV to begin with.

Legend has it that Leo was hoping to get work from the Duke of Milan, so he prepared a list of his skills and achievements (including sculpture and the construction of lightweight bridges) to impress the Duke. Thus, the first resume was put to paper in 1482.

But you don’t need to be a master artisan to stand out among a heap of CVs. It’s about telling your story as only you know how. After all, the meaning of the Latin words ‘curriculum vitae’, where the name ‘CV’ comes from, translates to ‘the course of my life’.

Whether you’re applying for a promotion in your current workplace or forging a new career path entirely, a resume plays a key role in painting a picture of you for recruiters. A masterfully-crafted CV is the first step toward the career you want, and it’s important to know how to catch a prospective employer’s eye because, like fashion, CV trends come and go.

Back in the 1940s, before you could charm a recruiter with a winning LinkedIn profile photo, the average CV would read more like a driving license than a personal story. Height, weight, age and marital status were the key facts to include in presenting yourself to potential employers.

Two decades later, though, employers began looking at applicants as something greater than the sum of their parts. Listing your hobbies and interests — acrobatics, Scrabble, baking — was suddenly en vogue. And the invention of digital typesetting in the 1970s began to give CVs style as well as substance.

The true renaissance period in the storied history of the CV came with the invention of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. Gone were the days of feeding your resume to a fax machine and hoping for the best. Twenty years or so ago, attaching your CV to an email became the norm instead. And so did frantically checking your inbox hoping for a reply.

LinkedIn’s launch in 2003 signalled more integration of professional identity and social media presence. Nowadays, a resume will inevitably contain a Twitter handle or a link to a blog as well as more traditional information points. You can also fully expect a recruiter to Google your name, meaning you should probably think before you post that latest Facebook status.

At more than 500 years old, the curriculum vitae has refused to become obsolete, but with new platforms have come entirely new ways of presenting yourself and your experiences. Regardless of its ever-evolving look and feel, the CV remains your most important tool for telling a potential employer about you. The resume, like you, has come a long way.