how much to trim down my CV?

[hippiedoc13]

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I am a PGY-2, and am updating my CV to apply for a board position for my professional specialty society, as well as for some upcoming applications for national awards and competitive year-long "fellowship" awards offered by my specialty society. I realized I haven't updated my CV pretty much since med school graduation (I know, my bad).

Question is, how much should I trim off my CV that I used for residency apps? I realize it would ideally be 1 page, and certainly no more than 2.
Specifically, I am wondering about: awards/honors received in med school. Should I be listing all of them?? I got some big ones, like a full-tuition scholarship, which I will probably keep on there, but in light of that, is it silly to also include the $1500 travel grant that was a competitive award, for example? Or for instance, I graduated top 10% in my class, so it seems repetitive to leave the semesters of dean's list on there. I was going to leave all the committee work on there since I am applying to a board position and it seems relevant.

Also, should I take off the undergrad stuff? I have left only the most major awards and activities on there--research awards, senior awards given at graduation, overseas study. Should I take off things like the senior award I got at graduation in my humanities major that was totally unrelated to medicine?

I realize that I might be seriously overthinking this, but I just want to strike the appropriate balance between accurately showcasing my legitimate accomplishments & skills (after all, it's a competitive application process), versus not looking like some sort of insecure or over-inflated ego that has to list every single gold star back to the third grade. (I promise you, I am really not that person.)

Ugh, I swear, no matter how long I do this, it never gets easier to "brag" about yourself. Ugh.

Thoughts, anyone??

 

[Winged Scapula]

Who told you that your CV should be 1 or 2 pages?😕

 

[LucidSplash]

Who told you that your CV should be 1 or 2 pages?😕

It has been my experience that this is the advice disseminated by career counselors/deans offices to people just graduating college or medical school without significant other education (like PhD) or work experience. I've been told that at that level its unlikely you have significant accomplishments to fill more than 1-2 pages.

However, I think at the PGY-2 level, you likely have some more leeway. I think your instinct to only leave on the major awards and accomplishments from undergrad is a good one. But those are real accomplishments that demonstrate a more lengthy track record of achievement and recognition and are important to your "course of life" which is what Curriculum Vitae means. You appear to have very good instincts and I think you can trust your gut here.

Also, I know I'm a medical student so it may appear I have no real grounds to give trustworthy advice in this area so, while all things posted on the internet should be taken with a healthy dose of salt, I'll just put out there that I did have another career before medical school so I am not completely without "real world" experience.

Best of luck to you!

 

[hippiedoc13]

It has been my experience that this is the advice disseminated by career counselors/deans offices to people just graduating college or medical school without significant other education (like PhD) or work experience. I've been told that at that level its unlikely you have significant accomplishments to fill more than 1-2 pages.

WS, this was pretty much the source of the 'conventional wisdom' I was thinking of with the 1-2 page length recommendation.

LucidSplash, thanks for your comments, they are helpful. Would also love to hear some input re: content from WS or other attendings or more-senior residents who have had the experience of putting together the CV at this stage of the career, or are in a position to be reviewing residents'/fellows' CVs and have a sense of what comes across as most relevant/helpful or not.

 

[Buzz Me]

Never been told there was a page limit to one's CV. Look at any of your attendings' CVs - they'll often contain at least a few pages of publications/presentations.

 

[michaelrack]

you should gradually remove most of the undergrad awards from your cv. when you finish residency, begin removing most of the med school awards/activities. leave the major stuff in

 

[Moonglow]

As a PGY-2, you list "everything" from the first day of med-school on your current CV - undergrad info is limited to years attended, degree, major, honors.

Be sure to use a standard medical cv template that is to easy to follow, and is easy to read (no smaller than #10 font); do NOT use a "promotion" cv template (with boxes). You do want your demographic and professional info on the front page.

Here's a simple example:

http://www.hopkinsbayview.org/bin/s/y/hanyokCV.pdf

 

[RxnMan]

CV = curriculum of life, everything you've done professionally.

Resume = 1-2 page document with relvant highlights of your professional career, giving timeline of jobs + skills.

In medicine, we rarely give out a resume for an application to a position.