How to gain experience with an unimpressive CV?

[Ihave Nonamè]

I'm trying to gain relevant experience to improve my resume and future applications to MDs. Everything requires a cover letter or curriculum vitae, and I'm really struggling to fill these out. I transferred in from a community college. I worked in a restaurant for several years. I have no previous lab experience (other than lower div course labs) or hospital experience.

I don't know how to write these. I am not finding adequate resources out there to help those of us with little experience to use. Every template is rich with experience; they list multiple languages, tutoring/teaching, seminars, publications, awards, etc. I have none of this. I keep wanting to give up because my CV or cover letter would be sparse. I don't know how I could possibly fill a page. But I absolutely need to begin getting this type of experience. I need to send out several CVs soon, but all I can think to include is a list of science courses and labs. My GPA right now is a mere 3.5 (first quarter).

I'm incredibly frustrated and have been stressing through the entire winter break. I had initially felt optimistic that I could begin this next quarter with a position or two..

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[strappysandals]

,

 

[Ihave Nonamè]

What year in college are you? It seems early on in your premed path so I would start with volunteering, as these are the easiest and most available jobs to get.

Need some sort of research experience to get a research job? most people gain experienece by working for free in their undergrad labs during the school year.

Need clinical experience to get a job as a CNA/EMT/scribe etc? volunteer in a hospital or local clinic to gain experience to get a job as a CNA, most people take a course to get certified in EMT-B.

Look for clinical volunteering positions and research positions with faculty at your school!

No, I transferred in as a Junior (and will need a gap year for further experience). These experiences weren't as available to me at my community college and with the circumstances I was in at the time, I didn't have the availability that I do now. I want research experience but these professors or PhDs expect either a CV or CL. Tutoring and TAing also request a CL or something of the sort.

How do I go about writing these with very little (other than many years of non-academic job experience)?

 

[strappysandals]

a

 

[Moko]

I'm trying to gain relevant experience to improve my resume and future applications to MDs. Everything requires a cover letter or curriculum vitae, and I'm really struggling to fill these out. I transferred in from a community college. I worked in a restaurant for several years. I have no previous lab experience (other than lower div course labs) or hospital experience.

I don't know how to write these. I am not finding adequate resources out there to help those of us with little experience to use. Every template is rich with experience; they list multiple languages, tutoring/teaching, seminars, publications, awards, etc. I have none of this. I keep wanting to give up because my CV or cover letter would be sparse. I don't know how I could possibly fill a page. But I absolutely need to begin getting this type of experience. I need to send out several CVs soon, but all I can think to include is a list of science courses and labs. My GPA right now is a mere 3.5 (first quarter).

I'm incredibly frustrated and have been stressing through the entire winter break. I had initially felt optimistic that I could begin this next quarter with a position or two..

Everyone has to start somewhere. Things to consider:
- Are you looking at paid positions? If so, since you don't have the relevant skill sets, start as a volunteer (if you do not qualify for work study), show your enthusiasm, dedication, and willingness to learn and go from there.
- Are you potentially aiming too high with the labs that you're targeting? If so, start with a smaller less-established lab where an extra set of hands is always needed.
- If these volunteer positions require a CV, then you need to work with what you've got. It's okay to have a sad looking CV when starting out. Things to include:
i) a mission statement that includes traits that you bring to the table (hint: the answer is not 'nothing'),
ii) your education thus far including your GPA and relevant coursework (i.e not all the science courses you've taken thus far). For example, listing any associated lab courses that you've taken will be helpful for the research CV, but not so much for the clinical volunteering one.
iii) non-research experiences such as your having worked in a restaurant. These types of experiences should not be discounted as they demonstrate desirable traits and transferable skill sets (e.g reliability, responsibility, etc).
iv) brief section on hobbies (usually just two or three things).
v) now's the time to get creative with font sizes, spacing, margins, and formatting, purely for improving readability of course .
- Have a clear idea of why you want their lab specifically. This requires doing your homework and reading up on some of their research. This can be subtly incorporated into your mission statement and introduction email.
- Training someone is both time- and resource-consuming, so think about why they should spend time training you. If you can't answer this question, how will they?

