Application form FAQs

All NTN and LAT posts are entered into the same 'pot' for each specialty; so a candidate wishing to apply for an NTN post in the specialty would complete and submit the same application form as someone applying for a LAT.

Should you be invited to interview, you will be given details of all posts available in the specialty at that deanery*, including both NTNs and LATs; and you will then be able to specify which of those posts you wish to be considered for – this can be just NTNs, just LATs, or some combination of the two, as you see fit.

[*where recruitment to a specialty is being coordinated nationally via a single deanery - ie CPT, GUM or rehab medicine - candidates at interview will be given details of all posts available in the specialty nationally, not just at the deanery hosting the interview.

In-depth information on applying to ST3 can be found throughout this website; but in particulat the recruitment process and application form sections will give information relating to applications.

The RCP-SRO has produced an applicants guide which can be downloaded (free) from either the homepage or documents page of this website.

In addition, there will be help text included throughout the application form. Where possible, drop-down menus are used to facilitate completion.

You do not need to complete the application form in one sitting - you can complete the form section-by-section, saving each section as you go along, over a number of days if you wish. Please be aware that the application form will take some time to complete, so start early and submit as soon as you can.

Please note that we cannot complete any part of the form on your behalf; also, we are unable to change any of your details either before or after you have submitted your form. Information on your application form must be correct at the time of submission. If you wish to make changes after submission, you will have to delete the form and begin again - so please ensure you are satisfied with the form's content before you submit.

Completion of the form is your own responsibility, and the content therein must be your own. You can discuss various aspects with your supervisor or Programme Director, but you must not copy any material not authored by you for inclusion in your form.

The free-text sections of the application form include some formatting functionality, which can be used to tailor your text as you wish. In some cases, candidates will often draft answers offline and then copy & paste the text into the white-space areas.

There is nothing to prevent this being done; however compatibility between the software used to draft text and the browser with which candidates are completing their applications cannot always be guaranteed. As such, we advise that text answers be drafted in 'plain text' programmes to begin with (eg MS Notepad), then copied into the white-space box, with formatting then applied subsequently.

You are not required to (nor will you be able to) register to apply to ST3 before the application form and system have been made live (see the timeline page of this website for dates.)

The first stage of completing the ST3 application form will be a short registration phase. You will be required to provide an email address by which you can be contacted (which will then also act as your username) and a password that you can use to log back in to the system as necessary at later dates.

Once you have entered and confirmed both of these, the registration stage will be complete - we expect this will take no longer than five minutes at most.

It is not necessary for you to register on the ICAMS/ZMR systems at any point of applying to the SRO-hosted ST3 specialties in 2011. ICAMS and ZMR are completely unrelated to the SRO ST3 recruitment process.

Candidates wishing to apply to other, non-SRO-hosted specialties may be required to register with ICAMS or ZMR as part of the application process for an alternative specialty. Also, some deaneries/UoAs may require candidates to register with these systems at a later stage of the process of recruitment; but details of this will be provided by those deaneries/UoAs as is necessary.

To be eligible for the Guaranteed Interview Scheme you must have a disability or long-term health condition that is expected to last for at least 12 months and which puts you at a significant disadvantage in either obtaining or keeping jobs. You do not have to be registered as a disabled person to apply under this scheme.

Once the application form is live, you can start completing it. We suggest that you start your application as soon as possible once the form is accessible, as candidates often find it takes longer than they expect.

Plan to allow several sessions of one-to-two hours per session and per application.

We recommend that you start early; in our experience, candidates who leave their applications until the last minute do regret it.

Plan to allow several sessions of one-to-two hours per session, per application. It may take you some time to identify all the information you wish to mention. You may not be able to progress through the form until you have completed a mandatory box requiring you to obtain some additional information. It may also take time to complete some of the questions which ask for a word-limited response.

You are strongly recommended to begin the form as early as possible, to save regularly as you complete the form, and to go back later to review the whole form before submission.

Not necessarily - if you have managed to submit your application form, it will be complete. Some of the questions on the application form are only required depending upon your answer to the previous question. When you view your application form, these contextual questions where answers are required are identified with an asterisk (*).

