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AFP Interview Preparation - The personal interview · Academic Foundation Programme

2018-11-05 · Podcast or interview · Ali, Ankur Khajuria · recording, 9:08 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Medicine and his doctor years · mode: Conversation and interview · tags: Aimed at students, His own numbers

In the fourth and final part of Ali's Medical Mondays series on the Academic Foundation Programme, Ali and surgeon Ankur Khajuria give tips for the personal interview: get comfortable selling yourself, keep a portfolio of achievements, never be modest, and never assume the interviewers have read your white space answers.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The fourth and final Medical Mondays video on the AFP: the personal interview and resources, the clip with Ankur Khajuria

  • ★★ Ali presents the fourth and final video of his Medical Mondays series on preparing for the Academic Foundation Programme, on the personal interview and recommended resources. — 00:00:00 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★ The talk on the Academic Foundation Programme personal interview was filmed with Ali's friend Ankur Khajuria about six months before the video. — 00:00:29 · Academic Foundation Programme

00:00:52 — Get comfortable talking about yourself; start a portfolio of everything you have done

  • ★★ Ali says London holds only two Academic Foundation Programme interviews, critical appraisal and clinical emergencies, while many other places, like EBH where he applied, also hold a personal interview about your life. — 00:00:52 · London, Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★★ Ankur Khajuria: For the Academic Foundation Programme personal interview, Ankur Khajuria says you first need to get comfortable talking about yourself, since many people get very nervous when asked to sell themselves. — 00:00:52 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria suggests practising by speaking to yourself in the mirror or in front of your computer about your past experiences and achievements. — 00:01:22
  • ★★★ Ankur Khajuria recommends that all medical students make a list of what they have done and start a portfolio collecting it in one place, which makes later applications to core medical, core surgical or specialty training easy. — 00:01:47
  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria started his portfolio in about his third year of medical school; it grew over the years, so by core surgical training he already had a lot in it while others chased old certificates. — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — The CanMEDS domains for sorting achievements; no place for modesty in the interview

  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria suggests the Canadian CanMEDS framework, which he describes as six domains of the medical expert such as collaborator, leadership and professionalism, as a way to list and break down your achievements. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Ankur Khajuria says there is no place for modesty in the interview: tell the examiner what you have done and make it sound impressive, as some people he knows can make a small thing sound amazing; hopefully you have the content to share. — 00:03:52

00:04:21 — Ali's mock interview feedback; do not assume the interviewers have read your white space answers

  • ★★ When applying for the Academic Foundation Programme, Ali did two mock interviews, with his clinical director of studies and with an FY2 on an academic programme; both said he should have elaborated more on his achievements, especially in education. — 00:04:21 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★ Ali says he has run an education company (SixMed) for five years, with "x hundred thousand" in revenue and teaching all over the world, but did not want to say so because it felt like it sounded bad; in hindsight it has to be said. — 00:04:21 · 6med
  • ★★★ Ali says a big mistake he and friends who missed out on Academic Foundation Programme posts made was assuming the interviewers had read their white space answers. — 00:04:21 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★ Asked at his EBH interview about his interest in education, Ali deliberately left out his education company and YouTube channel because they were in his white space answer, and picked an obscure, unimpressive example instead, which he now calls a mistake. — 00:05:07
  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria tells of a friend who had done a three-year PhD during medical school: asked at a London interview whether she had done any research, she did not mention the PhD. — 00:05:40 · London
  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria: From that story Ankur Khajuria concludes that Academic Foundation Programme applicants should not assume anything about what the interviewers have read. — 00:05:40 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria says some regions, such as Oxford, are more personal and would have read your white space answers, while London has had no white space answers since the year before. — 00:05:40 · London

00:06:23 — Final tips: the course, the UK FPO website, talking to people who have done the AFP

  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria says there is still time before Academic Foundation Programme applications open, in October or September as he recalls, and urges those who really want it to attend his intensive two-day course, tailored also to students who may not know the UK's Integrated Academic Programme. (hedged) — 00:06:23 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria advises reading the UK Foundation Programme Office website for changes to the application: London scrapped its white space questions the year before, and more changes may follow. — 00:07:08 · London
  • ★★ Ankur Khajuria advises speaking to people who are doing or have done the Academic Foundation Programme about their experiences, regions and supervisors: the more you do now, the better. — 00:07:37 · Academic Foundation Programme

00:08:10 — End of the AFP mini-series, why it was made, Ali reserve-listed, sign-off

  • ★ Ankur Khajuria tells medical students they might as well apply for the Academic Foundation Programme, since they have nothing to lose. — 00:08:10 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★ Ali made his Academic Foundation Programme series because there is almost no information on the internet about preparing for it; it is hidden behind courses and books. — 00:08:10 · Academic Foundation Programme
  • ★★ Ali did not get into the Academic Foundation Programme and was reserve-listed; he is kind of glad, as he is now in Cambridge loving his life, though he suspects that is a kind of confirmation bias. — 00:08:45 · Academic Foundation Programme, Cambridge

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Academic Foundation Programme · Ankur Khajuria

Also: Projects: Medical Mondays

Organizations: 6med · UK Foundation Programme Office

Concepts: CanMEDS · Core medical training · Core surgical training · critical appraisal · Specialty training

Places: Cambridge · London

Only in the description or credits: AFP Secrets · High Yield

Also centred on Ankur Khajuria: Academic Foundation Programme (AFP) - Why should you apply? · Clinical Emergency Scenarios - AFP Interview preparation · Academic Foundation Programme · Critical Appraisal for medical interviews - Preparing for AFP (Academic Foundation Programme)

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