CV and biodata, done properly

Three documents, often confused

In India the words resume, CV and biodata are used as if they were one thing. They are three different documents for three different readers. A resume is one page, chosen and written for a single job. A CV, curriculum vitae, is the complete record of an academic or professional life and grows with it. A biodata is a sheet of personal particulars, used for some job applications and, in a different form, for marriage proposals.

The one-page resume has its own site in this family, resume.shareyourgroup.com, with a builder. This site takes the other two, and the question that comes before all of them: which one do you actually need?

The full CV

If you teach, research, practise medicine or have a long senior career, you will be asked for the whole record: every degree, post and publication, set out so that a committee can find any item in seconds. The CV guides cover the academic CV, how to list publications honestly, CVs for higher study, the two to three page senior professional format, every section heading, layout for many pages, and referees. Four complete sample CVs show it done.

Applying abroad

A document that is correct in Lucknow can be wrong in London or Toronto. The United Kingdom calls the short job document a CV and wants no date of birth; Canada wants no photograph; Germany still expects one. Our country pages report what official careers services say, with the source and the date we read it, and say plainly where the source was silent.

Biodata

The biodata section has the marriage biodata format, twenty "about me" examples, polite partner-preference wording, how to write family details, a Hindi format, and a page on sharing a biodata safely, which every family should read before posting in a group. The marriage biodata maker and job biodata maker produce one clean A4 page in your browser, with nothing uploaded.

What you will not find here

No regulations or score sheets of universities or commissions, which change and must be taken from the bodies themselves. No advice on visas. And no invented statistics about what recruiters want.

Questions people ask

General guidance. This page gives general suggestions, reviewed in November 2026. If an institution, employer or country gives its own form, format or instruction, follow that. Every person, institution and publication in our examples is invented. Nothing here is legal, immigration or professional advice.