Eliminate Orthopedic Surgeon Resume Mistakes
Turn common errors into interview opportunities with proven fixes tailored for surgeons
Common Mistakes That Kill Your Chances
Each mistake includes why it hurts, how to fix it, and before/after examples
- Fails to convey specialty focus
- Gets filtered by keywordâbased ATS
- Leaves hiring managers unsure of your career goals
- Replace with a targeted professional summary highlighting orthopedic expertise
- Include 2â3 key procedures you excel at
- Add years of experience and board certification
Objective: Seeking a challenging position in a reputable hospital.
Professional Summary: Boardâcertified orthopedic surgeon with 8âŻyears of experience specializing in joint replacement and sportsâmedicine arthroscopy, delivering a 95âŻ% patient satisfaction rate and performing over 300 successful knee arthroplasties annually.
- Provides no measurable impact
- Makes resume look like a job description
- ATS prefers quantifiable results
- Convert each bullet to a resultâfocused statement
- Add numbers, percentages, or patient outcomes
- Highlight leadership or research contributions
- Performed orthopedic surgeries - Conducted patient consultations
- Performed 250+ orthopedic surgeries annually, achieving a 98âŻ% postoperative complicationâfree rate - Led a multidisciplinary team to reduce preâoperative wait times by 30âŻ% through streamlined protocols
- Board status is a mandatory filter for many hospitals
- Omits a key credential that differentiates you
- ATS may flag the resume as incomplete
- Create a dedicated Certifications section
- List board certification, fellowship, and relevant licenses with dates
- Include the certifying body
Education: MD, University of XYZ, 2015
Certifications: - Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS), 2018 - Fellowship in Sports Medicine, ABC Orthopedic Institute, 2017 - State Medical License, Texas, Active
- Confuses ATS parsers
- Makes timeline hard to read for recruiters
- Inconsistent formatting looks unprofessional
- Use MM/YYYY for all dates
- List city, state for each position and education
- Align dates to the right margin
June 2016 â Present Hospital of ABC, New York
06/2016 â Present                         Hospital of ABC, New York, NY
- Many medical ATS only parse .docx or plain .pdf
- Complex tables and graphics cause parsing errors
- Key information may be omitted
- Hiring managers may not open the file
- Save resume as .docx or simple PDF without tables
- Use standard headings (Experience, Education, Certifications)
- Avoid graphics, columns, and text boxes
Resume saved as .png image with multiâcolumn layout
Resume saved as .docx, singleâcolumn, standard headings, simple bullet points
- Include a targeted professional summary with orthopedic keywords
- Quantify surgical volume and patient outcomes
- Add board certification, fellowship, and state license details
- Standardize dates to MM/YYYY and align them right
- Use a singleâcolumn .docx format with standard headings
- Replace generic objective with a specialtyâfocused summary
- Add quantified surgical outcomes to each role
- Insert a Certifications section with board and fellowship details
- Standardize all dates to MM/YYYY
- Convert layout to singleâcolumn .docx
