AdvanceMed

Tag: annual medical recruitment

  • How To Be Prepared For Medical Recruitment In 2020.

    How To Be Prepared For Medical Recruitment In 2020.

    Now that Australia appears to have succeeded in dealing successfully with the initial impact of COVID-19 and getting ourselves prepared, there are signs of society returning to some sort of “more normal”. Many doctors, myself included are returning their minds back towards the medical career process. With all the disruptions to the health system and society, in general, it’s not a surprise that there is also a level of uncertainty about what is happening with medical recruitment this year and some uncertainty about how best to prepare.  So. We’ve prepared this medical recruitment 2020 reference for you to help you make the right choices.

    If you were preparing for a new job in medicine in 2020 then here is a summary of what we advise that you should be doing right now at AdvanceMed:

    • Keep an eye on the main annual medical recruitment portals. Many have already signalled that recruitment is about to commence.
    • There are plenty of things you can be doing now to prepare yourself for your next career move in medicine, regardless of whether there is a clear application date, these include preparing your resume, gathering referees and beginning the process of interview preparation.
    • The majority of interviews this year are likely to be conducted via videoconference, therefore, its important to invest some time and effort preparing to interview on this medium.

    Let’s now look at some of these issues in more detail beginning with an assessment of where medical recruitment is up to currently in Australia.

    The good news for medical recruitment 2020. Medical Internship is on track.

    First the good news. The medical internship recruitment system is going ahead as planned as per the original dates for 2020.  All States and Territories will begin to receive applications on 4th May 2020 and close their portals on 4th June 2020. With the majority of intern offers being sent out in July.

    This is fantastic news if you are a final year medical student worried about commencing your internship in 2021. But there is one big caveat. You do have to still graduate first.  And it’s reasonable to say that the majority of medical school programs have been put into disarray in Australia due to concerns about exposing medical students to COVID-19, diverting normal supervisory resources to COVID preparedness and enforcing social distancing in clinical environments, which has significantly challenged clinical placements which are absolutely important in the final years of medical school.

    The Australian Medical Council, Medical Board of Australia and Medical Deans have been working together to put in place changes and processes to assist medical students in completing their education on time, which should help.

    But one of the paradoxical outcomes of Australia being more successful in dealing with COVID-19 is that there hasn’t been a mad rush to adopt alternative models of placing medical students in pre intern posts as has occurred in other countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.

    So it remains somewhat uncertain whether there may be a decline in the number of intern positions taken up in Australia in 2021.

    The Not So Good News.  Some Colleges have delayed Selection into Training.

    The not so good news is that some colleges have made announcements in relation to delaying their normal selection into training processes. In particular, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has indicated that its selection into the various SET programs for 2021 is delayed until further notice. My information is that RACS is hoping that they may still be able to conduct their normal panel interviews in person later in the year.

    Other colleges have indicated that there may be some disruptions but that selection into training will still occur.  Many like the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have indicated that interviews will be conducted using videoconferencing.

    Of course, some colleges have more “skin in the game” for selection into training posts than others.  So there has been little or no impact for example on the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which generally selects trainees for Adult Medicine and Paediatrics into basic training after they have secured an employer post. And does not conduct interviews for selection.

    The Mixed News. There Is Some Disruption to the Annual RMO Campaigns.

    The mixed news is that the impact of COVID-19 preparedness and uncertainty around some college selection processes has caused some of the State and Territory Departments of Health to place notices on their jobs board indicating that there will be some impact on annual medical recruitment related to COVID-19.

    In particular, NSW Health has, as of the writing of this article, placed a pause on its process and indicating it is considering a range of options for medical recruitment. And the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria has placed a pause on its selection to Radiology training posts.

    However, a scan of most of the other State and Territory medical recruitment campaign sites, for example, Western Australia and Queensland, appears to indicate that these jurisdictions are on schedule to open as planned.

    So What Does This All Mean?

    My interpretation of all this information is that there is likely to be a small level of disruption to the annual medical recruitment processes across Australia. However, the combined fact that internship is on track and that many of the States and Territory RMO campaigns appear to be “situation somewhat normal” would indicate that annual medical recruitment is likely to commence on or near to normal schedule across Australia.  States like NSW and Victoria are unlikely to totally abandon or significantly delay their systems if other jurisdictions are going ahead.

