Add "Interests" category to your CV??

[kdburton]

I know orthopods are stereotyped as being jocks etc, so would it be beneficial to have an additional line on our CV that includes activities we participate in outside of academia/professional life? Clearly you want PDs to get a sense of who you are as a person in addition to who you'd be as a resident in their program, so what is everyones' take on adding in something like "avid snowboarder" or "avid golfer" yadda yadda as a quick one-line addition to our CV?

[BoneDiddly]

Absolutely! Many of my interviews were just talking about my outside interests I listed. I even went as far as to put wine tasting on there. One friend going into rads put "talking about Lost" as one of his interests and people ate it up. Matching is as much about a personality fit as it is about qualifications.

[kdburton]

Absolutely! Many of my interviews were just talking about my outside interests I listed. I even went as far as to put wine tasting on there. One friend going into rads put "talking about Lost" as one of his interests and people ate it up. Matching is as much about a personality fit as it is about qualifications.

Haha thats pretty hilarious. Anyone else care to comment on their experiences (positive or negative) with this? I've noticed a million people have looked at the thread already, but just one response

[okin]

Definately put that stuff on there. I had countless interviews where we talked about those activities, including several interviews at the program I matched at. I sometimes felt the interviewers asked me about the activities which I thought was to make sure I wasn't bs'ing on my cv and that I was normal. Just don't put anything up you can't back up.

[TheBadger]

The interests section of my CV was the part of my application most consistently talked about across all of my interviews. Definitely put it in.

[kdburton]

Can you guys cite some examples of stuff you'd put on there? I don't want to go overboard, but I like the idea of ending my CV with some funny/witty things tied in. I thought the "tallking about Lost" comment was pretty hilarious, althought that would only go over well if the interviewer knew what Lost was and had a sense of humor. I'm an avid snoboarder and like to go camping/fishing/hunting or basically do anything outdoors. You guys just listing stuff off or do you somehow go in depth with these activities?

[OsteogenesisPerfecta]

Don't put stuff on that part of your app just to fill space... You run the risk of running into an attending who is an expert on the subject who may love talking about his hobby. For instance, if you say you love fly fishing and you end up with an attending who goes fly fishing for every vacation, yet you can't tell him anything about the sport bc you went once, on a guided tour, and basically just did what the fishing guide told you... well then you're hosed and look like a doofus. DON'T PUT ANYTHING ON THERE YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT INTELLIGIBLY AND WITH SOME SORT DETAILED UNDERSTAND OF. Another thing... i heard of a ton of applicants put "cooking" as an interest. That's great if you're like a culinary artist, but if you cook for subsistence and they ask you, "so what do you like to cook?" and you respond "chicken breasts on the Foreman... oh yeahhhh, protein baby!" again you'll look like a doofus. Now, if your parents own a restaurant and you were a sous-chef part-time or to make extra $, then maybe you can put cooking on your app. Get it?

[kdburton]

Don't put stuff on that part of your app just to fill space... You run the risk of running into an attending who is an expert on the subject who may love talking about his hobby.

Understood. My question is more or less how to put things on your application in the "interests/activities" section that you ACTUALLY do and want to talk about rather than just fill space. For example: I've been snowboarding for ~15 years now (since before it was allowed at some resorts in the Rockies). Although I'm not the best snowboarder in the world - mostly because I've been busy with a lot of other things in my life - I gurantee that I'm going to know as much if not a lot more than anyone I come across on interviews. For someone who may not be familiar with snowboarding or doesn't really care about it that much I'm basically trying to think of ways to spice it up on my CV such that it has a shot at being a topic of discussion. If I just list "avid snowboarder" after a bullet point people aren't going to care a lot and it may seem like I don't even care that much about it. Being that this is probably the only pre-interview medium (outside of your personal statement and LORs) that you could potentially get someone to know something about the "real you" beyond your grades and board scores I thought it would be good to expand upon or spice up the activities/interest section rather than just listing them after bullets.

[OsteogenesisPerfecta]

Dude! Stop over thinking everything. That will kill you in this process. Put on there that you've been snowboarding since the birth of the sport or something. Seriously, relax, put whatever sounds good to you and go for it. You'll be fine and people will appreciate the candor.

[okin]

just put 'snowboarding' and they'll ask you about the rest. there's much more important stuff to worry about, such as getting ready for your aways.

[kdburton]

Dude! Stop over thinking everything. That will kill you in this process. Put on there that you've been snowboarding since the birth of the sport or something. Seriously, relax, put whatever sounds good to you and go for it. You'll be fine and people will appreciate the candor.

I'm relaxed - trust me... Theres no harm in thinking through the intricacies that may make a difference in the end, especially when I have the time do it it like right now. I went to business school before medical school and we had entire courses devoted to preparing a resume that "jumps out" and ways to impress interviewers with the limited time you get in an interview. I gurantee the same type of thing will apply for residency interviews. I'm sure you've read articles about the same thing written by two different authors and realized that one author somehow was able to engage you much better than the other. Well the same thing goes for your CV and your personal statement. I'm just asking for people to reply if they found any creative ways to beef up the non-academic portion of their CV which ended up working in their favor, so if you don't have anything constructive to add to the conversation then don't reply to the thread

[bbones]

I would list anything that you think a fellow ortho surgeon would be into. Sports, outdoors stuff, cars, etc. I also put my wife and dog on there, including their names. I can't tell you how many people asked about my dog (by name). So they do read it.

[OsteogenesisPerfecta]

Dude! Stop over thinking everything. That will kill you in this process. Put on there that you've been snowboarding since the birth of the sport or something. Seriously, relax, put whatever sounds good to you and go for it. You'll be fine and people will appreciate the candor.

I'm relaxed - trust me... Theres no harm in thinking through the intricacies that may make a difference in the end, especially when I have the time do it it like right now. I went to business school before medical school and we had entire courses devoted to preparing a resume that "jumps out" and ways to impress interviewers with the limited time you get in an interview. I gurantee the same type of thing will apply for residency interviews. I'm sure you've read articles about the same thing written by two different authors and realized that one author somehow was able to engage you much better than the other. Well the same thing goes for your CV and your personal statement. I'm just asking for people to reply if they found any creative ways to beef up the non-academic portion of their CV which ended up working in their favor, so if you don't have anything constructive to add to the conversation then don't reply to the thread

A) I've matched at a very top program
B) I did something right on my ERAS bc I got almost every interview
C) I'm trying to help you

Lastly, if you have a master's level education in beefing up resumes, why are you posting on a silly forum about how to beef up your resume? I'm sure you can find a more authoratative wikipedia article than what you'll find on here...

[kdburton]

Give me a break man, you're obvioulsy reading too much into my post because your reply doesn't take anything away from what I've said. Again, ignore the "silly" thread if you're not going to add anything useful.

[kdburton]

FWIW I should have clarified about the business school thing... I went to a highly regarded undergrad business program. I don't have years of experience under my belt if that was the way it was interpreted.