 

[Ihave Nonamè]

Everyone has to start somewhere. Things to consider:
- Are you looking at paid positions? If so, since you don't have the relevant skill sets, start as a volunteer (if you do not qualify for work study), show your enthusiasm, dedication, and willingness to learn and go from there.
- Are you potentially aiming too high with the labs that you're targeting? If so, start with a smaller less-established lab where an extra set of hands is always needed.
- If these volunteer positions require a CV, then you need to work with what you've got. It's okay to have a sad looking CV when starting out. Things to include:
i) a mission statement that includes traits that you bring to the table (hint: the answer is not 'nothing'),
ii) your education thus far including your GPA and relevant coursework (i.e not all the science courses you've taken thus far). For example, listing any associated lab courses that you've taken will be helpful for the research CV, but not so much for the clinical volunteering one.
iii) non-research experiences such as your having worked in a restaurant. These types of experiences should not be discounted as they demonstrate desirable traits and transferable skill sets (e.g reliability, responsibility, etc).
iv) brief section on hobbies (usually just two or three things).
v) now's the time to get creative with font sizes, spacing, margins, and formatting, purely for improving readability of course .
- Have a clear idea of why you want their lab specifically. This requires doing your homework and reading up on some of their research. This can be subtly incorporated into your mission statement and introduction email.
- Training someone is both time- and resource-consuming, so think about why they should spend time training you. If you can't answer this question, how will they?

I've managed to put together something of a cover letter. I need to edit it a bit. I have a resume completed. However, I was under the assumption that a CV should be purely academic experience?

 

[Moko]

I've managed to put together something of a cover letter. I need to edit it a bit. I have a resume completed. However, I was under the assumption that a CV should be purely academic experience?

Academic experiences should be emphasized, but CVs can also be personalized a bit. When you have no research experiences, your choices are either emphasizing your non academic experiences, or submitting a blank CV. As mentioned, significant work experiences are still valuable and are not treated as filler. Just my thoughts.

 

[Cornfed101]

I've managed to put together something of a cover letter. I need to edit it a bit. I have a resume completed. However, I was under the assumption that a CV should be purely academic experience?

CVs for academics usually include a lot of academic experience. My CV has a lot of unrelated work experience. I treated my CV like a resume without the 1 page limit, and it has served me well.

 

[82Scout]

No, I transferred in as a Junior (and will need a gap year for further experience). These experiences weren't as available to me at my community college and with the circumstances I was in at the time, I didn't have the availability that I do now. I want research experience but these professors or PhDs expect either a CV or CL. Tutoring and TAing also request a CL or something of the sort.

How do I go about writing these with very little (other than many years of non-academic job experience)?

transfer student as well here. It is doable but you need to be on top of it and not afraid of work. After I transferred from a CC, my second quarter at a university I was volunteering in a research lab. Go check with your majors department or talk with professors/heads and see what opportunities are available. The information is out there you just need to find it.

They all want a CV (more of a formality), but its just a resume and you can list a few things on there like work experience, academic honors, relevant coursework taken etc.. Reach out to your schools career skills department and i'm sure they have someone who will help you write it and find things to put on there. I got plenty of tutoring and volunteer positions with an otherwise blank CV (I thought it was stupid too). Also you need to get the ball rolling, sometimes the processes to get in can take a lot longer than expected. When I did volunteering/research at a hospital and the VA, the processes took 2-4 months before I could start.

 

[Ihave Nonamè]

CVs for academics usually include a lot of academic experience. My CV has a lot of unrelated work experience. I treated my CV like a resume without the 1 page limit, and it has served me well.

If you don't mind me asking then, what were the major sections of your CV? How did you include this experience? Did you highlight skills and tasks from your non-academic experience with action verbs, as you would in a resume?

 

[Ihave Nonamè]

transfer student as well here. It is doable but you need to be on top of it and not afraid of work. After I transferred from a CC, my second quarter at a university I was volunteering in a research lab. Go check with your majors department or talk with professors/heads and see what opportunities are available. The information is out there you just need to find it.

