I hope Christmas & the New Year brought you some opportunity to get together with loved ones & take a break, however short, from the intensity of working. Before we know it, the moment has passed & we're back into the swing of the academic cycle.
Next up in the calendar is the Core Surgical Training Day, on Friday in Maidstone, where apart from a morning of trainees' presentations & posters, our own Arshad Khaleel will be talking you through the interview process for Higher Surgical Training.
My thoughts however are with the upcoming Core Surgical National Selection, across the last week of January and the first week of February. The National Selection is run by @HEE_KSS, in particular @HEKSSspeciality, and are taking place again at the Amba Hotel Charing Cross...
...and the dates are here: http://www.ksseducation.hee.nhs.uk/recruitment/2016-interview-dates-venues/
I've put my #portfoliopreparation tips on social media before but I think it bears repeating and I hope you find it useful.
I've put my #portfoliopreparation tips on social media before but I think it bears repeating and I hope you find it useful.
The single most important thing you can do ahead of the interviews is seek out your @RCSNews Surgical Tutor, taking your portfolio with you. Don't be shy.
I thought I had seen everyone ahead of the interviews last year, encouraged portfolio polishing, rehearsed responses and celebrated success - only to find two weeks after they were done an unsuccessful F2 found me who I could have supported. So - don't be shy.
Portfolio Preparation
Your portfolio is the physical manifestation of your career to date & your hopes & dreams for your career ahead. It represents You. There is no point dressing smartly in a new suit if your portfolio is thrown together haphazardly.
Interviewers have less than 15 mins to go through your portfolio before you go in the room. It helps to make this time as easy as possible for them:
1) Good quality binder: doesn't have to be leather but probably shouldn't be a Poundland special 
2) Four rings better than two for turning pages easily and keeping the portfolio secure. The overstuffed lever arch that cascades plastic wallets to the floor is not a good thing to see
3) Good quality plastic wallets that don't lift print. Cheaper packs (eg those that come in 100s) go crinkly...
... and don't show off certificates etc very well. The better ones hold your work almost as if laminated. Looks more professional. Never put in more than two sheets of paper into a wallet (ie front & back). There is no time to take papers out & go through them in the interview.
4) Extra Wide Dividers: regular dividers do not stick out beyond the wallets 
5) Order the tabs in the order of the checklist so that all your achievements can be quickly verified
6) Demonstrate your evidence of teamwork and leadership with one or two photos. The colour pops as you skim through and attracts the eye. Helps to show you as a well rounded human being
7) Reflection is how we learn. Include some notes you've made on something that went well and something that could have gone better. You will inevitably be asked to describe such situations so it helps to be prepared to talk about these events.
8) Logbook summary needs to be in there, preferably signed by your AES so make sure that's done ahead of time. E-logbook doesn't let you show any patient identifying details: if you are not using the e-logbook summary, make absolutely certain you are not using any patient identifying material in your summary
9) Include thank you cards & testimonials but if they are from patients you must blank out their names. You have to be this vigilant for consultant revalidation so it is a good habit to get into.
10) Fill every category. An audit I am sure will have done double duty for you as a presentation and a poster so put it in all those slots that apply, if that's what you've done
11) Don't pad it out. One portfolio I remember going through was filled with blank sheets of paper - I pulled out 37 all told. It doesn't help. Likewise don't print out your entire Foundation eportfolio as that looks like filler as well. The assumption is that by being there you have achieved your Foundation competencies.
12) Identify your USP, that thing in your portfolio that you are most proud of, that thing you don't want to have left the room without making sure they have seen it. Be prepared to talk about it and why you're so pleased to have that in your body of work. Make sure you know where it is so you can find it quickly for them
There's formal advice here from the HEKSS @HEKSSspeciality website, who are the coordinators for Core Surgery National Recruitment:
Personal Presentation
Advice on this can often be taken the wrong way, so I apologise if you don't like this section.
For surgical training, you are applying to join a profession with certain standards born of adversity. Things like infection control, meticulous technique, adherence to defined evidenced-based pathways, these are all the bread and butter of surgical consultants.
It will inevitably generate a negative first impression if the candidate comes in apparently only able to see out of one eye...
... or with both eyes visible but weighted down with extra lashes (will that end up in my wound?)...
...or dressed as if they have accidentally ended up in the Amba Hotel Charing Cross after a night of partying. I have seen all of these things, I really have. Of course nobody says anything, that would in itself be unprofessional. But the negative impression has been generated before a single question has been asked.
That, I'm afraid, is life.
About the Interviewers
Around the end of November, HEKSS puts the call out to all consultant surgeons to volunteer to interview. The interviews run for 10/7 and are highly labour-intensive. It is not something people can do year in year out, and it's tough to combine with HST interviews (most Trusts kick up a fuss about so much professional leave). Therefore the people interviewing you may do it infrequently and alternate with a completely different grade.
Why am I labouring this point? To let you know it is perfectly OK to query the questions you were asked if you feel them to have been inappropriate (aimed at HST-calibre candidates for example).
But you have to do it on the day.
There is nothing I can do if you decide the following day or week that you weren't given a fair crack (though we did push last year with limited success).
There are lay observers on every floor who pop in and out of the interviews who will raise a metaphorical eyebrow if they think the questions are wandering off point. There are clinical observers too, usually senior registrars, who can also reign things in. But if they're not in the room with you, and you feel things have not gone fairly, you should feel empowered to say something to the floor coordinator in the day.
For a £10 fee, you can request your score sheets: interviewers are encouraged to take notes especially verbatim of responses that were particularly good or bad resulting in an outlying mark:
🍀 Good Luck! 🍀
I am always struck at CST Interviews at the number of talented junior doctors we have in the UK who will excel at whatever they set their mind to and have chosen a career in Surgical Specialities. It makes me so reassured for the future of our profession: I wish you all the very best of luck.
If luck doesn't favour you and you need another year to build your logbook & portfolio a bit more, @ASPHFT can still support you with a number of trust grade core-level surgical vacancies arising in August - so don't panic, we will get you there
