Junior doctors' interview process is revised in compromise deal
BMJ 2007; 334 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39177.524850.4E (Published 12 April 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;334:768
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I’m sick to death of reading complaint letters about MTAS being
unfair. I know the questions used for short listing were different to the
normal way of applying for jobs, but as doctors we are meant to be among
some of the brightest people in the country and as our job often requires
we should be able to adapt as the situation changes.
Realising the importance of the shortlisting process on the rest of
my medical career I spent the 2 weeks we had to complete the form
researching the questions, referring to the published personal
specifications and writing draft after draft, till after about 15 hours of
work I was completely satisfied with my answers.
My delight of being shortlisted for my first choice was quickly
erased with today’s announcement that everyone will get an interview in
every specialty they applied for even if they were unsuccessful in being
shortlisted. Not only was my hard work for nothing, but I now feel at a
disadvantage compared to people who have been handed an interview on a
plate.
When I did my interview I had no idea of what to expect. However
people who were unsuccessful in the shortlisting process now know the
format of the interview and what questions came up. Combining this useful
knowledge with the extra preparation time means these people have no
excuse for not achieving a better score than I did.
I can’t help thinking if these people had applied themselves and put
as much time into their application forms as they did marching and
complaining that we wouldn’t be in this mess. The BMA recently announced
that there are 32,000 junior doctors chasing 18,500 jobs. So what are we
going to do when 13,500 doctors end up without specialty training posts,
decide the interview process was unfair and scrap it?
At these competition ratios there will be good doctors who don’t get
a specialist training job. All today’s announcement has done is increase
the chances of doctors who worked to get shortlisted becoming one of the
unfortunate ones.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: A different prospective on MTAS
I was very surprised that Dr Flannigan did not declare any competing
interests when writing his letter. I think the fact that he was offered an
interview (at his first choice UoA) is as big a competing interest as one
can imagine. I am sure that the vast majority of applicants, including
myself, spent many hours on their application forms (I in fact took took
some annual leave days), and did not get shortlisted. Several of my
colleagues found themselves in the position of being on nights during the
time that applications were to be submitted, leaving very little time to
complete the most important (virtual) piece of paper of their lives. Even
with the completion of the form, there have been doubts about the validity
of the process, the qualifications of the people marking the forms, and
even whether or not every form submitted made its way (in whole or in
part) to the correct place.
It is clear that the system thus far has not been fit for purpose, and,
whilst I am sure that offering every applicant one interview is by no
means an ideal solution, it appears to be a reasonable compromise, given
August's rapid approach.
Competing interests:
I was not shortlisted for any interviews
Competing interests: No competing interests