However, please bear in mind that the content of the application form you eventually submit is solely your responsibility; please do check your form thoroughly before you submit, to ensure that you are fully satisfied prior to submission.

You can add text to the application form in whichever style you see fit; certainly, there is no 'right' way of adding information here - if you feel a list would allow you to better communicate the strength of your candidature than adding text in prose form (or vice versa), this will be fine.

No - as you will be required to provide evidence of CMT competences (or equivalent), it will be taken as read that if you have achieved CMT-level competences, you will be proficient at foundation level also.

If you are using Certificate C to demonstrate your achievement of core competences (see above and the eligibility page of this website for more information), you should submit this to the deanery/UoA which will be long-listing your application*.

This can be done in one of two ways; the more straightforward is to upload the document to your application.

Uploading to your application

Within the 'core medicine competence' page of the application form, after selecting the relevant options, you will be asked if you are able to upload a copy of certificate C; if so, select 'yes' and then click on one of the 'browse' buttons which appear. This will allow you to locate the document on your computer and to being uploading it.

[NB - it is not possible to upload a document larger than 10MB; however, more than one document can be uploaded, so if your Certificate C is over 10MB, you can opt to split it into separate documents and upload them individually.]

Sending to deaneries/UoAs directly

If it is not possible to upload the document to your application, the alternative option is to submit your application and then send your Certificate C to the deanery/UoA* in question.

The easiest way of doing this is to attach the document to an email and send this to the deanery/UoA; the relevant email address can be found on the deanery/UoA contacts page of this website. In most cases, this will be the general recruitment helpdesk email address. Please include your details in the email, including name, application ID number, and GMC number

If emailing the document, or obtaining an electronic copy of it is not possible, then please contact the deanery to arrange an alternative method (eg fax).

*Provide a copy with each application

You will need to provide a copy of Certificate C alongside each application you submit; so if you submit an application within a specialty to deanery X and to deanery Z, both should be provided with a copy.

*SCA applications

For those candidates who are applying to specialties using the single cascadable application (SCA) model of recruitment, the deanery/UoA which will be long-listing your application (ie checking it meets eligibility criteria) will be the deanery/UoA you select as your first-choice preference.

Please note - for SCA specialties, only one Certificate C per application is needed, not per deanery/UoA. So for instance, a candidate applying to cardiology, who states four preferences of deanery/UoA, would only need to submit one single Certificate C to accompany their application as a whole; not four documents, ie one to each deanery/UoA preference.

To upload documents to your application, the files must be in either MS Word or PDF format (Word documents must be in '.doc' format and not '.docx').

If your files are not in either of these formats, and cannot be converted easily, it will be possible to submit your application without the documents attached. Once you have done this, please attach the documents to an email, and send them to your first-choice deanery/UoA preference - including in the email your name, GMC number and application ID number, to allow them to be matched to your application more quickly.

In the event that your documents are in Word/PDF format and you still cannot upload them, please let the RCP-SRO know - the helpdesk email address is st3recruitment@rcplondon.ac.uk. In this case, the 'long-hand' option above (ie emailing your documents to your first-choice deanery after submission) can still be used.

If you do not know or do not have the actual day for a particular entry, you should enter 01 for the day and then enter the correct month and year.

Also, check that the dates you are entering are valid - remember there is no 30 February, 31 April, 31 June, 31 September or 31 November!

No - all qualifications you add here must be those which you have already been awarded.

Qualifications which are pending or provisional should not be included. Should you be invited to interview, you will be given the opportunity to discuss your application form, and to make interviewers aware of any potential qualifications you may gain in future - but this information should not be included on your application.

Unfortunately, our office is not able to give specific guidance to candidates regarding the selection of particular options, as the completion of the application form must be solely your own work.

The only guidance we can give is to suggest that you should use your professional judgement to select the option which you feel is most appropriate to your experience.

You will be given the opportunity to expand on your selection on the application form, as well as at interview, should your application progress that far.

