Why ask me that?! Top Tips for Foundation School

Applications

Gill Frigerio

Manager of Careers Education and Guidance

I hope to cover:

• Potential pitfalls of applications

• Competency based questions

• A framework for providing evidence

• Hints and tips

• Further resources

Principles of Application Form Writing

• Think about why they are asking the question

• Read the person specification carefully

• Make sure you cover all essential criteria, and hopefully the desirable too!

• Give a wide variety of examples, avoid repetition

• Avoid descriptive narrative, be specific

• Stay within the word limit (some assessors may stop reading after 75 words)

• Demonstrate evidence of knowledge, understanding, experience, and application

Applications: potential pitfalls

• Failure to identify what the reader is really looking for

• Underselling yourself• Failing to provide the right evidence to

support your statements• Not tailoring your application to the role• Silly mistakes – spelling etc

Good news!

• You are in an excellent position to understand what the reader is looking for

• The form is very explicit on what they are looking for

Give Yourself The Best Chance

• Give yourself plenty of time to research, draft and fill in the form

• Treat it as you would a paper based form

• Make full use of the word count available

The sections

• Areas of achievement and what has been gained:• Academic and non academic• non-medical & undergraduate medical

• GMC “Good Medical Practice” principles

• Identify your educational and personal reasons for applying for this Foundation School

• Teamwork/Leadership

Why THESE questions?

• These questions have been devised nationally, carefully and precisely… these aren’t random and all are very important!

• In general, they are checking that you:

CAN - do the job (skills)WANT - the job (motivation)FIT - within the programme

(values)

Do they fit?

• Achievements:MedicalNon-Medical

• GMC ‘Good Practice’

• Reasons

• Teamwork/Leadership

CAN, WANT

CAN, FIT

CAN, WANT, FIT

WANT, FIT

CAN, FIT

Competency Based Questions

• Describe a particular situation

• Think about Working, Learning, Playing and Giving

• Explain what you achieved and how you did it

• Talk about any barriers overcome

• Give a positive outcome

ACTIVITIES

Elective Publishing & Conferences

Societies

Part time, summer, &

voluntary work

Sports

Staff/Student Committee

Clubs

Log Book

Fundraising

IntercalatingClinical

Experience

Audits

Prizes & Awards

Family Responsibility

Academic Achievement

Hobbies & Interests

Possible evidence of team working

Voluntary workSports/Clubs

Intercalating

Audit

Interdisciplinary Teams

Staff/Student Committee

Personal Experience

Research Groups

Work Experience

Clinical Work

Elective

ACTIVITIES(Medical/Non-Medical

Achievements)

Elective Publishing & Conferences

Societies

Part time, summer, &

voluntary work

Sports

Staff/Student Committee

Clubs

Log Book

Fundraising

IntercalatingClinical

Experience

Audits

Prizes & Awards

Family Responsibility

Academic Achievement

Hobbies & Interests

STAR Framework

– S ituation

– T ask

– A ction

– R esult

Use the STAR approach for competency questions:

Coping with a difficult person

• Acting as a relief supervisor at Pizza Express, a customer began to complain loudly about the service being slow.

• My task was satisfy the person without upsetting other customers who were also waiting for their food and had arrived earlier.

Coping with a difficult person cont.

• I listened carefully, used moderate language, a quiet voice and carefully explained about staff shortages due to illness. I reassured him that his order was being dealt with and offered complimentary drinks whilst waiting.

• The customer calmed down and decided to wait quietly, with free drinks.

Hints & Tips Read

instructions & questions

carefully

Complete a draft copy

Think about

presentation

Use formal language &

check spelling etc

Allow ample time to complet

e

Keep a copy

Strong Words! • Strong verbs to describe what you have done:

achieved evaluated

initiated devised

co-ordinated implementedcontributed

analysed

demonstrated

planned

organised

investigated

Strong Words! • Adjectives to describe yourself:

impartial resilient

Accurate resourceful

methodical reliablelogical

calm

conscientious

responsible

sensitive

persuasive

Editting hints and tips

• Keep sentences short (12-15 words)

• Delete unnecessary adjectives

• Use gerunds instead of longer clauses (ing!)

• Avoid unnecessary articles

• Ask someone else to read it for sense

Further Resources & Help

• www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/careers/

• www.prospects.ac.uk

• Application Advice or Quick Careers AdviceBook day before- on line reception in UH or x77508

• Careers Hub – (Video ‘Looking good on paper’ and ‘Your Job’s Online’)