Most physicians in Arab countries (especially recent graduates) face great difficulty in writing a physician CV in Arabic or in other languages if they want to travel or apply for a job.
In addition, many physician CVs contain major errors, both in terms of form and content, which makes them have a negative impact instead of being a positive point in the doctor’s favor when applying to a particular job opportunity.
This post contains the most important things you should know when writing a physician’s CV. These tips are primarily a set of universally accepted guidelines when writing a CV, and we have added to them the best practices of physicians and what they have learned from their personal experience and experiences of their peers.
How Long Should be a Physician’s CV?
There are two main types of CVs that will be discussed in this article:
- Detailed Physician CV
- Short Physician CV
A detailed CV consists of several pages, while a short CV consists of only one page, and we will talk about the difference between them here.
When applying for a specific job opportunity in many cases, the physician must submit a detailed CV that shows all his capabilities, experiences, and previous achievements.
This detailed CV usually consists of several pages and contains a lot of information, so reading it by the recruiters at the hospital will take time.
On the other hand, a long CV may often be inappropriate, especially with regard to fresh graduated physicians or students applying to follow a certain clinical training program.
These requests are usually directed to department heads, who are usually very busy people who don’t have time to read a very detailed resume of a recent medical student or doctor, and they definitely prefer to see a short one-page resume in these cases.
Therefore, the advice that should be referred to here is the necessity of asking about the type of CV required: is it a detailed or a brief CV.
If you are asked for a brief one-page CV, you must adhere to this and compress the important phrases and information as much as possible into short and clear sentences.
Otherwise, you must submit a detailed CV that should be relevant to the job you will apply for.
In general, newly graduated doctors must submit a brief CV that does not exceed one page in A4 size, but when applying for academic positions or high specialties, the CV must be detailed and contain all the necessary details.
In the end, you should know that there is no such thing as a fixed template for writing a resume, and you should always amend the details mentioned in your resume as required by the employer and according to the job you are applying for.
What is the Ideal Length of a Physician CV?
The ideal length of a physician CV is usually two pages.
Important Physician CV Writing Tips
1- Have a Good Background About the medical job market before Creating a physician cv
In fact, the medical profession is one of the most desirable, most lucrative and respected fields in the world, and there are good reasons for that.
Of course, doctors are lifesavers, and we trust them to protect our most valuable asset, our health.
Perhaps no field requires many years of study and on-the-job training. So, it’s only fair that physicians get paid well.
But while doctors can rarely diagnose a skin condition, or even perform brain surgeries, they tend to be quietly competent professionals and not big self-promoters.
However, smart self-promotion is exactly what they need to find the right job for them.
Medical school teaches you how to diagnose diseases and give the right treatment, but it doesn’t teach you how to write a Physician cv.
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2- Validity of Information
The information in physician CV is an official statement of the qualifications and capabilities of the physician who is applying for the job, and therefore the information contained in it must be completely correct.
It is absolutely necessary to avoid exaggeration or lying in the information contained in the CV.
The certificates and qualifications mentioned will inevitably be verified by the employer before agreeing with the physician.
It is important to make sure that you have sufficient documents to prove what you mentioned in your CV.
If you write that you have undergone a certain course or attended a specific conference, you must have the certificate that proves that, and if you mention that you have worked in a certain place, you must have an experience certificate from that place to prove it.
If you do not have an experience certificate from this place, it is preferable Not to mention this point in the CV.
As for the practical capabilities, they will usually be confirmed after the physician starts working.
In case of the organization discovers that the doctor was lying about his practical capabilities, it has the right to immediately terminate the contract because of providing false information.
As an example, if the physician says that he has experience with endoscopy operations when he is just a beginner or a trainee in this field and cannot work alone and needs the presence of an expert supervisor with him.
There are many cases in which the contract was canceled after signing it due to the misleading information that was provided before signing the contract.
In addition, professional ethics and honesty are among the basic ingredients that any physician must-have, and it is not appropriate for any physician to appear false even in the simple information he provides in the CV.
Therefore, make sure that any information you provide in your CV is correct. . Do not say that this is a “white lie”, and be sure that the white lie will quickly turn into a black refusal on the part of the employer!
3- Types of Information in Physician CV
One of the statistics on the labor market indicates that 45% of employers find that the most important point in the CV is the previous jobs held by the applicant, in addition to the skills that he possesses and that he can provide to the organization that will hire him. Therefore, you should focus especially on these two aspects when writing a CV.
