Interview FAQs

You may hear the term 'assessment/selection centre' used to describe the interview stage of ST3 recruitment. This covers the whole process involved in this stage of the process - including document checking, information-giving as well as the actual interview.

During recent years, the stage of the recruitment process usually referred to as 'interview' has evolved considerably, to the point where it now contains a number of different sections. These sections will assess numerous different aspects of candidates' skills, and may include practical tasks, as well as verifying eligibility and information included on the application form. The assessment gives candidates the opportunity to provide evidence of achievements, publications, etc.

While much of this will involve a candidate being 'interviewed', to describe the whole process as an 'interview' may not convey the correct impression of the diverse range of assessments involved; hence this stage of recruitment is now formally known as the 'assessment centre', although it will continue to be referred to as 'interview' colloquially.

Provided your application is found to be eligible at the long-listing stage, and the score your application form is awarded is sufficient for the deanery to which you have applied, your application will be listed for invitation to assessment centre. The invitation period will be noted on our timeline page.

Invitations will be sent via email, so please keep checking your inbox and your application portal. If you have any concerns, please contact the deanery to which you have applied.

By the point where UoAs/deaneries are ready to begin inviting candidates to interview, they will have compiled a ranking of suitable candidates who have applied to that deanery/UoA. Invitations to interview will be sent out to candidates on that list in turn, hence some candidates on the list may not receive invitations straight away - it may be later in the process that invitations are sent to them.

The broad window for interview dates for ST3 posts in the SRO-hosted system can be viewed on our calendar page.

Once interview dates have been confirmed by each deanery/specialty, they can be viewed on our interview dates page.

Should you have any queries relating to the scheduling of interviews within a deanery/UoA, we would advise contacting that particular deanery/UoA directly.

Yes. Should a candidate complete and submit multiple application forms for different specialties and deaneries/UoAs, and score highly enough to receive an invitation to interview at the UoAs/deaneries cited on the application forms, the candidate in question may receive multiple invitations to interview.

Applicants do not have to attend all interviews they are invited to; however, if you are invited to an interview that you do not intend to attend, please inform the deanery in question beforehand, so that the interview place can be offered to another candidate.

Once you have booked your assessment centre slot, please note that it is not usually possible to offer an alternative date or time. If you are unable to attend on the given date and time, please inform the deanery/UoA so that you can make alternative arrangements if possible, and also so that the original slot can be offered to another trainee.

Please note that if you do not attend the assessment centre, that particular application cannot progress further. If the date and time clashes with an interview or assessment for another specialty, you will be expected to confirm which you will attend.

Please be aware that if you do not have a final, overall assessment score within a particular specialty, then you will not be eligible for clearing therein.

If you are invited to attend the assessment centre, the inviting deanery/UoA will confirm what documents you will need to bring with you. These are likely to include:

• Recent photographic ID
• Your original Medical Degree Certificate and a photocopy
• Your current GMC certificate and a photocopy
• Your passport and/or birth certificate, and/or any documentation relating to your immigration status
• The originals of any certificates previously submitted to demonstrate achievement of core competency for verification
• Evidence of any other achievements you have put on your application form, such as prizes, publications, evidence of audit, etc.
• A summary form reflecting the contents of your portfolio. You will NOT be required to bring any learning portfolio you might have. The summary form will be provided to you if you are invited to assessment centre.

You are required to bring any evidence you have quoted on the application form to your interview. This required evidence is divided into two sections:

Firstly, proof of your eligibility, eg name, address, qualification, etc. Please follow deanery instructions regarding the evidence they wish you to bring to interview to demonstrate this.

Secondly, you will need to bring evidence in support of the information you added to your application form under 'achievements', where you listed any achievements, prizes, etc. you wished to have taken into account as part of your application.

So as to be fair to all applicants, and to make the evidence easier to find and review at interview, you must not bring your personal training portfolio. Instead, you must bring to the interview an 'Evidence Folder', containing all the evidence you have quoted on your application form, in the order in which it is quoted.

We have produced a checklist - called the 'Evidence Summary Form' (ESF) - to act as a 'contents page' for this folder, so that interviewers can see, at a glance, what you have brought, and easily find it. This will be available from the documents page of this website closer to the time of interviews. Deaneries/UoAs will tick this off once they confirm all information is present, and will retain this after returning the remainder of your evidence folder to you.

If you are invited to interview, you will be required to bring certain documentation to demonstrate your eligibility. You will need to provide either:

• TWO forms of photographic information, and ONE document confirming your address;

OR:

• ONE form of photographic information, and TWO documents confirming your address.

The most appropriate documents to use to confirm your address would be recent utility bills and/or bank/building society statements.

Acceptable forms of photographic personal information include:

• Current UK (inc. Channel Islands & Isle of Man) or Irish passport; or EU/other nationalities passport
• Passports of non-EU nationals, containing UK stamps, a visa or UK residence permit showing the immigration status of the holder in the UK
• A current UK photocard driving licence
• A national ID card and/or other valid documentation relating to immigration status and permission to work

Should you have any further queries regarding appropriate identification, please contact the interviewing deanery/UoA.

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.

Yes. Each application you submit will be regarded as independent, thus if you complete and submit multiple applications, it will be necessary to provide full supporting evidence for each application; even if this means submitting the same document multiple times over.

In the event you will be attending more than one interview, much (if not all) of the documentation you will take with you will be the same for each interview. Where documents have been copied (eg passports, proof of address, etc.), with the copies retained by a deanery/UoA at one interview, you will need to produce more copies to use at any subsequent interviews.

Where documents have been returned to you (eg prize certificates, etc.), you will of course be able to use these at any subsequent interview(s).

Reasonable travelling expenses are normally paid for attending the assessment centres. You will be given information about how to claim when you attend.

For doctors attending from overseas, expenses will normally be paid for travel from point of entry into the UK.

If you have any queries regarding expenses, please contact the UoA at which your assessment centre is being/was held.

NB - Northern Ireland do not reimburse candidates for travel to attend interview.

The method by which deaneries/UoAs will seek candidate references will vary from one deanery/UoA to the next. Please see the references page of this website for more information.

The exact methods and timings that deaneries/UoAs will follow when seeking references will vary. In many cases, deaneries/UoAs will contact referees directly to request candidate references, and this may be at a later stage of the process - around the time that offers are made.

Alternatively, some deaneries/UoAs may contact referees at the time of - or request that candidates bring references with them to - interview.

Please see the references page of this website for more information.

Obviously, candidates will wish to discuss their experiences at interview with their colleagues, as is natural.

However, you must not share detailed information about the assessment centres - specifically, the content and format of questions asked; ultimately, this may reduce your own chance of success.

However, the assessments therein are competency-based, and there is published evidence demonstrating that prior knowledge of the content and context of assessment does not positively affect performance.

Individual questions are also changed regularly at each assessment centre, and we would counsel candidates against altering their behaviour based on the advice of other applicants.