Having a detailed, yet concise resume is important when applying for a permanent or locum tenen OB/GYN position! Resumes are often called curriculum vitae (CV) in the physician world. This is a living document that encompasses your career path, awards, publications, and who you are as an individual. Perfecting the design and content will set you apart from other competing applicants. Below are tips to a winning resume that will benefit you on your job search.
How Long Should An OB/GYN Resume Be?
Unlike other industries where a one-page resume is prefered, an OB/GYN resume should be 2-3 pages or as long as necessary to showcase your education, experience, and contributions. The sweet spot is to highlight all the most important aspects of your career journey without making your resume long and daunting to look at. The cleaner and more conscies your resume is, the easier it is for a credentialing team to get you compliant. This can be a huge factor in whether a hospital or facility hires you or someone else.
Layout for An OB/GYN CV
Curating the content in your curriculum vitae (CV) is the first step to a winning resume! The next, is laying out the information in an attractive and efficient way for the person reviewing your resume. Most of the time, a medical director or Chief Medical Officer will be the ones analyzing CVs. Below are the main sections you should include and in the order you should have them.
- Contact Information
- Employment and Experience
- Education
- License and Certifications
- Research Experience
- Honors and Awards
- Volunteer Mission Trips
- Personal Statement
Contact Information
Your contact information should be at the top of your CV. This makes it easy for the facility, agency, or credentialing specialist to get in contact with you. You should list your full name with your post-nominal letters. Next, list your personal email and phone number. You can also list your permanent address on your resume if you are applying to a local position, but this is not necessary.
Employment and Experience
This is one of the most important sections of your resume! You’ll want to list your employment in chronological order, starting with the most recent position. If you work locum and permanent positions you can split these into two different sections. Always include the month and year with your positions. Some facilities do not accept resumes if the month AND year is not included. Even though this is a small element, it is a crucial one! Feel free to also list your fellowship and residency experience as well.
Keep in mind that any gaps in employment that exceed six months should have an explanation. More times than not, these gaps will be questioned by employers at the facility.
Education
Education can be short and sweet on your OB/GYN resume. List where you graduated high school, university, medical school, had your internship, and where you spent your post-graduate years. Remember to include the month and year with all these as well.
License and Certification
To begin, list where you are certified. This can be an alphabetized list of states that you are licensed to practice in. With other certifications like your board certification or Basic Life Support certification, make sure to list the year that it was received. If it expires or has expired make sure to make that evident with the dates as well.
Research Experience
As an OB/GYN physician you’ve probably participated in a lot of thought-provoking research projects and presentations throughout your education and career. The trick to this section is to limit the noise by only featuring the publications where you were a key player. For example, we want to see publications where you were a co-author or main presenter.
Honors and Rewards
This is an area where you should highlight your honors and rewards as a practicing OB/GYN. An example would be a recognition award from your hospital. You can also include honors throughout your education, like if you were valedictorian.
Volunteering And Mission Trips
If you participated in any volunteering or mission trips that relate to the healthcare industry, this would be a great opportunity to highlight that. Philanthropy looks great on a resume and for your personal brand!
Personal Statement
A personal statement is short and sweet and should highlight your hobbies and languages you speak. This is your opportunity to humanize yourself and sprinkle some personality into your OB/GYN resume. Surprisingly, sometimes this is the section that can put your CV ahead of another applicant’s. Hospitals like to see a physician who can relate to patients.
The Future of OB/GYN Resumes
No doubt technology has made some huge leaps and advances in healthcare. Technology has also changed the administrative side to improve efficiency within hiring. With larger companies, around 70% use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to analyze resumes for them. What does this mean for you? Your resume has to woo the computer to get passed on to the medical director or hiring manager. Here are a list of things to do in order to create a winning OB/GYN CV for computers and humans.
- Use basic heading titles like Education and Experience
- Use basic fonts in Word like Times New Roman or Arial
- Include job-related keywords
- Save and send as a PDF
Example of an OB/GYN CV
As you can see, optimizing your OBGYN resume is so important in securing a permanent position or locum contract. This is your first introduction to future employers before the interview, so your resume should highlight the very best aspects of your education and career.
Looking for new ways to advance your career as an OB/GYN? Chat with our experienced recruiters on what locum contracts we have nationwide!
