If you’ve got what it takes to support patients with mental health conditions and guide them through therapy, your skills could be in high demand right now.
But in order to prove you’ve got the relevant experience and qualifications, you need a carefully crafted CV, and we can help you to create just that.
Check out our top writing tips below, along with a psychiatrist CV example to help shape your own.
|
Psychiatrist CV example
Use this CV example as a guide to formatting and structuring your Psychiatrist CV, so that busy recruiters can easily digest your information and determine your suitability for the role.
It also provides some insight into the key skills, experience and qualifications you need to highlight.
Psychiatrist CV format and structure
Hiring managers and recruiters are frequently overloaded with applications, and if they can’t identify the relevant information in your CV within a few seconds, your application may be overlooked.
To avoid this, it’s essential to format and structure your CV in a manner that makes it simple to pick out the most important information, even if the reader is in a rush.
Tips for formatting your Psychiatrist CV
- Length: While there’s no ‘official’ CV length rule, the majority of recruiters agree that less is more. Aim for two pages of A4 or less. This is just enough room to showcase your suitability to the role, without overwhelming recruiters with irrelevant or excessive content.
- Readability: By clearly formatting your section headings (bold, or a different colour font, do the trick) and breaking up big chunks of text into snappy bullet points, time-strapped recruiters will be able to skim through your CV with ease.
- Design & format: It’s generally best to stick to a simple CV design, as funky or elaborate designs rarely add any value to your application. A clear, modern font and a subtle colour scheme work perfectly and allow your skills, experience and achievements to speak for themselves.
- Photos: You can add a profile photo to your CV, if you want to add some personality to it, but they are not a requirement the UK, so you don’t have to.
Quick tip: Creating a professional CV style can be difficult and time-consuming when using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. To create a winning CV quickly, try our quick-and-easy CV Builder and use one of their eye-catching professional CV templates.
CV structure
To make it easy for busy recruiters and hiring managers to digest your CV, divide the content into several key sections when writing it:
- Contact details: Always list your contact details at the very top to avoid them being missed.
- Profile: Start with an introductory paragraph that catches recruiters’ attention and summarises your offerings.
- Work experience/career history: List your relevant work experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current position.
- Education: Provide a concise summary of your education and qualifications.
- Interests and hobbies: You can include an optional section to showcase any hobbies that demonstrate transferable skills.
Now you understand the basic layout of a CV, here’s what you should include in each section of yours.
Contact Details
Make it easy for recruiters to get in touch, by heading your CV with your contact details.
There’s no need for excessive details – just list the basics:
- Mobile number
- Email address – Use a professional address with no nicknames.
- Location – Just write your general location, such as ‘London’ or ‘Cardiff’ – there’s no need to put your full address.
- LinkedIn profile or portfolio URL
Psychiatrist CV Profile
Grab the reader’s attention by kick-starting your CV with a powerful profile (or personal statement, if you’re a junior applicant).
This is a short introduction paragraph which summarises your skills, knowledge and experience.
It should paint you as the perfect match for the job description and entice recruiters to read through the rest of your CV.
How to write a good CV profile:
- Make it short and sharp: The best CV profiles are short, sharp and highly relevant to the target role. For this reason, it’s best to write 3-4 lines of high-level information, as anything over might be missed.
- Tailor it: No matter how much time you put into your CV profile, it won’t impress if it’s irrelevant to the role you’re applying for. Before you start writing, make a list of the skills, knowledge and experience your target employer is looking for. Then, make sure to mention them in your CV profile and throughout the rest of your application.
- Don’t add an objective: Career goals and objectives are best suited to your cover letter, so don’t waste space with them in your CV profile.
- Avoid generic phrases: If your CV is riddled with clichès like “Dynamic thought-leader”, hit that delete button. Phrases like these are like a broken record to recruiters, who read them countless times per day. Hard facts, skills, knowledge and results are sure to yield far better results.
Example CV profile for Psychiatrist
What to include in your Psychiatrist CV profile?
- Experience overview: Demonstrate your suitability for your target jobs by giving a high level summary of your previous work work experience, including the industries you have worked in, types of employer, and the type of roles you have previous experience of.
- Targeted skills: Highlight your skills which are most relevant to Psychiatrist jobs, to ensure that recruiters see your most in-demand skills as soon as they open your CV.
- Important qualifications: If the job postings require specific qualifications, it is essential to incorporate them in your profile to ensure visibility to hiring managers.
Quick tip: If you are finding it difficult to write an attention-grabbing CV profile, choose from hundreds of pre-written profiles across all industries, and add one to your CV with one click in our quick-and-easy CV Builder. All profiles are written by recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset.