Further, recruiters are aware that a candidate's experience will not always fit exactly into one available option; and so provided that your selection and justification is reasonable - and, of course, that you can provide evidence to support it - assessment of this section will not be overly stringent.

Citation details of publications should be added to the form in the same format as can be seen in PubMed.

The only difference here is, you should exclude your own name from the authors list.

In the event that the space is insufficient to add information on all citation details, our advice is to add the main author's name, and then add the 'et al' phrase rather than adding the full list of those involved with the publication.

If you do elect to do this, it is advisable - once you have submitted your application - to contact your first-choice deanery/UoA to check if they would wish you to send them full citation details at this point, or if they would be happy to wait until later (such as at interview).

This will depend on the manner in which the poster/presentation was based on audit work.

Because the full clinical audit process will include presentation of data, findings, etc. the application system states that presentations of this sort - which are part of an audit process - should be included only in the audit section of the form. This is to ensure that assessment relevant to audit experience is carried out appropriately.

However, if a presentation is being made, or poster being shown, on a particular subject, and the subject in question includes reference to audit/quality improvement projects carried out in the past; then this can be included under the presentation section.

A shorthand for this is to consider that if a presentation is done as part of a larger audit/QI project, then it should be included in the audit section; whereas if reference is made to an audit as part of a larger presentation/poster project, it can be included in the presentation section.

To be classed as a 'presentation', a full presentation must have been given. In general, presentations/production of a poster should be included under the '...shown a poster' option.

However, should you feel that this does not accurately reflect your experience, then - as ever - you should select the option you feel is most appropriate to your experience, and provide supporting explanatory information in the accompanying text box.

(eg publications which will be published at a later date, presentations to be given in future, achievements which I will gain later)

No - all information included in this section must relate to items which have already 'happened'.

Even where an achievement is almost guaranteed to be attained - eg an article is scheduled to be published in July - this should not be included in your application form if it has not been attained at time of application.

That is, you should only include publications which have already been published; achievements gained previously; presentations already performed; audits already carried out.

Should you be invited to interview, a significant part of the interview content will involve discussion of your application form; thus you will there be given the opportunity to make interviewers aware of any achievements gained since submitting your application, plus any 'pending' achievements, eg presentations you will be carrying out in future.

Under 'Post Title', please add any (brief) information describing the post - in many cases, this may well overlap with information included in other fields here. For example, 'gastroenterology F2' as a post title contains information from other fields, but can be used as a post title.

However, if there is any other information which can be included in a post title, please do include this.

Under 'Post Type', please select from the list the option which best describes the type of work/training which relates to the post.

To be eligible for a medical ST3 post, you will need to have achieved core competences by the time of post start date. This question is asking, each time you add details of a post to your application form, whether that post contributed to your achievement (past or prospective) of CMT competences.

For candidates who are applying while part of a UK CMT programme, this will be a fairly straightforward field to answer each time: whenever they add a CMT post, the answer will be 'Yes'; while the foundation posts added previously will be accompanied with 'No' answers.

The reason for this field to be included in the form is to allow recruiters to identify which posts in a candidate's experience history have formally contributed to their achievement of CMT competences and which have not; this is particularly useful where candidates' experience includes posts outside of standard UK medical training programmes, such as overseas posts, LAS posts, time out of training, etc.

Where possible, yes.

The primary concern for recruiters when seeking references is that they should be as up-to-date as possible. The references themselves will not be used as part of the assessment process, and thus will only be used once an offer has been made to, and accepted by, each candidate - even if the references are sought earlier on in the process.

The purpose of seeking a reference is to ensure that an applicant's candidature is suitable for ST3, rather than to influence the decision when deciding who posts should be offered to. Thus a reference from a 'good' or 'notable' referee will garner no advantage over one from a 'normal' referee.

Also, please note that in most cases, references will not be sought until later in the process - at the very earliest, mid/late April; and more likely it will not be until some time after this. So in the event that you have only very recently taken up a new post, and have not yet developed a relationship with a supervisor to the extent where they could provide a knowledgeable reference, please do be aware that by the time references are sought, they will be much better-placed to give this.

