Glad you found it thought provoking. In the meantime, I agree and you have certainly softened my attitude. I suppose my contention has evolved from "I really dislike the use of GMAs" to "I believe diversity of selection processes between courses is optimal for both the selection of a diverse range o...

This technically applies to me (8b Clinica Lead), and it does happen, especially in situations where there is greater flexibility. The thinking behind this is often "well, we would like to get a clinical psychologist ideally, but we can't guarantee that any will apply for this post, and we would rat...

This will depend on what you mean by a scientist practitioner. There is no reason why you couldn't learn to practice scientifically (i.e. draw from an evidence base, read scientific literature, evaluate your own work or that of others) or be involved with clinical audit and sevice evaluation. This i...

It would be helpful to get an idea about how mental health services are currently operating. In my opinion, the guidance from the NHS/Public Health England has been quite vague, and as someone responsible for making decisions about the psychologists within my service, I am conscious of introducing s...

One thought I just had was perhaps using service user representatives (who have been on interview panels are paid and have training) to give feedback if clinicians are too busy.

Thanks for posting, and I suspect a lot of people will empathise with your situation. The thing that strikes me is that, despite the outcomes, you must be doing a lot right in order to just be getting interviews for DPhils, PhDs and DClinPsys. If your applications are getting that far, I there are e...

I am on both sides of the fence here, but I do think we need to consider the mental health of applicants more. I also think it's a false dichotomy for qualifieds to use the "It's either your feedback or someone elses therapy session" line. As I have become older I have increasingly realised it's inc...

I would like to try something new. As the progress thread starts to pile up with various colours, and as people may not want to dampen other people's success in other threads, I was thinking it may be helpful to have a space to reflect and process those (the majority) that it hasn't gone well for. S...

I think its tricky, because in some Canadian states there is variance about whether you can practice with an MSc level qualification. For any foreign trained psychologist coming in, I would recommend they seek out a BPS International Route to assess what competencies that need to be evidenced. The e...

Beyond the above point about getting through the research component of the course, I would be thinking more about how will your longer term career pan out. Unless you want to end your career on a Band 7 therapy focussed role (in which case you would be far better off training as an IAPT CBT therapis...

A plea to folks on this thread. It's really helpful to see people who get interviews, but probably moreso when people post that they haven't. The process is notorious for making really good, capable candidates feel devalued, and people are often left alone with that feeling. Often family members, fr...

PinkFreud, you make some good points. Addressing each one in turn: After all, is that not why the use of IQ tests in job recruitment is generally banned in Western countries, as they are biased against disadvantaged groups? IQ tests aren't 'banned' per se, but usually not utilised a) because valid, ...

I don't think that anyone is under the impression that GMAs are a perfect method of selecting future psychologists and they are not pretending to be. It just seems to be a transparent, scalable and measurable way to thin a massive herd of applicants. Unlike the traditional way of selection via a pan...

Realised too late that the main thing seemingly being tested here was how to take tests – the key was to get an answer WRONG once you were doing well… Instead, I tried to answer the question, which when up against a clock and, clearly, hard questions take longer than easy questions, means that you ...

Here are a few integrity related dilemmas: - You are working with a service user and you clinically feel that they need more sessions, the evidence collated suggests this and your clinical supervisor also agrees. However, your service has a strict limit on how many can be offered which your manager ...