1. Resume is too long.

The first thing to note is the difference between a CV and a resume. Each document serves an important purpose and is desirable to a different audience. While the detailed and comprehensive nature of a CV may be appropriate for applying to academic and research positions or when completing grant application materials, they are no longer appropriate for most clinical positions. The managers who are charged with staffing a practice can receive hundreds if not thousands of applications for one position, and a 14-page comprehensive summary will, for better or worse, feel like far too much work to read.

Your resume is a powerful marketing tool, but only if someone actually reads it! You should strive to make this document a one-page summary of your education, work, and accomplishments. It should not only tell the hiring manager how qualified you are for the position, but also generate curiosity to learn more about you and what you can offer the practice.

2. Inconsistent or Confusing Format

I often come across resumes that categorize experience into clinical, academic, and research appointments, rather than following a traditional reverse chronological format. While a functional resume can be preferable in some situations—such as when one’s work history has large gaps or several short-term appointments—in most cases it is more appropriate to list your medical experience and training in a streamlined and orderly fashion.

3. Typos and Misspellings

It’s funny how often I see a resume that has correct spelling for words like “atherosclerosis,” yet misspellings of simple words like “research.” An error-free resume shows you are detail-oriented and organized. If you’re not the greatest speller or grammarian, it never hurts to consult with someone who specializes in those areas.

4. Inconsistent Citations

If your resume includes peer-reviewed journals articles or published abstracts, it’s a good idea to brush up on your knowledge of AMA citation format. At the very least, ensure that your bibliography has a consistent format.

5. Too Much Information

…And I do mean the personal kind. I have seen resumes that list marital status, date of birth, hobbies, favorite books, and even grammar schools attended. Of course your potential colleagues will want to get to know who you are, but some information is best conveyed in an interview.

If all this sounds like a lot of work, it doesn’t have to be—the experts at The Doctor Job can help. Contact a specialist today to learn more!

• Keep it concise. Unlike its European counterpart (a CV), a resume should not be a lengthy document. The ideal physician resume is one page. The somewhat less than ideal (but still acceptable under certain circumstances) resume is two pages. Period. There are no circumstances that accommodate for the twenty-page resume. An easy way to edit down your document is to remove any personal interest sections or references, as these are no longer appropriate on a professional resume.
• Highlighting versus elaborating. Let’s say you are a physician with an extensive research background in your respective field. Naturally you’d like to explain each study; after all, you invested a significant amount of time researching. Fight this instinct. A resume is designed to highlight professional experience, not to explain it in detail. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential employer. You’re tired, you’re busy, and you have a stack of physicians’ resumes to flip through. Would you rather look at a simple, neat list of research studies or chunks of paragraphs describing the laboratory setting? Highlighting. It’s a beautiful word. Wow them with snapshots of your experience; do not overwhelm them with a narrated slide show.
• Reverse chronological order. In each section, begin with your most recent experience and move backwards. Not only will this aid your potential employer in creating a mental timeline of your professional history, it tends to show you in the best light. Typically the most relevant experience you have is also the most recent. For example, if you had a section on your resume for Education and Training, your fellowship (most relevant) would be listed before your residency (still relevant) which would be listed before your medical school (less relevant) which would be listed before your undergraduate school (barely relevant), according to reverse chronological order.
• If you’re a foreign medical graduate, potential employers like to see your citizenship/visa status. And it actually works toward your advantage to be upfront about this regardless of your status. If you are a U.S. citizen, you can include this information if you went to a foreign medical school – otherwise, if you did your undergrad, medical school, and residency in the US, it will be assumed. Likewise, including your visa status shows a potential employer that you are upfront and honest, ready to make the visa process as smooth as possible for them.

These are just a few tips, but they will help you make sure that your resume is cleaner, easier to read, and more likely to get you interviews. For further assistance, don’t hesitate to contact the experts at The Doctor Job!

Are you posting resumes all over the physician job bards, and can’t understand why you’re not getting interviews?

Have you sent resumes to all of the doctors and hospitals you know personally – and not getting responses?

Take 5 minutes and a few easy steps to improve your search for a physician job!

