Get the Residency: ASHP's Guide to Residency Interviews and Preparation

CHAPTER 2

DEVELOPING YOUR CURRICULUM VITAE AND

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Cathi Dennehy, PharmD

Joshua Caballero, PharmD, BCPP

Your curriculum vitae (CV) is essentially a summary of your professional

and academic career to date. Many residency program directors (RPDs)

rely on it to deliver a snapshot of your accomplishments in order to

formulate their initial opinions about you. Along with the CV, you will be

asked to provide a personal statement (PS). Typically, the PS is intended for

you to state your program interest, individualize the reasons for targeting

their program, and describe how your strengths can be an asset to the

institution. The PS provides an introduction of who you are and also

allows an RPD to gauge your writing skills (e.g., can you write in complete

sentences, use appropriate grammar, get your point across) and assess your

judgment. The CV and PS (and supplemental materials when applicable)

combine to form one of the key factors used to determine your eligibility

for an interview. Therefore, this chapter will highlight how to make your

CV and PS stand out in a positive manner.

Some institutions require supplemental materials that involve

essay responses related to specific questions about you or

examples of past behaviors in a professional setting or career

path. Similar to the personal statement, they are used to gauge

your writing style and judgment.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Students commonly ask how their CV can be creative and distinctive. The

simple answer is to be truthful and organized, while highlighting areas of

22 Chapter 2: Developing Your Curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement

significant involvement with professional and creative activities. The organi-

zation and format of your CV should be easily readable and allow the reader

to locate information quickly. When developing and updating your CV, it is

important to explore various templates and styles. The student affairs office

at your institution should have several examples to review. You may also

solicit upperclassmen or pharmacists who serve as educators or clinicians to

share their CV. Once you have an idea of how your CV will look stylistically,

it is time to organize it. Organization and layout are key for ensuring a

logical flow that enhances the reader’s ability to process its contents.

Prior to assembling your CV, organize your accomplishments into

categories by dates (see Appendix A: Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae:

Format and Headings). If there are gaps in your educational or professional

work experience timeline, consider addressing these in your PS. Below are

recommendations that will provide you with a guide on having a polished

CV that will impress.

Stylistic Tips

Create a CV with length suitable for your needs

One question often asked is, “How long should the CV be?” The answer: as

long as it needs to be. Do not worry about your CV length: it is highly unlikely

that your CV will be 15 pages long. CVs that include more versus less

information about your roles and responsibilities in your advanced pharma-

cy practice experiences (APPEs), professional activities, and scholarship

activities are preferred. However, do not embellish your accomplishments.

Most RPDs have seen countless CVs, and it is second nature for them to

detect an artificially enhanced narrative. Again, there is no page limit to a

CV. If the information you are including is pertinent to describing your

character, commitment to your profession/public service, and professional

accomplishments, then it belongs in your CV.

Use professional quality stock paper and appropriate color paper for

printing your CV

White or an off-white/light tan/light gray, with or without a light watermark,

is acceptable as long as it looks professional. Avoid lines, designs, or any-

thing that distracts from the content. You want people to remember your CV

for the content, not the color or background designs. Choosing to place the

Get the Residency 23

CV into a separate folder/clear cover is a personal choice and is not re-

quired—as long as the cover/clear folder is professional, go ahead. In the

end, it is the content of the CV that matters and not the cover that it is in.

Some decisions that students make will not be universally agreed

upon by residency program directors (RPDs). As such, we feel

RPDs will judge your curriculum vitae on content highlighting

your accomplishments.

Avoid using fancy fonts

Font selection for your CV is a personal choice. For the purposes of read-

ability it is fine to use sans-serif fonts or serif fonts as long as you are

choosing a font that is easily legible. The style of the font you choose

should also promote easy readability (e.g., Arial or Times New Roman) and

not be too fancy (e.g., Lucida handwriting, AlgeriAn). The font

used for subheadings should be boldfaced and of a conventional font size

that is easily readable (14 pt) while all other text should be standard 12 pt.

Be consistent

All formatting should be consistent throughout your CV. CVs that have

formatting changes from page to page (e.g., differences in font, indentation,

heading style – some are underlined while others are set in boldface) reflect

poorly on you. Failure to be consistent with formatting is analogous to a

preventable medication error; each suggests a lack of attention to detail

that can prove deleterious to a patient or to your candidacy.

Proofread your curriculum vitae after you convert it to a portable

document format (PDF). Page breaks and settings are often

different than intended, especially when using free online programs.

