The Waiting Game

Today is, according to their website, the day when the one of the AFPs I applied to are due to finish shortlisting of applications - which means that by the end of today, someone, somewhere, knows whether or not my application form was good enough to convince someone to interview me. I'm not entirely convinced it will be; of the three forms I filled in, I felt I made the best job of the other one, and I didn't get an interview there. That said, I don't know how much emphasis each deanery put on different components of the application. Unlike a lot of applicants, I don't have a single publication yet. I have got something which has been approved and is currently with the editors, but that doesn't count for much. I am hoping that my BSc, having some lab experience and the audit I did during my GP placement will go some way to compensating for that, but we'll just have to see. I hope I hear soon one way or another - I can cope with disappointment but the not knowing is frustrating!

You Win Some, You Lose Some

As mentioned in my last post, I've just spent a week volunteering with Over The Wall and had an absolutely fantastic time. This was my fourth holiday with them and it was every bit as fantastic as the previous three I've done. One of the great things about OTW, aside from meeting a lot of inspirational young people and having a brilliant time, is when the other volunteers write you "warm fuzzies"; these are basically just little notes to say hi and comment on anything they think you did well or which stood out over the week. Anyway, after reading mine (and getting out old ones from previous camps), it occurred to me that I'm perceived in a totally different way at camp to how I'm perceived in "the real world". I can think of two possible explanations for this. Either I'm a completely different person for one week of the year, which seems unlikely, or I actually have no idea how I'm normally perceived and just make it up. This seems somewhat unrelated to this blog, which is supposedly about my academic endeavours, however it just made me realise having such a negative view of myself was probably not going to help my career prospects. So I shall now attempt to be a more positive person!

Moving on to more relevant stuff, on Wednesday I got an email to say my one of my AFP applications had been unsuccessful. I was pretty disappointed, as having read over their criteria, I have all of the "essential" and some of the "desirable" qualities and thought I might manage to get an interview. However, it's a hugely competitive and popular programme and I know that there are a lot of applicants with far more research experience, publications etc than I have. I'll just have to hope I have better news from one of the other two!
On a much more positive note - I passed my exams! Hugely relieved, especially about the OSCE as there were so many things I realised I'd forgotten to do/say as soon as I got out of each station. This means I'm officially a final year, which is a little bit scary but very exciting :)

Hope everyone waiting on exam results has good news soon xxx