Brush up your medical CV in 5 easy steps

Is your medical CV giving you acute hypertension? Lower your stress levels by following our hacks on how to write that perfect medical CV!

England is facing a shortage of medical workers. In March 2024, there were over 8,000 medical vacancies in secondary care. So if you're a medical professional, there's never been a better time to start applying for jobs. Do you have what it takes to fill the gap? Whether you're looking at NHS or private health positions, landing one of the thousands of vacancies starts with writing a pro medical CV. 

How to write a medical CV

While most CVs are straightforward, medical CVs are more complex. Whether you're looking to craft a medical doctor CV, a CV for a medical graduate, or a CV for any other type of healthcare professional, fear not, help is at hand and you can rest easy, directing your bedside manner to where it's most needed: your patients.

Step 1: diagnose the issue

As a medical professional, your day-to-day tasks should already come second nature: treating patients, administering prescriptions, saving lives… you know, that sort of thing. Likewise, before you can write a medical CV that hits the mark, you'll need to evaluate the problem areas of your CV first. Ask yourself, “What am I missing here?”

Expert tip: Familiarise yourself with the basic structure and sections of a CV to help you identify or prepare all the essential information that your medical CV needs. Remember that while a medical CV has many similarities to academic CVs, it's more elaborate and generally longer than the average CV. 

Step 2: aim to quickly grab the recruiter's attention

With thousands of job seekers in healthcare, your medical CV can easily get lost in the crowd. Stand out with a pithy CV headline and a professional summary that sums up your skills and really shouts about your strengths and ambitions. Adopt a formal style – that is, write in third person (without pronouns) as shown in the medical CV examples below. 

Expert tip: Scan through the job advert, picking out key words and phrases that you can incorporate. 

Medical CV summary examples

Two medical CV examples of professional summaries can be viewed below. When you're writing your medical CV, you can use these to help you get the inspiration you need. 

Here's a GP CV example:

This one can be adapted for nurses and healthcare practitioners:

The career summary section of a medical CV needs in-depth investigation. Too little information and the reader won't get a sense of what you've achieved and what you can bring to the table. Too much information can overload the person viewing your medical CV, which means they might give up at the first hurdle, rather than trawl through reams of waffle.

Step 3: showcase your work experience

You may possess a large variety of professional experience, including numerous posts that you held for a short while. This is especially true for a junior doctor CV, where you're working your way up from clinical assistant to senior house officer (SHO) to clinical fellow. Because of this, do state the months as well as the years you were in each role, to show your progression and account for all the time periods.

Beneath each of the titles, you can use bullet points to showcase your duties and accomplishments. 

Expert tip: Wherever possible, be sure to quantify your experience with numbers, dates, and statistics. This approach will show the hiring manager the value that you possess. 

Step 4: list your education and CPD

Medical roles rely strongly on education so providing a comprehensive detail of yours is vital. List each qualification, educational establishment, and year completed. Then place it under the professional profile if you're newly qualified, or after the career summary section if your most recent qualifications were over five years ago.

It doesn't end there. As part of the medical profession, you'll be expected to be continually learning and a lot of value is placed on this by prospective employers. So the continued professional development (CPD) part of your medical CV needs to be out and proud. State each course / research / qualification clearly and concisely, remembering to include where each was undertaken and the year it was completed.

Expert tip: Check out our guide on listing education on your CV.

Step 5: add relevant sections

Extra sections on a medical CV can include specialist clinical skills, research, teaching, professional registration, awards, academic presentations, audits, and conferences – only you will know which sections are relevant to your career and your aspirations. 

Remember though that while you might have decades of experience, it's wise to keep your medical CV succinct and tightly written. The length of a standard CV is two pages, but a doctor CV can run to four or five pages as it's accepted that a lot of training and experience need to be included. Below are expert tips to keep in mind when adding your sections:

• Create a new sub-heading for each section and present the details below concisely and consistently. 

• Use a list format, rather than narrative, and add dates too.  

• List publications and certifications logically on your medical CV by setting them out according to the value they contribute and how relevant they are to your target position.

• Include your professional registrations, such as your GMC or BMA number, under a section entitled Professional Memberships.

And the prognosis is…

With a well-written and improved medical CV, you can boost your chances of securing that all-important interview. 

Creating a medical CV obviously isn't a matter of life and death. However, it can be a matter of whether you land that dream role or not, which certainly makes all the difference as you journey deeper into your medical career. In this guide, we've given you everything you need to know to create an interview-winning CV – why not get started now?

If the signs remain critical and you're still labouring over what to do, then it's clear: you need a systematic review. Let us prescribe you a solution: get our free CV review service now.

This article was originally written by Elizabeth Openshaw and has been updated by Charlotte Grainger.

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