Organizational Tips

Hopefully, you’ve been updating your CV regularly. However, if you are

putting it together for the first time since you began pharmacy school, you

have a lot of work to do (which is not a bad thing… that may just mean you

have been busy). Remember to organize your activities into specific headings.

24 Chapter 2: Developing Your Curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement

Appendix A: Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae: Format and Headings pro-

vides examples of common headings used for pharmacy CVs. However, below

are additional tips to make sure your CV effectively conveys your work.

Clearly state your name and how you can be reached

Your name and contact information should be placed on the top of the first

page. It should include a reliable address (mail and e-mail) and a phone

that you can be easily reached at, such as your mobile phone.

If not using your pharmacy program’s e-mail address, use a

professional e-mail address (e.g., [email protected]).

Provide explanations for items

All activities and acronyms in your CV should be clearly explained. You

should not expect the reader to interpret these on their own, as in some

cases they may be misinterpreted to mean something they are not. The

person reviewing your CV may be a practicing pharmacist, an administra-

tor far removed from clinical practice, or a representative from human

resources. You should not assume that everyone knows what activities,

terms, or acronyms mean.

Arrange items in reverse chronological order with most recent first

Having dates stand out in a column to the left with the activity stated to the

right is one approach to cleanly represent the temporal progression of your

activities and experiences. Too often, students will group accomplishments,

one after the other and then state the time period within the text of the

accomplishment, where it can get lost.

Describe APPE roles and responsibilities

The residency year is centered on cultivating clinical skills, organizing and

managing patient data, multitasking, and communicating effectively.

Therefore, these are all prime characteristics to highlight in your role

descriptions for APPEs. With this in mind, more versus less information

about your clinical roles and responsibilities is desirable. For past APPEs,

provide four to five bullet points or a short narrative piece about the scope

Get the Residency 25

of your responsibilities underneath each APPE listed. Highlight character-

istics that show a higher level of responsibility. You may want to address

the following questions:

■

How many patients did you follow daily?

■

Did you round with the medical team/preceptor?

■

How were your recommendations communicated?

■

Did you write chart notes?

■

Did you advise the team during rounds?

■

Did you make recommendations to the primary preceptor who

communicated these to the team during rounds?

■

What other activities did you perform (e.g., daily vital signs,

medication administration record [MAR] review, pharmacokinetic

drug monitoring, medication reconciliation, patient discharge

teaching/counseling/facilitation)?

■

If your APPE was one in which you were not afforded much

independence, how did you attempt to create a more fulfilling role

for yourself by reaching out to your preceptor, patients, and team

to provide a greater level of service?

It demonstrates a great deal of character if you find yourself on a

rotation with negligible patient and team interaction, but you step

up, show self-initiative, and try to work within the existing system

to provide additional valued pharmacist services (some of which

may even be new to the service model).

If you have not chosen your APPEs yet, you should familiarize yourself

with APPE responsibilities in advance of choosing or ranking them. For

future APPEs, obtain a description of your role from the preceptor or your

institution’s experiential administrator and include this on the CV.

Highlight honors and awards

This is a section that sometimes gets missed. If you were a recipient of an

honor or award during pharmacy school, make sure you have this section

26 Chapter 2: Developing Your Curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement

to highlight it. You go back to any academic awards you have received

such as National Merit Scholarship or Dean’s Award; however, an award

for being an outstanding social coordinator for your undergraduate

fraternity should be omitted.

Include your professional work experience

Highlight any professional work experience while in pharmacy school. If

you have experience as a research assistant or in a community pharmacy

setting as a technician or intern, include it. Similar to the honors and

awards section, including any involvement that extends into the under-

graduate years pertinent to your professional roles and responsibilities as a

future pharmacist, researcher, educator, leader, and involved public citizen,

is appropriate. If you graduated from a particularly notable high school

environment (e.g., Jesuit program, Charter/College preparatory school),

you may include it since it may serve as a point of reference/discussion

since the RPD may have come from a similar school and place an emphasis

on it.

A commonly asked question is, “How far back and to what level

of accomplishment should be included on the curriculum vitae?”

The answer is simple: stick to professional activities or awards,

such as working as a research assistant in a biology laboratory.

Your work at a fast food restaurant should be left out.

Provide examples of leadership and professional activities judiciously

Most RPDs will seek out examples of involvement and leadership to

evaluate you. However, do not misinterpret this to mean more is better.

