The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - What to do when you've applied for training places and you're waiting

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

Show Notes for The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast Episode: 59: What to do when you’ve applied for training placesThank you for listening to the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. That tricky bit between submitting an application for training and finding out the next stages and whether you’ve been successful can feel pretty tricky. So, what can you do? Here’s my advice! I hope you find it useful. I’d of course love any feedback you might have! The Highlights:(00:28): Welcome and intro (01:40): What happens in psychology in January! (02:57): Key Dates over the next few months (05:12): Interview Dates (06:23): Compassionate Q&A session dates (07:31): Are you lucky if you get offered training places? (09:21): So what do you do now???(10:16): Useful Tip 1(11:13): Useful Tip 2(14:29): Useful Tip 3(15:43): Useful Tip 4(17:32): Exclusive coupon code for aspiring psychologist tests(18:42): Useful Tip 5(19:39): Summary & Close Links: SHL deductive reasoning tests: https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests/ SHL situational judgment tests: https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/example-questions/situational-judgement/  Assessment Day – exclusive discount code for my audience 30% off with code ASPIREPSYCH https://www.assessmentday.co.uk/  Get $40 off a remarkable tablet here: remarkable.com/referral/4LJU-DJD8  Grab your copy of the new book: The Aspiring Psychologist Collective: https://amzn.to/3CP2N97  Get your Supervision Shaping Tool now: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/supervision Connect socially with Marianne and check out ways to work with her, including the upcoming Aspiring Psychologist Book and The Aspiring Psychologist Membership on her Link tree: https://linktr.ee/drmariannetrent To check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0  To join my free Facebook group and discuss your thoughts on this episode and more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aspiringpsychologistcommunityLike, Comment, Subscribe & get involved:If you enjoy the podcast, please do subscribe and rate and review episodes. If you'd like to learn how to record and submit your own audio testimonial to be included in future shows head to: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/podcast and click the blue request info button at the top of the page. Hashtags: #aspiringpsychologist #dclinpsy #psychology #assistantpsychologist #psychologycareers #clinicalpsychology #mentalhealth #BPS #traineeclinicalpsychologist #clinicalpsychology #drmariannetrent...

Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field,

the principles can work for you. There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode. If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. episode. With Dr. Marianne Trent Hi, welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist podcast.

I am Dr. Marianne Trent and I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. Thank you so much for listening. If you are listening to this when it's been released, then you might well know that it is currently January 2023. If you are yourself an aspiring psychologist, you might also know that January 2023 is quite an important month in terms of timeframes. Now, if you are not an aspiring psychologist please don't tune out because there's going to be loads of useful content in here for you and you might be like what not an aspiring psychologist? What do you mean? This is the Aspiring Psychologist podcast

but everybody's welcome here. Let's be inclusive. Let's be friendly. I know that I've got lots of other disciplines listening as well, people who want to upskill their knowledge about working in mental health settings. So I've got people that work in social work, people that work in mental health nursing, people that work in care settings, in education settings, anybody that wants to have like a little insider sneak peek or to help think about some of these complicated and important issues that we discuss in the podcast. So do stay tuned because as you know there's always useful stuff in here but if you are an aspiring clinical psychologist or educational psychologist or someone else that's got interviews

coming up for their specific sphere of psychology in springtime then this is going to be particularly useful for you so I know already I've seen on Twitter come on follow me on Twitter Dr Marianne Trent I've seen people talking about having been offered interviews for educational psychology but currently it's too early for NHS funded places to have been offered for interview what we do know is that the 31st of January 2023 is the deadline for Clearinghouse who sort out all the applications for the NHS funded and I think even some of the self-funded options that you will know what you've applied for. They sort out the applications and it's their job to have released all of the applications on or before the 31st of January 2023. So that means that the courses will definitely have your form to review by then, if you have indeed applied.

However, of course, it may already have happened. But by that point, I think if I was in your position and when I was in your position, it would feel like a new level of, oh, it's like another step along with the process. So whilst we're talking dates, let me take you through the other key dates that we're going to be covering in this cycle of applications. So if your chosen university is using selection tests,

then I would imagine that you would be invited for those selection tests at any time from the start of February until March. The deadline for the courses to have let you know whether or not you have been shortlisted for interview this year is St Patrick's Day the 17th of March 2023. Now of course that might mean that you're offered an outright interview, it might mean that you're offered a reserve place interview, they don't always give you what place you are on the reserve list for interviews, or it might mean that you're given thanks but no thanks and I believe largely gone are the days that you get much information about

