Whatever the application process used, your CV is an important tool in the recruitment process. Your CV is therefore a really important part of managing your career. On this page you will find details of how to write a medical CV.

The purpose of a CV is to present relevant facts in a professional way to a prospective employer. It should make clear why you are the best person for the role you are applying for as well as offer a summary of your career to date. Updating it regularly allows you to tailor the format to each specialty or role you are applying for. As a leading medical recruitment agency, we recommend using positive language and aiming for a confident tone.

When thinking about how to write a medical CV the following principles will help you prepare your CV and make it relevant to the role:

Layout of CV:
See the AHPRA CV Template at the bottom of this post to use as a guide.

Relevant Experience
Find out about the position you’re applying for and add information to your CV to demonstrate how your knowledge and experience are relevant to the role. Your CV should provide evidence that your skills and experience match the requirements of the new position. When adding details about your work history try to distinguish between clinically relevant experience and other important skills. An example of this would be to point out the relevance of your non-clinical skills, this can be particularly useful when changing speciality as you can link your previous experience to the requirements of the new position.

Order and Amount
Always write your experience in reverse chronological order so your most recent positions are first. This is a common error and can be the difference between being offered an interview or not. You want to ensure your most recent experience, as this should be most relevant, stands out, is easy to find and your potential employer doesn’t have to wade through your CV to find the information they are looking for. The amount you write about each topic generally demonstrates which you feel are the most important aspects of your experience. Try to provide more details about the areas of your experience you feel are most relevant to the position you are applying for. For example, if you are applying for doctor jobs, your potential new employer doesn’t need to know what your high school results where and if you are more experienced the early parts of your career are less relevant. You generally want to focus on what you have been doing for the last three to five years.

Layout
Apart from following the structure of the AHPRA CV Template the information you add when writing your medical CV should be laid out in a neat and tidy way using the same spacing between lines, font and text colour throughout. This makes your CV much easier to navigate and read. Don’t go crazy using bold, italics or underlines, simple is generally better, less is more. Use the tab key rather than the space bar to indent information as this will make the layout neat and clean to the eye.

Attention to Detail
It is extremely important when writing a medical CV that your grammar and spelling are perfect. Check your CV carefully using an English spell check. If you are unsure ask a colleague or your recruiter if you are working with one. Make sure every year is accounted for with the start and end dates for each position clearly added in the same format throughout. If there are any gaps make sure you add an explanatory note.

Cover Letter
This is not always a requirement but if you can include a Cover Letter you should. The Cover Letter offers you the opportunity to introduce yourself and summarise the main points about your skills, experience and attributes that will attract a potential employer.

AHPRA CV Template

Categorised in: Career Advice, JPS Medical

This post was written by JPS Recruit