1. Open your resume. Where is the contact information? Is it at the top of the page where it can be found easily? Your contact information should be included on your resume (not just on the cover letter) and should be very easy to find. It needs to include your phone number and email address.
2. Check the email address on your resume. Is it correct? Is it an email you check at least once a day, if not more often? Many of your potential employers are busy physicians themselves. One of the easiest ways for them to contact another doctor about a job is through email. If you are not in the habit of checking your email every day, get in the habit – at least until you find a job.
3. Check the phone number on your resume. Who will be answering that number? This is the number one mistake we see doctors make in their job search. Is the phone number correct? Is it a number that you can actually be reached on? When you leave your number on your resume, be sure you are not making these common mistakes:
   • Don’t leave your home number if your 93 year-old grandmother who barely speaks English is the person who is most likely to answer the phone during the day.
   • Don’t leave your office number if you don’t want your current employer to know you’re looking for a job.
   • Don’t leave the general number to the hospital that will the caller feeling foolish because they don’t know your personal extension.
   • Don’t leave a number that you’re only available on 1-2 hours out of the day. The goal is to make it EASY for a potential employer to call and offer you a job.
4. Check the voice mail on the number you have on your resume. Is your voice mail set up? Is it full? If a potential employer calls you and is unable to speak to you, they will want to leave a message for you to return their call. If they are unable to leave a message, chances are they’ll move on to the next doctor looking for a job. They can’t hire you if they can’t talk to you.

By doing these simple things, it will be easier for other doctors to call and offer you a job. While this advice may seem obvious, all of these are mistakes that we see physicians make on an alarmingly regular basis.

Remember, if an employer can’t reach you – they can’t hire you.

After years of training and weeks (or months) of job searches, many doctors stop just short of the goal of finding a great job.

This is especially true if they are searching for a doctor job in a market like New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago or Atlanta. There are plenty of great physician jobs available in these cities, but most physician job searches quit looking too soon to find them.

When Should A Physician Keep Searching For A Doctor Job?

If A Recruiter Tells A Doctor They’ll “Get Back To You”… Keep Looking

In recruiter language, this is usually code for “I don’t have any positions you qualify for or that meet your needs.” That doesn’t mean the recruiter is mean or doing a bad job. It just means that they are limited to filling the positions they have been hired to fill – and none of those are a good fit. Sure, they’ll keep a doctor’s resume on file in case something “happens to come up” – but the odds of that are about 5%. Less than that if a physician is looking in a big city or isn’t board certified or needs a J-1 waiver.

Relying on a recruiter to “get back to you” is a recipe for failure when a doctor is looking for a job.

If A Recruiter Tells You They Have “Submitted Your Information”… Keep Looking

While this holds slightly more promise than the “I’ll get back to you” brush off, it is still a very far cry from actually getting a job.

It is a recruiter’s job to submit physician resumes to their clients (the employers who hire the recruiter). The employer then decides which candidates they will interview and which doctor they will ultimately hire.

Remember, the practice or hospital doing the hiring will have to pay the recruiter $20,000 or more once they have hired a doctor. Of course they are going to be very selective before making such an expensive buying decision!

If A Doctor Has Scheduled An Interview… Keep Looking

Interviews don’t pay the bills. Nothing is guaranteed until a physician receives a written offer and accepts that offer (and even then, things can go wrong).

While an interview for a physician job is progress, it’s no guarantee that the doctor has a job. Chances are, there will be several physicians interviewing for that position (at least, there should be if it’s a GOOD job!), all of whom are hoping their job search has finally come to an end. Most of the interviewed physicians will be disappointed.

A doctor should go into an interview optimistic and with a positive attitude, but they shouldn’t stop investigating other possibilities or scheduling other interviews.

If A Physician Receives One Job Offer… Keep Looking

One job offer does not give a physician any negotiating power or leverage. It also doesn’t give a very accurate picture of the possibilities and potential in the job market in most cases.

If a physician receives an offer for their dream job that far exceeds their expectations, of course they should take the job! But more often than not, we see doctors take the first job that comes along because they are so grateful to be employed. These physicians don’t realize that there are usually SEVERAL great jobs available in every job market in the country.

