1. Careers support for F1s Dr Ian Barton, Medical Careers Lead
NHS East of England Multi-Professional Deanery
Meeting name : date

2. I use this slide as an icebreaker
I use this slide as an icebreaker. Ask the trainees to choose whichever shape appeals to them the most. They can either write it down or put it on a post-it. Tell them that you’ll come back to it later in the talk.
You come back to it when you’re talking about psychometric tests see slide 14

3. I use this is a “fun” slide to illustrate the lack of careers support our generation had. At best it was “Go down to the consultants’ car park. Find out what the consultant who drives the car you most like does and be one of them”

4. Aims Introduce you to concept of careers support
Explain a template for use in career support for medical students and Foundation Programme trainees
The template is a locally developed “Careers Support Form” and we would like all trainees to use it

5. Careers Support What is it? When will you need it?
Why is it suddenly so important?
What is it? Guiding trainees through their career planning etc
When will you need it? Throughout your working life; The need doesn’t disappear when you’ve made your first career choice
Why is it so important? Need to make decisions early; Less flexibility to change career paths etc

6. Ownership Self Awareness Self Determination Locus of control
Become an adult learner
Reflective practice
Every encounter is a learning opportunity
This is really important.
It’s about encouraging them to take charge of all aspects of their lives.
The only person with a 100% vested interest in their career is them.
Your role is as a facilitator not to sort out their problems for them

7. Escalation Pathway for careers support
Level 1
Yourselves
Level 2
Educational Supervisors
Level 3
Trust Careers Leads
Level 4
Deanery Advisors/Groups
Stress that levels 1 and 2 are most important. Very few trainees need to access Level 3 and only those with exceptional needs e.g. the need for careers counselling should be accessing Level 4

8. Getting the Most out of Careers Support
What exactly do I need at the present time?
How can this be achieved?
The next few slides are talking the trainees through what is on the careers support form.
This slide is about being clear about the trainee’s current objectives

9. Meeting with an “Advisor”
Ground rules:
Facilitative
Your advisor won’t know everything!
These rules refer to level 2 and above support
Recognising that the role of the “advisor” is to guide and to act as a gatekeeper. “I don’t know myself but I can suggest how you can find out”

10. Career Aspirations What do you want to do? What don’t you want to do?
Try to get them to make three choices for each and, most importantly, identify what it is about them that either attract them or put them off

11. Career Decisions
Are there any stresses influencing your ability to make a considered judgement?
This may be a major life event, pressure from a relative, bullying at work etc etc. One should never be making major life changing decisions when one is seriously stressed

12. Barriers to Progression
Review Person Specification(s)
Lack of:
Qualification
Competency
Life Skill
Person Specs can be found on Royal College websites or the Medical Speciality Training website. If there are barriers to their chosen career choice they must be addressed before recruitment starts

13. 360° Approach Desires and Fears Personality Qualifications Skills
Experience
Finances
This is about looking at the job from every aspect. Am I the right person for this job? Is this job the right one for me?

14. Resources Own experience Local specialists/trainees
Aptitude / psychometric tests
National website (
Deaneries, Schools, College
BMJ Careers
Medical Forum (
Books etc
This is to stress that they should research properly. Remind them that there is a question on this on most application forms.
Local trainees are probably the best people to tell them how the recruitment process works and what to expect.
Sci59 is an aptitude test; Most Trust libraries have it and BMA members have access to it. It has never been validated and it doesn’t point enough trainees at general practice; the best way to use it is to analyse the answers to the individual questions rather than the final outcomes.
Psychometric tests, Belbin or Myers Briggs are best done properly with a face-to-face meeting with someone trained to interpret them. On-line versions are less useful. There is no evidence that particular personality types are more suited to particular specialities.
This is where you go back to slide 2; It is a simple psychometric test. Those choosing circles are well-rounded and “people people”; triangles have direction and are the leaders, the squares are ordered and completer-finishers and the squiggles are the creative ones. They’ll all like it as it says something positive about them.
Stress how useful the national website is.
Medical Forum is a careers service dedicated to doctors and run by a doctor; the careers form was a joint effort between the Deanery and MF
There’s a reading list on the Deanery website and on the national website

15. Action Plan Where do I want to be? What do I need to do to get there?
Questions they need to ask themselves

16. Goal setting and Action Planning
You should be leading
Immediate and long term SMART targets
Specific
Measurable
Agreed (Achievable)
Realistic
Time-based
Encourage them to set their own goals using SMART targets

17. This is what the latest version (it took over 25 attempts to get here
This is what the latest version (it took over 25 attempts to get here!) of the Careers Support form looks like. It can be downloaded from the Deanery website and contains hyperlinks to all the important resources. There is a scoring system to assess the trainees’ current satisfaction with their career plans

18. Why and when to use the form
Puts you in charge
Evaluates where you are
Provides a framework
Develops a plan
Acts as an agenda for a careers meeting
Record for your portfolio
Explains all the reasons for using the form as outlined above

19. Keep Building Your Portfolio
Buy a box file to keep paper evidence in
Get certificates or other evidence for everything you do
Thank you cards
Complaints
Keep your ePortfolio up to date
Particularly reflective sections
Put something in it every week
Stress the fact that their portfolios will be inspected during the interviews (except in GP recruitment) and that it is the reflective practice bit that we tend to focus on
Take the opportunity to encourage them to put something in every week

20. CV Enhancement Career Focussed Relevant experience
Attachments, tasters
Relevant WPBAs, Audits, Publications
Courses
Exams
Once they have made a careers choice they should try to develop their CVs in a career-relevant way. E.g. if they want to be a chest physician, do chest related WPBAs, audits etc.
The best way to get published is to reply to an article in a peer-reviewed journal. Think up a “snappy” title and keep it short. (advice from a sub-editor of the BMJ)

21. Some Points to Consider
Location vs Speciality
Speciality trainees vs speciality doctors
Expansion of primary care
Reduction in training numbers in many specialities, especially surgery
It’s very competitive out there!
Which is most important: where you live or what you do?
If you really want to do a particular speciality, have you considered being an SAS doctor
Approximately 50% of training programmes are now GPST
Training numbers in hospital-based specialities, particularly surgery, are contracting

22. Questions

23. Thank you