How to Create Your CV
The purpose of your Curriculum Vitae (a Latin phrase meaning “course of life,” CV for short) is to introduce yourself to prospective facilities. The CV concisely provides all of your pertinent clinical, educational, and personal information to clinical decision makers. It is an important component for securing a locum tenens — or any medical position — and should be updated regularly to reflect your medical preferences, practices and achievements.
Ideally, your Clinical CV should be about two or three pages in length although those physicians who have practiced for many years and are well published may have longer CVs.
General CV Rules:
The Format:
Type and save your CV using Microsoft Word. Make sure that your CV can be attached and read clearly in an email. You'll want to send your CV as an Acrobat Reader file (.pdf – so changes can not be made to it) and a Word file (for your Recruiter to keep and update, as necessary.)
The Look:
Remember that your CV will likely be faxed several times (from the recruiter to the administrator, from the administrator to the Chief of Staff, etc.) and may lose its quality with each transmission, so you should use a universal font (such as Times New Roman or Arial) and size the text to 12-pitch. Use black ink ONLY to make your text as easy to read as possible.
The Layout:
Keep your layout clean and simple. As a general rule, leave a lot of white space around the edges. Employers typically like writing on CVs so margins should be at least one-inch wide.
The Paper:
Be sure to only use white bond paper. Colored paper comes across as too dark when transmitted through a fax machine.
The Structure:
- Contact Information
Your CV should begin with full name (followed by MD or DO and relevant credentials – PhD, MSc, FACP, FACOG,), address, phone numbers (home, work and cell) and email address. If you like, you can indicate your specialty. - Education and Training
In reverse chronological order (most recent listed first) list fellowship and residency training, medical school, and college (include degree and major) names and locations and the dates degrees were acquired. If you did your residency at multiple locations, be sure to include the dates when you were at each institution. - Professional Experience
List your work experience in reverse chronological order as well. If you have held several positions within the same hospital organization but have not stayed in one location, make it clear that these were not separate employers. You do not want it to appear you have switched employers on a regular basis if this is not the case. Make it more clear that you have moved with the same employer by listing the name of the hospital and then indenting the positions.
Make sure there are no unaccounted gaps between your years of experience. If you took a year off, provide a short explanation about the gap. It is helpful if you use mm/yy format to account for any gaps over 30 days on your CV.
Locum Tenens assignments should all be listed under a separate Locum Tenens Experience header within this section. List these in reverse chronological order as well. Include the name of the facility, city and state, agency name, and practice setting, i.e. Clinic, Urgent Care, Occupational Medicine, Hospitalist, or Emergency Medicine. - Awards
This is where you should indicate any work-related recognitions or awards. If you received a major college scholarship, this would be the place to list that information. - Other Education and Training
Include any other relevant education or training. For example:
Course in Psychiatry — Family Practice, Clarke Institute, Toronto, 2008-09
Some people like to include their ATLS, ACLS, PALS, etc., information here. Indicate the specific dates so the employer knows how recent your training is. Indicate if you are an instructor in any of the areas. - Personal
In this area you'll put your marital status, number of children (if any) and (optional) your birth date. It is also a good idea to note any special interests and hobbies you have.
Including some of your personal information helps break the ice in your interview and gives employers something to talk about with you. - Publications and Presentations
If you only have a few to include, you can place them between the Education and Other Training and Personal Information headings. If you have more than half a page worth of publications and presentations (particularly since it is a Clinical CV) then you should create a separate page for them. - References
Do not include your references on your actual CV. People might call your references without speaking to you first, and you do not want these busy people to be contacted by anyone until you know you are serious about the position. Simply put “References provided upon request” in this section.
Keep your references on a separate sheet of paper ready to provide to facilities, as needed. Be sure your references are aware that you’ve listed them as a reference before they are contacted so they can be ready to provide positive comments about you.