CV Versus Resume: What Physicians Should Know

Welcome back to Podiatry Today Podcasts, where we bring you the latest in foot and ankle medicine and surgery from leaders in the field. I'm Dr. Jennifer Spector, the Assistant Editorial Director for Podiatry Today, and in this series, we will be bringing you several episodes from thought leaders about various opportunities that you can pursue to enhance your practice. In this first installment, we'll demystify the differences between a CV and a resume and how this could impact health care practitioners as they pursue these opportunities. I'll let our thought leaders introduce themselves right now and get right to their insights.

Hello, my name is Maryellen Brucato. I own my own practice in New Jersey and I have three different office locations. I've been in private practice for over 10 years. I did open up my own practice about five years ago at this point. So I do have a lot of experience with employee positions, other employees as well, buying a practice, selling a practice, how to evaluate a practice how to find a position for yourself, et cetera, things like that. So thanks for having me on today.

Hi, I'm Bela Pandit. I practice in Chicago. I've been in private practice, also with multiple offices. for almost 18 years. I started right out of residency. So I started with nothing, and I didn't buy anything and I had no patience so it can definitely help someone from the ground up.

Maryellen and I are both very involved in a lot of committees for ACFAS and we do teach a lot of students and residents so we kind of hear all the questions. We're really excited to kind of venture together into our new business which is called the First Class Club in which we kind to help people who want to elevate themselves and maybe change their career, perfect their career, or make it better. So we're here for all your questions in the future.

So I think one really commonly asked question that I've heard are when we're looking out there sort of in the job world, we hear about CVs and we hear about resumes. For docs that aren't familiar, what are the differences between the two, especially from a medical professional's perspective?

So CVs and resumes essentially are the same thing. Resumes are more of a summary of your career, whereas CVs traditionally, particularly in like the medical field and legal field, it used to be like the longer your CV, the better. So some people list all the conferences they've been out all their speaking engagements, all their publications, and it's very very lengthy. A resume is going to be a brief of that. So if you're, let's say, looking for a job in academia, or you're presenting this cv /resume to like a legal thing, maybe you're giving a deposition, maybe you're getting sued, you're going to want to give the cv, you're going to want to give the long academic version of things.

If you are applying to an orthopedic group, a hospital, a private practice, you're going to want to do an abbreviated resume. That's what people are going to resonate towards.

So are there going to be any instances where one is going to have a significant benefit over the other? Is there a characteristic or a feature that really drives home the use of one versus the other?

It's truly the position that you're applying for. So like, again, when you're thinking about resumes or CVs, you're submitting it for a purpose, right? So you're gonna want to submit that CV if it's something that's like, again, academic, where you're gonna wanna highlight how involved you are in podiatry. If if you're applying for like a job, nobody cares, shorter the better. So you want more of a resume style for that.

And that's where we can really help. Because attention spans are short, jobs are hard to come by, and you really want what you're presenting to catch the eye of whatever you're applying for or what your purpose is. So if it's like, now, like if you're in a legal situation, you want your CV you want to show how strong and powerful you are in all the good work you've done.

But in general, a little bit shorter the better. But it really depends on what you're submitting this for. Bela and I also both have experience with consulting positions with industry for a multitude of different companies.

And when you're submitting a CV for something like a consulting position, you who seems to get more quote-unquote "points" for having more things on your CV? So it would be in your best interest to submit a more lengthier CV when you're applying to those positions because when they're coming up with a rate on how to pay you, they don't really know what to pay you, except based on your experience. And how do they know your experience except from your CV? So I think that's another pearl that we'd like to give you guys. 

So speaking of resumes, I'm sure there are a lot of pitfalls that clinicians commonly fall into. Could you give us a quick review of maybe say the top three mistakes that you feel that docs make when it comes to their resumes?

Well, I could start off with the first one for sure. Again, it's about standing out. So if you're gonna submit your resume, you have to read the job description that you're actually applying for, or let's say a consulting position or whatever you're applying for. You have to make the key points of your resume kind of match what they're looking for. So just submitting it blindly, you're gonna be in a stack of the other 50 competitors for that job.

And when you are wanting to stand out, we can't necessarily think like doctors, we have to think like corporate. And corporate people, they take 30 seconds to read your resume. So in that 30 seconds, it better match what the job is asking for.

And then you will get noticed. So I think people just keep submitting their resume without making the changes applicable to the job. So that's what we want.

Absolutely. There's so many boring, for lack of a better word, boring resumes out there. You know, when a physician's applying to my practice, if there's an open associate physician, they're just boring.

They're lackluster. Try to find something in your experience or in your life or in your job path that can stand out and really separate you from the crowd and that also applies to the position that you're playing for just like Bella said really just try to search for something that matches up that'll catch the person that's reviewing your your resume's eye. Agreed and I'll tell you there's some kind of statistic and it's a very high statistic of how much people don't proofread their resume that like there's it's over 50 % And I can't tell you the exact number, but that their phone number is wrong and their email is wrong? - Yeah.

- But you have to tell them. - And that's where I think something like where I mean, Mary Ellen are doing like, we can double check for you everything. So we can do that for you.

And, but people, you know, not using an outside service, they're sending out these resumes and all their information is wrong. - Absolutely. And paying attention to small detail is important for sure.

But I've reviewed resumes where the time period of when the person had a job, it was actually wrong to the point where the person looked like they went back in time to have the job. It made no sense. And I also read a cover letter that said, "I am podiatrist." You know, like you have to proofread and we get it.

I hit you know I don't like proofreading my own stuff. That's why I usually give it to one of my other friends at proofread. Let Bela and I be your friends and proofread your stuff for you and make sure when you send your resume and your cover letter out it is in tip-top shape and you're gonna land that job.

Yeah and I think that's point number three is like if you don't have a trusted source it's actually better to use an outside source, who will be your friend, but is not your friend, because your friend's gonna say it looks awesome. So you really wanna use an outside source if you really want a position or a coveted thing you're looking for. 

This is all great food for thought for our listeners. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today on this important topic. Stay tuned for a future episode that dives even further into some of these great tips and tricks when it comes to enhancing your practice opportunities. You can also listen to other podcasts from Podiatry Today on your favorite podcast platforms or at podiatrytoday.com.