So it all comes down to this. It’s the last ball of the game. It’s now or never. And today, on the 26th of March 2024, you’ll know if you’ve hit a home run.
Batter up!
Okay, okay, okay. We’ll stop the melodramatics.
But today is D-Day and for all of you who’ve made it this far, we understand the nerves you’re probably feeling right now. Like we’re writing this at 1:47am and we can’t sleep cause we’re so nervous/excited/sh*ting ourselves on your behalves! From continuous screw ups on Oriel to interview format changes, it’s been a long slog. We take our proverbial hats off to you for enduring through it all and we ask you to just persevere for a little bit more. It’s nearly all over.
Now we of course hope that today will bring plenty of cheers but thinking realistically, we know some of you may not get the result you wished for. That’s why in this newsletter edition, we want to outline the support available to you from us at RadCast based on the outcome of your application.
It’s A Yes #ivematched #classof2024
Congrats all round! Time to celebrate and we mean it! You see, one thing that the American’s do really well, apart from ridiculously large sized portions, is that they go way over the top about getting into specialty training or as the Yank’s call it, “matching” into a residency programme. At first we thought it was a bit cringe (classic British attitude) but on retrospect, we think they’ve actually got it spot on. Like you worked your butt off to get to this stage, gone through countless hoops and yeah, you rightfully deserve to bask in your achievements. So do please go and paint the town red #doctorsorders.
But what now?
Firstly, as is tradition every year, we would love to hear from you. Specifically, we’re looking to capture feedback on how we can improve RadCast in terms of the support we offer. Additionally, we’re looking to expand and bring on new talented individuals to help us take RadCast to the next level. So, we’d love to get feedback from candidates who went through the application cycle to 1) find out how you did and 2) identify areas where we can improve. We’ll also be reviewing the feedback and identifying individuals who we’ll reach out to privately to discuss opportunities for joining the RadCast fraternity. We also have some amazing projects in store for you that we know will help you excel in your transition into your first year of ST1 Clinical Radiology training.
P.S. if you’ll be joining us in Mersey, we’d love to hear from you (free coffee on us)!
It’s A Semi-Yes #reservelist
It sounds like you’re telling us that you’re on the reserve list. If that’s the case, please don’t stress out. Patience is key.
At this stage, you’ve been deemed appointable (yay) but your rank wasn’t high enough to get into your ranked deaneries (nay). So you’re in limbo.
So what do you do?
Candidates in this group are on a ‘reserve’ list meaning they will have to patiently wait to see if other candidates decide to reject their offer i.e. choose another deanery or pursue another specialty. Due to delays in results being released for other specialty programmes, this process may take longer than previous years. Once again, it’s imperative you remain patient. We know it’s easier said than done but honestly, there’s not much else you can do. The ranking cascade will keep churning through the candidates until 1) all available training posts have been accepted or 2) the deadline to ‘hold’ offers passes meaning the application has come to an end. One thing we would recommend here is that candidates should be aware of the deadlines to ‘hold’ existing offers across the various specialties.
It’s A No…
This is the one that hurts the most.
Whilst we hope and pray this doesn’t happen to any of you, we want to take this opportunity to outline what support we can offer you.
Firstly, our doors are open for you. Our availability does not end at the point of acceptance nor rejection. Our doors are ALWAYS open for you and we cannot emphasise that enough.
So what should you do?
In the first instance, please do not make any rash decisions. Emotional decisions aren’t always the best and this also applies to career choices. Yes, you may not have got in this year but that doesn’t mean you throw away your dreams of pursuing radiology. As they say, “you may have lost the battle but not the war”. We know you may be feeling dejected and demoralised. That’s totally understandable. But, please don’t use this rejection as a sign that your radiology ambitions are ‘over’. Once again, we’ll repeat that: do not let one setback define your entire trajectory. We’ve worked with numerous candidates who were initially rejected on their first attempt but successful in their future applications.
Instead, use this opportunity to flesh out your next steps in a logical manner. Is the next step a FY3 year? If so, is it the locum life? Or are you going to pursue a fellow post?
Also use this opportunity to identify how you’ll improve your application. Was it your portfolio that let you down? If so, what domain was it? Was it the MSRA? If that’s the case, be realistic about the prep you did and outline how to build on it. Or was it your interview performance? Once again, the crux of all these points is honest reflection using constructive feedback. Now before you vomit hearing such generic, and often useless, buzzwords, let us put it into context. If you were successful in getting to this stage of the application process, you’ll have received (or will receive) three critical sources of information:
Your MSRA score per section i.e. Professional Dilemmas and Clinical Problem Solving domains
Your verified portfolio score
Your interview performance score
You need to review each of these elements and make a game plan that addresses each of the shortcomings (if any) in the 3 parts above. But you have to be honest with yourself. Just saying “I need to revise more” is frankly a waste of your time. How will you revise more? What sections did you suck at? Set yourself SMART goals if you’re into all that productivity guru hype crap. We’re not but honestly, be truthfully blunt with yourself on how you can take your application to the next level.
Finally, get in touch with us. Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees and need another perspective to help you make sense of things. Hopefully, we can be those pair of eyes for you. So, please do get in touch via the button below.
Final Thoughts
We’re becoming more sentimental as we get into our golden years but we genuinely do feel the stress you’re all under. We were in your position once and we all remember the day we got our own results. Like we said, we hope that all of you get the result you’re looking for but, and this is far more important, please know that our doors are open for each and every one of you.
Now before we go off to ponder about life’s meaning, let’s end on a lighter note. Specifically, we’ve been blown away by the support you have all shown us. It really means a lot to us and gives us a spring in our steps. Plus we’ve loved seeing the little community we’ve developed on the telegram as you’ve gone out to help your fellow colleagues. Honestly, the future of radiology is very, very bright (before AI comes and takes all our jobs of course).
For those of you starting your radiology training in August, thank you for riding the RadCast Express. We hope you had a pleasant journey, enjoyed the snacks along the way and feel free to reach out to us if you want any tips on life as an ST1 #seeitsayitsortit. For those of you still continuing your application, your ticket is still valid for the next voyage. Regardless of the outcome, from all of us at RadCast, thank you for giving us the privilege to join you on your application journey. It truly has been an honour *bows*.
Till next time,
From your “please rank the following scan requests from most to least important” friends,
Mo, Uzi and Jamie
RadCast Co-Founders