Resume of the Physician Executive

Although advice about effective resume writing is vast, not much is specific to physician executives making the transition to, or advancing in, medical management. This article is the distillation of more than 20 years of insights gained as a hiring manager who reviewed countless job applications and resumes. I hope readers will find it useful in their quest to create outstanding resumes that garner them interviews.

Work Experience

Physicians who enter the field of management from clinical practice frequently submit long curriculum vitae (CV) replete with details about responsibilities, publications, and grants, with little information on results. Unless one is applying for a position with a pharmaceutical company or an academic institution, a bibliography of publications bears little significance to hiring managers. The resume should focus on work experience.

Applicants for a medical management position should read the job description carefully to determine which of their qualifications align with the position. If alignment is absent or weak, applicants should reconsider applying for the position.

The resume should be short, concise, relevant to the specific position being sought, and customized for each position. Some resume writers advise customization by including specific words from the job description and pertinent to the organization or position to maximize the chance of selection by automated resume screeners.

Customizing each resume can be overwhelming and applicants may be reluctant to eliminate some of their experience. Extensive customization may be unnecessary if resumes emphasize transferrable skills and highlight achievements that are relevant to the target organization and/or position.

Achievements and Employment Summaries

Too many applicants include details of their responsibilities for each job with little or no mention of accomplishments. Recruiters and hiring managers look for achievements that suggest success, but promotion to more senior positions alone does not guarantee an interview. The achievements should be quantifiable, such as a percentage of improvement or change. Monetary values are better stated as proportions or percentages because larger organizations may under-valuate them without such framing.

Resumes should include a brief description of each position held, particularly positions related to the role being sought. A brief overview of each organization and the applicant’s responsibilities provides a context for the accomplishments. Titles and their associated key information are sufficient for most clinical and academic positions, such as Private Practice or Professor of Medicine, if they do not entail relevant management responsibilities and/or are outdated.

Resumes should not include abbreviations that may be unfamiliar or may mean something different in other organizations, such as DM (diabetes mellitus or disease management) or MA (Medicaid or Medicare Advantage).

As a hiring manager, I look for relevant experience along with transferrable skills and potential additional value when identifying candidates to interview. If the position focuses on population health, what accomplishments align with it? If it’s an informatics position, do training, credentials, and proficiency meet the requirements?

Position Titles

Resumes should state titles formally assigned to the applicant by their organizations with a clarification if necessary. For example, some employers use the title Medical Director for the most senior physician executive. An applicant may include a clarification after the formal title — Medical Director (CMO role) — or may clarify the title in the position summary.

Applicants should never embellish resumes with unearned titles such as President and Chief Executive Officer to describe their solo or small-practice experience. One candidate claimed Chief Medical Officer for a role that was simply a liaison with a workgroup. Another listed the title Senior Medical Director and described overseeing a team when the actual title was Medical Director without direct reports.

Credentials and Professional Activities

While pharmaceutical companies and certain other employers look for the long academic CV, most organizations prefer just a few concise pages. Some applicants mix education and training with work experience, or mingle credentials, entity membership, awards, and other items in one section. Reviewing long, confusing resumes takes additional time and can frustrate busy recruiters and hiring managers enough to cause them to reject candidates.

All information should be relevant to medical management. Moving into medical management sometimes entails relocation and requires a different state license. Active and inactive licenses, current board certifications, and medical and other degrees should be listed. The following items do not belong in a medical management resume: AMA Physician Recognition Award, certification in advanced life support, and Drug Enforcement Administration number. Avoid descriptions such as hard working, energetic, excellent communication skills, etc., even when included in the job description.

Attention to Detail

Candidates who provide complete information will be prioritized for potential interviews. Complete information includes employment start and end dates (month, year) in reverse chronological order; candidates who omit the months will (should) be asked for that information during the screening and interviewing process. It is inconvenient to receive a resume with different chronological orders in different sections, or worse, intermingled chronology in the same section. (Yes, it happens!)

Some resumes lack basic contact information such as an email address and a telephone number — an oversight that means lost opportunities. The city and state of residence are relevant because some jobs require relocation or travel. Military service should be noted because many organizations appreciate the leadership skills of veterans and may have special recruitment programs for them.

The resume should be reviewed carefully for accuracy and quality control prior to submission. Applicants should ask a trusted friend or family member to review each version of the resume and highlight typos, grammatical errors, unclear statements, etc. Professional organizations such as the American Association for Physician Leadership provide resume review in addition to career advancement services.

Conclusion

Managing your resume is part of career planning because it is your ambassador to prospective employers. Clarity, consistency, accuracy and brevity throughout the resume make it stand out.