Beat Medical Blog

23 things NOT to put on your CV - Resume writing for doctors, Part 1

Posted by Beat Medical

This is Part One of a two part series on CV/resume writing for doctors. Follow us on twitter to receive article updates and job alerts.

Is my resume ok? Is it what is expected?

We hear from many doctors who work with us as locums, or those who are wishing to work in the Australian medical system that they are not confident about their CV. They fear it is too long, too short, in the wrong format, the wrong font, doesn’t include the right information, or is not what is expected in Australia.

For the most part, their fear is well founded.

Having recruited to a number of different professions, I can say with absolute confidence that medical CVs are among the very worst I have every seen. Somehow, amazingly, many doctor’s CVs seem to really hit every mark of ‘what not to do’. Rest assured, though, that it is certainly a problem you can fix.

Why is it so?

The short answer is ‘market forces’. Did you need to supply a CV to get an intern job? No.

When you applied for your next job as an RMO/HMO, did it really matter what your CV looked like? Probably not - there were plenty of jobs.

There is a huge surplus of medical jobs in Australia, so by necessity, you haven’t had to learn the skill of writing a CV. Just a few years ago, you could most likely get a locum job with half a CV written on the back of a banana leaf.

What has changed?


Slowly, the medical employment market is becoming more competitive, and regulated. Many colleges are not increasing the amount of training places available and most employers are heavily formalising selection and employment of locums, even for short term jobs.

There is now a need to really master the skill of getting your CV right.

What not to do, in a nutshell

First, forget everything you learnt at school about writing CVs. It was a waste of time.

Second, never include any of these items in your CV. You may laugh at some of these, but most of them we see every single day on resumes, some are rarer - but are real examples of what I have personally seen.

1. Photograph
2. Marital status
3. Health status
4. Hobbies or interests
5. Details of children
6. Any paragraph longer than 40 words
7. Sporting achievements
8. Anything negative
9. Anything untrue
10. Your race or colour
11. Date of birth
12. Referees names and contact details (Why? Because you want to control access to your referees)
13. Religion
14. Political affiliations
15. Height or weight
16. Weird or offensive email addresses (such as hotpants69@sexylady.com)
17. Irrelevant jobs
18. Irrelevant education
19. Salary/income expectations
20. Anything spelt incorrectly
21. Irrelevant rants about your life, travel, desires, etc
22. Lists of every single procedure you have ever done, or considered doing in your life
23. Detailed background of your Medicare fraud activities

There are some exceptions to these rules - for example, when an employer or college specifically asks for certain information to be included.

Your homework

Open up your CV right now, identify anything that should not be in there, and delete it. For some of you, you may have only a blank page left!  You now have an excellent starting point to a killer CV.

The next part in this series will be about putting your CV back together to build a Killer CV- what should be in there, why you must have more than one version of your CV, and why there is no ‘best’ resume template/format.

Doctors dissatisfied with their workplaces turning to locum work

Posted by Beat Medical

It may not come along as a surprise to many, but according to a recent survey conducted by Beat Medical, the major reason for undertaking locum work is "dissatisfaction with the health system in my state".

Although we thought that "dissatisfaction" may be a major factor in the decision to become a locum, we also thought other reasons such as financial advantage, flexibility, travel, etc would come out on top in the list of reasons.

In some locations around Australia, doctors are rising up to take back control of their work - even to the extent of threatening to resign en masse. Recently, the ABC reported that VMOs in one hospital in QLD said they would walk out the doors in response to deteriorating standards, and the lack of employment agreements for over 18 months.

This type of situation is what is commonly reported to us by candidates working with Beat Medical as locums in emergency, general practice, anaesthetics, intensive care, and orthopaedics. Similar problems seem to extend to doctors working in all of the specialty areas we work with.

Based on our survey, the top 5 reasons for doctors working in locum positions are:

1. Dissatisfaction with the health system in my state
2. I am "trying before I buy" with potential employers
3. I am deciding on a specialty
4. Dissatisfaction with my current role
5. To supplement my regular income


Some interesting results - what are your thoughts? Click on Comments below.

