Building Your Credentials

Building Your Credentials 

Your Curriculum Vitae is not only the “story” of you professional carrier, it is the way that you PROVE that you know what you are talking about.  In the medical-legal world it is how you are “allowed” to testify as an expert and in the medical world it is the reason you are treated like a peer or an outsider.  The idea of a functioning and living CV has eluded chiropractic as a profession and chiropractors as individuals for a very long time.  We are not required to have one to enter internship, so many DCs never create one.   That is a barrier to cooperative spine care and in today’s environment it can create a delay in building a relationship in the medical community long enough for someone else to move in.  There are a few important items to keep in mind regarding your CV that I want you to think about daily.

1:  It is NOT a resume…a resume is for job applications, not professional expertise.   If you are looking to market yourself as an EXPERT you need to make sure that you are the EXPERT.  Your CV has to show that you have professional post-graduate work in your area of expertise.  Otherwise where did you get your knowledge?  Did you make it up?  Do you just THINK that you are an expert?  Pick the direction that you want to head in your carrier and then SPEND YOUR CE MONEY building those credentials.  If you want to be a sports doctor, don’t spend your CE time and money taking nutrition courses.  BE THE BEST.

2:  It is a living document and it should be updated regularly, especially when you return from a seminar or other post-graduate training.  It should be placed into a hard copy Word document and also be updated at www.uschirodirectory.com, which is the only chiropractic directory that has a CV builder.  I work with hundreds of doctors across the nation and the most frustrating project in the world is to go back through all your training to update you CV!

3:  Seminars that you attend should be giving you a proper CV entry based on the information that you had learned.  You should have a specific CV entry for each portion of your CE seminars.  If you are not given that information you can work with me to craft the proper entry for your CV.

4:  There will be high points to your CV which will set you apart; these include professorships, research credentials or specialty board certifications.  Those things should be listed on your letterhead and should be showcased in your reception area as well as your business cards.   I have both of my teaching appointments on my letterhead, which is important since your documents are the #1 source

5:  If you NEVER met YOURSELF and the only thing that you had to reference as a prospective MD looking to refer to YOU was YOUR CV would you refer to YOU???   If your answer is yes, then keep up the good work, if you are like the other 99.4% of the chiropractic profession and the answer is no, get started immediately!   Only YOU have control over your CV, once you get it caught up, you can delegate the continued maintenance to your staff.  That is the easy part.  The most difficult part is simply getting started!