The beginning of your last year of training is when you’ll want to refresh and update your CV. Your CV will act as an introduction to potential employers, and is a summary of your background. Its goal is to clearly outline your credentials for a professional position.
You may not have touched it since applying for residency, so time to brush it off and add to it the additional skills you have acquired during training. Your CV may get only 30 to 60 seconds of consideration by a potential employer, so remember that your CV is your chance to impress.
Tip 1: Remember the four C’s: clear, current, concise, and curated.
The purpose of your CV’s content should be attract positive attention and to generate action on the part of a potential employer. To those ends you should keep your CV clear and current, with your education and professional qualifications leading the way. Recruiters look at those elements first, so make sure to put those front and center.
Your CV should reflect your most current accomplishments, so when refreshing it make sure it contains all of your updated education, and experience information. Keeping it concise will really highlight your most important accomplishments.
Most importantly, curate your CV to each position you are applying for. For example, if you’re looking for an academic position, make sure to highlight any research that you have published.
Tip 2: Think about what you’re not including, too.
Include your contact information as well as information about your education, internships, residencies, fellowships, board certifications, and professional honors and affiliations.
Don’t include acronyms or abbreviations, and don’t add personal information such as non-medical work experience that does not relate to your role as a medical professional.
Tip 3: Don’t forget to consider your CV’s format.
Remember how potential employers usually spend less than a minute reviewing CVs at the screening stage? Because of this, making your CV easy to read will benefit you by quickly presenting information pertinent to the position in a clear fashion to recruiters.
Along with clarity, maintain consistency in your formatting. Use a simple, professional font and place dates on the left. Include a name header and page number on all pages. Keep the structure of your phrases and/ or sentences consistent throughout the document.
Tip 4: Ask someone else to look at it.
Also ask someone else to read it over and think about your CV from a potential employer’s perspective. Do you seem like a good candidate? Most importantly, really think about how you want to organize your information to make reflect the image you want to present to potential employers! Asking someone with experience in hiring will let you know if you’ve put together a product that will make you appealing to employers.
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