In addition, the quality of the information varies greatly depending on where you are in the medical process.
A recent graduate doctor, for example, can list some simple volunteer activities that he has done during or after his studies in medical school, while this information does not have any importance in the CV of a physician who has been working in his specialty for five or six years.
On the other hand, the newly graduated doctor can include in the lectures section some of the sessions that he presented locally, even if they were directed to medical students or nurses, as they are useful in strengthening his CV.
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But it is inappropriate to include such information in the physician CV with multiple years of experience, however, information about lectures given at large conferences or seminars should be included.
The same applies to practical experience, which must commensurate with the physician’s place in the medical career.
A doctor who has years of experience in his specialty must mention in detail the things that he excels in or that he is currently training on in his field of specialization.
As for the freshly graduated physician who received some practical training in the hospital, he must write the basic skills that he masters in the medical field, for example:
- The ability to approach the patient by taking the medical history and performing the clinical examination systematically.
- Ability to deal with medical files and paper procedures and to fully include information taken from patients.
- Great experience in opening veins, giving injections of all kinds, installing a nasogastric tube, and installing urinary catheters.
- Great experience in suturing wounds and dealing with accident and burn patients.
4- Chronological Order of Information
The chronological order is very important in any resume, as all items (study, certificates, previous jobs, research, conferences,…) are classified according to their chronological order.
In some cases the chronological order is required to be logical: previous things first, then newer things below.
But in other cases it is required that the chronological order be the opposite, i.e. from the most recent to the oldest, which is the method currently used in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The best in practice is writing a physician cv in a chronological format starting with the most recent job or experience then going backward with the former experiences.
Most of time, employers would like to see your most recent job to check your current status and they can see what you are doing right now, then they will continue to go back and back with time to check your complete background.
5- Physician CV Should be Free of Mistakes
The curriculum vitae always reflects the doctor’s accuracy and mastery of his work, and therefore it must be perfect and free from errors in all its forms. There are well-known labor market statistics that say:
If there are spelling errors in your CV, your chance of getting a response will be 50% less and your chance of getting an interview will be 25% less.
Other statistics say that most employers carefully look for any mistakes in the CV to reject the applicant’s application, because whoever makes mistakes in writing his CV will make mistakes in his work as well.
You should always devote enough time to write your CV, review it, and correct mistakes in it.
Regarding typographical errors, you should always read the CV several times after you have finished writing it, paraphrase any sentence that is not clear, and correct any typographical or spelling errors that may exist.
And you can always take advantage of the spelling checker in Microsoft Word to correct spelling errors in any word and in any language. There is also no objection to showing the CV to another person who is fluent in the language in which it was written, as he can find some additional errors and correct them.
Mistakes abound when the CV is written in a foreign language, as some use translation software or translation sites such as Google Translate, which often gives a literal translation without giving meaningful sentences, and the resulting sentences are often completely wrong.
Therefore, if you are not fluent in a foreign language, you must give the CV after completing it to another physician who is skilled in the language to correct the errors in it.
How shameful to write a CV in English and write that you are fluent in English when this CV is full of spelling and grammatical errors.
CV Format for a Doctor
The CV format for a doctor is the strategy you will use to create a doctor cv, First, let’s talk about the things that are absolutely necessary to include in a doctor CV
As you probably know, a doctor’s duty is to diagnose patients and give them effective treatments to deal with their conditions and keep them as healthy and happy as possible.
In order to achieve this, physicians perform comprehensive physical examinations, take careful notes and case files for each patient, as well as recommend or perform diagnostic tests.
Often, doctors make recommendations to patients regarding their lifestyle and eating habits, and the effect this has on their health.
In fact, medical professionals may also have specialties such as immunology, oncology, dentistry, internal medicine, etc.
In order to have a useful and impressive CV, including all the above details about yourself – your specialty, technical training, strengths in the process, etc. – is a must.
Moreover, make sure that these foundational details are clearly written and highlighted, to make it easier for recruiters to read.
In this article, we’ve included some examples of what a professional doctor cv should include.
Now let’s learn how to create the right cv format for a doctor or customize a CV template for a doctor.
1- Your Contact information ( Identification information)
Your contact information will be in the top of your cv, its main objective to outline to the employer your personal information.
This is considered a basic content of any doctor cv that represents his identification.
