Consultant person specification

The person specification is an important document for your application to a consultant post as it dictates the requirements in terms of training, experience and personality which you will be expected to demonstrate through the consultant application form, your consultant CV or your consultant interview.

The criteria are normally set out in two separate columns:

• Essential criteria, which, as the name indicates, you MUST fulfil in order to be considered for the post.
• Desirable criteria, i.e. non-essential criteria which may give you an advantage if you fulfilled them.

and deals with topics such as:

In view of the level of competition for many of the consultant posts on offer, it is highly likely that a number of candidates will possess all the criteria required, both essential and desirable. Therefore, you must carefully consider the consultant posts to which you are applying, ensuring that you possess as many of the desirable criteria as possible.

Why the person specification matters 

Although some person specifications can be non-descript and simply regurgitate the basic criteria set out in the GMC's Good Medical Practice, most have features which are specifically related to the consultant post that you are applying for and set our specific criteria against which you will be assessed both through the consultant application form and the consultant interview. Your answer to questions, both written and verbal, will therefore need to be tailored towards it to ensure that you give the panel what they are looking for.

What to do if you are not fulfilling some of the desirable criteria

If there are desirable criteria that you do not fulfil, don't panic! If no one has those criteria either then you are safe. In addition, if you are much stronger than other candidates on other criteria then you will need to make sure that these are clearly emphasised in your consultant application form and at your consultant interview so that the panel is aware of the full package of skills and experience that you have to offer.

However, if the criteria in question are clearly essential despite appearing in the "desirable" column (e.g. a fellowship, or specific experience) and if other candidates are clearly at an advantage compared to you, you will need to decide whether you want to attempt applying for the post (you never know, you might get it after all), whether you want to apply for it for the experience knowing that you have only a slim chance of getting it, or whether you could use your time more judiciously by applying to other posts which may be more tailored to your experience.

Requirement for being less than 6 months from CCT

If you read any person specification, you will notice that most jobs require candidates to be less than 6 months from CCT. For jobs where they require someone urgently, the Trust may require candidates to be less than 3 months from CCT or even to already have a CCT (particularly if they also require a post-CCT fellowship). This requirement comes from the National Health Service (Appointment of Consultants) Regulations and is imposed in order to ensure that candidates who apply for a consultant post are most likely to obtain their CCT by the time they take up the post.

There are two things that you must know about this requirement:

• The 6 months are counted from the date of the consultant interview to the date of your CCT. Therefore, you can complete and submit an application form for a post if you are more than 6 months away from CCT, provided your consultant interview falls within 6 months. If you are missing out by a matter of days, it is worth contacting the Trust to see if they could move the interview date. Alternatively you may be able to get an exemption - see below.  
   
• It is possible for a candidate to be interviewed for a consultant post if they are more than 6 months away from CCT, though the official documents are vague on when this may be possible. The example quoted in official documents is the case of applicants from outside the UK who are applying to the Specialist Register through PMETB Article 14 (CESR) and for whom subsequent Specialist Register entry is likely. We also know from experience that some Specialist Registrars who were missing out by a matter of days were given exemptions because they PYA RITA had demonstrated that they had already achieved all competencies or needed little experience to gain entry to the Register. In doubt, ASK! You have nothing to lose.

You have to bear in mind that this requirement has been imposed primarily to make sure that Trusts don't have to interview scores of candidates who may not gain entry to the Specialist Register, thereby wasting valuable space in the recruitment process. The line has to be drawn somewhere and 6 months sounds like a fair timescale. Therefore do not be surprised if you bang your head against bureaucracy

Problems you may encounter with the consultant person specification

Similary to the consultant job description, there are a number of issues which you may come across with the consultant person specification:

• They may have been copied and pasted in haste from other job descriptions and may not actually accurately reflect the reality of the consultant post to which you are applying. It may also be that some important criteria have deliberately been left out in order to retain flexibility during the recruitment process. For those reasons, you must make the most of the pre-shortlisting and pre-interview visits to gain a good appreciation of the unwritten requirements. 
   
• The wording may be loose and therefore difficult to interpret. For example, an essential criteria may be "Wide-ranging experience of the specialty" or "Good teaching experience", which means very little. Again, you should use the pre-shortlisting visit and pre-interview visit to obtain a more refined interpretation of those criteria.  
   
• They may be tailored towards a specific "preferred" candidate. You will recognise such person specifications because they will require some unusual combination of experience and skills. If this is the case, don't despair! Not all favourite candidates get the job they were promised. But consider your options carefully. See our special feature on "Are interviews fixed of fair?"