Post by Deborah Udy Okusaga Akanne (@deborah_udy_okusaga)
The Offer Has Been Made. This Is The Moment Most Candidates Treat As The End. It Isn't.
There is a specific, short window between receiving an NHS job offer and formally accepting it, during which information is still being actively exchanged and questions can still be asked.
Understanding what that window exists for, and what kinds of questions it's appropriate to raise, is something far too few candidates know going in.
I'm not going to tell you what to do at offer stage — that decision is yours, based on your own priorities, circumstances, and professional judgement.
What I can do is make sure you go into that conversation knowing what information is typically available to you, so that whatever decision you make is based on the full picture rather than a partial one.
Several things can sometimes be explored at the offer stage, depending on the Trust and the role: how your starting pay point has been determined, whether your prior experience has been formally considered in setting that starting point, what the earliest realistic start date looks like and whether there's any flexibility, and what the process is for next steps including pre-employment checks.
None of these are adversarial questions. They're professional ones, asked at the right moment in the process, by someone who has taken the time to understand what they're being offered before they sign anything.
The candidates who tend to have the most regret at this stage aren't the ones who asked questions. They're the ones who felt they weren't supposed to, and accepted something without the information they needed to make the best decision for themselves.
Comment "SPEAK" and I'll send you an overview of what's typically open for discussion at this stage — so you know what you're walking into.
Post 2 at 9am: I'm covering CESR — who it's designed for, what the portfolio structure actually looks like, and what the most common documentation gaps are that quietly hold overseas consultants back.
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