Electives and your CV

[fox]

I am in the process of updating my CV and was just wondering what the general opinion is about putting shadowing/elective experience on your CV. I am in first year and have shadowed a few doctors on my own time, and have also done my 12 hour elective in endocrinology. We don't actually do *real* electives until third year, so I was wondering if I should bother putting these small experiences on my CV.

[Ian Wong]

You could leave them on for now, and then tailor and prune them appropriately once you figure out what specialties you are applying for.

I honestly don't see much benefit to putting these electives on your CV (the ones that truly matter are those done as a senior medical student, particularly if you gain a strong letter of reference), unless you are trying to show that you've really been committed to a specialty over a long period of time (and even then, it probably doesn't matter much, if at all).

Ian

[Akane200]

12 hours of elective... is that like only 3 half days? I think such shadowing experiences of such a really short duration does not warrant a mention in your CV as a first year student unless it is an ongoing longitudinal elective for a good majority of the whole year or something informal for the whole summer. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I didn't think that such sporadic shadowing (a few hours in this, a few hours in that) could be counted as an "elective" (informal or otherwise) at all. That's just "shadowing" done on your own leisure time to me. *shrug* But maybe it's just me.

But real electives (including informal ones) are important on your CV, I think. It may not make a big difference, but it also shows that you've done something constructive with your time as well.

Good luck.

[Ian Wong]

Floating back to the top.

Ian