YOU’RE NEARING THE END OF RESIDENCY OR FELLOWSHIP. With your skills as a physician in demand, it’s time to start thinking big about your future—and that means creating a polished, professional CV. 

“The CV is your application,” says Samori Cummings, M.D., pediatric cardiologist and chief medical officer of Southern Pediatrics in Nashville. “This is your chance to make a good first impression. You want that first impression to get your foot in the door so you get the interview. You don’t want the CV to be the reason you’re eliminated.” 

A CV is primarily a comprehensive documentation of your skills and experiences, but it’s also a marketing document that presents your candidacy to employers. You’ve got just one chance to introduce yourself via your CV. Here are some tips from experienced physicians on how to nail this crucial first step of your job search. 

Choose an appropriate format 

You’ll want your CV to stand out from the crowd, but formatting is not usually the best place to get overly creative. Your background and preparedness for the job should be what gets attention, not your unusual layout, style or font choices. Instead, choose a format you like that also meets industry expectations. Readability, simplicity and consistency are key. 

“I’ve seen some horribly formatted CVs,” says Ian Storch, D.O., gastroenterologist and owner of Gastroenterology Consultants of Long Island in New Hyde Park, New York. “Sometimes I think just the format could put [candidates] in the reject pile because you think, ‘I can’t even decipher this.’” 

Forgoing a template and starting from scratch can lead to rookie mistakes that make your CV a lot less readable. Common errors include insufficient white space and large, unbroken blocks of text, which make your CV less scannable. 

That’s why Storch recommends investing time reviewing CVs of people who’ve been through a job search already. “I think it’s important to look at other people’s CVs and see what you like. I think of other people’s CVs as a template not for content, but for format,” he says. 

Storch adds: “The most important thing to remember when you’re applying for a position as a doctor is that people are busy. You have to assume that they’re looking at a lot of CVs. They’re not that interested in yours specifically. I look at a lot of residents’ CVs, and they’re trying to pack all this stuff in. But it’s like, if it’s too dense, people will get bored. Their attention span is short.” 

When too much content is crammed onto the page, Storch says, the reader may miss the most important things. “You want to focus on the highlights, to make sure they’re actually getting the highlights and not getting nothing,” he says. 

“A medical CV is different from CVs in other industries, like engineering or computer science,” says Tripti Gupta, M.D., cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at University of California San Diego. 

Gupta recommends asking a trusted older physician or mentor for an example that matches your job-search goals and the expectations of your specialty. “I asked one of my mentors for their CV back in med school and modeled my CV according to their format,” she says. 

PhysicianCV.com, powered by PracticeLink, offers a free, easy-to-use and easy-to-read physician CV template. 

“From college to medical school, my CV was not formatted properly,” Cummings says. “Luckily, my grades were pretty good, so it didn’t bother me that much. But when I was trying to find residency programs, PracticeLink was a site that one of our counselors told us to look at, to know what the standard CV format is.” 

Once you’ve chosen a format, Gupta says be sure to stick to it. “Don’t switch back and forth between different formats or font sizes or font styles,” she says. 

Professional fonts and writing style 

Once you’ve chosen a layout, keep the look professional with businesslike fonts and consistent writing and structure. 

Cummings says he’s seen some CVs with ornate script fonts that “remind him of wedding invitations.” Aside from being confusing, he says, using fanciful or otherwise inappropriate fonts may create the impression that you’re trying to distract the reader from the content of your CV. You can’t go wrong with tried-and-true standards like Arial, Calibri, Roboto or Times. 

Presenting your CV as a PDF file is another professional touch. A PDF ensures that the formatting and fonts you’ve chosen will look the same on any computer and when printed. It also prevents your document from being edited. 

Contact information, other basics at the top 

No matter what type of format you choose, your name and contact information belong right at the top. Be sure to include all the ways to contact you. For example, even though you may prefer to communicate via text, including an email ensures that a recruiter who prefers that channel can easily reach you. 

“The page number and your name should be on each page,” adds Cummings, noting that CVs are often printed and distributed to multiple decision-makers. Once a CV is printed, it’s not uncommon for pages to be misplaced. 

“We had this happen, actually,” Cummings says. “Somebody missed a page, so the CV looked like it was out of order. But since we saw ‘page 1’ and then ‘page 3’ along with the person’s name, we could see, ‘Oh, we made a mistake. The candidate didn’t.’” 

