Physician CV, rotations in order.

The order a clinician expects

Medical CVs have a conventional sequence, and departing from it reads as inexperience rather than creativity. Follow it.

• Name, current post, contact, registration number and validity
• Short profile — three or four sentences, with your procedural volume
• Registration and qualifications — PMDC, FCPS, MRCP, FRCP, with years
• Clinical appointments — reverse chronological, with rota and ward size
• Procedural log — counts and supervision level
• Audit and quality improvement
• Teaching and supervision
• Publications and presentations
• Governance, committees and professional bodies

The registration number belongs in the header, not at the bottom. Credentialing happens before assessment, and a CV that makes verification easy moves faster through the process.

Transfer your logbook

The most valuable section of a medical CV is copied almost directly from a document you already maintain, and most applicants never do it.

For every procedure, give the number and the level: independent, supervised, or assistant. Never blur the three. A consultant reading "200 ERCPs" without a level will assume the least favourable interpretation, and will be entitled to.

Round honestly and use approximate signs where appropriate — "~200" is fine and reads as accurate rather than evasive. An exact figure you cannot evidence from the logbook is a liability at interview, where they may simply ask to see it.

Audit: close the loop

Almost every doctor lists an audit. Very few list a re-audit, and the difference is the entire point of the exercise.

A completed audit cycle has four parts and your CV entry should show all of them in one line: what was measured, what the baseline was, what you changed, and what the figure became after the change.

"Antibiotic prescribing compliance, 62% to 84% after introducing a prescribing checklist" is a complete cycle in eleven words. "Conducted an audit on antibiotic prescribing" is an activity with no outcome, and an experienced assessor reads it as an incomplete one.

The strongest version adds what happened afterwards: adopted as unit policy, incorporated into the induction pack, still in use. That is durable change rather than a portfolio entry.

Applying to the Gulf

Medical migration to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar follows conventions that differ from local and Western practice, and getting them wrong delays applications by months.

• Licensing eligibility belongs in the header. DHA, DOH, SCFHS, MOH, QCHP — with the reference number if you hold it, or the stage reached if in progress.
• Dataflow primary source verification status is worth stating if complete. It is a common bottleneck and having it done is a genuine advantage.
• Photograph, nationality, date of birth and passport validity are expected. The same details are inappropriate on a UK, Canadian or Australian application.
• Give experience in years post-registration, since licensing categories are defined that way.
• Two to four pages is normal. There is no expectation of brevity.