CV Advice

[jdwmont]

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After surviving my first year of med school and reflecting upon my life goals over the summer I re-discovered my love for psych. With this in mind, I have decided to become more proactive in my education and to explore the field of psychiatry in greater depth. I would also like to work to maximize my ability to match into a residency program that would provide me with top-notch training. I would appreciate any advice that the esteemed members of this board could provide. I have attached a (largely) deidentified CV to give you some idea of where I am coming from. Also, I have a first author basic science paper on wound healing that is currently being submitted for publication.

Thank you!

 

[splik]

just in case you didnt realise your name is on the 2nd and 3rd pages of your CV.

Obviously the basics are get through your preclinical years in one piece and aim to get a decent step 1 score. make an impression when you do psych but also aim to do well during IM as you will usually need an IM/peds letter of recommendation and it looks good on your transcript if you can show you did well in other specialties. Also keep an open mind, you may find you love another specialty even more.

I would also suggest the following:
1. get to know the psychiatrists at your school and try and arrange some exposure during 2nd year if you have the time
2. if you are interested in research do some psychiatric research - a small manageable project that interests you, that gives you some sort of skill be it in using the SCID or running PCRs, and that has a high chance of getting you a publication
3. get a publication in psychiatry to emphasise your interest - doesn't have to be original research it could be a case report, a letter, or a review article
4. do some relevant voluntary work
5. get involved in the psychSIG at your school (if there isn't one start one up)
6. join the APA tis free for students

remember though that the most important thing is getting through medical school and doing the best you can. psychiatry is not all that competitive and you have a very good chance of matching into a top program just because you are a US medical student.

 

[Sneezing]

Yup. Name on page 2 & 3.
I'd try and scrunch it down. It has a good look to it, but it could easily be reformated to be a single page or one and a half pages at most. As much as we think we are special and our CVs are awesome, they aren't. So make it easy on who ever gets to read it and condense it into less pages.

At this point you will mostly use it as a means of record keeping. This a good thing. By the time you apply for ERAS all of this will be input into their system the way they want it so you won't really need a CV for the big event of applying to residency. Having it already on record in your own CV will make the process go a lot smoother though.

 

[BobA]

You are in a great position. The good news is that there are TONS of great clinical training programs which I'm sure you'll match into.

Now that you've decided on psych - don't lose focus on your other rotations.

 

[jdwmont]

Thanks for the great input. I was wondering if anyone is aware of year long research experiences available in psych. I am aware of HHMI opportunities, but couldn't find anything concrete on the NIMH website.