CV Template

Here are some tips that are standard for most situations:

Section Correct Order (Example)

EDUCATION

1. University of X School of Medicine (Expected 2029)

2. Undergraduate Degree (Completed 2025)

WORK

1. Lead Outpatient Scribe (Feb 2025 – Present)

2. Research Assistant (Jun 2024 – Dec 2024)

Professional Style and Voice

The CV is a formal, professional document, your academic handshake.

• Font and Appearance: Use standard, easily legible fonts (e.g., Times New Roman, Arial, or Garamond) in size 10 or 12. Conservative, clean formatting is key. Avoid excessive use of bolding, italics, or excessive color.

• The "Writer's Voice": Your voice is conveyed through the action verbs you use and the impact you describe in your bullet points.

• Weak: "Was responsible for preparing slides."

• Strong: "Optimized sectioning protocols, increasing histological analysis throughput by 20%."

• Paper/Digital: While they mention paper color (white, gray, cream), remember that the CV is almost always submitted electronically (PDF format) via systems like ERAS. The focus should be on perfect digital formatting.

The Personal Information Guardrail

The advice to avoid personal details (marital status, age, number of children) is crucial and relates to U.S. labor and hiring laws.

• Strict Rule: Do not include any protected class information.

• Why? Programs are legally prohibited from considering this information, and including it makes them uncomfortable. They cannot ask about it, so don't volunteer it.

What to Include

• Name, Contact Info (Email, Phone)

• Education, Certifications

• Work History, Leadership, Service

• Publications, Presentations

What to AVOID

• Marital Status

• Date of Birth / Age

• Photo (Unless applying internationally)

• Religious/Political Affiliations (Unless highly relevant to a service entry)

Avoid Commercial Sites

Commercial sites often focus on graphic design and brevity, which is appropriate for a corporate resume, but entirely wrong for a medical CV. A medical CV needs to be content-driven, simple, and easily parsed by faculty who read dozens of these documents.