Important screening basics like your license and any applicable board certification status should also be easy to find near the top of the first page. 

Catering to custom—and sticklers 

Most hiring physicians and organizations prefer the reverse-chronological format that’s customary in business résumés. Even academic institutions are accustomed to this format, which places your most recent experiences and accomplishments at the top. Including just the month and year is acceptable; the exact days are not required. 

Keep it clean (and relevant) 

“I think it’s important to keep your CV relevant and clean. What I mean by relevant is to include the essential information,” says Gupta. “Name, contact information, where you did education and training, licenses, certificates, any awards, any courses you might have done in professional development, any research, editorials, publications, teaching experiences. That’s all relevant, so that all needs to go there.” 

She adds: “What I mean by clean is that it’s just as important to remove the non-relevant content. Things like volunteering experiences from high school or undergrad, which aren’t as relevant to your current professional job roles. It’s helpful to have some hobbies, but minimize the extracurriculars to the pertinent ones, the ones most related to medicine.” 

“Think about the flow,” says Storch. “It has to flow. And avoid packing the résumé with information that’s not helpful. Sometimes I feel it’s like words, words, words, words, words.” 

For example, Storch says, if you worked in a lab, that’s useful to mention, along with the outlines of the research being performed. But describing your methods in detail is overkill. 

Your goal is to be “concise but thorough,” says Gupta. 

Customize for the role and setting 

Besides editing out history that’s become less relevant, it’s often helpful to customize your CV based on the type of role and environment you’re looking for. 

Your publications list is the first place to edit if you’re not looking for an academic or research position. Keep in mind that a very long CV will probably not be read in its entirety, and it may make a recruiter’s task of evaluating your background difficult. 

“Your CV may be 20 pages, and that’s fine,” says Storch, “But nobody’s reading 20 pages.” 

“I would customize the amount of information on my CV,” says Cummings. “For example, if I were applying for a research position, I’d want them to know not only the title of what I did but also who the authors were. Versus if I’m never planning to do research again or the place I’m applying to never does research, then a title and the date is fine. That helps to shorten the CV.” 

“When I’ve applied for nonacademic positions,” adds Gupta, “I’ve had one sentence that says, ‘This list does not include 30- plus abstracts published between 2005 and 2010.’ I include my peer-reviewed manuscripts to illustrate my scholarly accomplishments, but there’s no need to include all your abstract titles and speaking engagements if that won’t help them make a decision about your potential contributions toward a particular role.” 

In non-research settings, you’re unlikely to be judged harshly if your list of publications doesn’t compete with more academically focused colleagues. In fact, while an overly long list of publications and presentations may seem, at worst, to be neutral, it can actually work against you. If you’re planning to work in a private group or integrated system, for example, a long list of academic accomplishments could suggest that you’ll be unhappy if you can’t do more of the same. That could cause a prospective employer to reject you without even scheduling an interview. 

A cover letter or personal statement can be a better place to talk about your goals than on your CV—particularly if you’re considering multiple paths. 

A customized cover letter is a chance to show that your interest in a position is genuine, and you’re not just casting a wide net. For example, if you’re applying to a job in a location far from where you’re currently training, explain in the cover letter why you want to move there. 

Mind the gaps 

Besides calling out your strengths, a cover letter or personal statement can address issues that might otherwise cause a recruiter or physician to question your background. 

One of the biggest red flags a cover letter can address is any significant gaps in your history. 

“If there is a gap, a cover letter should be there to explain what those gaps are, so that we don’t have to go find out more,” says Cummings. 

Where a short, simple explanation will suffice (e.g., “took one year off for maternity leave” or “cared for terminally ill parent for six months”), insert it into the chronology of your CV. But if the situation can’t be explained in a short phrase, a cover letter gives you more space to explain. Just keep in mind that, as with the CV itself, any accompanying document should be reader-friendly. It should be scannable and to-the-point, and it should contain new information the reader needs to know. 

“Don’t use your personal statement to just repeat the CV,” Storch says. “Hopefully, you’ve set everything up well and the person’s going to look at the CV and get most of that information.” 

