The Physician CV Template Do’s and Don’ts for Doctors

Doctors are the healthcare frontline, now more relevant than ever in playing a central role within the community. However, the competition among physician job seekers is more challenging, so you must rise above the standard in showcasing your skills and experience when looking for a GP position. It means your CV has to set you apart from the other physician candidates! If you have learned about the general guidelines to make an impressive physician CV template in the previous CV article, let’s break it down in detail per each section based on the specific role. This article provides the physician CV template, complete with the do’s and don’ts as the best practice tips to secure your career as a Doctor in the Philippines.

Header

The header is the upper bar on the first page of your physician CV template containing your full legal name with your General Practitioner title (for example, Dr Jose Rizal or Jose Rizal MD). It will help the recruiters to verify your provided information in the CV.

Do: 

Write the correct name on the CV shown in your legal documents like birth certificate, diploma and GP license.

Don’t

Style the CV header in a decorative manner. Use only a sleek, simple formal font with 2-4 points larger size to maintain readability.

Personal Info

Your personal information should be on the top of the sidebar in the physician CV template, which further down will contain additional information to complement your GP expertise, like memberships, volunteer work, interests, and referees.

Do:

Provide only your available home address, phone number, email, and website through which you expect to get contacted for your professional GP affair. Also, remember to double-check your social media footprint and update your LinkedIn profile!

Don’t: 

Include references to your race, religion, age, place of birth, citizenship and marital status on your CV.

Professional Summary 

It’s a brief description of professional objectives on the top of your CV, containing key physician skills and achievements you’d like to most associate with and work in your best interest in securing the GP role.

Do: 

Highlight your best physician traits, visions, key skills and achievements that would capture the future employer’s attention to read your CV further. Pick a simple, professional-looking font style.

Don’t: 

Exaggerate. Put only a data-supported, justifiable narrative about your physician’s expertise. Refrain from using superfluous words on your CV.

Education & Postgraduate Medical Training

It is considered the core section that could be the most powerful in your physician CV, depending on how well you’ve performed in medical school and how strategic your physician education affiliations are. Most initial physician recruitment phases filter candidates from their alma maters and GPAs.

Example:

1997 – 2002 Bachelor of Medicine

University of the Philippines Manila

  • Chief Editor for Medical Student Newsletter
  • Top 10 Students of the Year 1998

Do:

Write this CV section in reverse-chronological order and include the highlighted extracurricular activities and achievements during the period, supported by numbers.

Don’t:

Self-proclaim your achievements or manipulate roles. If your physician education background is not your best trait, you can balance it with the other CV sections.

Licenses & Certificates

Board certification is a necessary step to further legitimate your General Practitioner speciality! It showcases your knowledge of the GP expertise’s latest advancements. Board certified physicians are easily more favorable to prospective employers simply because the physician standardization certifies that you can deliver high-quality care to your patients.

Do:

Prioritize the GP licenses and any physician certificates that are still valid to date, and put the dates of completion and due.

Don’t:

Style the on-process physician license/certificate as the final one—instead, explain where you are in your progress (awaiting results, for example).

Honours & Awards

Typically, you can put your accomplishment under the respective timeline in the CV, like the Education or Professional history section. However, if you have some honorary or award outside those categories and think it would impress your recruiter, you can highlight it in a stand-alone CV section.

Example:

30 Under 30 Bright Young Asian Thinkers (2020) — the award title

Forbes Asia — the affiliation

Do:

Put the CV section on the first page if it’s significant to give extra credit to your CV. Include the title, recognition level, date and purpose.

Don’t:

Add just any accomplishment, especially when it strays from your necessary traits as a future GP. For example, writing about winning a door prize or game competition on your CV will not justify your performance in physician practice.

Research, Publications & Conference Presentations

This CV section works best if you have a solid background of research or theoretical expertise in your timeline. You can separate the three categories in the CV if each contains more than two items.

Example:

Doe, J, et al. “Early Pregnancy Vitamin D Insufficiency and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.” 2022, in Press.

Do:

Write in reverse-chronological order.

Don’t:

Put just any physician conference you’ve attended; just include the one where you present something.

Sidebar Section

The CV categories below are the additional information you can put after your Contact Info template. Their purpose is to compliment your formal accomplishments in your physician endeavor, to see what’s beyond the numbers and ranks: Are you able to work under pressure? Are you a cooperative coworker? Will you be a good leader for the team?

Memberships & Associations 

This CV section will identify your professional affiliation network and give more credibility beyond your GP education and training. Extra point if you’re part of the leadership or management team in the organization.

Volunteer Work

Listing some volunteer activities on your CV will give a positive nuance to your personality, with additional soft skills that could prove you are ready to go above and beyond in your professional physician work.

Languages

It will highlight your ability to communicate in a certain local context.

Interests 

Write not just any hobby on your CV, but those that will showcase unique traits to support your work. For example, having a travelling hobby indicates a sense of curiosity, adaptability, and being unafraid of challenges outside comfort zones.

Skills

Apart from the mentioned skills in the main CV sections, you can highlight additional skills on your CV that would portray your managerial and analytical thinking ability to support your work as a General Practitioner.

Referees

The list of strategic people would vouch for you in your current position and experience. Don’t forget to notify them before you put their information on your CV. On a side note, putting the list of referees on your CV in the first filtering phase might give the wrong impression to the recruiter. So put this as optional content and read the situation when you decide to apply.

Conclusion

Congrats, you’re one step ahead to claiming your most wanted GP position! Don’t forget to double-check the grammar and typos, and ensure your Curriculum Vitae doesn’t exceed three pages in A4 paper format. Also, use the gapping and parallelism strategy to make your CV concise and consistent. Check out our CV template and Cover Letter examples to ensure you’re on the right track. Good luck!

About Doctor Jobs Today

Doctor Jobs Today is the first job-seeking platform in Southeast Asia dedicated to serving the job searching needs of healthcare professionals. We have created a space to connect employers and medical job seekers seamlessly. As part of the healthcare community, we understand that traditional job portals are not catered toward medical doctors. So we decided to create a portal advertising only the most relevant jobs from the top employers within the industry because we are just as picky as you are!

Doctor Jobs Today has the right vacancy whether you are looking for a higher salary, a better-equipped hospital for your specialization, or even a career shift from patient care.

About Docquity

If you feel like your educational and professional experience has not been sufficient to make your CV pop, expanding the network to other healthcare professionals to practise peer-to-peer learning might be the answer. One of the ways to do it is by joining a social platform for healthcare professionals, such as Docquity

Docquity is the region’s largest and most trusted community of doctors, bringing you real-time knowledge from thousands of doctors worldwide. Today, Docquity has over 300,000 doctors spread across six countries in Asia. 

Meet experts and trusted peers across Asia where you can safely discuss clinical cases, get up-to-date insights from webinars and research journals, and earn CME/CPD credits through certified courses. All with the ease of a mobile app available on Android & iOS platforms!

dr. Patrick Indradjaja

Medical Doctor, Master of Research in stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Manager of Growth Docquity Indonesia