I'm not sure about that... I went to a rubbish state school and got taught covering letter/personal statement and also had 2 lectures on it at a (top, admittedly) non-Russell university. Fair enough, I have to admit I was basing my assumption on personal experience and an over-reliance on the Guard...

I wonder if this contributes to the lack of diversity in psychology? These soft skills are exactly the kind of thing a grammar/private school and Russell group University teach you. It must be hard(er) to catch a break if no one has ever taught you how to write a good covering letter / personal stat...

Thanks for this reply. It certainly made me reconsider my assumption of burnout being a bad thing, rather than perhaps a necessary temporary response to a tough situation that ultimately means you can survive in the NHS for the long-term.

Like it or not, IAPT (or its commissioner) is obsessed with targets! You talk about being given 'the means' to meet the recovery rate - appropriate cases, number of sessions etc. In many ways, these are just IAPT-wide (NHS-wide?) issues. So while definitely unfair (to staff and patients!), I am not ...

I have noticed a senior colleague at work seems burnt out. The service is going through a tough time as a whole, but even more than others, they seem very over-worked and focused purely on the targets with minimal visible compassion for clients or staff. I don't have any dealings with them directly,...

miriam wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 02, 2018 10:34 am

In my experience men rise faster than women, and generally end up in 8B/8C posts within 10 years of qualifying.

Out of interest, why do you think this is, Miriam? Obviously this is true in many careers, but is there anything specific about clinical psychology / male CPs?

I did 60 credits with the OU in 2011 (when they didn't offer GBC accreditation, but also had much lower fees!), as this was the easiest way to get on to a conversion Masters. To be frank, I learnt far more from the OU textbooks than I did on the Masters at the brick uni, and I always go back to my O...

My personal strategy with jobs and courses has been to do the thing that keeps my options open in the widest way. I've always had Plan Bs and always picked generalist options over specialist. It's partly because I have been indecisive about exactly what I want to do, and there are lots of jobs withi...

The ones I've done best in were the ones where I was honest - as clichéd as it sounds! In my most recent (and successful) interview, I found myself talking about traits I hope I inherited/learned from my Dad who recently passed away, an a-gendered housemate and a telling off my boyfriend got for usi...

I managed living on my own in a studio flat in the centre of an expensive city on a band 4 salary, so definitely do-able on a band 6. It just depends what your other outgoings are and what quality of leisure you are used to. My standards have risen since then, but I'm still aiming to buy/rent somewh...

In terms of experience, you will need much more than that. Although the courses generally say a minimum of one year's experience, in practice most people have a lot more than this, often in multiple roles with different client groups and often involving direct experience of therapeutic work. You als...

Congratulations!!!! Here's the link - no idea why it's not searchable, I'll make you all admins so you can figure out what settings are wrong! I was thinking once the deadline passes, I'll email the course admin team and ask them to send it out to people who might not be on the forum as well. https:...

I've set up the FB group - search for 'Birmingham DClinPsy 2018' and it should come up. If not, PM me!

Great! Looks like FB wants me to invite someone else before I set it up, so if someone PMs me their email address, I'll add you to it.

Hello Maddy!
I am officially now a definite for Birmingham - various bureaucratic hoops being met first of course.
Shall we do the facebook group thing that the other uni courses seem to be setting up?