Core skills section
Create a core skills section underneath your profile to spotlight your most in-demand skills and grab the attention of readers.
This section should feature 2-3 columns of bullet points that emphasise your applicable skills for your target jobs. Before constructing this section, review the job description and compile a list of any specific skills, specialisms, or knowledge required.
Important skills for your Psychiatrist CV
Clinical Assessment – Conducting comprehensive assessments of patients, including gathering medical history, performing mental status examinations, and diagnosing mental health conditions.
Psychopharmacology – Prescribing and managing psychiatric medications, understanding their mechanisms of action, potential side effects, and drug interactions.
Psychotherapy – Utilising various forms of psychotherapy, such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), and interpersonal therapy (IPT), to tailor treatment plans to individual patients.
Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis – Accurately diagnosing mental health disorders and distinguishing between similar conditions through careful evaluation and consideration of symptoms.
Risk Assessment – Assessing and managing the risk of self-harm, harm to others, or psychiatric emergencies, and developing safety plans when necessary.
Crisis Intervention – Providing immediate mental health support and intervention during psychiatric crises or emergencies, including suicidal ideation or acute psychosis.
Evidence-Based Practice – Staying up to date with the latest research and evidence-based treatments in the field of psychiatry and integrating this knowledge into clinical practice.
Cultural Competence – Providing culturally sensitive care and adapting treatment approaches to meet the unique needs and backgrounds of diverse patient populations.
Electronic Health Records (EHR) – Using electronic health record systems for accurate and secure documentation of patient information, treatment plans, and progress notes.
Collaborative Care – Collaborating effectively with other healthcare professionals, including psychologists, social workers, nurses, and primary care physicians, to ensure comprehensive patient care.
Quick tip: Our quick-and-easy CV Builder has thousands of in-demand skills for all industries and professions, that can be added to your CV in seconds – This will save you time and ensure you get noticed by recruiters.
Work experience
Next up is your work experience section, which is normally the longest part of your CV.
Start with your current (or most recent) job and work your way backwards through your experience.
Can’t fit all your roles? Allow more space for your recent career history and shorten down descriptions for your older roles.
Structuring each job
The structure of your work experience section can seriously affect its impact.
This is generally the biggest section of a CV, and with no thought to structure, it can look bulky and important information can get lost.
Use my 3-step structure below to allow for easy navigation, so employers can find what they are looking for:
Outline
Begin with a summary of your role, detailing what the purpose of your job was, who you reported to and what size of team you were part of (or led).
Key responsibilities
Using easy-to-read bullet points, note down your day-to-day responsibilities in the role.
Make sure to showcase how you used your hard sector skills and knowledge.
Key achievements
To finish off each role and prove the impact you made, list 1-3 stand out achievements, results or accomplishments.
This could be anything which had a positive outcome for the company you worked for, or perhaps a client/customer. Where applicable, quantify your examples with facts and figures.
Sample job description for Psychiatrist CV
Outline
Play a vital role as a core member of the psychotherapy team at a large private clinic in Bath, delivering comprehensive psychiatric care to adult patients with acute and chronic mental health conditions.
Key Responsibilities
- Conduct regular psychotherapy sessions using evidence-based modalities such as dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) or cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Design and implement tailored treatment plans, incorporating a blend of psychotherapeutic interventions and medication management
- Deliver evidence-based interventions and crisis intervention services
- Collaborate closely with psychologists, social workers, and nurses to ensure holistic care
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our quick-and-easy CV Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education section
Next up, you should list your education and qualifications.
This can include your formal qualifications (a degree, A-Levels and GCSEs), as well as sector-specific Psychiatrist qualifications and/or training.
While school leavers and recent grads should include a lot of detail here to make up for the lack of work experience, experienced candidates may benefit from a shorter education section, as your work experience section will be more important to recruiters.
Hobbies and interests
The hobbies and interests CV section isn’t mandatory, so don’t worry if you’re out of room by this point.
However, if you have an interesting hobby, or an interest that could make you seem more suitable for the role, then certainly think about adding.
Be careful what you include though… Only consider hobbies that exhibit skills that are required for roles as a Psychiatrist, or transferable workplace skills.
There is never any need to tell employers that you like to watch TV and eat out.
An interview-winning CV for a Psychiatrist role, needs to be both visually pleasing and packed with targeted content.
Whilst it needs to detail your experience, accomplishments and relevant skills, it also needs to be as clear and easy to read as possible.
Remember to research the role and review the job ad before applying, so you’re able to match yourself up to the requirements.
If you follow these guidelines and keep motivated in your job search, you should land an interview in no time.
Best of luck with your next application!