    Expect, perhaps, that some positions, in particular ones linked to college selection, might be delayed to a later round and recruited to a little bit later than usual.

    How Best To Prepare Yourself In These Uncertain Times.

    So what advice do I have for medical trainees who would like to know how they can prepare themselves for medical recruitment in 2020.

    Enact Your Medical Selection Plan Now.

    My first piece of advice would be to try and treat the process as you would normally do. That would mean for most doctors that you should be enacting the first part of your plan now if you have not already done so.

    Of critical importance will be your Resume. There’s plenty of advice on this blog about how you can make this document stand out. You should be aligning this with the competencies being sought for the position/s you are intending to apply for.  Think about adding in a story about COVID-19 2020 that shows off one of these competencies.  Ensuring that you have relevant, recent and diverse referees to speak on your behalf is also something you can be doing now.

    You should also be thinking about starting your interview preparation. Many candidates that I coach start this process far too late. In my experience, there is little risk of starting too early (you can always pause for a bit if you lose momentum). Interview skills are like muscles. They need regular training to help you show your best on the day. The problem is. If you haven’t interviewed for a while. This muscle is likely to have atrophied.

    Review Your Video Conference Set-Up

    Finally, it’s important to understand that your next doctor job interview is most likely to be conducted on something like Zoom. There are significant differences in interviewing on video versus in person. Both from a technical perspective as well as from a practice perspective.

    You should definitely be reviewing and modifying your videoconference set up and your environment as well as actually practising interview questions using video.  The latter is actually a good idea in general as it affords you the chance to record and review your performance.

    To help you with this challenge we’ve written a specific blog post on the topic.

  • How to Write a Medical CV Video. Medical CV Template.

    How to Write a Medical CV Video. Medical CV Template.

    We recently recorded a “how to put together a medical trainee CV video” (Resume).

    There’s tremendous interest in the topic of how to put together a medical trainee CV.  Medical students are also interested in the topic.  For many, it may be the very first time you have have to assemble a CV or resume.

    That’s why we put the call out via email and our facebook community group (lots of good stuff in there to help you with your medical career in there by the way) for folks interested in a webinar on key points for putting together a good medical trainee CV that will satisfy the needs of employers.

    So a few Mondays ago, we held a Webinar of around 40 trainees and medical students to discuss some of the key aspects of putting together your CV.

    So here it is:

    How to Put Together a Medical Trainee CV video

    This is a long video but we encourage you to watch it through entirely. By the way On Youtube, you can adjust the speed settings to listen a bit quicker if that works for you.

    A bit of a summary of what was covered in this post (all the headings here link to sections of the video if you want to fast forward):

    Overview

    Hopefully self-explanatory this gives you an overview of everything covered in this video on how to put together a Medical Trainee CV

    Why everyone says CVs are only reviewed for 6 seconds and whether you should use a photo?

    Search for more than a couple of minutes on the internet for information about CVs and you will find someone who tells you that the average first pass review for a CV is 6 seconds.  I suspect many of these folks don’t even know where that reference comes from.  Well, here it is.  The study was an eye-tracking study and whilst its got its criticism and there’s a bit of a lack of detail.  The study certainly meets face validity when you talk to people who are experienced with reviewing hundreds of CVs.  When you are reviewing applications as part of an annual medical recruitment process its not unusual to receive hundreds of CVs.  If you dig a bit further into the article, however, there’s another interesting finding.

    If you were looking for an additional reason why you should not include a photo the study provides you one.  I generally advise against photos on CVs for the following reasons.  1. Medical job applications tend to be conservative affairs.  2.  It can come across as a bit narcissistic.  3. It also removes a key opportunity to make a first impression.  If someone can see a picture of you, then they are already forming all sorts of biased opinions about you based on this photo.

    But the Ladders study adds another reason not to do it.  It distracts the attention of the reviewer from other more important information.

    2 Options for Structuring Your Medical Trainee CV

    Basically, I recommend, the following format:

    • Personal Details (include a brief qualification summary)
    • Career Goal Statement
    • Work Achievements
    • Education Achievement
    • The Rest (in whatever order represents you best)
    • Referees

    Why not Education before Work?  Because this is an employer interview and that’s what is of most interest.

    There are some circumstances where Education could or should come before Work.  This is generally when you have been educating more recently than working, for example still in Medical School or an International Medical Graduate.

    Whether to use an Employer Recommended Template or Not?

