sBMJ | Job market needs revamping

Job market needs revamping

Editor - Trevor Pickersgill highlights a common problem at all levels of the medical profession when job hunting.¹ I am beginning to think that many consultants are not actually living in the real world and have an image of juniors applying for their advertised post as if it were the only job out there. Several of my friends have bemoaned this exact issue whereby consultants and trust managers seem to think that people should apply for only one post, wait by the phone to see if they have got it, and then accept immediately. Presumably, if unsuccessful (as is quite likely to be the case with most popular specialties), the would-be applicant is required to spend months going to consecutive job interviews in only their ideal areas. If they happen to be applying for jobs along with several hundred other hopefuls, that could take a very long time indeed.

Pickersgill quite rightly points out that the practice of accepting jobs and then abandoning them is becoming commonplace. When applicants are being forced to give quick answers and accept posts immediately, without consideration for their circumstances, it is not really surprising.

The alternative is to run the system as it is in just about every other job market. Candidates apply for several posts, and instead of being forced to accept the first one they get offered, they are allowed some time to get the results of the other interviews before deciding. Any employer who does not take into account the personal and professional circumstances of their applicants and future employees is destined for a long series of personal snubs and disappointments.

Fiona Martin, clinical medical student, University of Nottingham
Email: mzyxfmm@nottingham.ac.uk

studentBMJ 2005;13:221-264 June ISSN 0966-6494

The advice zone. studentBMJ 2005;13:201. (May.)

Responses published this month

Articles	Responses
LETTERS Job market needs revamping Fiona Martin (June 2005)	Sreenadh Gella & R R Gollapenne (June 02, 2005) Read this response

LETTERS Job market needs revamping Fiona Martin (June 2005)	Taiyyab Mehmood (August 23rd, 2005) Read this response

	LETTERS Job market needs revamping Fiona Martin (June 2005)
	Sreenadh Gella & R R Gollapenne (June 02, 2005) SHO Orthopaedics, Pinderfields General Hospital, Wakefield, WF1 4DG mrgella@hotmail.co.uk
	We agree with Fiona Martin, we would like to add other aspects of the problem as well. There is at least one instance where one of our friends was promised a job and the two days later he was conveyed over the phone that there was not enough money to fund that job. Of course in the mean time he was forced to miss an interview as he was trying to stick to the GMC’s good medical practice. Basically if a candidate is leaving the job that means that either he/she was not having enough time to make up his/her mind before accepting, he/she is now getting a better job offer in the field of interest or there is a change in the personal/professional situation. We can suggest few suggestions for ending the problem If there is a systematic way of advertising for the jobs like registrar jobs first followed by the SSHO then by the SHO and so on, it will decrease the chances of people taking up a job leaving for a higher job. If there is a centralised selection process with all the jobs of specific field (if not nationally, at least regional selection process), that will help people in choosing the right job and right place for them minimising dissatisfaction. :If there is at least some time is given for all the candidates, rather than them expecting candidates to say yes over the telephone in a minute, as now a days most of the candidates are aware of the fact that they can no longer pick and choose the job they want, forcing them to apply for each and every job that is advertised.

	LETTERS Job market needs revamping Fiona Martin (June 2005)
	Taiyyab Mehmood (August 23rd, 2005) Medical Student/Medicine/3rd year, England/Latvia mrt1066@yahoo.com
	It’s rather interesting view that consultants expect job applicants to apply to only one job post. This is new to me. However from the consultant I know, my father being one, they are hassled more by the failed nursed-turned-hospital managers who actually pull the strings and dictate who to take on are by means of budget and by a confidential list of parameters who to choose. Right now eastern Europeans doctors are highly liked to come and they are coming in the hoard who will not moan and complain if the trust breaks the rules. Thus due to this we are for the first time seeing the "job for life" vanquishing and I know 2 of my peers who have graduated this year from London with no medical job to go to! Both plan to go to Australia who is more than happy to take them. Sad as it may seem but the fault does not lie solely on the consultant on the whole or generally for that matter. The whole system is in a state of coma from applying to medicine to becoming a consultant that its hard to pin pint the several factors of the cause now, but the government and the BMA are partly to blame for a considerable part. We need to open our eyes to other parts of the world where their medical system is not having trouble as we are and learn from them then being stiff upper lip we British have been too much and refuse to learn from our counterparts esp. across the ocean in USA. We also need to rid of this PLAB, which has been a problem also and make all medical students, UK and international for all to sit the same exams. Total reform is needed across the whole board. Peace to you all!! :))