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Ship Doctor CV Template

Your hospital CV will not get you a ship doctor interview. Maritime medical directors are scanning for specific certifications, sea service history, and operational language that most land-based CVs completely miss. This guide shows you exactly how to structure a CV that speaks their language.

The Problem

Why Your Hospital CV Won't Work at Sea

Most doctors applying for ship doctor positions submit the same CV they would send to an NHS trust or hospital network. This is the single most common reason applications are rejected before they reach the interview stage.

A maritime medical director is not looking for the same things as a hospital recruitment panel. They need to know, within thirty seconds of opening your CV, three things: Are you legally qualified to serve at sea? Do you have the clinical breadth to work as a solo practitioner in a resource-limited environment? And have you demonstrated any understanding of what maritime medicine actually involves?

Hospital CVs fail because they are structured around specialty training, departmental rotations, and academic publications. A ship doctor CV needs to foreground STCW certification, maritime fitness, emergency medicine competence, and — if you have it — sea service history. The hierarchy of information is fundamentally different.

Key insight: Cruise lines receive hundreds of applications. Medical directors typically spend 20–30 seconds on a first-pass review. If your STCW status and maritime fitness are buried on page three, your CV will be filtered out regardless of your clinical experience.

CV Structure

Section-by-Section Template

Below is the recommended structure for a ship doctor CV. Each section is ordered by what maritime recruiters prioritise, not by hospital convention.

1. Personal Details & Maritime Profile

Full name, date of birth, nationality, passport number (or confirmation of valid passport), and contact details including email and phone with international dialling code. Nationality matters because it affects visa requirements for different flag states.

Below your details, include a Maritime Profile — a 2–3 sentence summary that positions you as a maritime clinician, not a hospital doctor looking for a change of scenery. Example: "Emergency physician with broad-spectrum primary care and minor surgical capability, holding full STCW certification and ENG1 fitness. Experienced in isolated clinical practice with a focus on triage, stabilisation, and resource-aware decision-making."

2. Maritime Certifications & STCW

This section must appear early and prominently. List each certificate with its full name, issuing authority, and expiry date:

STCW Basic Safety Training (Personal Survival Techniques, Fire Prevention & Fire Fighting, Elementary First Aid, Personal Safety & Social Responsibilities) — these are mandatory. Add STCW Medical First Aid and STCW Medical Care if completed. Include your ENG1 / PEME seafarer medical certificate with expiry date, and your Yellow Fever vaccination certificate if applicable.

3. Sea Service Record

If you have prior sea service, present it in a table-style format: Vessel Name | Company | Vessel Type | Role | Dates (embark–disembark). This is the maritime equivalent of employment history and medical directors will scan it immediately. If you have no sea service, omit this section entirely — do not draw attention to its absence.

4. Medical Qualifications & Registration

Primary medical degree (e.g., MBChB, MBBS, MD) with university and year. Postgraduate qualifications (MCEM, MRCEM, MRCGP, etc.). Current medical registration with licence to practise — specify the regulatory body (GMC, HPCSA, Medical Board of Kenya, etc.) and registration number. If you hold registration in multiple jurisdictions, list all of them.

5. Relevant Clinical Experience

Focus on breadth, not depth. Maritime medical directors want to see evidence that you can handle the full clinical spectrum: emergency medicine, primary care, minor surgery, occupational health, mental health triage, dental emergencies, and paediatric assessment. For each role, include the facility name, department, dates, and 2–3 bullet points emphasising autonomous decision-making, procedural competence, and resource-limited practice.

6. Additional Certifications & Training

List all relevant life support and emergency certifications: ALS/ACLS, ATLS, PHTLS, MIMMS/HMIMMS. Add travel and tropical medicine qualifications (DTM&H, Diploma in Expedition & Wilderness Medicine), occupational health diplomas, and any courses in pre-hospital care, retrieval medicine, or austere-environment medicine. Include expiry dates for all time-limited certifications.

