Your Curriculum Vitae and Cover Letter

By Chris Ketcherside, MD

If you’re in the last year of your residency or fellowship, or just looking to change jobs, then you’re in the same boat as many of us. Join the club of people who are staring at an old resume and trying to figure out what to do next. The other thing you may be doing is asking yourself: “Self, what is a cover letter? Do they even want one? What would it say? Where am I?” (Does that even make sense?) The main thing here, as is usually the case, is using your resources. I’ve been given several resources to aid in cover letter formation by my crack team of cover letter specialists… my uncle the former physician recruiter, our PIO Chief Editor Rob Melendez, and the trump card… my mother. OK, so I found some things myself too, but bottom line is you’ll get all of it.

First of all, here are some great places to look for help after you’ve finished reading this:

-The Profession of Ophthalmology: Practice Management, Ethics, and Advocacy pages 16-18. This book is available through the American Academy of Ophthalmology and has lots of other tips about the job hunting process as a whole from looking to interviewing. It’s worth reading and they give examples.

-Through www.EyePearls.com you should be able to select Future Focus (top right-hand portion). It takes 2 minutes to sign up and the website has great information to help you find a job. This site gives examples as well.

-There are articles that you can find online that may not be specific for physicians, but they can have some helpful hints. http://jobs.aol.com/article/_a/fluffy-vague-phrases-cloud-many-resumes/20050808184609990061 . Now remember that as a doctor your resume can be longer, and the personal stuff that they talk about at the end can be included. I don’t agree with that part, but I digress.

-Ask your colleagues and faculty to help. If you have family members that are good at this sort of thing you should use them as well.

-Here is a website that will help with the format. My mother provided it. Now that I think of it, she has provided me with a couple things over the years…

http://www.sutterhigh.k12.ca.us/counselor/business%20letter.htm

I’ve included a sample cover letter that someone going into private practice might use. I used the correct business format and used tips gathered from the sources above.

Now I’d like to go over a few pearls that were given to me by my cover letter posse. Below is an email from one of my sources. Notice that he tells me early on in the letter not to forget a cover letter. This answers the question from your “Self” conversation about whether this is even necessary or not. He goes on to answer the question about what it is. Smart dude.

From Uncle Jim the physician recruiter:

Chris,

Your CV looks fine.

Don't forget to include a cover letter with your CV. This is where you set yourself aside from the other candidates responding to this opportunity. Make it professional as well as personable. You might want to include some of the following elements:

1. Mention that you and your wife are from (my home town) and would like to return to the area to practice quality medicine.

2. You might want to mention some of the numbers and types of procedures you have performed. Mention that you just completed a record # of ___________ in one day. Tell him your success rate if appropriate.

3. Tell him/her you have heard nothing but excellent things about him/her, his/her colleagues and his/her practice and that you want to practice with colleagues of his/her caliber.

4. You might want to drop the names of some of your professors if they are of world renown and would be willing to be your reference.

5. Point out that you plan on gaining expertise in _________, ___________, and _____________ in your upcoming fellowship at the University of Colorado and hope that this would be of value to his practice.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. Good luck!!!

Jim

Pretty cool huh? So yeah, I sort of lucked into that one. Now say you’ve put together this cover letter that you think looks good. Maybe you’ve put together a couple of different formats if you are applying to academic centers as well as private practices. You need to have several people read over it to critique your work. I probably don’t have to tell you this at this point. If you were sending out work with bad grammar you probably wouldn’t have gotten this far. It helps to have a good copyeditor check your grammar as well. That person is someone who takes the cover letter and CV that 48 people told you was OK, and butchers it like a spring chicken. For me… that’s my mother. So find that person and let them work you over.

I also suggest using nice paper. You don’t have to go crazy, but plain white printer paper doesn’t look nearly as good as the blue granite stuff that my wife made me use. Remember that this is a first impression. This is you walking in the door with a three-piece suit on, or crawling in with your hat on backwards looking like a BMX biker. Don’t be a biker. Oh, and one last thing to remember. This is from mother… a priest mind you:

Chris,

Don’t forget to put MD after your name at the very top.
You well deserve it!! ;-)

Happy hunting...