Thursday 26 March 2009

Send Me Your Résumé

When the announcement of the SPA interview being brought to Russia, we frozed.

We predicted it to be 50/50 meaning it could either be dead serious or easy-going since the entourage were on semi-holiday mood. In addition to the scare, we were told to come up with a CV, together with other necessary documents. I remember it was so ridiculous that we needed our original birth certificates and MyKad.

But a CV?

What is a CV?

Curriculum vitae?

I've never worked in my life. So I can't pull one out of my ass or make up stories. But after hours of surfing the net and exchanging ideas with Boss and Pisa, we managed to fill 2-3 pages. Since I updated mine today to send to a couple of hospitals, I would like to share my knowledge (improvised with Tolga's help) on how to write one. Especially to fresh medical graduates like me, without working experience nor have much to make an impression :P

I'll use my CV as an example.. it's not as difficult as it sounds

HOW TO START?
- Do not panic. Do not feel like you've never achieved anything in your life. That's important for starters.

1. Your personal information. Address. Contact number. E-mail address.
Now, you should decide arrangement of the contents. What would you like to present first to the reader. The aim of a CV is to summarise the history of your job/education experience so that your employer would have some clue in a glance.

2. Career Objective
Well.. you can't write that "I want to take over the company" or "I want to show how good I am" LOL
The title is pretty straight-forward. Be modest, needless to say and now you have to show it with words.


3. Education
List them out in a reverse chronological order. In my case, I began with the name of my university followed by the year I graduated. I also added the results of my final exam. Next, I list down each course, the year and all its subjects. Hahahahaa to add length to the CV.

I deleted my high school history, but I included a little bit for the SPA interview.

4. Clinical Experience
We all did attachments in summers, I think. Again, in reverse chronological order, list down the name of the hospitals, duration and in short and what was practiced.

5. Certificates and Training
Do feel free to brag here, show them what you've got! LOL
But keep in mind which has proof and which, none. I categorised project titles as Training too. Reverse chronological order, ya.

6. Extra Curricular Activities
Anything you did in the past, held positions/committee, contributed in non-medical (or not related to the work you are seeking) activities come here. At least that's what I wrote in mine. Hahahahaa I wrote "Netball player representing MMA on Annual Sports Day, 2005-2006".

7. Skills/Hobbies
Uhmmm.. language, computer skills (but I think everyone knows MSWord LOL today).

ANYTHING ELSE?
- It should be sufficient. Through time, once you (well, and I) get more work experience.. it naturally gets longer and more juiced.

Hope this helps! :)

6 comments:

Johnny Ong said...

yeah sufficient. do remember to list yr items with those of current at the top followed by the rest chronologically

e.g. clinical exp
date jan 2009 to date - (list yr exp here)
date nov 2008 to dec 2008 - .....

Gorgeous Ol' Eve Loves Vanilla. You? said...

Thank you, Johnny.
List them with current/most recent records until the last.

That's reverse chronological order :)

Kev said...

well, that's sufficient. Johnny has added a few more points for you.

Go to Jobstreet for tips on how to write a good resume.

The inability of fresh graduates to write resumes is one reason why our universities are focusing on soft skills for graduating students.

Johnny Ong said...

ooooops missed out that one word

Anonymous said...

No news about them coming this year. I thought of starting work early. But now , it simply means i have to go island hopping till they recall me back then . hehe...

Smelly Cat said...

Thank you, Kev for the tip! Hahahahaa got 2 sifus nodding at my example, that means it's a pass ;)

Leeds. Don't make excuses to island-hop LOL