Secrets of Success: Getting into Specialty Training

It is not always easy for doctors to make the right choices for themselves when the world of medicine offers so much diversity. Indeed, Specialty training is now a very significant crossroads in a junior doctor's career - choosing the most appropriate direction can be mind-boggling. There is a need to be realistic, to have clear goals and objectives, and often to recognise these before setting out on the first few steps into a field. Secrets of Success: Getting into Specialty Training aims to guide applicants for these posts through the various stresses and challenges of the application and interview processes and enable them to increase their own chances of successfully securing their dream job. A section on background is followed by chapters exploring the application process and how candidates can expect to be scored. There is a large section providing candidates with possible application questions and example answers, covering such areas as academic achievement, audit, professional integrity, teamwork and coping under pressure as well as some specialty-specific questions. The reader is then guided through portfolio preparation and the interview process, and the book ends with a useful 'what next' section, including invaluable advice on what to do if things don't go so well. Secrets of Success: Getting into Specialty Training is a practical handbook, presented in a clear and friendly style, with space for the reader to write their own notes as they go along. This book is an essential guide for all junior doctors before and during the application and interview process, and will arm the reader with the tools they need to help them successfully cross this important career hurdle.

Edited by
Philip J Smith BMedSci(Hons) BMBS MRCP(London)
ST4 in Academic Clinical Fellow in Gastroenterology, London Deanery, London, UK

Manoj Ramachandran BSc(Hons) MBBS(Hons) MRCS(Eng) FRSC(Tr&Orth)
Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon, Barts and The London NHS Trust, London, UK; Honorary Senior Lecturer, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, UK

Marc A Gladman MBBS PhD MRCOG MRCS(Eng) FRCS(Gen Surg) UKCRC Clinical Lecturer in Surgery, Centre for Academic Surgery, Institute of Cell & Molecular Science, Barts and The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, London, UK

Associate Editor
Elizabeth A Owen MBBS BMedSci(Hons) MRCPCH
ST3 in Paediatrics, London Deanery, London, UK