Visiting the Unit Prior to Your Medical Interview Short Listing
Monday, August 31st, 2009Within the job advertizement itself candidates will be invited to get hold of a member of the department to find out a bit more about the job. If you have never worked in the infirmary or department before it makes sense to discover a bit about both and therefore you can arrange to have a look around the department during a pre-short listing visit.
You will patently need to make an appointment and not just turn up and say “I’m Here!” If the post is a popular one then it could be possible for 50-100 applicants to all turn up and say “I’m Here!” which would cause chaos for the section. Some sections will routinely decide to not allow doctors to visit, unless they have been shortlisted.
So the intended outcome for the pre medical interview shortlisting visit (!) is for you to find out if it is even worth you applying to the section for a job. However, do not be fooled into believing that the visit won’t be used to assess you as well. Be well prepared so that you can use the visit to sell your skills to the unit and make a decent first impression.
Some departments have unspoken rules that they will not consider a consultant physician interview application for short-listing unless they have made a pre shortlisting visit.