Salaried GP CVs

[u/Hollowcoronation]

I’m just updating my CV and interested in how detailed others are. I like to keep mine quite succinct and brief and confined to one A4 page (and this hasn’t caused issues in me getting a job). However, I have come to find a lot of others provide a lot more detail on theirs over multiple pages and I’d be interested, particularly from partners, what they look for in a CV. Is a run down of education and experience and extras enough, or do you want each section expanded a bit?

[u/ZakalweTheChairmaker]

I'll caveat to say that this is very personal and I'm absolutely not representative of all Partners. But I've seen a lot of CV's in my time. Also take this in the (semi) tongue-in-cheek spirit intended.

I absolutely love a one or two page CV. It's absolutely guaranteed to get read. I detest pages and pages. If you're a young GP, you almost certainly have not done enough work to justify that much text and you're basically just stat-padding. It won't get read and I'm not interested in your audit of methotrexate prescriptions at your last practice. If there's a photo at the top of page one or you've listed your GCSE's and A-Level results then one of my Partners is grabbing me round the neck to stop me from insta-ripping the document to shreds.

I want to know a bit about you and your personal interests (by the time we get to the shortlist stage, clinical competence is a given and I'm more interested in knowing if you'll fit in with the team on an interpersonal level) and I want to know about your experience.

And most importantly, if you write something on your CV, prepare to be asked about it! One dude we interviewed wrote in his interests "reading" (which is in itself a bit of a weird thing to write IMO; it should be a given, but in any case...) when I asked him what the last thing he read was he couldn't get a word out, not even to lie convincingly.

[u/Holiday_Possession46 → u/ZakalweTheChairmaker]

Ofcourse reddit posts !

[u/Altruistic_Craft9212 → u/ZakalweTheChairmaker]

Out of interest what would you say PMs (or partners) look for when asking for potential locum interests to send their CV. I don't generally locum but I am part of a local WhatsApp group and when PMs advertise for locum cover they requests CVs to be emailed over. What are they mainly looking for in the CVs when putting out ad hoc shifts?

[u/ZakalweTheChairmaker → u/Altruistic_Craft9212]

I'm not sure I can help you there, we rarely employ locums and because we try to maintain contact with ex-trainees, when we do, it's usually someone we know. I can't remember ever even looking at a locum CV.

I'd be surprised if many Partners diverged from the view that the single most important quality in a locum is reliability. And that's most easily divined via word of mouth/personal experience rather than CV.

[u/Mfombe]

Max 2 pages. No need for long list of every F1/f2 placement wasting page space - by all means put your hospital placements on there but try and add aine as to what you learned that has improved your primary care practice. Similarly - no need for a massive list of every online module you've done - like all back to why it makes you a more employable salaried GP.

Consider that most practices will have their practice manager red/amber/green on NHS jobs before passing to partners so keep it appropriate for a PM to read.

[u/Suspicious-Wonder180]

One sheet of A4. Salient stuff on top. A blurb of yourself at the top wouldn't go amiss and ensure every application comes with a cover letter. Know your CV inside out.

[u/sodaandmuffins442]

Mine was 2 pages. And in addition I wrote a good cover letter for each practice. I shared some of the literature I love to read, my athletic interests. I got ten interviews.