National medical registration update - some progress, but not enough

Posted by Beat Medical

In an article last month on the new national medical registration roll-out we reported that the Medical Board of Australia was struggling with demand, and have put on extra staff to deal with the issues reported by doctors, agencies and employers around Australia.

We are pleased to report that there has been some progress - phones are being answered, there are new, relevant forms available on the website, and they seem to be processing applications. Following a comprehensive letter from a group of key medical recruitment agencies (under the auspices of AMRANZ), the Board has replied to our concerns and will be meeting with representatives from medical recruitment agencies this month.

However, as the Board will not agree to provide timeframes for processing of applications, unfortunately only time will tell how long it will take to process a new application for medical registration. Another issue which is not yet resolved is the one remaining rogue state - Western Australia - which still stands apart from the national registration scheme until some time in October 2010.

Tell us about your experience with the Board, by clicking on Comments below.

Why traditional medical recruitment advertising is like beating your head against a wall, and burning money

Posted by Beat Medical

As medical recruiters, we often hear variations of the same stories from our clients, who come to us after months (sometimes, years) of unsuccessful recruitment:

"I was advertising in Australian doctor, but the applications were no good"
"I had an ad on the division website, but didn't get any resumes"
"We had the job listed with a number of agencies, but didn't get any results"

It is no wonder that in the age of Facebook, Google, and Twitter that traditional advertising is just not working anymore. Think about it - when was the last time you posted an ad, and got a bunch of great applications from doctors?

As an agency specialising in recruiting doctors, we wouldn't ever dream of running a traditional advertising campaign. Not only is it a waste of time, it is like burning money. The solution to this problem is running specific marketing campaigns aimed a so many different media that it creates an overwhelming amount of attention in what you are "selling".

Imagine that GP Practice A decided to run ads through a popular medical publication, and put postings on the division and RACGP website. They sit on these for a few months, hoping that a recruitment miracle will happen. It never happens, and they speak to every agency under the sun. After 12 months, still no doctor.

What has happened in this scenario is that the marketing effort has been concentrated into the local market that doesn't want to move - Australian GPs are an extremely immobile workforce. Unfortunately, just because GP Practice A wants an Aussie-trained FRACGP, it doesn't mean it is going to happen.

The clinic across the road, GP Practice B, ran a more aggressive campaign - promoting the position on social media, relevant international medical employment websites, Google ads, large ads in GP journals in the UK and Ireland, and sent direct mail to the homes and offices of doctors overseas, and used a referral program for other doctors to promote the position for them.

The response isn't instant, but within months, Practice B have a list of qualified candidates ready to move to Australia immediately, within 6 months, and over the next few years. There is a cost to a more aggressive campaign - in both time and money. However, given the greater quality of the candidates, the continuous future stream of candidates, and the fact that the they have started a sustainable recruitment process, there is incredible value in what they have done.

It is clear that traditional advertising just doesn't work, recruitment miracles are just as likely to happen as snow at Christmas in Darwin! By considering a different approach, you will increase your recruitment throughput to levels you would have not previously imagined.

Beat Medical has a solution for Aggressive Medical Recruitment Marketing, which - compared to the DIY approach will save you both time and money. Of course, as part of the package, we take care of the back end - medical registration, visa, provider number, and so on. We will run a very tailored campaign for your practice which will find you a quality candidate faster, with the added value of over 10 years of medical recruitment expertise.

Until 20th August 2010, we are offering a 100% money back guarantee that we will find you a doctor through our Aggressive Marketing Package.  Contact us for a proposal today.

National medical registration system struggling with demand from doctors, agencies, employers in Australia

Posted by Beat Medical

Following criticism levelled by doctors, medical recruiters, and employers, the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) is reporting that they are increasing their capacity.

After failing to respond to enquiries, poor response times, lack of available documentation, and serious mistakes when transferring information about practitioners to the new national database, AHPRA has advised that they are taking action on the emergent issues.

Representatives of the Board have said that: "AHPRA’s focus continues to be on boosting our enquiry response capacity and bedding down our IT systems. By early next week, we will have doubled the number of enquiries staff whose sole priority is to respond effectively to enquiries, in a timely way[...]".

