CV questions

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Peanut

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Hello,

I'm trying to put together my CV for residency application and came up with some issues. Appreciate any suggestions.

1) Should I list poster presentations I did at medical school and undergraduate, rather than only ones done at professional meetings.

2) What about non-scientific research (I did some for the history department)

3) I see some example CVs that list hobbies and interests, like basketball, traveling, etc. IMO, it looks a bit cheezy but is it standard practice?

Thanks a lot!
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Peanut said:
Hello,

I'm trying to put together my CV for residency application and came up with some issues. Appreciate any suggestions.

1) Should I list poster presentations I did at medical school and undergraduate, rather than only ones done at professional meetings.

2) What about non-scientific research (I did some for the history department)

3) I see some example CVs that list hobbies and interests, like basketball, traveling, etc. IMO, it looks a bit cheezy but is it standard practice?

Thanks a lot!
P
Click to expand...

1) If they were medicine related then maybe yes, otherwise definitely no. Undergraduate, no.

2) No, your CV is about finding a position in Medicine, unless they were on the history of medicine then keep things in your CV medicially related.

UNLESS they help show that you are a well rounded person. Which brings us to 3) Yes, but keep it short unless you had some type of leadership position. I put in some stuff about leadership positions I had at church and in a medicine-related charity. I had 1 short paragraph that listed my other hobbies (dogs, music production, etc.)

BTW ERAS walks you through this whole process including the hobbies thing, and that's the only CV any PD will ever see excpet maybe your letter writers or for early match.

Hope that helps, C
 
I disagree.

I've been to several CV presentations put on by the AAFP and my medical school. Your CV should include all undergrad and medical school related activities. This includes your history research and presentations. As for hobbies, I know several people who have had things like martial arts, painting and sky-diving on their CV. When they got to residency interviews, the PD had the same interests. They kicked it off, talked about those things for a good period of time, and you can figure out the happy ending.

As an example. I worked at a carwash in highschool and undergrad. I went from associate to team leader to sales team leader to supervisor. Each and every person (MD, DO, PhD) have told me to include it on my CV. Why? Because it shows some of the important leadership and work-ethic skills necessary to medicine. Do NOT think that just because what you did does nto have to do with medicine that you should not put it.
 
what if you go to an accelerated medical program where you actually skipped two years of college? i have some previous accomplishments in high school like all-state quiz bowl for two years, etc (can i include those?)

also, as a child, i performed in these national cultural conferences in the country - played Tequila and Pink Panther on the saxophone at the Nassau Coliseum in New York when i was 12 and danced to a song from an Indian movie at the age of 10 at this Omni Center in Atlanta (i think it was the Omni Center - whatever the place was next to the Braves Stadium) can i include these in the extra section on my CV?
 
Previous post aside, I think the general advice I've always heard is to leave pretty much everything pre-medical school off UNLESS it was somehow medically related (research, paramedic, curing cancer, etc...). I know some people who did amazing things in high school (my roommate won the high school heisman) and college who left them off of their CV for residency apps. that stuff got you into both college and medical school... but you need different things on your CV to get you into a residency.

As far as extracurriculars go, everything you've done during med school (fly fishing, judo, underwater basket-weaving) is fair game - if you managed to do it while learning medicine and plan to do it during your medical career then it's fine to have on your CV.

My $0.02
 
I agree with sixteenstones. Put it all on, even if it's not medicine related. As a chief, I met hundreds of applicants and went through their applications. You need to make yourself stand out, and doing research into the x-y-z genome of a South American frog, etc, is not going to do it. People are more likely to remember people's outside interests that set them apart from the crowd. For example, during our ranking session we had two basically equal applicants. One was a concert pianist, one was not. Guess which one we ranked higher?
 
medres said:
I agree with sixteenstones. Put it all on, even if it's not medicine related. As a chief, I met hundreds of applicants and went through their applications. You need to make yourself stand out, and doing research into the x-y-z genome of a South American frog, etc, is not going to do it. People are more likely to remember people's outside interests that set them apart from the crowd. For example, during our ranking session we had two basically equal applicants. One was a concert pianist, one was not. Guess which one we ranked higher?
Click to expand...

Medres, speaking of standing out, does being a cancer survivor (Wilms Tumor) have any place in my CV?
 
actually, this would be a good thing to talk about in your personal statement - you would definitely stand out compared to other people in your application with this fact.
 
Peanut said:
Hello,

I'm trying to put together my CV for residency application and came up with some issues. Appreciate any suggestions.

1) Should I list poster presentations I did at medical school and undergraduate, rather than only ones done at professional meetings.

2) What about non-scientific research (I did some for the history department)

3) I see some example CVs that list hobbies and interests, like basketball, traveling, etc. IMO, it looks a bit cheezy but is it standard practice?

Thanks a lot!
P
Click to expand...

hi:

of course you should list all research, publications, and poster presentations in your official CV. doesn't matter if it's medically-related or not. it's an academic accomplishment. i seriously doubt that it could negatively affect your residency application to add the information about your work in the history department unless it was something superfluous like editing papers, helping staple notes, etc.

hobbies should be the last part of your CV, probably. don't over-elaborate here, of course: keep it short. oh... if you win the high school heisman, please put it in there.

good luck.
 
I would say - leave pre-med stuff out. Unless it's something outstanding - like being a concert pianist, being Miss Universe, etc.

Your CV should tell a story of who you are - shouldn't be a list of every little thing you have done since you were in high school. I even cut out some of my med school activities to highlight the activities I wanted PDs to notice. Why not rank all the items you're thinking about putting in your CV in order of importance to you? Then you can try to high-light certain themes, etc. It would defeat the whole purpose of your CV if you made a long list of all your accomplishments - big and small - and they stopped reading in the middle because it was too long and tedious.

Yes, the carwash thing is interesting. AND it may be something some PDs value in certain specialties. You want to gear your CV towards your audience. If you're applying to plastic surgery, they probably won't care about your undergrad poster presentation unless it's relevant to the field.

If there's one or two things you are REALLY proud about, and you think they define your being, then inlclude them in the personal statement. Many of my questions during interviews were about things I wrote about in my personal statement.
 
nyresident said:
hi:

oh... if you win the high school heisman, please put it in there.

good luck.
Click to expand...


:) Don't worry - it was in his personal statement. He was the first winner too... and the trophy is sitting here in our apartment. Plus he gets to go up to NY every year to vote on the new Heisman winner... it's all a pretty sweet deal.
 
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