why you weren't shortlisted. So that date is the 17th of March so you will know either way by the 17th of March so it's not super distance away but of course if you are applying to somewhere with selection tests you might want to think in more detail about this so there's more information coming up about those shortly too. This year the interviews across all of the courses for the NHS funded places for clinical psychology start from the 20th of March and finish on the 26th of May 2023. Now across all of the courses it's staggered so they're not all happening at the same time. Some courses offer one week, some courses offer two weeks and there might even be some offering more than that but they're usually staggered and they're usually pretty well staggered across geographical areas too. So I have never heard of anyone being offered interviews on the same day for different courses. I have heard of

people being offered interviews in the same week for different courses, which wasn't necessarily so problematic when they were all Zoom. I know a lot of them were in person last year, too. So, yeah, it will be wait and see time. I think there's some degree of organisation in what might look like chaos in the background to make sure that they're not calling candidates on the same day. Once all the interviews are released, you've been invited or not invited, there will be some compassionate Q&A sessions coming up from me too. The first of those will be happening with me on my socials and will take place on Monday the 13th of March 2023 starting at 7.30. The easiest place for you to find me there is to come and hang out on the Facebook group the Aspiring Psychologist Community

brackets free group with Dr Marianne Trent. So that's how you can guarantee you won't miss that one that's the first one and the second of those will take place on Monday, the 17th of April 2023 at 7.30pm. And then in a change from our usual routine, we have the third and final one of the season on a Tuesday because we've got a bank holiday scheduled for Monday, the 1st of May. So we're having Tuesday, the 2nd of May at 7.30pm. So in case you want to get those dates in your diary, I'm giving you them early now. And of course, they will be available in the show notes as well. So the final dates to bear in mind is that if you are in the position, I was going to say a lucky position, but you might feel quite lucky. but if you are in the position where you are offered deep inside places, I don't think you're lucky.

I think it's your time. You're ready for the next step. It's your time. You've done well. It's not luck. It's judgment. It's capability. It's achievement.

It's accomplishment. It's confidence, it's, I don't know, eating your Weetabix before you go for your interview, making sure you're not hungry, it's making sure you don't do a wee in the middle of what you're saying so that you can think calmly. It's finding your, you know, your comfortable zone and your window of tolerance so that you can perform optimally. Not luck. There might be a sprinkling of luck in there um it's about feeling comfortable in what you're wearing it's about it's about so many things but i don't think it's about luck so yeah let's not let's not um invalidate ourselves

by thinking it's all luck because it's not you know even to get into these you've worked your bottom off to get there so So if you are in the position where you are offered places to train on one or more declined courses, although you can only do one at a time, then you need to have confirmed or declined those places by the 9th of June 2023. So other than reserveless places dropping in if people drop out, we should know where we're at by the 9th of June 2023. So what are we going to do now that we have an idea of the dates? How are we going to take this forward? How are we going to roll with it? How are we going to run with it? How are we going to find our comfortability how are we gonna find the energy to get

through this recruitment phase which may end for you in March which may end for you in June which may you know end happily or with you know lots of complicated feelings what are we going to do what are we going to do so right now we're just going to take a breath we are going to tolerate that idea that this is coming this is happening and also we're going to perhaps have a little look at the application that you submitted we're not going to look at it with horror, we're just going to look at it and observe, just see what you said about yourself. You might well have heard it since you submitted it or put it in a drawer never to be looked at again, but it's useful

to just think about how your skills might have changed, how things might become strengthened, whether things haven't changed in the way that you imagined by this stage when you applied. Just have a little look, just have a look, just be curious and notice as we say in EMDR and we're going to tolerate the idea that others are going to be looking at that. Others who do not know you personally, who don't, you know, don't know anything about you other than what you've put on your forms. They won't see your name, I believe that's redacted, but we're just going to tolerate the idea that people are going to be accessing that and reading that and just do our breathing and just tolerate that. Stay in our

window of tolerance whilst knowing that that's out there your baby is out there and we're also going to have a think about whether there are any areas where you could develop between now and when the interviews start could you think about strengthening your skills in research and that might look like practicing some on paper it might look like getting involved with research, it might look like going to research meetings. What could you do between now and depending on when your interviews for your courses are mid-May to strengthen your skills as a candidate? But of course we're not just thinking about between now and May because these things that you change, that you do, that you strive for right now will be with you forever. The things that I did at that point are still with me now.

So they stay with you like little golden nuggets. Could you practice thinking about creating, discussing, holding in mind formulations for people? Could you do that? So let's ponder that as we go for a quick break here so have a listen to this little jingle and I'll be back on the other side to give you more top tips for what we could be doing between now and May to really help you bring the best possible chances of success. So come and take a look. It's right here in this book. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective.

