The Student Room Group

Diary of an Unemployed Physiotherapy Graduate!

And so my life as an unemployed graduate begins! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jackie and I've just finsihed my Physiotherapy training at St George's. I have kept a blog of my 2nd and 3rd year and thought I'd keep one now I'm qualified.....although I have to say I haven't been the greatest blogger till now it has been quite cathartic (sp?) for me and many of the things I've initially typed up have never actually been posted. Sometimes its just nice to get things written down and off your chest even if noone else ever sees them.

So, a quick background for me, for those who haven't read my previous blog. I started my physiotherapy training at St George's when I was 22. I had spent the last 15 months before then working as a Physiotherapy Assistant in Mental Health and prior to that I had completed a degree in Sports Therapy at the University of Hertfordshire. In the end I decided sport wasn't for me, I wanted 9(strangely enough) to work on wards and be around sick (!) people so I decided Physio was the way to go. It wasn't my first attempt at Physio, I had applied when I was 18 but didn't get the grades to get in hence my other degree, but I did very well on it which enabled me to get a place.

So I've finsihed my training and am now looking for a job. I've only been looking for 2 days and already I'm annoyed by not being able to apply for jobs that I want! Many of the jobs require you to have HPC registration already and seeing as you can't get that until you have your final degree grading, which for me isn't for another 4 weeks, it makes applying for jobs very hard and just gets you frsutrated as jobs you'd love to apply for are just passsing you by. Still, my first attempt at my personal statement is done, I have a meeting with my old personal tutor about it tomorrow for some advice and guidance, and we'll just have to see what happens. We only finsihed last week so at the moment I'm taking two weeks off from doing anything much in order to just have some R&R time, spending some of it with my fiance who has been the brunt of my stress for the last 3 years! I've got some time to refine my PS abit more, and I've booked some time to meet up with some friends I haven't seen for ages, so that'll give me a chance to relax. I'll be applying for jobs in that time but I won't be working.
After that? Who knows, at the moment I'm planning on temping until something permanent comes up. I know it could be a while especially as I'm limited to London as my fiance is unable to move because of his job. So the plan is to temp, save cash, move out of home and hopefully get a physio job.....I'm going to sign up with an agency too that takes PTA's and Band 5's so hoepfully something will come up with that too! Fingers crossed!

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Hi Jackie, I hope this is going to be a very short blog and you soon have to begin the diary of an employed physio.
Reply 2
jinglepupskye
Hi Jackie, I hope this is going to be a very short blog and you soon have to begin the diary of an employed physio.
so do I! Fingers crossed!
Reply 3
Best of luck with the hunt! and congratulations on graduating!! Sounds like you worked hard to get this point! :smile:
Reply 4
I graduated at the end of March and got my PIN through about 6 weeks later. A few weeks after that I had an interview and started work at the beginning of this month - I had another offer today so now I have to decide which trust I want to work in - which I couldn't have imagined not long ago. You will get there
Reply 5
iolaus
I graduated at the end of March and got my PIN through about 6 weeks later. A few weeks after that I had an interview and started work at the beginning of this month - I had another offer today so now I have to decide which trust I want to work in - which I couldn't have imagined not long ago. You will get there
nice to hear people are getting jobs in healthcare! Congrats on your jobs :smile: Fingers crossed it won't be long for me!
Reply 6
Right, day four of the job hunting process and we have progress! I've applied for a job! All rather exciting, although rather sickening also.....something not nice about pressing the submit button and leaving your application open to ridicule from everyone reading it at the other end!

Its for a paediatric research physiotherapist job at a hospital in Central London, not quite the rotational job I had in mind but its a years contract with guaranteed pay so I thought it was worth a shot. Its part clinical and part research so get to do abit of both which is good. I know the person who had the job previously and he said its good fun so I've had a stab at it and have just got to wait and see. No rotational jobs around at the moment, actually I lie, there were a couple but they wanted people who already had their HPC registration so I couldn't apply. You can't get your registration until your exam board have met, so jobs like this will be out of my reach for another few weeks but then it'll be full steam ahead!

SO well just wait and see what happens!
Reply 7
Day 9 in the job hunting process (sounds abit big brother-ish! lol)

And now we have 3 applications in the pipeline, including an application to George's itself! Definitely my preferred hospital given its location and my experience on placement there. So I spent extra time on this PS trying to get it just right! Is it any good? Who knows! Its getting better with every version I write but I doubt its totally there just yet but we'll see! The advert went on this morning but I was at work so couldn't do my application then, so spent the whole day praying it wasn't gone by the time I got home! But it was still there and I've just pressed the send button after 3 hours working on my PS! They're closing after the first 50 application but have a "number of B5 posts" so no doubt it'll be gone by midday tomorrow! So everyone keep your fingers crossed!

In addition to the job I wrote about in my blog earlier which is the research job, I've applied for a rotational post in oncology.....its oncology speciality but you still get to rotate so get abit of everything I loved my oncology placement so again, another time to sit on my fingers and wait patiently! Although I doubt it cos even though I checked it a thousand times and got my boyfriend to check it, I looked at it today to copy over a paragraph into my new PS and found a spelling mistake in the first paragraph! LOL! I dont know why I'm laughing though, a spelling mistake is probably enough nowadays to get your application form put in the bin! Ah well! Done now!