Don’t settle for just A job. The doctor job search isn’t over until you’ve found the BEST job.

If the most intelligent, accomplished physician in the world can’t present a well-written CV and cover letter, none of the accolades will mean much to prospective employers. Remember that the employer reading the resume probably doesn’t know anything about this doctor except for what he/she sees on paper. Friends and colleagues might overlook a sloppy email because they know the physician is a brilliant surgeon or internist or nephrologist, but an employer will think only one thing: “This doctor doesn’t seem very intelligent.”

But what do writing skills have to do with medical skills, you ask yourself. I shouldn’t have to be a flawless writer because my strengths lie in other areas. This is true to an extent. But while a physician is not expected to deliver pages of glorious prose, he or she should be able to portray a coherent, intelligent manner. After all, a physician’s job includes a great deal of communication. Not only does a physician need to communicate effectively with patients and colleagues every day, but perhaps be required to communicate on a greater level; for example, at national meetings or group presentations. If this is an important part of the job a physician is applying for, it is essential that the doctor be capable of communicating clearly from the get go.

The main reason that employers get so irked by poorly written materials is that there’s no excuse for them. All you need to do is have one or two grammar-conscious friends or family members proofread your documents. This is probably the simplest thing you can do with regard to your job search, and it will have the greatest impact. It’s not enough to just use the spelling/grammar check on Microsoft Word. This feature might catch a misplaced comma or a misspelling, but it won’t be able to help you with a poorly constructed sentence, a repetitive phrase, or a misused word.

Foreign Medical Graduates: If English is not a doctor’s native language, it is even more essential to have the resume and cover letter and other materials reviewed by others before sending them out. Physician employers and physician recruiters will already be questioning the applicant’s English skills, just based on the fact that English is a second language. By having flawless grammar, spelling, and punctuation the foreign physician avoids giving the employer further ammunition to disqualify their credentials with poorly written materials.

Before you can impress anyone in the operating room or the clinic, you need to impress them on paper. Conveying your thoughts and showcasing your achievements clearly and concisely will go a long way toward helping you obtain the job of your dreams.

Finding two great physician jobs in the same city can seem downright impossible. But what’s the alternative? Is it really viable for a family to be separated, with one physician and children living in one location and the other living somewhere completely separate? It is very easy for a physician couple to find jobs within commuting distance of each other, and under no circumstances should any physician ever feel like he or she has to move away from a spouse in order to work. Ever.

Even in a market that recruiters call “saturated” (which can usually mean any metro area from the DC Metro Area to Dallas to Houston to Miami to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Philadelphia to New York to Chicago, and everywhere in between), it is entirely possible, and quite simple, for two married doctors to find jobs in the same place:

HOW TO FIND PHYSICIAN JOBS FOR TWO SPOUSES WITH THE SAME SPECIALTY

The best way for two doctors to each find a job in the same location is to team up in their job search. Get a list of every single networking and hiring contact – every practice and group and possibly related specialty group in the area. Prepare a resume for each physician and one cover letter outlining the desire for both physicians to practice in the same city.

This allows the married doctors to take advantage of every single networking opportunity. One group may offer only one of the physician spouses a job – but may be able to offer a valuable referral to assist the other spouse in finding a position.

(If a physician couple is using a service like The Doctor Job, often times both job searches will be covered by one fee – essentially giving the doctors two jobs for the price of one. Be sure to ask if this is possible for your job search!)

HOW TO FIND PHYSICIAN JOBS FOR TWO SPOUSES WITH DIFFERENT SPECIALTIES

The best way for two doctors to find jobs in the same town if the spouses have different specialties is to start with the most difficult specialty.

For example, if the husband is a pathologist and the wife is a family practice physician, start by securing a job for the pathologist. Once the doctors have been able to secure a pathology job, the family practice physician will know exactly what locations to focus her job search in.

The chances of both physicians finding a job in the same city as their spouses is much better when the doctors start with the more difficult specialty, commit to a location, and then begin the other spouse’s job search. This method is especially practical if the couple is using a service that can guarantee a doctor job in an exact location. (Again, a service like The Doctor Job may offer discounts for physician couples with two career searches in the same location – even if they aren’t done at the same time. Remember to ask about all of your career marketing options.)

