I’d like to share a piece of advice that I found to be very valuable as a first year pharmacy student…
In one of my first year professional development seminars I was presented with information on how to develop a professional curriculum vitiate (CV). Only being familiar with a traditional resume before this class, I was a bit surprised about the average number of pages/sections that was expected for us to have on our CVs by our PY4 year in order to be competitive for residency and jobs. Being a well-rounded pharmacy student is a lot of work! The presentation outlined things that were typical sections on a pharmacy student’s CV such as education, APPE rotations, IPPE rotations, work experience, professional organization membership and involvement, leadership experience, service, teaching experience, research, presentations, publications, honors and awards, and licensure and certification.
After the seminar we were given time to start working on our CVs. A few weeks later we turned in a copy of our first CV as a pharmacy student and then received feedback on the content/format of our CVs from faculty at the college.
One piece of advice given to me by one of my professors was this – Now that you have made a draft of your first CV as a pharmacy student, carefully reflect on your strengths and weaknesses and the overall experiences that you have had throughout your first year. Do you feel like a well-rounded student? Is this the curriculum vitiate you would want to send out to residency programs or employers after graduation? How can you continue to grow as a professional throughout your time as a student? You have plenty of time to do so!
As a third year pharmacy student about to start rotations in May I am really glad that I took this message to heart by really taking time to reflect on my experiences thus far and how I could grow. Realizing that I had no research experience at this time, I made it a goal to reach out to faculty members and inquire about how I could get involved in research. I also realized that I wanted to work on my experience in teaching so I looked for ways to get involved in tutoring and mentoring younger students, and the result of this new involvement also lead me to sign up for a teaching rotation.
In writing this piece and sharing this piece of advice with younger students, I am certainly not advocating for students to just look for opportunities to “fill up” their CVs. Rather, look for new experiences that will help you continue to grow and become a well-rounded healthcare professional. Now is the time to start reflecting on how you can work on some of your weaknesses and continue to foster your strengths!