As a medical recruitment and locum agency, we are very concerned that there will be serious after-effects from the lack of preparedness that the Board has shown in the roll-out of national medical registration. Not only are the phones left unanswered, the Board has failed to provide key forms, policies, and documentation to enable us to place doctors where they are needed as quickly as we usually do.

As members of the Association of Medical Recruitment Australia and New Zealand (AMRANZ), Beat Medical are contributing to assisting the MBA to bring their service to the standard expected by the healthcare industry, and the Australian public.

As an AMRANZ councillor, Beat Medical Director Shaun Hughston is playing a key role in exerting pressure on the MBA to meet the immediate demands of medical employment in Australia. We wish to assure our clients and candidates that we are the forefront of addressing the key concerns and issues surrounding the very tenuous implementation of national registration.

Have you had a problem with the new national Medical Board of Australia? Let us know... click on "Comments" below.

Electronic medical records - is it all going wrong?

Posted by Beat Medical

With electronic media so much part of our everyday life, isn't it logical that our medical records are kept electronically?

The benefits of electronic medical records (EMR) are huge - instant access to records, information sharing, standardisation, integration of systems, and so on. Some say that EMR will revolutionise healthcare.

So, why is it that as a medical recruitment and locum agency, we hear so many complaints about EMR? We hear that the systems are slow, and inaccessible. People tell us that they discourage patient and collegial interaction. Some say that the NSW government has not invested enough in the system, and has 'gone cheap'.

It is unlikely that the system with backpedal on EMR, so what can be done right now to change where things are heading?

Let us know your thoughts....  Click on 'comments' below to have your say

Jayant Patel found guilty, but who else is to blame?

Posted by Beat Medical

Yesterday, Jayant Patel, the Bundaberg surgeon accused of gross negligence was found guilty of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm.

Appeals will most likely commence from here, but for the families of his victims, it will hopefully be some resolution.

Alongside the news on the case in the media, this article in The Australian was published today. Tony Morris highlights that there are two issues at play in the case - that of Patel's incompetence and the subsequent deaths, and that of the process that enabled him to work unsupervised as the Director of Surgery in a regional QLD hospital.

It was a complex case, with a number of contributing factors. There were so many preventable events that took place before his employment that it is almost impossible to imagine how Patel was granted registration in the first place:

-the recruitment agency did not adequately check the documentaiton
-the medical board did not complete the requisite checks, and granted registration
-the hospital appointed Patel to a position outside of the scope of his medical registration
-there was internal pressure against the 'whistleblower', who brought matters to the attention of the health service


It is absolutely the responsibility of each person in the medical recruitment process to ensure that they scrutinise, and question the veracity of CV's, references, professional documents. If something feels out of place, dig. If it still feels out of place, keep digging.

It is human to be blinded by pressure to find a doctor for shift, position, or job - and create a false gap between what you actually see, and what you want to see. It is the individual responsibility of us all in this industry to speak up if something is not right, and unless you are completely satisfied of a medical professional's competence and background - do not give them the job.

Consider the deaths of Patel's patients, and their families - who have felt the deepest cut of his behaviour and the omissions of his employers. It is up to administrators and recruiters to work towards preventing this from happening ever again.

The medical recruitment company involved dismissed a staff member, and most likely felt a level of corporate shock they never will again. The health service and the medical board were held to account, and a whistleblower's life and career still stands deeply affected by the events.

We ask the same question Tony Morris asks: should there have been other people in the dock?

Click on 'comments' below to have your say

Medical indemnity insurance - why it is a must for working as a doctor in Australia

Posted by Beat Medical

A phrase we hear every day from locum doctors and doctors looking for jobs is: why do I need medical indemnity insurance? I thought the hospital provides cover...it's in my contract...

It may well be the case, but there are a number of good reasons why you need to have your own medical indemnity insurance cover. This is best illustrated with a scenario:

Dr X is working as a locum in Bigtown Hospital Emergency department, and sees a patient for a simple, minor presentation. Dr X treats the patient according to protocols, and common sense - but the patient returns to the ED the next day with serious complications, which appear to be as a result of the treatment provided by Dr X. The patient says they are going to sue the hospital, make a complaint to the HCCC, and go to the media about the shoddy treatment they received.

