The hospital job interview is the one most overseas trained doctors prepare for, but two other interviews sit on the Australian pathway and are often confused with it. The Pre Employment Structured Clinical Interview, or PESCI, is a registration requirement for some doctors heading to general practice and other limited registration posts. The specialist pathway interview is a college assessment for overseas trained specialists seeking recognition of their qualifications. Neither is a job interview, and both are prepared differently. This guide explains what each is so you can see which, if any, applies to you.
PESCI
The PESCI is an objective assessment of a doctor's clinical knowledge, skills and attributes for a specific position, used by the Medical Board where the position carries a level of autonomy that the doctor's registration pathway does not otherwise verify. It is most commonly required for standard pathway doctors taking up general practice positions, and sometimes for other limited registration roles where supervision will be at a distance.
It is a structured clinical interview, not a conversation. A panel presents a series of clinical scenarios relevant to the position, usually with structured questions on assessment, management, safety, communication and the limits of the role, and scores against set criteria. The scenarios are at the level of the job: for a general practice position, the chest pain in the clinic, the febrile child, the depressed patient, the elderly patient with multiple medications, the result that needs urgent action. It tests whether you would be safe in that role with the supervision available.
PESCI providers are accredited by the Australian Medical Council, and the format, duration and number of scenarios vary by provider. The interview is arranged by you with a provider, and a pass is required before the Medical Board will grant registration for the position.
Preparing for a PESCI is clinical preparation: the common presentations in the role, Australian guidelines and referral pathways, the Medicare and prescribing basics, red flags and safety netting, and when to refer. It is not the place for STAR examples about teamwork.
The specialist pathway interview
Overseas trained specialists who want recognition as specialists in Australia apply to the relevant college for assessment of their qualifications and experience against the Australian fellowship. Most colleges include an interview in that assessment. Its purpose is to determine comparability: whether your training and practice are substantially comparable, partially comparable or not comparable to an Australian trained specialist, which in turn decides what supervision, assessment and further training you need before full recognition.
The interview is run by the college, usually with two or three fellows, and it explores your training, your scope of practice, the cases you manage, your governance and continuing education, and clinical scenarios at specialist level. It is structured and scored, and it draws on the documentation you submitted. For surgeons the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons publishes its interview purpose and process; other colleges have equivalents.
Preparing for it means knowing your own training and practice in detail, being able to map it to the Australian curriculum, being honest about what you have not done, and preparing specialist level clinical scenarios in your field. Some doctors are also interviewed by the hospital that will employ them during the supervised period, and that is the staff specialist style interview covered elsewhere on this site.
How they differ from the hospital interview
The hospital interview asks whether the department wants to employ you: motivation, behaviour, a clinical scenario, fit. The PESCI asks whether you are clinically safe for a specific role with limited supervision. The specialist pathway interview asks how your training compares to an Australian specialist's. Candidates who bring STAR examples to a PESCI, or job interview answers to a comparability assessment, find them unwelcome.
Which applies to you
Standard pathway doctors heading to general practice or some limited registration posts: usually a PESCI, before registration. Competent authority pathway doctors heading to hospital posts: usually no PESCI, and the hospital interview is the one that matters. Overseas trained specialists: the college assessment, and possibly a hospital interview for the supervised position. Check your pathway with AHPRA and the relevant college before preparing, because preparing for the wrong interview is a common and expensive mistake.
On this site
The RMO and registrar interview is covered in full. Practice for the PESCI and the specialist pathway interviews is on the roadmap; until then, this guide and the college and AMC material are the places to start.