Remember to sell yourself— but don’t oversell 

Including specific details about the scope and benefit of your work is a great way to add a punch of credibility to your CV. This is especially helpful when mentioning volunteer or extracurricular experiences, which can seem nebulous. 

Gupta says, “It’s helpful to quantify your impact wherever possible. If you say you’re part of a volunteer organization, then what has your contribution been? I often read CVs that say ‘I volunteered at X, Y, Z,’ but I’m always wondering, what did you actually do there?” 

She adds that you might want to add a few facts about the organization itself (particularly if it’s not nationally known). Specifying how many people you helped or how much time you committed to a volunteer effort can make it easier for a CV reader to understand the value of the project. 

Cummings says that if you’re among the many residents who’ve created blog or YouTube content related to medicine or your experiences in training, include those links in your CV. 

“These things can count as digital scholarship,” he notes. Employers may also value your experience reaching out to patients or the medical community via social media, since these activities may help you build your practice. 

If you speak another language besides English, be sure to spotlight that, as those skills can be especially valuable. 

“There are some things that are important that are not medical, like if you speak another language,” says Storch. “If you’re fluent in Spanish, if you’re fluent in Mandarin and you’re going to work someplace like Flushing, Queens, that alone may put you in absolutely yes for an interview. If you’re going to work in an area where there’s a Latin population, the fact that you could do an ERCP as a gastroenterologist may be less important than the fact that you can actually speak to the patient population.” 

While you should always position your experiences and skills in the best light, Storch says to be careful not to cross the line into exaggeration. Remember that if there’s a standout achievement on your CV, a recruiter or a hiring physician will almost certainly ask you about it or otherwise seek to verify it. 

“You have to be honest on your CV, obviously. Most people know that fabricating things that you didn’t do is not right. But sometimes people put things on their résumé that they’re not able to talk to, and anything you put on your CV is fair game and could be discussed in an interview. If you’re asked about something and can’t credibly talk about it, you’re setting yourself up for the chopping block,” Storch says. 

Unlike with business résumés, name-dropping of people you’ve worked with isn’t frowned upon in a physician CV. Again, though, be careful not to overstate your relationship to a well-known figure in medicine. 

“Medicine’s a small community,” Storch says, noting that people named on your CV are likely to receive a phone call. “If [an interviewer] calls and says, ‘I just interviewed Dr. Smith, and he says he worked in your lab,’ and the response is, ‘He was here for a couple of weeks,’” that would likely undermine your candidacy. 

Remember to feed the robots 

When crafting your CV, keep in mind that its first readers may not even be human. 

Larger organizations and professional recruiters commonly use applicant tracking systems and AI tools to help sort the wheat from the chaff. For swamped professionals, these tools are big time savers, but for applicants, they can be a pitfall. 

Ensure your CV isn’t unfairly filtered by an algorithm by reviewing job postings carefully to identify keywords. Then use those same words somewhere in your CV and your cover letter or personal statement. 

Cummings notes that when you’re adding keywords to help machines parse your background, don’t forget the goal is for recruiters and physicians at the employer to read it themselves. 

“Make sure the keywords fit for a human reading it as well,” he says. 

Proofread again before you send 

Give your CV one last proofread before you send it to a prospective employer, since any basic spelling or grammar mistakes could be the first thing recipients notice. 

“The first thing I look for is just to make sure that the basics are done correctly,” says Cummings. “It concerns me that if you didn’t take the time for the details of proofreading your CV, then will you be detailed enough in taking care of patients?” 

Partnering up with other job seekers to proofread each others’ CVs can help you catch missing words and common misspellings that are easy to miss. Online tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid can help, too. 

“Typos and grammatical errors are big red flags in a CV,” Gupta says. “I read my own CV constantly. There is no other way.” 

Save references for later 

If you’re offered an interview that leads to a second interview or on-site visit, you’ll be asked for references. It’s a good idea to contact mentors and other physicians you’ve worked with who you’d like to have speak on your behalf to confirm they’re willing to do so, but it’s not necessary—or even a good idea—to include their names on your CV. 

“Hopefully, you will get through that first process of an employer looking at your CV, and then get the interview. References will be requested after the interviewer has decided they want to go further with you. Adding references sometimes can seem like overkill or even presumptuous. Keeping references out of the CV also helps keep it from being too long,” says Cummings. •