In some instances, using a current/recent referee will not be possible (eg an academic supervisor can only act as a referee if they are your current supervisor); also some past supervisors may not be able or willing to give a reference (such as if they are out of the country, or have since retired). In these instances, you should nominate your next-most recent supervisor as a referee in their stead.

Yes; in the event that you believe that one of your referees will not be able to provide a reference for you, then you should nominate an alternative on your application(s).

When doing so, please bear in mind the references requirements of the deanery/ies in question; but in general, suitable alternatives would either be to nominate a different supervisor from the same post to that in which you worked with the original referee, if applicable; or alternatively, to nominate a supervisor from the next-most recent post prior to that post.

Please be aware that ST3 posts - as with most medical posts - are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and as such, you must declare absolutely all criminal offences, convictions, etc. regardless of whether or not they would otherwise be regarded as 'spent'.

The only exception to this is in the case of parking offences. All other offences/convictions, including those relating to driving, must be declared.

Also, you must adhere to Good Medical Practice. This requires that you do your best to make sure that any information you provide to prospective employers is not false or misleading.

Please note that answering 'yes' to any of the questions in this section will not automatically bar you from appointment.

You do NOT need to tell us about parking offences. No other exclusions are mentioned, so please include everything else. You must provide details of all criminal convictions, including road traffic offences. For example, if you were convicted for the offence of driving with excess speed, you must declare this.

Yes. Absolutely all incidents relating to offences, fines, warnings, convictions, etc. must be communicated.

There is one exception to this - parking tickets. Absolutely everything else must be communicated, including any other speeding/driving offences.

To communicate information as necessary - you should select 'Yes' from the appropriate menu on the application form's Fitness to Practise section; and then add details to an email and send to your first-choice deanery/UoA, once you have submitted your application.

Some deaneries/UoAs have specified particular email addresses for FtP information - as can be seen on the Deanery/UoA Contacts page of our website.

Please be assured that all FtP information will be handled confidentially; recruiters and interviewers will not even have access to the FtP page of your application, and so will not be aware of this information. This situation will only change in instances where it is absolutely necessary.

The only driving offence that you do not need to declare is that of parking offences; absolutely all other driving offences must be declared, including speeding fines/penalties.

While old speeding fines etc. may have been settled, may not seem particularly relevant, and may not subsequently have any influence on recruitment, it is vital for propriety's sake that candidates declare absolutely everything here.

As such, please select the appropriate option(s) on the fitness to practise page, and then email the relevant deanery/ies to provide further details. For contact details, please visit the deanery/UoA contact details page of this website.

Once you have completed the form and 'signed' the declaration, you will have the option to submit the form (this will be made clear by the application system). Please check your form thoroughly before you submit.

Once your application has been submitted, we will send you an email to confirm this. It will also be registered in your personal summary ('My Messages') page, which you can access via the web-based application tracking service.

Please note that some web-based email accounts may count the confirmation as spam, and move it to a folder other than your inbox.

If you do not receive this confirmation of submission via email or via 'My Messages', and you believe you have submitted your application, please contact our office at st3recruitment@rcplondon.ac.uk.

Some sections - if your personal details change and you wish to update them, these can be edited and will be changed across any and all application forms you have submitted, or are still to submit.

However, please note that your choices of specialty and deanery cannot be changed once you have submitted your application.

It is possible to print a copy of your application form from the application system directly; once you have logged in, select the 'View Application' option, and then select 'Print' from the 'File' menu (alternatively, view your application and press 'Ctrl P').

However, in many cases this will lead to the form being printed off across a large number of pages. A less wasteful method would be to 'View Application', select all text (Ctrl A), and then paste this into a blank word processing document, such as MS Word. This will then allow you to control the number of pages used, text size, etc. prior to printing.

NB - if printing your application form to take to interview with you, please note that you should not include the following sections - or at least, if you do wish to print these, you should keep these separate from the main section of the form: personal information; medico-legal details; fitness to practise; and equality & diversity monitoring.

Any details here can play no part in the decision of the interviewing panel regarding your appointability, hence the interview panel should not view these sections of the form.