Core Surgical Training Recruitment Process

CST applications run once a year and a single application can be submitted through an online application system known as ORIEL. There are a number of important dates and deadlines which are important to know to facilitate your preparation.  

The application process will involve registration, self-assessment of evidence, submission of evidence, a virtual interview, job ranking and the provision of offers. Following offers; there are opportunities to accept the job or await an upgrade.

The CST timeline sticks to a relatively set schedule marked out by the Health Education England (HEE).

Applications will open in November and you will have approximately 4 weeks to determine your score based on the self-assessment and submit this. Candidates will be then invited to the MSRA which will run in December and January. Interviews taking place between February and March and offers being released toward the end of March / start of April. You can access the complete recruitment timeline here.

Shortlisting

Newly introduced to the 2023 round of recruitment, the Multi-Speciality Recruitment Assessment (MSRA) will be used to shortlist candidates for interview. Previously, the unverified portfolio self-assessment score was used. Approximately 1300 candidates will be shortlisted for interview.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to upload their portfolio evidence to the online portal for verification. You cannot change the self-assessment score you submitted at the start of the process.

Interview

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a virtual interview using the Microsoft teams platform. This will last 20 minutes and will include a 10 minute management station and a 10 minute clinical station.

Interviews are assigned on a first come, first serve basis. You need to log onto the oriel portal to book your interview slot. Popular slots will go very quickly.

Ranking and Offers

Candidates will be numerically ranked based on this score, and in tied scores the candidate with the higher score in the clinical station is ranked higher.

Following interview you will be invited to rank the jobs you are interested in. You can rank as many or as few as you desire. The highest ranking candidate will be assigned their first choice job, the second highest candidate will then be assigned their highest ranked job from what is left, and so on.

The verification of your evidence is notoriously very strict. We encourage you to ensure that the evidence you submit is watertight.

You will find our full guidance in our portfolio section.

For certain domains, such as conference attendance, you will get certificates which can be uploaded. For domains such as audit where there is less clear-cut evidence, we suggest that you obtain a signed letter from your supervising consultant.

We suggest that you draft this letter yourself and take it to the consultant to sign, or you could go via their secretary. When drafting the letter make sure that you use the EXACT terminology that is used in the portfolio self-assessment.

We also suggest you put in bold one line at the top exactly what the letter is evidencing. Try to be organised and get these letters when you complete the project/activity, to save yourself chasing them months to years later.

The consultants who are reviewing your portfolio only get a short period to review your evidence, and they could have already reviewed dozens by the time they see yours. If you prioritise making their life easy for them, they may be more inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt if you have any borderline evidence.

The new addition to CST this year is the Multi-Speciality Recruitment Assessment (MRSA) exam. This will contribute to 10% of your overall CST score.

The exam will take place in January of 2023 within a two week window. The exam will be free to take and will be hosted by Pearson VUE assessment centres or online (exact dates to come).

This will be the same exam other specialities will be using for their application process. At present, its thought a third of CST applicants will be taking the MSRA as they will also be applying to different specialities. They also believe that running the MSRA this year will aim to reduce applicants to the programme.

The interviews will take place over MS teams this year. They will hold the majority of the marks and there is all to play for.

There will be slots available between Thursday 9th of March and Wednesday 22nd of March 2023. These slots will be booked through the ORIEL website and will be offered on a first come first served basis, so be sure to mark the date to ensure you get a good slot that works for you.

Once you have booked your slot be sure that you have received the interview link by Monday 6th of March 2023, if not contact them through the portal.  

On the day of the interview, ensure you are smartly dressed, arrive on time, have a glass of water by your desk and feel ready. You will be asked to verify your ID with an administrator before showing the room to ensure no one is present. Once the checks have been completed you will be invited into the virtual room with your examiners and the interview will begin!

To read more about the interview follow this link.

Once you have completed your interview you will be invited to preference your jobs. So you will proceed to rank all the core surgical jobs in the country. This is a long and arduous process. Most will only rank the jobs in the region they're interested in. Our faculty ranked 30-70 jobs each, but if you have no restrictions regarding location nor job, we advise you rank as many as you can.

Rough Guide to CST Training Numbers per Region

Initial offers will be released on the 30th of March 2023. Your scores from your portfolio, MSRA and interview will be collated and ranked. The final offer will be dependent on the jobs said candidate has ranked.

The candidate with the highest rank will get their top ranked job, the candidate with the second highest rank will get their top ranked job and so forth. The jobs will be allocated to the top ranking candidate until you are offered a job that you have ranked. Your chances of attaining your top ranked job will be dependent not only your final score about also the demand for the job.

Often London and big city jobs will be in high demand, however this is not always the case. Some candidates may have bought houses or have family in less in demand areas and so those big city jobs are all to play for.

This is where the process can get tactical. You will only be offered a job that you have ranked. Once you have attained the offer, you will have the option of accepting immediately, accepting with upgrades or rejecting the job. Accepting or rejecting the job removes you from the possibility of being offered an upgrade.

Say you are offered your third ranking job and you accept with upgrades. The process will wait to see the outcome of your first and second ranking job. If the candidate you scored higher is offered your first ranking job, but then they rejects it as they got an offer to do radiology for example, you will then be offered the job via an upgrade.

This process of upgrading will often run for two or three runs before final allocations are submitted and no more changes can be made.

If you do not get offers for the jobs you have ranked once the upgrade process has been completed you may be offered unfilled posts. Often these are jobs that have not been accepted due to location or job combination, however they may suit you.

Rarely, although it does happen, good jobs are left unfilled as people have prematurely confirmed a weaker job. In my year of application there was a Vascular Surgery run-through job in London that was offered by clearing.