Impressive Interviews

Preparing Medical Specialty Applications

As doctors, your profession demands focus and attention to detail. So, tackling the application process for admission to a particular speciality requires exactly the same commitment and, at risk of stating the obvious, preparation is everything.

Just as with diagnosis, you start with the information in front of you – the patient and their symptoms. With a job application, you will have a quantity of information provided. Take time to go through this carefully with a particular focus on the key requirements of the speciality as outlined both in the information package and on the College website. Make sure you understand the requirements and the level of detail expected before responding to the criteria.

In general, medical specialties will require you to show that you possess some if not all of the following skills, personal attributes and qualifications. It would be useful to note down responses to each of these headings. Once you are satisfied with your notes, check these against your current resume and revise where necessary – and then you will be ready to tackle the application forms.

•Qualifications – If you have completed a Master’s or PhD, include topic and results. You should also attach a copy of the abstract to your CV. If you are part way through a post-graduate degree, include the anticipated date of completion.
•Clinical experience – You need to be able to quantify the length, depth and breadth of your experience. For example, the kind of operations you have performed either supervised or unsupervised or have observed and how many, techniques used and or observed etc.
•Teaching experience – Again, you need to detail and quantify your experience – for example whether you have taught groups and/or individuals, or developed and/or delivered teaching programs,
•Research and publications – Provide a brief outline of the research project and your contribution, publication – rank of author and the percentage that you contributed to the research and writing.
• Conference participation – Detail any participation in local, national or international conference as well as any papers/posters presented.
• Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team – You need to describe your role and contribution to the team.
• Training courses attended – Detail these starting from most recent going backwards and put in the number of hours/days for each course.
• Community involvement/voluntary work – This can include your extracurricular activities while a student, contributions to student/work or social organisations.
• Leadership and management experience – Provide information on both professional and voluntary work and a concise description of your role, including the number of people you managed.
• Membership of hospital committees – Outline your role on the committee with examples of outcomes achieved. Demonstrating effective administrative skills will be valuable to your application.
• Communication and interpersonal skills – You will demonstrate your written skills by the way you approach the application process in providing clear concise responses. Provide other examples of verbal and non-verbal skills when detailing your clinical, management and administrative experiences, the teams you have worked with and their outcomes, the conferences in which you have participated and presented and in any community or voluntary work you have done. You may be asked about your non-professional interests and this is an opportunity to show that you contribute to the broader community.
• Languages other than English – Give an indication of your level of proficiency.
• Reason for choosing your specialty – Prioritise your list of reasons and note them down clearly and concisely.

When completed carefully check that you have included all the relevant information and that your writing is accurate and grammatically correct. It is also very important to check for typos. It would be good to get a friend or colleague to go over your first draft to check for sense and accuracy. Give everything a thorough look before sending off the application.

And finally, if the application is to be submitted online, ensure you save a copy on your system and make a hard copy of your application form as you will need this to prepare for your interview.

Preparing for interview is a whole new subject so, for more information or assistance please contact Deborah Barit on (02) 9331 1853, (M) 0412 007 682 or email info@impressiveinterviews.com.au