Surgeon CV Examples & Writing Guide

This is the first page of a general surgeon's CV, written for an NHS consultant post. The name and hospitals are invented. Notice that GMC registration, Specialist Register entry and FRCS sit in the header, that each post names the hospital type and on-call commitment, and that case numbers appear in the bullets rather than in a separate table.

People search for a "surgeon CV template" expecting one document, but medicine uses two. They are not interchangeable, and sending the wrong one costs you credibility before anyone reads a word.

One rule holds for both: no photo, no date of birth, no marital status. UK employers do not ask for them, and medical staffing will ask you to resend the document without them.

A surgical appointment runs on four questions, and the answers should be findable in under a minute.

• Are you on the Specialist Register, and in what? Write "GMC Specialist Register (General Surgery), CCT 2017; FRCS (Gen Surg) 2016", not just "consultant level". If you are still in training, write "ST8 general surgery, FRCS (Gen Surg) passed 2026, CCT expected August 2027".
• What can you actually do without help? A list of procedures with rough annual volumes answers this. "About 340 cases a year, 78% laparoscopic or robotic" tells a chief more than three paragraphs of duties.
• Will the pre-employment checks be clean? GMC registration with a licence to practise, your last revalidation date, a clear fitness to practise history and an unbroken timeline with months (not just years) all signal a fast file. Gaps with no explanation slow everything down.
• Will you join the on-call rota and fit the department? Say what on-call you do now ("1-in-8 consultant emergency general surgery and trauma"), what setting you work in, and whether you cover trauma, endoscopy or robotics. Departments recruit for the gap in their rota.

“The CVs that move fastest tell me three things on page one: the Specialist Register entry, the licence to practise, and how many cases a year. I've declined strong surgeons because six pages never told me whether they still operate. Put your volume in writing and put it near the top.”

This is the section medical staffing reads line by line. Use full, correct names, include the awarding body, and give dates. Never round a date or write "in progress" without saying what stage you are at.

Two things surgeons often leave out and should not. First, your training programme, region and years, written plainly, because medical staffing checks them. Second, for private practice, your indemnity arrangements and practising privileges, which independent hospitals ask about on the first call anyway.

Most surgeon CVs describe the job. The strong ones describe the practice. Pull your numbers from your eLogbook, the theatre management system, and any national audit or registry your unit reports to (NELA, the National Bariatric Surgery Registry, NBOCA, TARN). Round honestly and say the source when it helps.

A four to five line personal statement at the top saves the reader from hunting. Lead with registration and grade, then subspecialty, then volume, then one number that shows quality or growth. Do not write a career objective unless you are a senior trainee applying for your first consultant post.

A surgeon's "skills" section is a procedure list. Write it the way practising privileges and job plans describe your work, because that is how a hospital will read it. Group by category, put your highest-volume work first, and keep it honest about what you do without a second consultant scrubbed in.

• Core operative procedures, grouped: foregut and bariatric; abdominal wall and hernia; colorectal; hepatobiliary; endocrine; skin and soft tissue; emergency general surgery.
• Approach and platform: open, laparoscopic, robotic (name the platform and the year you gained privileges), endoscopic.
• Critical care and bedside: central and arterial lines, chest drains, bedside tracheostomy, percutaneous gastrostomy, ventilator management if you have critical care training.
• Endoscopy, if you are JAG-accredited: diagnostic gastroscopy, colonoscopy, and roughly how many a year.
• Quality and audit work: NELA, National Bariatric Surgery Registry, NBOCA or TARN data review, morbidity and mortality meeting leadership, mortality review groups.
• Teaching and supervision: core and higher surgical trainees, educational or clinical supervisor roles, robotic or laparoscopic proctoring, simulation teaching, medical student teaching.

You have no consultant practice yet, so your logbook is the evidence. This is the one time a career objective at the top is normal in surgery, because the reader wants to know what you are looking for and when you are available.

1. 1Put your completion date in the header: "General surgery ST8, CCT expected August 2027" or "Post-CCT fellowship in emergency general surgery, completion July 2027". Availability is the first thing a department works out, and you can be interviewed for consultant posts within six months of your CCT date.
2. 2State your exam status precisely. "FRCS (Gen Surg) Section 1 passed January 2026, Section 2 booked" is very different from "FRCS candidate" alone.
3. 3Give your eLogbook totals as primary surgeon, broken down the way your curriculum's indicative numbers are: total operations, basic and advanced laparoscopic, endoscopy, emergency and index procedures. Say the log source.
4. 4List your registration honestly. If you are applying from overseas and your GMC registration is pending, write "GMC registration application submitted September 2026, in process". Departments will time your start date around it.
5. 5Give three references with titles and direct contact details, including your training programme director or educational supervisor. Surgery is a small field and people call.

• Length: two to four pages for a clinical CV, longer only if you have a real publication and grant record. A short CV for a device or management role is one to two pages.
• Order: header with registration and fellowships, personal statement, current and past posts with months and years, education and training, certificates, then publications, presentations, teaching, management, audit and references.
• No photo, no date of birth, no personal details. That is the UK convention, and medical staffing will strip them anyway. UK surgeons traditionally use Mr, Miss or Ms rather than Dr; either is fine in the header.
• Use months in every date. Medical staffing treats a year-only gap as a gap to investigate.
• File format: PDF for recruiters, but keep an editable Word version. NHS Jobs, Trac and agency portals can mangle columns and tables, so avoid two-column layouts and text boxes.
• Mirror the advert's words: "emergency general surgery", "1-in-8 on-call", "on the Specialist Register or within six months of CCT", "robotic", "trauma unit", "day-case", "NELA", "bariatric", "10 PAs", "job plan".

The application systems NHS trusts use are usually simpler than the ones in tech, but they still fail on graphics and columns. Plain headings, standard fonts and a single column read cleanly for both the software and the surgeon who opens the file next.