Tips to Update Your CV
Written by Kaitlyn Thomas, DO
Lots of people on social media and at my medical school used to recommend keeping up with my CV before I had to fill out my residency application. I’ve also had friends and classmates complain when it came time to apply for a residency. Many of my classmates couldn’t even remember some of the things they had done because they never updated their CVs. There are several ways that you can approach keeping track of your medical school activities.
Change your mindset around your CV. Prioritize keeping your CV as a living document that can change every time you are assigned to a committee, volunteer, or sign up for another project. Even if it's not a full entry that is ready for CV distribution, it's still there for your records.
Create calendar events, once a month or once a quarter, depending on your needs. These can serve as reminders to dedicate thirty minutes to one hour to update your CV.
Have different versions of your CV. These can have comprehensive entries for all things that you’ve done. For example, you can have one that is more volunteer-heavy position or one that is more research-heavy depending on the position you're interested in.
By having an updated CV, you can also see far earlier if you have any areas with fewer experiences. You may be able to seek out opportunities earlier in medical school. For example, you may realize that you haven’t done much research besides a case report in your third year (we’re all busy!) or that you haven’t volunteered much at all.
Most importantly, don’t make it stressful to keep up with your CV. When you periodically add entries, you don’t need to make them perfect. Part of the strategy is just to keep track of what you’ve done and polish it later.
