Students
Medical Students:
If you are currently a medical student, you will already know a little about surgery as a career and how your training might progress immediately after medical school.
However, you may not yet have made definite plans about your future career, and may not yet know how to make that decision or how to put your plans into action. This section will help you to do this.
Medical school is an excellent time for you to explore your options and to start planning your career. There are many opportunities you can take while still a student that will aid your future career as a surgeon. The following pages outline some of these and what you can be doing now to ensure your success in the future.
Medical students and those involved in their teaching will find the national undergraduate curriculum in surgery helpful. Students and foundation trainees can find out more about what a career in surgery is like by reading our careers in surgery booklet through the links below:
Pre-Med Students:
If you are currently a school, sixth-form or college student, you might be looking for information on what it’s like to be a surgeon – and what steps you should take to get there. You might also be considering a variety of other medical professions, which could be within the surgical care team, or outside of it.
This section will help you build a picture of the things you might need to consider, as well as getting excellent grades at GCSE and A-Level, if you want to work towards a career in surgery.
Becoming a surgeon is a lengthy process, and it requires a lot of dedication. However, it is an extremely rewarding career with a variety of career progression opportunities. There are ten main surgical specialties, some of which are divided into sub-specialties.
Useful information
Surgery Entry Requirements and Training.
Improving your chances of entering surgical training.
Skills and qualities of a surgeon.
Learning resources
The Royal College of Surgeons is committed to supporting surgeons at every point in their careers, including those right at the beginning. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our events aimed at supporting college students have been postponed.
To ensure we are doing everything we have, we have made a variety of our courses and learning resources freely available to the public. These should be really useful for you to get a feel of what a career in surgery is like!