    If you look at these templates they are not overly attractive.  Filling one in will mean that yours looks like everyone else’s’.  So its hard to put together a medical trainee CV that stands out in those circumstances.  All these templates are really trying to achieve is that you provide the reviewer with a minimum amount of information.  So you can refer to them and still adopt your own style. So far, everyone I have reviewed in Australia and New Zealand is published as a guide (meaning you don’t have to use it).  Feel free to send me one that is not but so far I have looked at:

    How Talk About ‘Non-Medical’ Related Work?

    In general, its good to talk about any substantive work you have done in a previous life outside of Medicine.  Where you list this will depend on other work history and education and how much of a strength you feel this is. You can also cross-reference some things in other headings like Skills or even the career goal statement.  For example, if you were previously an Executive Assistant then you have definitely done a job in the past that required high level organisational, time management, stakeholder management and communication skills.

    The Importance of Career Goal Statements

    I could go on about the importance of these and in fact, have done so in another post and video

    Talking About Work Achievements

    Try to give some evidence for what you have achieved in your past roles.  Avoid listing common job responsibilities this will bore a CV reviewer.  They already know what OR at least think they know what an Intern does on a day to day basis.

    A Brief Discussion on Referees

    In summary:

    • Don’t fret about getting more than one College referee
    • Try to have a diverse mix (think about including at least one non-doctor and at least one male and female)
    • Make sure your first referee is a recent manager or supervisor

    Exactly How Many Referees should I have?

    3 is good.  But remember they will be contacted in the order you put them.  And the 3rd is only normally contacted as a back-up if one of the other two goes missing.

    You can have more. But probably more than 5 or 6 is starting to look excessive.

    Some Other Tips on Improving Your CV

    The biggest take-home message here is.  GET SOMEONE ELSE TO REVIEW YOUR CV FOR YOU.  Attention to detail in CVs is important.  You have probably spent a few hours putting it together and revising it.  You will probably now be overlooking a typo or formatting error.

    Audience Q&A:

    The Audience Q&A included a discussion about Cover Letters and Personal Statements.  For Personal Statements, I generally recommend a Career Goal Statement instead.  I will at some point try to write a post or do a video on Cover Letters.

    A Quick Reminder about the YouTube Channel

    I’ve decided to start a Youtube Channel.  I really would like to share with a wider audience some of the knowledge that I have gained over several years doing jobs in Medicine that I really love. But let’s face it most other doctors really hate.  I’m talking about things like medical manager roles, executive leadership roles, recruitment roles, coaching roles, committee roles and clinician engagement roles.  So some of the stuff I know is fairly unique.  I also have a network of peers that could contribute useful information in the broad are of doctors careers.

    So I’ve started out vlogging on a couple of topics.

    One is about the idea that if senior doctors could become better bosses (people managers). And if trainees could understand that being a boss is quite difficult at times.  Then we might have a positive impact on the culture of medicine.

    The other topic.  Quite relevant at this point in time.  Is the one we have been talking about.  The job application and interview preparation process.

    My current goal is 100 subscribers by the end of July.  As of the time of writing this post I was sitting at 40.  Why 100?  Well, that’s the magic number at which point Youtube lets you have your own custom channel name.

    So if you feel inclined you could really help me out by doing any or all of the following (none of which will take up more than a small amount of your time):

  • 5 Tips to Get You Prepared for the Annual Medical Recruitment Process

    5 Tips to Get You Prepared for the Annual Medical Recruitment Process

    So you have settled into your new year at work.  For some, this means the excitement of finally making it to an internship is still there.  At least to some extent.  For others, it’s the relief of having conquered that first year.  Now being able to officially call yourself a Resident (apologies for use of NSW-centric terminology throughout this post).  But your attention has already turned to that next hurdle in your career. Well, I’m guessing it has otherwise you probably would not be reading this post).  We commonly refer to this hurdle as the JMO annual medical recruitment process.

    Like every other hurdle in Medicine, the process can initially seem a bit daunting and unclear.  But with a bit of planning of your time and seeking help, there are lots that you can do to ease the anxiety and maximise your chances of success.

    You can Prepare for the JMO Annual Medical Recruitment Process with our Top 5 Tips

    1. Work Out What Your Ideal Next Job Is (and then work out a fallback job)

    In any goal setting its important to define early on What Does Success Looks Like?  Its hard to put in place any reasonable plan without having a final objective in mind.

