The Curriculum Vitae (CV) is the definitive compilation of your background and accomplishments. You may be asked for your CV when applying for many things, including some rotations, summer research positions, professional societies, residency positions, etc. Review it regularly and frequently to keep it current. Below you will find several links to resources that are targeted to the medical student CV. I have linked to a standard template here but you will see below that there are many ways to be flexible and adapt the CV to your particular experiences.
In my experience in working with first year medical students on their CV, the most difficult challenge is to decide what to keep from the premedical CV. My mantra is that not everything that helped you get into medical school is going to help you move forward in medical school and into residency. Things that go "out of date" are most premedical academic honors (eg Dean's list) and community service. Things to definitely keep are items related to education, teaching, research, and clinical experiences. Only keep awards or other types of recognition if they are very high level or unusual, e.g. national awards, professional recognitions, etc.
It cannot be emphasized enough that your CV has to be as close to perfect as you can make it. It has to be consistent in style, format, font, and chronological presentation. It has to be clear, polished, organized, concise, error free, and accurate. It also has to be completely honest, with no fabrications, exaggerations, duplications, or other embellishments. Seek feedback of your CVs from a diverse set of trusted and knowledgeable reviewers (mentors, colleagues, career advisors).
Finally, I strongly recommend creating a Linkedin page (here is mine) since that is generally accepted as an online version of your CV and is an excellent way to build your professional network. Utilize a professional quality photo and make sure everything on the site is polished and error-free. Prospective residency directors, employers, etc will visit your site, so make it look good and keep it current!
Name and contact information
Use your full, legal name at the top, with any nickname in quotation marks.
List a phone number you actually use. Personally, I have a (free) google voice number that goes to my phone so I don't have to make my private cell number public.
Use a permanent email address such as gmail. In addition, you can include your WCU email but it will disappear when you graduate.
Use your actual mailing address if you are going to put an address. People do still mail things sometimes, though not very often. The address is optional and many leave it off for privacy reasons. At a minimum, put your current city/state for inquiries using a geographic search.
If you are listing a Linkedin URL or personal website, put it with the contact information. Make sure you keep your Linkedin profile updated! In fact, keep your whole CV up to date!
Education (beyond high school)
List degrees and certifications in reverse alphabetical order with start and end dates (month/year).
An OMS2028 student could list their WCU degree in the following manner:
August 2024 – Present
William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, anticipated May 2028
Remember your degree name is Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. No variant on this name is acceptable. The same with the full name of the school, which is William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Yes, all the words are important!
Only include recognitions that apply to the degree itself, such as Latin designations. Do not include "Dean's List" or other recognitions that do not apply to the degree itself. There is a separate awards category in the CV. Do not duplicate entries.
Awards, Honors, and Recognitions
Only include major premedical awards here.
Include all awards, honors, and recognitions received during medical school. Don't use acronyms or abbreviations.
Research experience
Include concise, bulleted descriptions of your research experiences sufficiently detailed for the reader to understand what you did; use action verbs and stress achievements rather than simply duties. Include start and end dates (month/year).
Do not include presentations or publications in this section. Those have their own section.
Do include the name, professional title, department and institution of your research mentor.
Publications
Use a standard citation format like the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine or JAMA, including the DOI. Do NOT just use a URL in place of a citation. If a manuscript has been submitted to a journal and is under review, include the citation and say "under review" or "submitted". If it has been accepted, but not yet published, say "accepted for publication". An example citation is below, with the student name bolded:
Chang, R., Nelson, A. J., LeTran, V., Vu, B., Burkemper, B., Chu, Z., Fard, A., Kashani, A. H., Xu, B. Y., Wang, R. K., Varma, R., & Richter, G. M. (2019). Systemic Determinants of Peripapillary Vessel Density in Healthy African Americans: The African American Eye Disease Study. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 207, 240–247. doi:10.1016/j.ajo.2019.06.014
If you do not have publications yet, do not include this category at all. If you have multiple publications, I recommend keeping them in a (free) bibliographic database such as Mendeley or Zotero. If you are willing to spend a bit of money, you can purchase Endnote and keep both your publications and presentations in one place. The web version of Endnote may be free.
Conference Presentations
Don't mix conference presentations with other types of presentations. Have a section entitled Conference Presentations, with a full listing of all authors, title, conference name, date (year or month/year) and place (city/state) in a standard citation format such as APA. If the presentation or its abstract is available online, include the DOI or URL in a hyperlinked format so it is readily accessible by a viewer. If you want to make the pdf of your posters available to viewers, you can post them on your personal page at researchgate.net and link them in your CV.