They all want a CV (more of a formality), but its just a resume and you can list a few things on there like work experience, academic honors, relevant coursework taken etc.. Reach out to your schools career skills department and i'm sure they have someone who will help you write it and find things to put on there. I got plenty of tutoring and volunteer positions with an otherwise blank CV (I thought it was stupid too). Also you need to get the ball rolling, sometimes the processes to get in can take a lot longer than expected. When I did volunteering/research at a hospital and the VA, the processes took 2-4 months before I could start.

I did meet with a career advisor and unfortunately didn't get the help I needed. My experience differed from most traditional students and she was giving me the typical spiel....one that didn't apply to me.

With my resume she kept saying that I should write in volunteering and club experience, though I repeatedly stated I didn't have any and her response was simply that I should get some....Obviously I realized as such, that was the purpose of meeting with her and putting these together...She didn't even look at my non-academic work experience.

 

[Cornfed101]

If you don't mind me asking then, what were the major sections of your CV? How did you include this experience? Did you highlight skills and tasks from your non-academic experience with action verbs, as you would in a resume?

YMMV, but my headings were:

• Education - this included my bachelors degree and my post bacc
• Research/Projects - I took a research class that I listed here as well as my capstone Mech Eng project
• Volunteer experience - you can get a little creative here if you are lacking. I teach a Sunday school class and listed that as one of my entries
• Employment - I included every job I have held since high school
• Extracurricular Activities/Interests - this included hobbies and other activities that didn't fit elsewhere (ex: I was in an auditioned men's choir in undergrad)

I treated the points just like a resume using action verbs and trying to tailor it to a medical school application where I could. I can PM you a copy if you want

 

[Ihave Nonamè]

I can PM you a copy if you want

Sure I'd appreciate it

 

[82Scout]

I did meet with a career advisor and unfortunately didn't get the help I needed. My experience differed from most traditional students and she was giving me the typical spiel....one that didn't apply to me.

With my resume she kept saying that I should write in volunteering and club experience, though I repeatedly stated I didn't have any and her response was simply that I should get some....Obviously I realized as such, that was the purpose of meeting with her and putting these together...She didn't even look at my non-academic work experience.

What is the lab/research you are trying to apply to and what major are you/classes you have taken. For example, if you are trying to get into a wet lab you can list that you've taken ochem, gen chem, chem lab, biology, biology lab etc. on your CV. If you were trying to get into a clinical psychology lab you could state that you've taken abnormal psychology or adolescent disorders etc.

My first CV was essentially my resume with some academics and honors added to it.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

As you're first starting out, definitely include non-academic work experience, volunteer experience, leadership experience, etc. These show that you can work hard and be productive, and in some cases may add an interesting way to remember you out of all the other candidates. I've included my experience as president of a circus club on resumes/CVs for multiple positions and in most cases it came up during interviews, etc as an interesting talking point/made me memorable. "fun" stuff like that shouldn't be the only thing highlighted, but if you don't have any other way to fill the page it's worth including

Once you've gotten more academic experience under your belt, you can start dropping the non-academic things as needed. I used to include all of my college employment on my resume but no longer need to as I've accrued other more relevant experiences.

For cover letters, if you're applying to the typical kinds of things college students apply for, it's worth including not just the skills you could bring to the job but also discussing the experience you hope to gain. Many entry-level positions know that they will need to train you, so it may help to demonstrate clear interest in learning something specific from them.

 

[yogglo]

I started by shadowing a doc but that developed into a full time position once he heard my gpa. To this day he flexes it to patients

 

[Moko]

would you recommend including a hobbies/interests section on a CV for a Special Master's Program application? If so, should i just list them with bullet points/dates started/descriptions in the same format as the rest of my CV, or just have the heading with 2-3 sentences in paragraph form briefly describing my interests in them

This is all stylistic in my opinion (unless a particular format is requested). I list my hobbies/interests in bullet point format in my CV without dates or descriptions (they're self-explanatory)