Due to increases in the number of applicants to residencies and number of

available residencies, students mistakenly view the quantity of involvement

as being more relevant than the quality of involvement. In reality, it will be

much more valuable for the program to understand your motivations to

become involved with any particular organization. Therefore, if you have

been with five professional organizations over the course of your PharmD

curriculum, but your level of involvement or roles are unclear or poorly

defined, it will appear less meaningful than if you were involved in two

professional organizations in which you were genuinely interested and

Get the Residency 27

took on a major role (e.g., officer position, organizing chair). Since your

time as a student is finite, you should prioritize activities where your

interest is genuine.

Feature types of presentations separately

Why separate them? In general, we believe most RPDs place a higher value

on presentations and posters given at a professional meeting than on those

presented on a rotation. Therefore, presentations should have their own

heading. Presentations given as part of an introductory pharmacy practice

experience (IPPE) or APPE should be separated out under a subheading

(e.g., IPPE and APPE Presentations). If you have presentations or posters

that were not completed during an IPPE or APPE, they should be separated

under their own subheading (e.g., Professional Meeting Presentations and

Posters). For posters, include each author’s name (last name and first initials)

in the order of authorship. Be sure you boldface your name so that it is

evident that you contributed to the poster. This also helps the reader quickly

identify your place in the project; a touch always appreciated by those

evaluating your CV. Additionally, consider highlighting your contribution

by listing one or two bullet points immediately beneath the poster. If author-

ship was listed by alphabetical order, a bullet stating this may be justified.

The appropriate way to list a professional poster is to include authorship;

title of the poster (not capitalizing all the words in the title); name of the

meeting at which it was presented; the city and state the meeting was held; and

the month and year of the presentation. Appendix A: Preparing Your Curricu-

lum Vitae: Format and Headings has an example of such presentations.

If you had a name change during your education, setting your

name in boldface type is a good way to indicate that this is you.

Be careful when listing publications

Many professional poster presentations at professional meetings will have

the corresponding abstract published in the organization’s journal. Some,

however, are not. If you have a poster that also resulted in an abstract

publication, list this as a poster on the CV as described above. If you have a

published abstract affiliated with a poster, it may be included under a

28 Chapter 2: Developing Your Curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement

Publications heading; however, state so with brackets at the end of the

citation (e.g., [abstract]).

PORTFOLIO (OPTIONAL)

A portfolio is a binder in which you organize a professional copy of all

your pertinent presentations, drug monographs, or journal clubs (e.g.,

given during APPEs), posters, or any other activities during pharmacy

school you may be particularly proud of. Some pharmacy programs

require that you create a portfolio and update it periodically. Even though

it is not a requirement for most programs, some students make one and

take it with them to the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting (MCM) to share

during Personnel Placement Service (PPS) or to their on-site interviews.

The purpose of the portfolio is for RPDs (and anyone else interviewing

you) to view your work and see what you’ve done throughout pharmacy

school. Additionally, portfolios can also be constructed online (often via

software provided by the pharmacy program) and may be shared with

RPDs or other relevant personnel in a more flexible manner.

Please remember that similar to your curriculum vitae, anything

in your portfolio is fair game during the interview process.

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Do not underestimate the value of the PS. The PS is what gives RPDs a hint

of your writing style: basically, it lets them know if your written communi-

cation skills are a strength or a weakness. Therefore, a poor PS can doom

your application. Generally, we encourage students to remember that the

PS is not a creative writing assignment but is intended to show that you

can explain yourself clearly, use correct grammar and punctuation, and

relay a clear message that answers the essay question(s) being asked. With

Pharmacy Online Residency Centralized Application Service (PhORCAS),

you will have the opportunity to personalize and upload your PS.

Get the Residency 29

Do not forget that supplemental materials, such as essays to

proposed questions, should also have proper grammar and

punctuation and relay a clear message.

The PS format is similar to a standard business letter and should be printed

on the same type of paper as your CV. Single-spacing is appropriate, and

each letter should be addressed with the exact name and title of the

individual who is hiring or the name of the RPD. Never send out a letter

addressed to “Dear Sir” or “Dear Program Director.” The general format of

a PS is as follows:

■

First paragraph: Introduce yourself and state the specific position

you are seeking. State what your professional goals are; avoid

being vague. Be specific regarding your goals and future plans.

They may change over the course of your residency, but RPDs

want to interview applicants who say they have a plan and “I hope

to be ….”

■

Second paragraph: Highlight the reasons the RPD or residency

committee should consider you for the position. Address what you

feel are your most important skills, attributes, or past experiences

as they relate to the position you are applying for—do not restate

your CV. If you are applying for a postgraduate year-2 (PGY-2) or

fellowship position, you should state how this additional training

will further your career interests and objectives. This could be a

separate paragraph or included in paragraph two.

