Crafting your Medical CV

Dear Friend,

Hope you had a nice week. Although the summer is still a while away, this is the time of the year when many of you might be applying for summer programmes – this might be a work placement, an internship or something like a research position. When I was at medical school, I found it stressful applying to these various programmes and having to send in my CV. 

As a medical student, creating a CV is not something that we get much guidance on. That’s why this week, I wanted to share with you my guide for creating a medical CV. The full article is available to read on In2Med, but I’ve summarised some of the key points below. 

Build your bucket CV

First, we need to make the ‘Bucket CV’. The Bucket CV is a complete record of your achievements, skills and experience that you can add to as you progress through medical school. The CV you send out should be a condensed version of this bucket CV, only including the content that matches the criteria for the opportunity which we will come onto later.

For any bucket CV you will want to start with your name, contact details (phone number and email address) at the top. Then we need to start thinking about some section headings. Each CV is unique and personal so choose the headings which suit you. For the medical CV, here are some examples making sure that you cover it all:

Education, Volunteering/Work Experience, Certificates, Prizes/Awards, Teaching, Research, Publications, Roles and responsibilities, Leisure activities and Interests.

Decide which areas you want to develop

The bucket CV is a great start. However it sounds, looks and reads like a long list. If you sent that to a recruiter, I’m pretty sure they would not even have time to read it. That does not mean that all the work we have just done has been a waste, instead it sets up the perfect platform from which you can start to link bits together to give your CV a sense of direction and use it to apply for specific roles. Great!

First, you need to decide which areas of the CV you want to develop and what roles you are going to apply for. There are no shortage of opportunities at clinical school and you will have to learn to say no as well as yes.

Making the Condensed CV and Personal Statement

So, after step 2 you have a clearer idea of the areas of your CV you want to develop and now you can start applying for roles! Now, you don’t want to send off your bucket CV as the average recruiter will scan your CV in under 30 seconds, so you only want to include key pieces of information that match the opportunity.

Therefore, you will need to whittle down the bucket CV into a concise two-page document, keeping the headings and experiences that will show the best side of you. 

At the start of your CV you can add a short personal statement paragraph to add a personal element to the CV to highlight your motivations for the role. This should not be longer than 50 to 200 words and the key to this part is making it personal to you. Read the paragraph back to yourself and ask if it could have been written by anyone or whether it is unique to you. 

Add References

You need some proof for the things you have put down in your CV. For most roles having 2 or 3 references is all that would be needed. A reference is the name, role and contact details of somebody who knows you in a professional setting who can confirm who you are to the recruiters who may sometimes decide to contact your reference. 

The reference can be added to the end of your CV and should be from somebody reputable who knows you well. For example, this could be an old tutor, your supervisor or director of studies. You will need to ask their permission to put their name and contact details down. Sometimes the person you ask for a reference from may be kind and go a step further by writing a letter of recommendation for you.

I hope you found this useful. Remember, you can read the full article on In2Med which has some exercises to help you an an example of a bucket CV.  

Drug of the week

Dipyramidole

This is a phophodiesterase inhibitor, which dilates resistance vessels.

It also interferes with adenosine breakdown which stops platelet aggregation.

It is rarely used in practice now but was previously used in acute coronary syndrome as an antiplatelet agent and in combination with aspirin after TIA.

A Brain Teaser

A 65-year-old man with a past medical history of hypertension and type 2 diabetes is brought to his local district general hospital by his son, who is concerned that his father has become short of breath and distressed over the last few hours with some chest pain. No history is obtainable from the patient due to a language barrier.

His chest x-ray appears clear. Vital signs are all within normal limits other than a slight tachycardia at 102bpm. An ECG shows a left bundle branch block. This is not seen on a previous ECG from last year.

His admission blood samples were insufficient so are being re-taken now.

How should this patient be managed?

A – Discharge with safety netting advice

B – Monitor patient and wait for blood results

C – Start the sepsis 6 protocol

D – Treat for an NSTEMI and admit to cardiology

E – Contact the nearest primary PCI centre