No matter what your chosen career path is, you’re likely to be unsuccessful if you’re unable to effectively summarize your skills and credentials. And this, in a nutshell, is what writing a CV is all about.
For those who are entering the healthcare industry as a physician, you might think that your educational background is sufficient enough to land you a job. But this is only a part of the process. You still need to learn the art of writing a professional CV, otherwise your job search may take much longer than you anticipate.
A CV allows your prospective employer to view your credentials, professional training, qualifications and achievements, and is perhaps the most critical document you can produce that will ultimately land you a good paying job as a physician.
In the following tutorial, we’ll outline a few tips for writing a CV that will get attention.
Summarization
You’ve probably done a lot of different jobs over the course of your life. And while in medical school, you might have even worked a few different odd jobs to help put you through school.
Maybe you worked as a waiter, or a bartender for a short time. Perhaps you detailed cars, or worked the graveyard shift at a casino. But what do all of these jobs have in common? Answer: None of them belong on your CV.
You want to reduce all information that you put on your CV into the most logical and concise language possible. And to do this, you need to remove any irrelevant information that does not reflect your ability to perform the job functions for which you’re applying.
Summarization skills are critical when crafting a CV, as the more succinct your language, the better when a prospective employer reads it.
Formatting
If you look online, you’re bound to find several templates for CV’s that are great to get an idea of how to construct and format your CV. Each one of these will have stylistic choices, but the best of these will be simple and streamlined, not confusing or crowded with variations in font and style.
Formatting a CV should keep the reader in mind. Basically, if it’s not easy for you to read and skim down the page to relevant information, then it’s not going to be easy for a reader to do this either.
A good CV keeps the reader moving down the page with ease, without getting them stuck in large blocks of text. In fact, large text blocks have been proven to deter readers, no matter the genre of writing.
Style
When it comes to style, this is largely going to be up to your personal preference. But you have to keep in mind the audience, which are medical professionals and healthcare administrators who are highly educated.
Fancy fonts are nice to look at in some writing styles such as with blogs and on certain websites. But the fact is that they come across as less professional, and can ultimately become a distraction when reading.
Other fonts aren’t very legible, such as with cursive fonts, or block style lettering. To play it safe, you’ll want to use popular or standard fonts such as Helvetica, Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial. These fonts are largely used in academics and in online documents because they are both professional and legible.
In addition, you want to avoid using multiple dividing lines which segment the page. Simple spacing and bold headers can prompt a reader to understand that he or she is entering a new section. So there’s no need to devise borders that can impede the flow of reading.
Your CV is a direct reflection of you as an individual and as a medical professional. As such, your CV should contain your best qualities, and be simple yet effective when you finally finish crafting the document.
Remember, your CV could very well be someone’s first impression of you, so ensure that you make it a good one.