If you have lots of presentations, you can subdivide them into poster and oral presentations.
If you want, you can have a second section for Other Presentations where you can list public presentations like path parties, rotation presentations, etc. Presentations you give as a required part of a class should not be listed.
Professional/Work Experience
Significant experiences, paid or unpaid, prior to medical school should be included here if they are pertinent to medicine in some manner.
The most common medical experiences in this category are medical scribe, EMT, and medical assistant. Shadowing and service as orderlies are not included.
Paid research positions should be included in the research category and not duplicated here.
Significant nonmedical employment or professional experiences can be listed here if they are not already listed elsewhere. Consider what they say about you before you list them.
Leadership
From your premedical time keep only high level of leadership, e.g. captain of college track team or manager of a business. Don't duplicate other categories, however, such as work experience.
Leadership during medical school can be an officer in a student club, student government, student liaison to medical societies, course representative, etc.
Teaching Experience
Formal teaching experience prior to medical school can be retained here, e.g. high school biology teacher or teaching assistant in a college laboratory course.
Teaching during medical school can include such things as peer-tutoring, workshop instructor, research assistant, etc. Informal tutoring or assisting other students should not be listed.
Community Service
Community service prior to medical school is not normally retained on a medical student CV unless it is exceptional in some way.
List significant activities during medical school like medical mission trips, health fairs, health screening in workplaces, service at food banks, high school sports physicals, etc.
Professional Associations
List membership in medical or health-related organizations/societies. Spell out the names, i.e. no acronyms, and include the join date.
Include student clubs/interest groups in this category but clearly distinguish them from the professional societies.
Languages
If you are reasonably fluent in any language besides English, this is a positive thing that you want to note on your CV. Don't list English.
If you do list a language, it is important to indicate both written and spoken proficiency/fluency. If it is your native language, say that.
You can also include programming languages in this section if you are proficient in them.
Certifications
I strongly encourage you to list all of your certifications and other evidence of advanced training, including ones you had prior to medical school like EMT. Also, CITI courses are not technically "certifications" but are course completions and lots of outside parties including residencies want to know about them.
Below are some examples of things that can go into this category. Add the expiration date to them when you list them.
Basic Life Support
Advanced Cardiac Life Support
Pediatric Advanced Life Support
Basics of Point of Care Ultrasound
CITI Responsible Conduct of Research
CITI HIPPA Information Privacy
CITI Human Subjects, Biomedical/Clinical Research
Hobbies & Personal Interests
Go into a bit of detail and don't use one word descriptions. Instead of “running” say “participate in 5K fun runs and marathons”.
Include hobbies and interests that demonstrate qualities such as leadership, teamwork, or creativity. This is a conversation starter for your interviewers.
Professional Development (advanced students)
If you want to list conferences that you attended but did not give a presentation or have any other position of responsibility, that is ok but list these in a separate section called professional development and clearly label the conferences as "conferences attended". The professional development category will become increasingly important as you advance in your career, but it is a good catchall category in your CV for things that don't fit neatly into the other categories or that weren't a part of your academic curriculum.
In addition to conferences, these could include workshops, webinars, and such that showcase your commitment to staying current in your field. Preclinical students would not normally have a professional development section.
Additional Skills
If you have additional skills that are valuable in a medical/clinical setting, by all means create a section for them. If you are proficient in a particular EMR system or cutting edge medical software, include that.
Don't include routine, expected clinical skills or equipment use but if you have used unusual instrumentation, robotics, etc then it is fine to list that here. These kinds of things set you apart from other students.
Advocacy
This is normally focused on any work you have done in the area of health policy, such as lobbying legislators, providing information for legislative staff, working with city administrators to develop health-related policies, voting delegate for state medical societies, etc.
DO NOT INCLUDE IN YOUR CV: irrelevant work experience, professional references, your photo, fancy graphics, purpose statement, listing of job skills or equipment used (there are exceptions, see below), test scores, social security number, birthdate, other highly personal information
CV 101: 6 career-boosting ways to put your best foot forward
Tips for crafting the perfect CV: Advice for residents and physicians
5 key features of a great physician CV
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
American College of Physicians (ACP)
Published articles on how to write a medical CV article: Article 1 Article 2
Assessing Trustworthiness in Research: A Pilot Study on CV Verification