Interview / Assessment Centre

Stage 2 of the application/recruitment process is the assessment centre. Here candidates will be invited to attend an interview where they will be asked a series of questions by clinicians at different interview stations, as well as having some documentation checked to confirm their eligibility and achievements, as noted on their applications.

The content of the interview is designed to review in full a candidate’s skills and experience, and to give as accurate as possible a picture of their suitability for a CMT post. Here, candidates will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their strengths to a greater degree than that afforded by the application form.

The interview process is as follows:

Scoring / Ranking / Cascading

Following submission of application forms, all applications deemed eligible will proceed to be scored and ranked nationally. Candidates will then be invited to interview in order of ranking. Where assessment centre capacity allows, and candidate application score is sufficient, eligible candidates will be invited to assessment at their first-choice deanery/UoA.

Where a candidate is deemed eligible, but all available places at their first-choice UoA/deanery have been taken by candidates whose applications were awarded higher scores, the candidate will then be considered for assessment at the UoA/deanery they preferenced on the application as second-choice. Should their second-choice UoA/deanery’s capacity also be taken up by higher-scoring candidates, the candidate’s application will then be considered by their third-choice UoA/deanery, and so on.

In the event that a candidate’s application has not scored highly enough for them to be interviewed at any of their UoA/deanery preferences, their application will not progress to the interview stage.

Invitations / Bookings

Candidates who are deemed to be eligible for CMT and whose applications have scored highly enough within a particular deanery will be invited to interview by that deanery via email. The overall timeline suggests these invitations can be made from Thursday 6 May 2010 onwards; however this will vary somewhat between UoAs/deaneries, some may be able to send invitations earlier, whereas some – where larger numbers of applications are received – may invite candidates to interview later.

Please note that all candidates will be given a minimum of five days’ notice before their interview date where possible. The exception to this would be if a particular interview slot becomes available and is then offered to a candidate at short notice. Also, please be aware that upon receiving an invitation to interview, there will be a stated deadline by which that candidate must book their interview; if they do not, their place will be offered to another candidate.

Upon receiving this invitation email, candidates will be able to book their own interview slot via the online application system (accessed via this website). Upon logging in, the available timeslots will be presented to them and each candidate can then select their preferred slot. Candidates will then receive an email confirming their booking.

Should a candidate have any difficulty booking their interview online, we would advise that they either try an alternative web browser, or contact the UoA/deanery at which they are trying to book their interview.

Any candidate who finds that they are unable to attend their interview at their scheduled date/time should immediately contact the UoA/deanery hosting the interview to inform them of this.

The Interview

Preparation

Certain questions at the interview will involve discussion of particular scenarios – however, information on these will be provided to candidates on the day.

Beyond ‘generic’ interview preparation, candidates can prepare by reviewing the below information:

Timings & Venue

When a candidate books an interview slot, their interviewing deanery will provide details of the assessment centre venue and inform the candidate of the appropriate time to arrive for registration – it is essential that candidates arrive on time.

Travel to the venue should be planned in advance, with plenty of time allowed for travelling, parking (if applicable), and contingency (in case of any difficulties en route).

Documentation

In addition to the above preparation, in all cases candidates will also be required to take some documentation with them to interview to verify and support their application. This will take two forms – ‘Eligibility’ documentation and ‘Evidence’ documentation.

It is advised that candidates place the different types of information in separate folders to keep them distinct. These will be referred to here as the ‘Eligibility Folder’ and ‘Evidence Folder’. On the front of each folder, each candidate should mark clearly their full name, GMC number and Application ID number.

Information on these two folders can be found at the pages below:

Eligibility Folder

Evidence Folder

Interview Dates, Post Numbers, Competition Ratios

Please see below for information on which deaneries/UoAs in England & Wales will be participating in CMT recruitment Round 2; the dates on which each will be holding Round 2 interview; and the numbers of posts to which each will be looking to appoint candidates in Round 2.

Please note that the KSS, London, Mersey, Northern, Oxford, Severn and West Midlands Deaneries will not be participating in CMT Recruitment Round 2, as they will have no vacant CT1 posts remaining following Round 1.

Correct as at 26.04.10

* Unlike in Round 1, Wales will act as one Unit of Application (UoA) in Round 2. Following application, candidates will be able to state preferences for rotations in North, (South) East or (Mid & South) West Wales.

** The majority of vacant posts within Yorkshire & Humber are in the East locality.

Please note the following factors with regard to the competition ratios above:

• Competition ratios are, at best, a very rough guide to competition within a deanery. Unknown variables include ineligibility of some applications, withdrawal of candidates from the process, performance at interview, candidate preference for particular deaneries, increases in post numbers following advert, etc.
• A lower application ratio does not necessarily mean a post can be secured easily - a certain minimum performance is required at interview

For information on the number of posts vs number of applications for each deanery/UoA in 2009 CMT recruitment, please see our UoAs/Deaneries page.