F1/F2 jobs

Hi im currently ranking my jobs for FP in the West Midlands central deanery and i was wondering how much do your F1 and F2 jobs have a bearing on your future career? Are you at a great disadvantage for not having an F1/F2 job in the area you want to specialise in the future?

Asking as my score is quite low down in my deanery!

I know you can take an F3 year, im not too sure how this works but is it just locuming in the speciality of interest?

Thanks

It's useful to have a foundation job in the specialty you want to do, but it's not essential and I don't think you'll be at a great disadvantage without it as there are other ways of demonstrating interest - you do have to be a bit proactive though in my experience. It's certainly easier to get your foot in the door with things like audits and research if you're already working in that department, but you can still get involved if you find time on a quiet(er) job and approach a consultant and explain what you'd like to do. Alternatively, your educational supervisor should be able to put you in touch with a relevant consultant. Another really useful thing is to do a taster week in the department (and get a signed letter as proof of attendance).

Which specialties are you interested in? A lot of specialties have areas of crossover e.g. if you're interested in emergency medicine but don't get an A&E job, you can still get signed off for relevant clinical skills on acute medicine or intensive care. Attending courses and conferences is also a good way of showing interest (and you can do a reflection on it afterwards )

As for FY3 years, you don't necessarily have to locum. You can do a full time post (usually advertised as a clinical fellowship or trust grade SHO) if you like, which is probably more useful than locuming if you're looking to build a CV and gain practical experience which you might not have got in FY1/2.

Hi, thank you very much for your reply that was really helpful.
Im not too sure on the speciality yet but im looking at gastro or paeds which are what ive ranked first. There are 3 crossovers (paediatric gastroenterology lol).
Thank you for also clearing up F3 year!

Re gastro: I don't do CMT but I gather from friends and colleagues there's a good chance you'll be able to get a gastro job as a CT1/2 if that's what you want. CMT/IMT isn't exactly difficult to get into currently, so you'd have to be rather unlucky to not have any gastro experience at all by the time you apply for ST3 (especially since gastro is a difficult job wherever you work - perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think people are clamouring to do it).

Other specialties e.g. acute med, gynae do ascitic drains so that might be something you can get signed off on another job. And whatever medical job you do will involve seeing some acute gastro on call. There's also some potential crossover if you do a colorectal surgery job. So you could do some CBDs, DOPS etc based on that in FY1/2?

I think both paeds and gastro are difficult jobs with shortages - if you wanted to do an FY3 in either of them, I don't think you'd have too many problems in getting a post...