■

Third paragraph: Bring closure to the letter and state what you

will do or what you expect the RPD to do. For example, you could

specify that you will wait for them to call and arrange an inter-

view.

Additional Points to Keep in Mind

Avoid cutting and pasting your personal statement

The practice of recycling written work that you’ve prepared for one program

for another program is not recommended as the question(s) being asked may

differ, as will programmatic strengths. Every year, RPDs receive a subset of

30 Chapter 2: Developing Your Curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement

applications where candidates have mistakenly listed wrong institutions’

names in their PS. This lack of attention to detail can make the difference in

whether you are offered an interview or not.

Use proper grammar

Poor use of grammar is another preventable red flag that stands out in the

PS. If you know in advance that you have some difficulties with verb tense

or word choice, have your PS reviewed by a family member or friend and

then proofed a few more times for accuracy prior to submitting your

application. Also, some faculty may be happy to review your written

assignments (e.g., PS, responses to essay questions) and offer suggestions.

It is important to realize that faculty have multiple professional and

personal responsibilities—do not take offense if they are not able to do this

for you. If you are going to seek this type of intensive, focused help from

your faculty, your best chance of success is to approach one you have an

existing rapport with and give them ample time to review your work.

Highlight how program elements fit with your professional goals

How will completion of the residency program fit into your career path? If

you really want to impress the RPD, you can also mention in the PS specific

research being conducted at the institution you are applying to (e.g., “I

talked to applicants from your program and here is what they said…” or

“This impressed me as I’m looking for______in a PGY-1 residency.”). If the

content of supplemental materials (e.g., essays) required by a program

overlaps with some of the content of your PS, view it as an opportunity to

include different elements in your PS that are not already discussed in your

supplemental materials.

Avoid too much personal information

Personal information pertaining to age, relationship status, religion, and

political beliefs should generally be avoided. Your PS and supplemental

materials speak to your professional judgment. If you are communicating

information that is too personal, an RPD may have some reservations. For

example, if an essay question asks you to describe a personal or profession-

al challenge and how you overcame it, it would be more appropriate to

Get the Residency 31

discuss a professional/academic challenge than to discuss challenges from

personal relationships. In some cases, references to personal challenges can

be introduced as part of an essay question, if this is the intent of the essay

question. For example, if an applicant or family member has had experi-

ence with “lack of access to medicine or healthcare,” this may relate to how

you wish to shape pharmacy practice and improve access to medications.

The key is to use this as an opportunity to focus on the professionalism you

gained or maintained in spite of the personal challenge.

Keep it brief

Try to limit your PS/supplemental materials to one page. RPDs seek

applicants who can convey their ideas and points succinctly. Remember:

attention to detail is key.

Promote yourself, but avoid bragging

Your CV highlights all areas of involvement. If you are particularly proud

of certain accomplishments, feature these (maybe the top two) in your PS.

Keep in mind though that you are also trying to integrate how this pro-

gram meets your personal goals and where this fits into your professional

future. It is not about restating your CV.

Set yourself apart

Be yourself. Again, it is important that you do not view the PS as a creative

writing assignment unless otherwise asked to do so. This is also true of any

additional supplemental materials or essays. It is never a good thing to be

too poetic or flowery in your writing style when it comes to a professional

application. Alternatively, a PS that is too generalized is also not strong.

Typically, these come from applicants who try to use a general or similar PS

for several programs. Therefore, if you focus on your strengths and how

that specific program can assist you in your future goals, it should be

unique enough to stand out.

In conclusion, your CV and PS are features of your application that

will determine whether you are invited to interview. Use this chapter’s

recommendations to put yourself in a position to get that invitation.

32 Chapter 2: Developing Your Curriculum Vitae and Personal Statement

KEY LESSONS

■

Keep your curriculum vitae organized using headings and main-

tain a reverse chronological order.

■

Make sure that your curriculum vitae describes your activities and

roles as bullet points as it pertains to research, leadership, ad-

vanced pharmacy practice experiences, work experience, and

community service.

■

Avoid using fancy fonts or paper colors that will distract from

your curriculum vitae or personal statement.

■

Personalize your personal statement and any supplemental

materials by focusing on your strengths.

■

Keep your personal statement to one page.

■

Ask at least two people to review your curriculum vitae or person-

al statement for readability and clarity of content.

■

Start early. Do not wait until a month before residency applications

are due to start your curriculum vitae. If you add to it gradually

over the course of your pharmacy school education, you are

certain to have captured everything.