It is possible to find two physician jobs in the same location – even if the spouses do not have the same specialty. The key is to be smart about your planning and take a strategic approach to both doctors’ career search.

In addition to finding a position in the right location, with the right schedule, work environment and growth potential, it is important for a doctor to earn as much money as possible. More specifically, it is important for a physician to have the highest starting salary as possible when accepting a job offer. Where a doctor’s income starts is a good indicator of how far their salary will grow in the years to come.

While negotiating a salary package is often the most intimidating part of the physician job search, it is actually the easiest!

The best way to receive more money from an employer is to ask for it.

It’s really as simple as that.

Once a doctor has undergone the interview process and a physician group or hospital has offered a job, the doctor knows that this employer is interested in them! The group WANTS to hire the doctor! The physician now has more control over their new job.

When a prospective employer makes an offer, they will suggest a starting salary.

The very next thing a physician should do is ask for more money. Always.

When asking for more money, the doctor should remain respectful and professional – and counter offering a job offer with a higher salary request is NOT disrespectful or unprofessional. Employers expect to negotiate the details of an offer.

When a doctor is negotiating a new job offer and asks for a higher salary, what are the possible scenarios?

1. The employer says no. So what? The employer may counter and tell the doctor that the original job offer is the highest salary that can be offered. The doctor is no worse off than they were before asking! (And if for some strange reason an employer would say no AND rescind the initial offer, that is a red flag that this is a group the doctor should not be working with in the first place.)

2. The employer says yes!

3. The employer counteroffers and the final offer is somewhere in the middle – and the doctor ultimately is earning a higher salary than they would have if they had “settled” for the original offer. This is the most likely outcome, and creates a win-win situation for both the physician and the physician employer.

Remember, it is not unprofessional to ask for more money. And it is the easiest way to give yourself an instant raise!

Bolding your position or degree makes that information stand
out even more, which a busy employer will appreciate.

The rule about dates also applies to categories such as
Memberships, Honors/Awards, or Volunteer Activities. Take the example below:

Having so many dates on the left is distracting. Here is a
much better approach:

As a general rule, the most substantive information should be the most prominent.

2) Is your timeline easy to follow?

A physician employer reviewing your CV for the first time should be able to determine the progression of everything you’ve done from your undergraduate training to medical school to residency to the present in 30 seconds or less. The best way to ensure this is to list everything in reverse chronological order—this applies to the categories as well as the items within each category. If you have been practicing medicine for a while, then your Work Experience should be at the top, followed by your Residency/Fellowship Training, followed by your Education.

If you are at an early point in your career as a physician and feel that you’d benefit from highlighting your education/training above your current work experience, it is OK to put that category first, as long as your work experience doesn’t follow far behind.

The main thing to avoid is categorizing your experience in a way that makes it difficult to follow chronologically. For example, if you spent a few years after your residency pursuing research before joining a medical practice, don’t bury that information on the second page. It is fine to put it in its own “Research” category, but it should be placed accordingly within the timeline on your CV.

3) Is your CV two pages or less?

Traditionally, resident and physician CVs are lengthy and include all types of information beyond education, training, and employment. Physician CVs also list publications, presentations, CME activities, volunteer work, community lectures, and other relevant professional activities. While it’s a good idea to keep an updated, comprehensive CV on hand, for the purpose of your job search, you want an abbreviated version that is two pages or less (unless you are looking for an academic position).

If you have a lengthy CV, the best way to condense it is to create a separate addendum containing detailed information about your research projects, publications, abstracts, etc. This addendum can be provided upon request to interested employers.

You still should mention these things on your abbreviated CV, but summarize them in a few bullet points or a brief paragraph. For example, you might consider the following:

4) Is the overall appearance easy on the eyes?

A CV that’s appealing to the eye is not necessarily the same thing as a CV that’s eye-catching. Of course you want to get noticed, but many people take the notion of eye-catching too far. Unusual fonts, strange symbols, or tricky formats will only aggravate the busy person who is trying to quickly assess your qualifications.

