NHS Job application forms

I’ve been meaning to put down all the things I’ve learned about applying for jobs in the NHS for a very long time and as my team currently has a data scientist role out it seems a perfect time to get those thoughts down to share.

This is a first part of the process where I cover what I’ve learned about applying to NHS jobs starting with applying:

Where to find jobs

Many NHS organisations use TRAC and you may find that their jobs are promoted via their own organisational TRAC, however, they are also posted onto NHS Jobs.

I prefer NHS Jobs as a really good site to find roles as all NHS organisations, including Wales, in one place. The site also has the facility to set up job alerts to get notified of jobs from many organisations at once which is good, particularly if you are looking for roles that are remote. It also allows you to keep your application form for future applications so you can just amend, rather than start all over again.

Applications

NHS organisations will only accept applications as a standard proforma through a system like NHS Jobs or TRACs. The idea is that it standardises the process as much as possible for every candidate and all identifiable information (in the early sections of the application) are removed at the “sifting” stage where the panel read the application. Consequently, a decision should be made on whether or not to interview a person based on just the application and not information that could cause bias like gender, ethnicity or be prejudiced by how the information is laid out, as could occur in a Curriculum Vitae.

Job Description (JD) versus Job Specification (JS)

Whilst the JD is very useful to give you an idea of what the job entails and could be very useful for preparation for an interview, the application will mainly rely upon the JS. There are two sections to the JS: essential and desirable criteria. You will need to show you have experience or qualifications that match as many of the criteria as possible with essential being the most expected and desirable often becoming very useful if there are a lot of candidates.

Numbers of candidates

Although the application process is set out to be as fair as possible, there comes a point where there may be too many candidates to be able to interview. Some applications are closed earlier than the deadline when a certain number have been received and, even with interviews, there can often only be a number of days available for people to conduct interviews.

Disability

There is a tick box in the application to declare if you feel that you have a disability that could affect you in the next 12 months. There isn’t a list that is checked against this, and it is purely for you to declare it - it can be mental as well as physical, or indeed both. If you declare that you feel you meet the criteria then you should, if you have fulfilled all the essential criteria be offered an interview.

This is really helpful if there are a huge number of applications and there are too many to interview you will be given an interview (if you have all the essential criteria remember), however, you should be asked about your disability at some later point in the process, particularly around ensuring you have adequate support in the role.

Supporting documentation

There is a very large section of the documentation for supporting documentation and this can commonly be mis-interpreted as being like a covering letter - which it isn’t! This section is where you detail all the criteria in the Job specification and how you meet it. It’s really useful if you put your points clearly, succinctly and explicitly as the people “sifting” will read this section looking for the experience you have that matches the criteria.

Some of your information may be repeated in order to be explicit, so for example, where a job specification says

Requires a degree or equivalent experience

even if you’ve written this in the qualifications section, it’s helpful to repeat that you have a degree or “x years work as a data scientist” again in the supporting evidence.

It is expected that you will write a lot in this section and it can be a bit of an art form getting it all down. Concentrate on fulfilling the essential criteria and where you meet the desirable, add those too as that can help again if there are many candidates.

A point on bias in applications

Although I’ve said that you should detail where you’ve met every essential criteria to be in a better position to secure an interview it shouldn’t prevent you applying if you haven’t met everything. There is a known bias in applications where many women will often put off applying because they don’t feel they have all the essential criteria and so self de-select in a sense. The processes used by the NHS do reinforce this to some extent but you don’t waste time by applying as the outcomes could be either:

• you get the interview
• you get practice in putting together an application (which you can reuse)

and so I’d always encourage you give it a go!

Scoring

One of the reasons to still apply, even if you aren’t sure you have all the essential criteria, is that the “sifting” often involves scoring. The finer detail of the processes will vary but, from experience as an interviewer, we used a scoring system to say how well a person met the criteria.

Using the example of:

a degree or equivalent experience

it’s easy to say yes or no to a degree but if a person “has experience” that’s a little more subjective as 10 years experience is different to 1 year. Consequently, if the panel use something like a scoring system of 1 being the criteria is slightly met, 2 moderately met and 3 being certain, this gives the assessors a better framework to review applications.

Whilst some advice for covering letters is to say why you are interested in the job or organisation, this isn’t necessary in this type of form as it will not be scored. It’s possible that a question like this may come up though in the interview so it’s worth preparing for but avoiding for the application form as it will take up some of the word count.

Word count

There is a word limit on the supporting documentation section but you are not scored on how close you are to that limit.

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