This section should include the following information:
- Full Name
- Your Title (Example: GP / Cardiologist / Radiologist,…etc)
- Phone Number
- Physical Address
- E-mail address
- Website (if available)
- Date of birth
- Marital Status
- Social media links for your profile on Linkedin / Twitter / Facebook (if available)
2- Personal Profile Section, Self-promotion is important when creating or customizing a cv template for a doctor
A doctor CV profile is your best opportunity to prove your candidacy using your own way.
At first, employers start to look at the top of the doctor cv that should contain your personal profile to see how you describe yourself, your core capabilities and competencies, and your professional interests.
It’s your chance to capture employer’s interest, if you didn’t make it at this step, most probably you will lose their interest quickly and they might stop reading your cv.
The personal profile is simply a brief description of yourself, it is your opportunity to mention your key qualities and you should mainly tell your employer why he should hire you and how you will achieve his objectives with your skills.
According to some eye-tracking surveys, it found that you only have 6 to 8 seconds to capture your employer’s interest to decide whether to continue reading your cv or not.
It’s very important to mention in a doctor cv his strengths, and get the employers the interest and curiosity to continue reading your cv.
This is not the place to be so humble. If you don’t promote your job credentials, no one else will.
The personal profile is also where you can choose to specify the exact type of job you are looking for.
In this part you should mention your main objectives, say what you are looking for in the job you are seeking, that would be the best part to mention this informaiton.
What is important to mention that never treat your cv as a template and send it to all employers with the same profile, it should be tailored and customized according to the job you are submitting to, that would help you better target your employer and it would be easier to get their interest as they will see your skills that they are looking for.
3- Education (Your qualifications)
In this section in the doctor cv you should mention your education qualifications including certificates or any post-graduate studies you have completed.
This should include the necessary education information only that is important and relevant to the job, as an example, it’s not that important to mention your primary or secondary school.
You can start this section when creating cv template for a doctor with your medical school from which you have graduated.
Then you can mention any further studies / certificates / fellowships you have done,
As an example if you have a fellowship from a specific country, master’s degree, Doctor of Medicine, PHD, ….etc.
Don’t forget to mention the date of each degree you have got, and the grade if applicable.
It can be arranged in a chronological order that shows your track record and your progression in your career which gives a solid background about you.
4- Experience Section, How to write your work experience when creating a cv template for a doctor
Writing the past experiences of a doctor is not that easy part, actually it’s a complicated process when creating cv template for a doctor than any other profession.
This is one of the most important sections of doctor cv, you would show the track record of your past experiences and working history that tells how much you are qualified to the new job.
In this part try to use more strong action verbs and don’t get satisfied just by mentioning where you were working, but you should accompany this with some actions and achievements.
You ‘d better show what you have done briefly in each place you have worked for, to show your qualities through your achievements.
Don’t mention what you were responsible for, but instead you can mention what you did in what you were responsible for and you can highlight your achievements a long the way.
Mentioning facts and numbers would be meaningful and appealing for your employer so they realize the true value you have added to the former organizations and how you managed the challenges you faced in your work.
Examples for what we mentioned above:
- I have served as a specialist physician at King Fahd Medical Hospital for more than 7 years.
- I worked as an effective team player with other doctors to drive the best patient outcome.
- I Implemented outstanding procedures to help my patients reach their health objectives.
- I acted as a post-operative mentor for the recovery of all my patients after surgical procedures.
- I always update my knowledge with the latest technological advancements in medicine, which makes me effectively manage my patients and give them the optimum care.
5- Outline Your Skills – Differentiate Yourself
By applying what we have mentioned in the former sections, you are performing pretty well, but here there is a very important question we should ask!
If there are more than one physician cv infront of the employer that has the same qualifications, education, or even experience.
what makes you stand out of the crowd and make the employer chooses you specifically, Why choose you?!
This section is the bonus that you would have over your competitors for this job, you can get more and more attention by showing your own skills.
Examples of some skills that you might show in a doctr cv:
- You can speak multiple languages.
- You have excellent communication skills.
- You are emotionally intelligent doctor.
- You have a high-quality approach in care provision.
- You have ordered-mindset and methodology approach in getting patient information and history.
- You can work for long hours and havea good stamina
- You have a good emotional constancy in critical situations
CV Templates for Doctor
In this section, we brought to you some examples of CV templates for doctors in Microsoft word format that can be downloaded and customized to your own version
1- Arabic CV template for Doctor
2- English CV template for Doctor
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