The Resumé

While I hope many of you already have a resumé that you've slowly been adding to over the years, if not, you should start now. ERAS doesn't just have you upload a copy of your resumé. You actually have to manually enter it in and the system creates the format. It is still very important to have a well-formatted resumé to take to interviews with you and for the future in general.

Parts of the Resumé

1. Education:

• Medical
• Graduate 
• Undergraduate

2. Medical School Honors and Awards: Did you receive any honors while in school? Dean's List? Honor Roll?

3. Membership of Professional Societies: This is the place for AMA, ACOG, AFP, etc

4. Activities: This is the longest part of the application because it is all about what you have done! You can classify activities as Work, Volunteer or Research. It also allows you to write a short paragraph about each event. It is recommended to include only experiences from college and beyond. I chose to only list significant activities, those that I invested a lot of time in. Did I volunteer at blood drives or health clinics for 1 day? Sure! Did I include these in the application? No. If you helped plan said blood drive or health clinic then I would definitely include it! This is personal preference of what you choose to include or not.

• Since we are from an international school, it is important to put all of your clinical rotations as Work Experience in this section. You want residency programs to know that you completed all of your rotations in the United States.
• How to format the descriptions: The application just gives you a large blank. You can write it in paragraph form or in bullet form. I chose more of the bullet form with each line as a different description of the activity and how I participated and then started each sentence with a verb. "Organized..." "Developed..." "Integrated..." etc. You are going to have pages of activities and program directors don't have time to read though paragraphs, the bullet form makes it much easier to read. 
• Tip: If an activity was something you participated in for 1 week in the year but for the last 5 years. Put the start date and end date to include the 5 years but in the description, say that it was for a week. 

5. Publications: Include articles that you have published if you have done research. This is also where you would include poster presentations at formal meetings. This is not the place to put down a small presentation you gave about Ulcerative Colitis to other students but if was done at Grand Rounds and in front of a lot of faculty etc then include it!

6. Hobbies and Interests: You can include anything you want. This is the one portion of the application (besides your personal statement) that you truly get to discuss what you like to do besides medicine! 

7. Languages: It allows you to choose a language and then click on the appropriate fluency. 

Start working on your activity descriptions now! If you have any questions regarding this part of the application, let me know!