7. Additional Information

Languages spoken (with proficiency level), driving licence, any teaching or training experience relevant to crew health education, and availability for embarkation. Do not include hobbies unless they are directly relevant (e.g., diving qualifications, sailing experience, expedition participation).

Insider Knowledge

What Medical Directors Actually Look For

Having spoken with medical directors at major cruise lines and maritime medical staffing agencies, there are consistent themes in what separates shortlisted CVs from rejected ones:

STCW status is a gate check. If your STCW Basic Safety Training, ENG1, and medical registration are not immediately visible, your CV is often discarded without further reading. These are non-negotiable legal requirements, and medical directors do not have time to hunt for them.

Emergency medicine experience carries weight. Ship doctors are solo practitioners who must stabilise and manage emergencies without backup. Evidence of ED experience, resuscitation competence, and procedural skills (suturing, wound management, I&D, joint reduction, chest drain insertion) is highly valued.

Breadth over depth. A cardiology registrar with five years of subspecialty training is less attractive than a GP or emergency physician with broad clinical competence. Ships need doctors who can manage dermatology, ENT, paediatrics, mental health, and occupational health — all in the same day.

Operational language signals awareness. If your CV uses terms like "resource-limited environment," "autonomous clinical decision-making," "capability gap," or "stabilisation and transfer," it signals that you understand the maritime context. Medical directors notice this immediately.

Pro tip: Some cruise lines use keyword-scanning software before a human sees your CV. Include the exact terms from the job listing — "STCW," "ENG1," "ACLS," "ship doctor," "maritime medicine" — to clear automated filters.

Avoid These

Common Mistakes That Kill Ship Doctor Applications

  • Burying STCW and ENG1 at the bottom. These must appear on page one. They are legal requirements, not "additional qualifications."
  • Using a hospital-format CV. Specialty training timelines, audit projects, and publications are irrelevant to most maritime recruiters. Restructure entirely.
  • Writing more than three pages. Medical directors review hundreds of CVs. Concise, well-structured documents that front-load maritime credentials will always outperform verbose academic CVs.
  • Including a photograph (unless requested). Some companies require a photo; most do not. Only include one if the job listing specifically asks for it.
  • Omitting expiry dates on certifications. An ALS certificate without an expiry date is useless to a recruiter. They need to know you are currently certified, not that you once were.
  • Listing every hospital rotation since medical school. Focus on the last 5–7 years and emphasise roles with emergency, primary care, or procedural components. Remove irrelevant subspecialty rotations.
  • No maritime profile summary. Starting your CV with "I am a dedicated and hardworking doctor" tells the reader nothing. A maritime profile summary positions you immediately.

Presentation

Formatting & Length Guidelines

  • Length: Two to three pages maximum. Medical directors consistently report that shorter, well-organised CVs are preferred.
  • Format: PDF only. Word documents can render differently across systems. Always send as PDF unless specifically asked for another format.
  • Font: Use a clean, professional sans-serif font (Calibri, Arial, Helvetica) at 10–11pt. Avoid decorative fonts.
  • File naming: Name your file Dr_FirstName_Surname_Ship_Doctor_CV.pdf. Never send a file named "CV.pdf" or "Document1.pdf."
  • Reverse chronological order within each section. Most recent experience first.
  • Consistent date formatting: Use the same format throughout (e.g., "Jan 2024 – Jun 2025" or "01/2024 – 06/2025").
  • Proofread ruthlessly. Spelling errors and inconsistent formatting signal a lack of attention to detail — a quality medical directors consider non-negotiable for solo practitioners at sea.

Next Step

Your CV Gets You the Interview.
The Interview Gets You the Ship.

Once your CV is shortlisted, you need to perform in the interview. The Interview Command Guide gives you the exact frameworks, language, and worked answers that medical directors want to hear — SBAR-M, capability gap speech, and operational scenario responses.

Get the Interview Command Guide