An inspiring success story from Nauman Hameed!

An inspiring success story from Nauman Hameed 👇🏽

Hello guys! just thought to share my story. I got my first NHS job within a month of passing plab 2 and within a year of doing my internship despite of my plab 2 getting canceled for 7 months due to the pandemic. But all is well that ends well, Alhumdulillah, I got my job in my preferred speciality and at my preferred location in London. I just want to thank all these platforms which were helpful, SPECIALLY dr Naseer’s blog which encouraged me to think that even an average student like me can do it.

(Now I’m writing this in detail JUST FOR THOSE students/graduates like me who are usually unable to perform well in their med school. They are often underestimated and end up being discouraged)

About me, I graduated in October 2018, started my internship in feb 2019 and got done with it in feb 2020. Passed plab 1 in june 2019 with my housejob and passed plab 2 in nov, 2020. I have been a very average student, rather I would say I was below average because when we got our mbbs ranking, I was literally among the LAST 5 students of my class. I barely used to pass my proff exams with 50s-60 % marks and even got a supply one time.I was often underestimated, not just by others but by myself too. I was not good in my studies. No positions ever in any subjects , no medals, no distinctions, no researches. NOTHING!

Never joined any research groups or any societies with career benefits which many students were actively doing at that time. If I ever liked a society, it was the music society in which I became a vice president and I enjoyed it a lot:p (lol)

I enjoyed my mbbs time, never took much stress of studies and aimed just to pass only because I was NOT career-oriented AT ALL. This is NOT something ideal but I did not had the brain at that time but what I want to convey is that its never too late and you can still change things.

In my finalyear I got a bit concerned about my career. I thought about plab when dr naseer said in one of his talks that he also used to barely pass his exams but still made it into the UK and it was easy?? Now that was something hopeful to me for the first time!!

I then decided to work for it. I passed plab 1 in my first attempt with just 35 days prep along with my housejob. I then got 7 months to prepare for plab 2 with my housejob and read all the notes before I finished my internship and right after I was done with it, I booked my plab 2 in march but it got canceled due to the covid19. Now, this is when my plans got shattered as it delayed my exam for a long time… I started a local job and along with that, I took an initiative and made a platform which I named "daily stations " in which I gathered all my colleagues who suffered like me due to exam cancelations and started doing daily zoom sessions and tried to teach whatever I learned for plab 2 just so that we do not forget things … little did I know that I have some teaching skills and people started listening to me… From a group which started with 5-10 people, now there are 1000+ doctors on my telegram channel , 5 groups on whatsapp and I have been teaching and mentoring many doctors for plab 2 now. I also made a youtube channel, Facebook page, and an Instagram page recently to keep myself engaged with this experience (you can just type daily stations on youtube or facebook or anywhere if you’re yet to give plab 2, it might help) . This helped me a lot and apart from helping others, it prepared me very well for the exam. The best part was that I even mentioned this as my teaching experience in my NHS profile, my CV and even in my interviews because there were 100s of doctors listening to my sessions so I took feedback from them with the help of google forms and alhumdulillah I got a very good feedback. I never thought that a person like me would be teaching many international doctors one day!

Long story short, I got a date in November for plab 2 and passed it in the first attempt with a high score and many people who I engaged on my platform passed as well and when they told me that I really played a role in their journey and I was helpful to them was the best feeling. May be it was all the prayers my family and my colleagues did for me that I got both my full registration and first job within a month of doing plab 2.

Now it would be important to mention that I planned many things beforehand. For example, in my housejob, I took a light rotation in between to study for plab 1. I planned to give plab 2 right after my housejob but covid happened, still I ended up finding my teaching skills in this time period which helped me a lot. Before leaving my country for plab 2, I applied GSC so I do not delay my registration. After plab 2 I did not go back to my home country because I knew few colleagues who did the same and got the jobs because chances are a bit more to be shortlisted if you’re here and are ready to work. You can even do an attachment if you can stay here easily (you can find many useful blogs about it by Dr Naseer, RoadtoUk and many more). So I stayed here teaching many doctors for plab 2 and taking mocks. Also it depends on every one’s circumstances and its not necessary to do so. I stayed here because I got some family and close realtives here so it was easy for me so it depends on person to person.

I wasted a lot of time which is not good but I became serious when I set this goal of coming to the Uk and its never too late. I attended many courses /workshops during my housejob to build my CV, asked one of my consultants to enroll me in BMJ learning modules which he was organizing with a pharmaceutical company and got some useful certificates and CME hours. Participated in every learning opportunity. subscribed netflix and watched a lot of English movies and seasons just to improve my english (it is my 3rd language and to be honest I was not very confident in it ), kept an eye on all the useful blogs on the internet which helped me in everything, be it the visa, plab, nhs profile, or interviews ( I would recommend naseer’s journey and RoadtoUk to everyone, you’ll get an article on every topic) For interviews, I also read a book named “medical interviews” by Olivier Picard which was really helpful. Finally, I made it into the UK and even made a successful teaching platform which is another achievement for me. All thanks to almighty and support of my family, friends and my teachers 🙏

Conclusion: I think that it all depends on your will power, how you believe in yourself and then how you plan for it accordingly. It’s never too late and you can still work hard if you have not done it before. So if a person like me can do it then anyone can do it for sure. Never be discouraged and never let anyone discourage you