For the medical professional who wants to be able to select among the best jobs, it’s worthwhile to spend some time fine-tuning your LinkedIn profile. Even better, after you’ve got your profile done up all sexy, you can download the whole thing as a resume PDF file. I will show you how.
This post was a request from a reader with whom I just completed a clarity.fm call. I am trying to hit 100 calls, I have plenty of room left. Let me know how I can help you by scheduling that call with me.
Back in the day, LinkedIn was among many websites such as Monster and Doximity which aimlessly collected data but didn’t allow you to do much else with it.
LinkedIn, apparently, has grown up and I was oblivious to it. It is now a legitimate place to make professional connections, look for jobs, consulting gigs, and learn about new trends in your industry.
It’s a free service and fairly easy to navigate. I urge you to visit your LinkedIn profile and start playing around with it, adding in relevant information.
In this post I want to help you build a basic and effective LinkedIn profile and then use it to download a resume.
Creating a Resume
In this section I’ll discuss inputting all the necessary information in order to create a resume. In the next section I’ll discuss how to download that resume.
1. Education Background
For the medical professional’s background the main things to include are medical licenses, board certifications, medical school, and residency information.
One you have your background stuff done, it’s time to put in the juicy shit, your work history.
I wouldn’t bother going back too far. I don’t include all the moonlighting gigs from residency – I don’t think they would add anything to my profile, nor help me land the kind of work I am looking for.
Click on that little pencil in the top right corner and you can edit your profile by adding a photo, a tagline, and adding your phone number, email, and address.
If you’re ugly then I highly recommend having someone take some professional photos of your mug – as I did. Once you’re a baller then apparently you can have a photo of yourself with a tank-top and nobody cares.
Scrolling further down you will see the education section. [Add Education] will allow you to enter your undergrad, medical school, residency, fellowship, and any further training you undertook.
2. Employment History
Employment history [Experience] is easy yet important. What I like about LinkedIn is that when you select an employer, you’ll be automatically connected with others employed by that company.
This helps not only recruiters but it helps you make worthwhile connections down the road.
Previous employers will automatically be moved way down the list in your employment history.
Though employers will show up in your employment history chronologically, you can still move them around strategically by dragging them around.
3. Medical Licenses
It’s important for us to have our professional licenses and state medical licenses included.
To get to this section click on your profile → [Add profile section] → [Accomplishments] → [Certifications].
Patents? Really? Geez.
Privacy Setting
There is a section called [Setting and Privacy] which is located under [Me] in the top right. You can decide for yourself what you are comfortable sharing and with whom.
Allowing people to contact you on LinkedIn is obviously helpful but there is no need for strangers to have your phone number or email.
Downloading Your Resume
Next, we are going to download your resume which you can email to potential employers. As I’ve mentioned before, always include a cover letter with your resume – never by itself.
Click on your profile and then click on [More].
You will see the dropdown menu and an option to [Save to PDF]. It will download everything you have included on LinkedIn into a fairly professional resume.
Further down in the PDF you will see your employment history listed. The grayed out dates indicate that you no longer work at that particular job.