So it's approaching that time of year again:  DF1 Recruitment

This will be the fourth year that final year dental students will use a national recruitment system to secure a place with what was previously known as vocational training (VT), now dental foundation year one (DF1).

The national recruitment system was introduced to emulate the medicine national recruitment and with any system has both advantages and disadvantages over the system of applying directly to practices which it replaced.

In my next few posts I will outline the application process and share my experience of it so that those of you who will be applying will have more of an idea of what to expect.

STEP ONE - know your deadlines

This is very important! Make sure you know them: from registration, filling in the application form, submitting your preferences and of course, those all important interview dates!

A list of provisional deadlines can be found on the COPDEND website. 

If you want to apply to work in Scotland, they use a different system with different deadlines so make sure you know those too!

STEP TWO - register with the London Deanery

STEP THREE - fill in the correct application form

Remember to include two references (mine were both clinicians) and remember to ask their permission before putting them down.

And of course, submit it by the deadline!

STEP FOUR - decide where you want to work

The list of schemes is released around the end of September, but you can provisionally list your preferences before this if you want using the previous years scheme list as a guide, they do not tend to vary that much.

What I would recommend is focusing on the order of your top 10 and also your bottom 10. 

Also be aware of the popular schemes which are usually London, schemes which are close to Dental Schools and also GPT schemes. If you think you'd like to work in any of these, you should definitely put them first, otherwise you're unlikely to get offered a place there. 

Don't get too hooked up on the ordering of the schemes in the middle, you'd make better use of your time preparing for the interview.

And of course, remember to submit your preferences before the deadline! 

STEP FIVE - know your interview date, time and location

The dates and locations can also be found on the COPDEND website, but your specific interview time will be emailed out to you.

Also make sure you have all the documents that you might need, a list of which is usually attached to the email with your offer for interview (usually proof of ID, proof of address, visa etc). 

STEP SIX - prepare, prepare, prepare!

This shouldn't be the last thing you do! You should start preparing as soon as possible.

Newcastle prepared us very well for the interviews, but I know not all dental schools offer preparation. I'll outline how I prepared for the interview in my next post.

What happens next? See my next post: 8 Tips to Prepare you for Your DF1 Interview