The hospital conducts its own investigation and finds that Dr X did not follow the latest protocol, and that Dr X is at fault. They suspend Dr X pending the HCCC investigation, and write a letter to the Medical Board, informing them of the situation.


Dr X is obviously going to be in a difficult situation here - his reputation is already damaged, the hospital is distancing themselves from him, and he may have to face the legal costs of fronting the HCCC, the Medical Board, and of course - the court case. Although the hospital may indeed be found negligent - Dr X may be stung with contributory negligence if it is found that he did not follow the protocols and policies of the hospital.

Medical indemnity insurance can provide a serious safety net in terms of:

-legal advice and representation
-underwriting in cases of negligence
-expert advocacy

When choosing a policy, it is important to speak with the insurer to understand what the right cover for you is. If you are working as an independent contractor on an ABN, it is very important to let the insurer know so that you can be covered appropriately. Also let them know about any significant changes in your scope of practice, employer, locum work, or anything else that you think might effect your insurance.

If you doubt the value of medical indemnity insurance, the key question you need to ask yourself is "Can I count on my hospital/employer to be my advocate when the worst happens?". The answer is "probably not" in most cases.

This article is intended as broad discussion only, and not as advice on any legal matters, particular product, or service. For advice on medical indemnity matters, speak with your insurer or legal adviser.


Have you ever had an experience which demonstrated the value of medical indemnity insurance? Tell us about it!

Living tropical - an alternative lifestyle as a GP

Posted by Beat Medical

There are so many options for where to live and work as a doctor in Australia that it can be a bit of an overwhelming choice.

As an overseas trained general practitioner, you are generally restricted to working in a regional or rural area of Australia. Although this might mean being some distance from a capital city like Sydney or Melbourne, it opens the door to a much higher quality of living.

In this article, I am going to focus on Townsville - which is in Queensland. Although there are some similar cities around Australia, Townsville has the enviable quality of having over 300 days of sunshine in the year, and is directly across from Magnetic Island, one of the most spectacular natural retreats in Australia.

Being in a regional area doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice education and lifestyle- with the best in public and private schools, a large international university (which has an excellent medical school and world-class school of tropical medicine), amazing sporting facilities, and easy childcare it is truly the best of both worlds. If you do need a fix of the 'big city', there are regular flights to Brisbane and Sydney, as well as flights north to Cairns which go onward to Bali and beyond.

In comparison to the larger cities, drive time to work is a maximum of 30 minutes (the more common average being 5-15 minutes), crime rates are relatively low, and you get a sense of being part of a community. The best part is you can enjoy your time away from work with proximity to the coastline (within sailing distance of the Great Barrier Reef), and myriad sporting and recreational facilities.

If you don't enjoy warm weather, and a relaxed lifestyle, Townsville is most likely not for you. Otherwise, consider going tropical!


At the moment, we have a number of GP positions available in a rapidly growing area of Townsville.

Nearly national medical registration?

Posted by Beat Medical

A bane of most locum doctors' existence is the lack of a national medical registration system. Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel, with the formation of the new Medical Board of Australia, and national registration on 1st July 2010.

Many doctors will have already received a letter outlining the new system, and what you need to do next. There are some changes, with greater responsibility placed on the individual doctor to keep up their CME, undertake criminal history checks, and more. The actual registration fee remains unknown.

So, why is it nearly national registration? At the moment, there are three dissenting states - Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania - who have not passed the required legislation to make the national registration happen. Until this is completed, the national system will be rolled out to some states, but not the dissenting ones. If you are not registered in one of those rogue states, and you wish to be, you will still need to apply for mutual recognition.

When will true national registration happen? Your guess is as good as ours. We hope it happens sooner rather than later - with nationally mobile doctors in locum work across Australia, it is almost ridiculous that they need to go through a complex, paperwork laden process just to work in another Australian state.

What do you think about it? Let us know your thoughts...