Make sure to use a traditional font such as Times New Roman or Garamond. Since these fonts are what most people are accustomed to reading on a daily basis, they won’t have trouble adjusting to a new one. Text should be either 11 or 12 point font, not bigger or smaller (excluding category headings).

Also make sure you use white space to adequately separate each item in your CV. This will make it easy to scan and pick out information. A laundry list is hard on the eyes, and it also can obscure important information.

Finally, your headings should be clear and stand out from the other text in your resume, so that it’s easy to pick out each category.

5) Is your formatting consistent?

Before you send off your CV to a physician employer, do a quick check to make sure that your formatting is consistent. If you bold your job titles, then you should also bold your degrees. If you put a colon after some of your headings, it should be after all of them. If you use a dash between some dates, make sure you don’t write the word “to” between others.

Although these details may seem minor, inconsistent formatting makes your CV seem sloppy. That is not the first impression you want to give to a prospective physician employer.

It’s always a good idea to get a second pair of eyes on your CV before sending it off. If you’ve been working on it a while, or you’ve had the same format for ages, you might be missing something that is glaringly obvious to someone else. The best person to look at your CV is someone who is unfamiliar with your career history. Ask this person if anything is unclear or if they have any questions about what is on the page.

Putting in a few extra minutes to make sure your CV looks impressive will save you a lot of time down the road because you will find a great job that much sooner. By following the five tips above, you can feel confident that you are submitting a polished and appealing document to prospective employers.

Follow these important tips to ensure you don’t make this mistake:

1) Don’t draw attention to the fact that you are not a U.S. Citizen.

I’m not saying you should hide this fact, but you also don’t need to make it the first thing on your CV. When I look at a CV and the very first thing I see is: Citizenship: Taiwan, the very first thing I think about this person is “Needs visa sponsorship.” The beginning of your resume should focus on your best attributes, not your citizenship. Therefore, I recommend that you include citizenship/visa information at the very end of your resume.

2) Ensure that grammar/spelling are perfect.

Whether you’ve spoken English fluently for 20 years, or you’re still in the learning stages, there is no excuse for a resume that isn’t written in perfect English. A potential medical employer reading a poorly written resume will think “If he/she can’t write English well in a professional document, how will he/she communicate with patients?” If you struggle with grammar, have a native English speaker proofread your resume and cover letter carefully before you send it out.

3) Make sure your resume is in reverse chronological order.

One of the biggest mistakes I see on resumes is that candidates do not list their most recent activities/training first. If you are a resident, your residency should be the very first thing on your CV. When you put the oldest information first, you are again drawing attention to the fact that you did your schooling outside of the U.S.

4) Cut out irrelevant or old activities/achievements and make sure you explain anything that might not be understood.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about CVs from foreign physicians is that they are filled with activities that are either outdated (such as high school extracurriculars) or confusing. A lot of academic honors and activities that exist in other countries don’t exist in the U.S. If you list something on your resume, make sure you either include an explanation or the U.S. equivalent.

If you are answering a personal ad or trying to find a friend instead of an employer, then describing what you like to do in your spare time is an important thing to do. But the purpose of your CV is to get you a job practicing medicine. As a physician, you are looking for a serious job that involves life and death. Do you really think someone is going to be interested in hiring you because you like to travel, read mystery novels, and cook Mexican food?

The problem with almost all “personal interests and hobbies” is that they fall into one of two categories: 1) boring, or 2) lame. Boring interests are the ones that everyone seems to have: reading, traveling, cooking, biking, jogging, sports, hiking, etc. These are certainly not going to fascinate anyone. And if you think a prospective employer is going to say “Hey, I like hiking, too! I’ve got to meet this guy!” you’re wrong.

Lame interests are those which make you appear, well, lame: darts, checkers, scrabble, haiku poetry, needlepoint, crafting, scrapbooking, Star Trek, etc. If you list stuff like this you run the risk of being labeled a “loser” and having your CV passed around the office for people to laugh at. Believe me. In fact, at one company I worked for we had a Wall of Shame where we posted the most ridiculous “personal interests” sections that came across our desks.

So it’s not just that listing your personal interests won’t help you; it can actually hurt you. My advice? Leave them off completely. The opportunity to show how interesting and well-rounded you are will come when you’re offered an interview.