It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. Boom. My clinical psychology journey just became more enjoyable with this book. Dr. Marianne understands the value of individual experiences in their professional development as a clinical psychologist and has elegantly collected a variety of valuable lessons from clinical psychologists of different backgrounds. You'll be sure to learn something from this and reflect on your own journey too. This book shows you that no matter where you are

on your journey as a clinical psychologist, your personal development is never ending. That will help you get qualified. So come and take a look. It's right here in this book. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. welcome back thanks for listening so we were thinking before the break about whether you can strengthen your skills knowledge and expertise and confidence in formulating and talking about formulations. Something really key in psychology. And so that's something really useful that you can do. And this is something that might feel a bit cringy, this next one. Can you practice developing your

skills and confidence in talking about yourself out loud without cringing. And this is where your Zoom camera or your video camera or your phone camera comes in useful. Can you talk to yourself about yourself without wanting to run away and hide in a cave. I struggled with that actually. I think the first time I really tried to do that was a mock interview with my then supervisor and I was just cringing and dying a thousand deaths inside. But had I been more used to that earlier on, then I think that would have been a good thing so yeah give it a go nothing bad will happen if you say good stuff about yourself you know I think good stuff will come from that let's not have any um apprentices on currently we don't want any apprentice cv

ripping to shred moments where we've said things are just not true you know so we want to be staying within our zone of competencies and stay accurate about what we're saying and what we've done but it's okay to talk about things in a client confidential nature that you've done and that evidence why you're going to be a great psychologist and why you are a great currently unqualified psychologist. And next if you are applying to a university that does have selection tests they might be logical sort of deductive reasoning tests there might be situational judgment tests then could you start thinking about planning out and practicing some of those so there are some free ones available on a website on a website called shl i know they're there because i've seen them but they are quite tricky

to find so um if you want to check out the details on the show notes it will take you right there you can look at the example ones um but if you actually want to take some yourself you will need to register and i believe you need to register a new email address each time if you want to do multiple attempts. There's also another way that you can practice tests. You can get some for free through a website called assessmentday.co.uk. And there are details in the show notes. What that has is free resources available where you can practice and where it scores you and gives you your score there is also an opportunity to be able to pay and access more tests too and there's an exclusive coupon code available for my audience

of aspiring psychologists and the code you will need to get 30% off is ASPIREPSYCH, all in upper caps, A-S-P-I-R-E-P-S-Y-C-H. And I did the situational judgment test and thought that it was a useful test and kind of useful to know what sort of score I was getting. So do check that out with that coupon code ASPIREPSYCH which is exclusive to my audience. Last but not least if you wanted to get a feel on all of the areas that I have covered, the research, the talking about yourself, the formulation, the learning different skills and strengths and thinking about tests tests then have you considered coming on board to the aspiring psychologist membership because this is what we do this is what we do well and i can also answer your questions very much in the way that i do within the free q a but with more

time and sometimes face to face do on our zooms. So every week we have lunch with Marianne where I answer your questions. And if you haven't asked me any questions, I think with you more broadly about other concepts that are going on currently. But yeah, it's £30 a month. It's no minimum commitment. You can leave any time. And people find it's really, really useful in helping them develop their skills and their confidence so do please think about coming on board if you do enjoy the podcast and you aren't in a position where you're able to or want to join the membership please do consider making a donation buying me a cup of herbal tea via the donation option which is on my link it says say thanks and support me by donating so this podcast does cost me a few hundred pounds a month to put together so if you've valued any of the content any donation

that you might be willing to make is so greatly appreciated because the costs do come out of my own pocket and yeah that's it from me that's it today as ever if you've got anything you'd like me to talk about in the podcast then do go along to www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk forward slash podcast and fill in your details on the form there to let me know whilst you're there why not leave me an audio testimonial either for the podcast or for any of the three books the grief collective the aspiring psychologist collective and the clinical psychologist collective heck if you're a member for the membership you could leave me one there too thank you so much and i hope this content is really useful i love providing it for you but

as i said any donation that you can afford is so gratefully received. Thanks for being part of my world. And I will look forward to catching up with you for our next episode of the Aspiring Psychologist podcast, which will be coming to you from 6am on Monday. Thank you again. Take care. Be kind to yourself if you're looking to become a psychologist then let this be your guide with this podcast at your side you'll be on your way to being qualified it's the aspiring psychologist with dr marianne With Dr. Mary Andrews My name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological wellbeing practitioner.

I read the Clinical Psychologist Collective book. I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one and this kind of filled me with confidence that no I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself. So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I'd definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay but trust me you will not put the book down once you start.