| recruited to a number of different professions, I can | | | | 1. Photograph |
| say with absolute confidence that medical CVs are | | | | 2. Marital status |
| among the very worst I have ever seen. Somehow, | | | | 3. Health status |
| amazingly, many doctor’s CVs seem to really | | | | 4. Hobbies or interests |
| hit every mark of what not to do’. Rest | | | | 5. Details of children |
| assured, though, that it is certainly a problem you can | | | | 6. Any paragraph longer than 40 words |
| fix. | | | | 7. Sporting achievements |
| Why is it so? The short answer is market | | | | 8. Anything negative |
| forces’. Did they need to supply a CV to get an | | | | 9. Anything untrue |
| intern job? No. | | | | 10. Your race or colour |
| Then, when doctors apply for their first jobs after | | | | 11. Date of birth |
| internship (RMO/HMO), it doesn't really matter what | | | | 12. Referees names and contact details (Why? |
| their CV looks like - there were plenty of doctors jobs. | | | | Because you want to control access to your |
| There is a huge surplus of medical jobs in Australia, so | | | | referees) |
| by necessity, doctors haven’t had to learn the | | | | 13. Religion |
| skill of writing a CV. Just a few years ago, you could | | | | 14. Political affiliations |
| most likely get a locum job with half a CV written on | | | | 15. Height or weight |
| the back of a banana leaf. | | | | 16. Weird or offensive email addresses (such as ) |
| What has changed?( | | | | 17. Irrelevant jobs |
| Slowly, the medical employment market is becoming | | | | 18. Irrelevant education |
| more competitive, and regulated. Many colleges are | | | | 19. Salary/income expectations |
| not increasing the amount of training places available | | | | 20. Anything spelt incorrectly |
| and most employers are heavily formalising selection | | | | 21. Irrelevant rants about your life, travel, desires, etc |
| and employment of locums, even for short term jobs. | | | | 22. Lists of every single procedure you have ever |
| There is now a need to really master the skill of | | | | done, or considered doing in your life |
| getting your CV right. | | | | 23. Detailed background of your Medicare fraud |
| First, forget everything you learnt at school about | | | | activities |
| writing CVs. It was a waste of time. | | | | There are some exceptions to these rules - for |
| Second, never include any of these items in your CV. | | | | example, when an employer or college specifically |
| You may laugh at some of these, but most of them | | | | asks for certain information to be included. |
| we see every single day on resumes, some are rarer | | | | Open up your CV right now, identify anything that |
| - but are real examples of what I have personally | | | | should not be in there, and delete it. For some of you, |
| seen. | | | | you may have only a blank page left! |