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Career Support and Guidance

Overview

As a postgraduate doctor, dentist or public health practitioner in training (PGDiT), you have responsibility for your career and ongoing development.

You are ordinarily expected to make decisions about your career pathway in the early years of training. However, even the best laid plans can be disrupted by unexpected personal circumstances, for example, acquiring an impairment or long-term health condition during training.

Whether you are in the early stages of career planning, are looking to change specialty or looking at alternative professions, you should have access to the support and guidance you need to make an informed decision about your career. 

You may find careers support particularly useful when:

  • Transitioning between phases of training
  • Your personal circumstances change
  • You experience a major life event
  • You experience illness or acquire a disability or long-term condition
  • Sitting examinations
  • Being assessed at ARCP
  • Returning after a period of time out of training

This section provides you with resources to support your clinical career choices and/or specialty selection, as well as to understand your ongoing professional development needs for successful progression during and beyond postgraduate training. 

You can also access careers support from your trainers, particularly for specialty-specific information, including Clinical and Educational Supervisors, supervising consultants, College Tutors and Training Programme Directors. They can either help you directly or they may be able to signpost you to where further information is available.

Contents

Understanding career options

Medicine

NHS Health Careers provide in depth information about the roles available to doctors across all specialties. This includes responsibilities of a doctor within each specialty and career progression pathways. They also explain the variety of career opportunities available to doctors including, but not limited to:

  • Clinical academic careers
  • Locally employed doctors
  • Locum work

At the bottom of NHS England's Medical Specialty Recruitment webpage you can find information about each specialty's training programme, as well as specific guidance on recruitment and selection processes.

The BMJ have created individual guides on becoming a doctor within most specialties. The BMJ Careers webpage also includes broader articles that are published regularly, discussing different aspects of career progression and sometimes sharing personal experiences. 

Dentistry

NHS Health Careers provide an overview of the different roles available to dentists.

NHS England's Dental trainee recruitment webpages can increase your understanding of dental training programmes, providing a detailed overview of Dental Core Training and an overview of Dental Specialty Training. When selecting a specialty, you may find it helpful to review dental specialty training curricula.

Career planning tools

BMA Specialty Explorer

Free to members of the BMA, the BMA Specialty Explorer is an online psychometric tool that helps foundation and core doctors in training make career decisions. It encourages you to explore your strengths and weaknesses and provides a personalist list of recommended specialties to explore.  This tool will also benefit PGDiTs who are looking to change specialty. 

elfh Career Planning Courses

Hosted on NHS England's elearning for healthcare (elfh) platform, a suite of self-directed courses provide foundation and core doctors with support in their respective career planning during the process of making post-foundation and post-core career decisions. 

These courses will provide you with a deeper level of understanding of how you can ensure your future career planning is informed, realistic and robust. In addition, you will have compiled a distinctive, thorough personal portfolio of research and reflections contained in a downloadable workbook, that can be utilised for job applications and interviews. 

Each course is anticipated to take up to 4 hours to complete although times may vary between learners. A course and its sessions can be completed in one go or in stages as suits your needs.

You will need to create an elfh account before you can enrol onto a courses.

BMJ Career Development Course

Those with a BMJ subscription can access a range of online courses as part of membership, including the BMJ Career Development Course. Comprising 13 modules, it will support your career planning and decision-making, from early to late career, and during key transition stages. Helpful tips around CV construction and interview preparation complement learning on in-work employability strategies, and how to boost your professional profile.

Specialty-specific resources

Most Royal Colleges, Faculties, Associations and Societies have dedicated careers resources and guidance, which you may find beneficial for both selecting the right specialty, planning progression and managing your ongoing personal and professional development. 

Examples of resources include, but are not limited to personal stories, podcasts, access to mentoring and practical toolkits. 

Royal Colleges and Faculty

Associations and Societies

Accessing local career support

Educator and supervisor advice

Clinical and Educational Supervisors and Training Programme Directors play a valuable role in supporting PGDiTs with their career planning and in Yorkshire and Humber, we have trained over 140 educators and supervisors in how to have effective career conversations.

Often, initial career conversations will take place with the Clinical and Educational Supervisors who are most often in contact with you and this is particularly valuable if, for example, you are experiencing challenges with your training progression and would benefit from signposting to speciality-specific resources.

You may also find it useful to approach an educator from another specialty you are interested in, if you find yourself considering a change in specialty. This will allow you to learn more about other specialties which draws upon an educator's wealth of experience and knowledge of the training required.

Coaching for careers decisions

Coaching can help you to gain some clarity about what you want from your future career and take stock of your circumstances. All PGDiTs can access free support via the deanery's Coaching Scheme and many of our coaches are trained in having careers conversations.

Coaching can offer a safe, confidential and impartial space within which you can explore your thoughts and circumstances, with somebody outside of your specialty and not involved with your training. It is important to be clear that coaching is not about advice giving. A coach will help you come to your own decisions based on your circumstances. 

Coaching can be helpful when it seems that multiple sessions may be useful, there are other issues getting in the way of being able to make a decision or where gaining further clarity is needed.

Appointments with a Professional Support Associate Dean

There may be scenarios where you wish to speak to somebody independent of your training programme and in confidence, or where you would benefit from a more focused careers conversation after speaking to an educator. You are welcome to submit a Professional Support Self-referral, outlining your circumstances and the type of support you are seeking and we can arrange for you to have an impartial and supportive conversation with one of our Professional Support Associate Deans, all of whom are senior consultants.

Specialist Career Advice

There are specific scenarios where a PGDiT may benefit from more specialised advice and guidance, including if you:

  • Have received an Outcome 4 at your latest ARCP or are likely to receive an Outcome 4 at your next ARCP
  • Have made the decision to leave Medicine or Dentistry and require further support exploring options and transferrable skills  
  • Are considering leaving Medicine or Dentistry and would like to speak to someone not associated with your training  

In such cases, it may be appropriate to meet with the region's Specialist Careers Advisor. 

If you think you would benefit from a 1:1 appointment, we recommend discussing your needs with your Educational Supervisor and/or Training Programme Director, who should submit a Professional Support Trainer Referral and describe your circumstances and need for specialist guidance. 

If you submit a Professional Support Self-referral requesting careers support we will ordinarily arrange for you to meet with one of our Associate Deans in the first instance, who may request a referral on to the Specialist Careers Advisor as an outcome of your appointment. 

Becoming a consultant

Resources

Alternative careers

  • Medic Footprints provide information and guidance on diverse and alternative careers for doctors.

 

 

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