Physicians need to consider a digital resume

As a physician coach to doctor clients making the transition from clinical practice and seeking out new careers, I latched onto a recent article in the Los Angeles Times business section.

Titled “Revive your Resume” by Emily Hughey Quinn, it hints at the death of the traditional paper resume. In its place is the digital resume you create on sites such as LinkedIn and VisualCV.

Take special note – if you’re a physician seeking a non-clinical non-academic career as a physician executive, a medical director or even in another field, your CV is history. Gone is the document laden with degrees, credentials, lengthy education sections and reams of publications and presentations. This stuff doesn’t matter.

Back to the resume.

Advantages of the digital resume:

consistent format — the reader of your resume knows what to find where, and what to look for
access to people on LinkedIn who may be great contacts, your next boss, or excellent networking resources
built-in networking and job-searching opportunities within the same site
multi-sensory appeal, if you’re willing engage your creativity and add video, images and even audio (check out the Fortune 500-type guy and the Sassy Creative one — both generate instant impressions)
accompanying testimonials and recommendations, visible to all prospective hiring folks

One caveat: Maintain a highly professional public persona online. Clean up your act – check your Facebook privacy settings to ensure that your prospective employer can’t see those drunken 40th birthday party pictures or shut down your Twitter account if there’s anything you wouldn’t the interviewing team across the table to be asking about.

And back to the moribund traditional resume.

The job of your cover letter is to get your resume read.
The job of your resume is to get you an interview.
The job of your interview(s) is to get you the job!

Your resume is all about your job-related achievements. What you did, and what results you (or the company/department) got.

This is very intimidating for many physicians who look blank when asked what they have accomplished. “All I ever did was practice medicine” they tell me. But that is another story … for another day.

Traditional resume (and digital resume) tips:

Drop the “Objective” starter paragraph. Replace it with a concise Summary of your strengths and experience related to the job you are interested in, or the direction you are pursuing
Show how your experience and skills will address the future needs of the employing organization or business
This takes research and imagination on your part – do this well and you are already ahead of 90% of the candidates!
Keep “personal and hobbies” information brief and relevant to the position you are applying for. If your hobbies highlight functional skills that could add value to the position, go for it. Otherwise, skip them
Be truthful!!
Reverse chronological ordering is best, with Company Name, Job Title, Dates of Employment, a sentence about the company and/or your role, and bulleted points highlighting your achievements and results
Two pages is plenty, no more than the last 20 years (some say 10!). If you have had a long career to date (>10 years), 3 pages is fine
Picture the poor person who might be glancing over their 41st resume by the time they get to yours. Be that sigh of relief!

Philippa Kennealy is a family physician and certified physician development coach who blogs at The Entrepreneurial MD.

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