The worst thing is that you get addicted to the website (or at least I am anyway!) checking every 5 mins for the possibility of a new job....and then trying to jump in quickly before it closes, it is rather unfair on those who work and can't get to a computer till they get home as it may be too late by then! For those of you who have never used the NHS-Jobs site - you can apply on line and it keeps a track of all of your applications. Also, many trusts you apply to will email you through the site itself to leave messages about it you have an interview or not. So this bit becomes VERY addictive - its like UCAS track all over again! lol
Reply 8
Hi Jackie,

Good to see there is stuff out there to apply for!! Sounds like you've got a few really good possibilities there, good luck!:biggrin:

If I can persaude you to move to Scotland we're about to advertise for rotational juniors here! lol!!:wink:
Reply 9
lol - was about to say it sounds like track, but you'd already thought of that!
Reply 10
SamJL
Hi Jackie,

Good to see there is stuff out there to apply for!! Sounds like you've got a few really good possibilities there, good luck!:biggrin:

If I can persaude you to move to Scotland we're about to advertise for rotational juniors here! lol!!:wink:
sadly scotland is not on my radar but thanks for the heads up incase I change my mind lol! yeah there is stuff, but its difficult getting your application in before they close it if you happen to work all day!
Reply 11
No jobs in the last few days (actually I lie, there was one but even though it was still in London the travel on it would have been ridiculous so I didn't apply!) Still waiting for information on my other applications so am just hanging in there............!
Reply 12
Some exciting progress! I have an interview! :marchmell :elefant: :party: Its for the first job I applied for - the research post that part research part clinical........not rotational sadly but it'll be interesting and good for my CV, and good interview practice if nothing else.....now I only have 3 days to brush up on my knowledge of paediatric rheumatological conditions.................sorry did I say brush up? I meant actually get some lol :wink:
Reply 13
Good luck in your interview this week:biggrin: (crosses fingers and toes!)

When do you get your results? Do you know what grade you got yet?
Reply 14
SamJL
Good luck in your interview this week:biggrin: (crosses fingers and toes!)

When do you get your results? Do you know what grade you got yet?

Exam board meet on Tuesday so results will probably be up on Wednesday. I've got a comfy 2:1 at the moment.........howevr I did calculate it that if I get 90% in my dissertation then I got 70% bang on so you never know lol Stranger things may have happened hahah1
Reply 15
JackieS
Exam board meet on Tuesday so results will probably be up on Wednesday. I've got a comfy 2:1 at the moment.........howevr I did calculate it that if I get 90% in my dissertation then I got 70% bang on so you never know lol Stranger things may have happened hahah1
just trying to put my CPD folder together at the moment to take with me! I've got bits all over the place but don't have them together in a folder - I really should have been more organised as a stduent lol
Reply 16
Job interview tomorrow! Waaaaaah! :eek: I feel really quite nauseous about the whole thing!
Conincidentally enough I happen to be temping as an ward adminsitrator on the ward where the physios who will be taking tomorrows interview work....I've met them before from when I've worked there previously so I had a chat with them today - not hints or tips given I swear! They said apparently they had 80 applications for 2 posts (40 each) and managed to narrow it down to 14/15 per job, so I have a 1 in 15 chance....hmm...not fab odds really are they?! She also said that apparently they had some qualified band 5's and band 6's (!!!) apply (for a band 5 job aimed at new grads?!?!?!?!) and get shortlisted too! Now that is scary! I'm gonna be up against band 6's and that makes me feel sicker still!
On the plus side I applied for another rotational job today, so if it all goes tits up tomorrow there'll be other opportunities!
Reply 17
And I'm back from my interview - was I nervous? YES! My usual resting HR is about 65 bpm and just as I went in I measured it and it was in the 100's lol! The were very nice and it helped that I knew someone on the interview panel, it was quite informal really. They had a list of premade questions and just went through them, no questions relating to NHS policies/frameworks, all clinical scenario based questions e.g. you have a 10 yr old patient with JIA of the hip, how would you go about assessing them? You have a booked patient, and a booked gym session, and then the consultant phones from clinic to say he has a patient who needs urgent assessment, what do you prioritise? What things do you need to consider when planning the daily gym sessions for the rehabilitation group? Then got some general questions like why this job, because its a non-traditional job how does this fit into your career plan etc etc

So on the whole not too difficult, although I did talk myself into the corner with the prioritisation question. I said I asked for more info from the consultant before I could fully prioritise the patient and then depending on the necessity I would slot probably see them first and rearrange the other two things. Also said I'd see if there was anyone else who could help me cover the gym sessions until I could get back, and that I might rearrange the booked appointment for later that day depending on the notice I was given. The she asked me if I only found it out 5 mins before the start of the group and I was all alone which patient would I put the most priority on......kind of freaked out at this point and when with the urgent patient, but didn't really explain what I'd do with the oters lol

Went with my disseration (cos its a research job) along with my portfolio from my final year and my CPD folder as I wasn't sure what they'd want to see. They said I could show them whatever I wanted but then I seemed to confuse them at this point as they asked what the difference is between a CPD folder and portfolio, so I explained what the purpose of the CPD portfolio was and how it was different to the folder and how its similar to the one you need to do for the HPC. They seem very impressed by it (I didn't tell them I only got 58% though lol) and they hadn't seen it before so I guess that would have help me stand out a little from the rest of the crowd. They're on a course this week so should have an answer by the end of this week, beginning of next. Not sure how confident I am, it went ok but not amazing....just have to wait and see!
Reply 18
good luck
Reply 19
iolaus
good luck
thank you :smile:

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