    For those familiar with SMART Goals it’s important that we define something Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound.  We won’t go over these 5 components in too much detail here.  Measurable, relevant and time-bound are generally self-explanatory and established in the JMO Annual Medical Recruitment process in Australia and New Zealand.

    Specific and Achievable are where you should focus your efforts.  Many trainee doctors already have a fairly specific first preference job in mind.  This is usually either to gain access to a basic specialty training program where the role is fairly broadly defined, or if you are further down the track a more defined Advanced Training position.  (If you are still uncertain at this point, then that’s ok by the way.  We will talk about what you can do to be more specific shortly).

    If you do know already what your Ideal Next Job is.  Ask yourself is this really achievable?  Or to be more precise what if for some unforeseen reason it just doesn’t work out?  Maybe your first choice is highly competitive or maybe you perform badly at interviews.

    Have a Plan B

    It’s important to have a backup or Plan B.  So as an example let’s take Adult Basic Physician Training.

    Your Goal might be stated like this

    To secure a new contract by the end of this year to work  in the area of Adult Internal Medicine either as a Basic Trainee or in an unaccredited SRMO role, so that I can continue to learn in this area that is of most relevance to me.

    If you are uncertain about your Ideal Next Job or your Plan B, browse the JMO annual medical recruitment sites to see what sort of positions have been on offer in past years.  This will give you a better idea of what is available.

    2. Plan Your Time Wisely in the lead up to JMO Annual Medical Recruitment

    Now that we have our Goal we can make a plan and the first thing to do is work out how much time you have so you can prioritize and allocate your time appropriately.

    Again a good starting point is to review the JMO annual medical recruitment websites for the positions you intend to apply for.  In most jurisdictions or regions there will be some sort of jurisdiction-wide site through which trainees put in their application for jobs for the following year.

    Here are a couple of examples:

    NSWHealth

    Canterbury District Health Board

    Look at these sites.  In most cases, there is one date by which you must submit your application.  Mark this down this is your first hard deadline from which you need to work backwards to ensure that you have everything you need (particularly a CV, Letter of Application and Referees).  You probably need to aim to fit in pre-interviews or pre-meets before this date as well as there is usually not much time (or availability) to meet with a Director of Training once applications close.

    The other dates you are looking for are the interview dates for the jobs you are applying for.  They may not be well advertised so you may need to make some inquiries.  These are also crucial as you will need to plan to take some leave from service to attend and you need to fit your interview practice in before these dates.

    3. Work Out Who You Would Like to Ask to be a Referee

    It seems obvious but we see so many medical trainees scramble to obtain referees at the last minute.  You can help yourself out now by dropping an email or making a quick phone call to those people you have recently worked with or for.

    Interns may not have had much contact so you are probably limited to a few key staff that you have worked with.  For Residents, you probably have a few more choices.

    You should try and line up at least 4 referees.  These don’t need to all be a Fellow of the College you are aiming for.  Other Fellows, Senior Trainees, Nurse Unit Managers, Senior Allied Health Staff are all good people to approach as a referee.  Having a diverse range of referees on your CV looks better to most CV reviewers than a homogeneous mix of College Fellows.

    At this point, you don’t need them to write you a reference (in a lot of cases they get emailed a form to fill out).  Just make sure they will be happy when the time comes and check their contact details.  If possible get a mobile number to put down.  This makes it easier for anyone who wants to take a verbal reference.

    4. Start Writing Or Revising Your CV

    A good CV should always be tailored to the role you are applying for.  This normally takes some time and several revisions to get right.  You should also factor in time for someone else to proofread it for you and give you feedback.  It’s likely that the CV you currently have will not be appropriate and need significant reshaping.  Allow some time for this important task.  Start thinking about what your Career Goal Statement looks like.

    5. Start to Practice Talking About Yourself and Your Achievements

    Start to think of the Interview as a form of high-stakes Viva Examination.  Did you practice for these in medical school right?  Well, you need to practice for the interview as well.  There are lots of approaches to doing this.  A good first step is to start thinking about your work and educational achievements.  Think about how you can weave these into answers to interview questions.  Many of us don’t normally like to “talk ourselves up”.  So practising this activity makes sense and will help it come across as more authentic at the interview if you do.

    Image Credit: janjf3 @ Pixabay