Around the country, thousands of doctors have spent last weekend submitting online job application forms to MTAS (think UCAS but totally experimental and juggling peoples' entire lives & careers rather than just uni degrees).In the end, the deadline had to be shifted from from yesterday to this morning because the website kept crashing - they weren't prepared for the number of people using the site.
How very reassuring that they are not going to completely fuck everything up for all of us.
Because it was my birthday on Saturday (thank you for your
So of course, I spent most of Saturday sifting through piles of paper, sipping champagne*, hammering out last-minute rewrites to the form...
(Thank goodness for spellcheckers - it's so easy to misspell words like "aneathetist", "incompetant", "catastrophic" etc...)
This may (not) come as a surprise, but I don't find writing particularly easy, especially given the nature of the MTAS questions.
I'm uncomfortable enough about having to encapsulate the breadth of my clinical experience, incorporating every possible buzzword, to sell myself as the best, most qualified, compassionate, competent, reflective, trustworthy, conscientious doctor in the world.
In less than 150 words.
Whilst simultaneously not sounding like an utter prick.
("I am able leap tall buildings in a single bound"-type stuff.)
But then when they ask questions along the lines of "Give a specific example of a time when you found it challenging to maintain vigilance in an environment with infrequent demands?..." - what can you say? You can't just admit to falling asleep in theatre (or in an ambulance, ITU, talking to boring patients after you've had a heavy night out, etc...). I doubt there are marks allocated to reward that level of sheer honesty. But then again, you have to admit to something...
It's an absolute bloody minefield. Thank goodness it's all over...
Interviews in a few weeks (if I'm short-listed for any).
Then most of us suffer the whole process all over again in Round2.
And after that comes Clearing. Arrrgh!
*shut up, it was a birthday present
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