CFMS Recruitment

 

Current:

  • Spring Recruitment will open on April 11th, 2024 and will run until May 20th, 2024. Keep an eye out for the CFMS Monthly and News on our website for the links to the position descriptions and application forms.

  • Please note that the elections for the CFMS Board Positions are something separate with different application procedures. There will be different news messages for this on the CFMS website, in the CFMS Monthly, and on CFMS social media.

 

Who Can Apply

You need to be a CFMS member to be able to apply for positions part of the CFMS Recruitment cycles.

Incoming first year medical students at one of our 15 member schools cannot participate in the Spring Recruitment cycle in the calendar year they are starting Med school. Fall recruitment will be their first opportunity to apply for positions.

If you are a University of Montreal, University of Laval, or University of Sherbrooke (not CFMNB) medical student and are interested in joining CFMS, you can choose to become an individual CFMS member at the beginning of a school year by reaching out to the Administrative Coordinator . The same applies for medical students who are continuing their education with a PHD or Masters Degree at one of the Canadian medical schools. 

Recruitment Cycles and Positions

CFMS organizes two or three recruitment cycles per year: Fall, Winter, and Spring. The Fall and Spring recruitment have the most positions to apply to. The recruitment for National Officers, Leads of Task Forces, and Committee Chairs occurs in the Spring. In the Fall CFMS recruits for General Committee and Task Force Members and any unfilled positions. Winter recruitment only occurs if necessary.

To get an idea of how the CFMS Organization works please check out the CFMS Governance Structure webpage. CFMS includes the following portfolios:

  • Communication

  • Education

  • Finance

  • Global Health

  • Government Affairs & Advocacy

  • Student Affairs

Each portfolio has its own committees and task forces as well as National Officers. In addition to the six portfolios there are two extra categories during recruitment: "Governance" and "External".

Governance: These positions either hold a CFMS wide view, include more than one portfolio, or review CFMS initiatives.

External: As the representative voice of Canadian medical students, CFMS represents medical students to many national medical organizations including the College of Family Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and others.

The CFMS recruits talented individuals to help represent medical students to these organizations and offers a chance to general CFMS members to be involved in shaping the future of medicine in Canada. Volunteering for these positions allows students to learn more about medical education, health promotion and more.

The Process

When applications open, CFMS will announce this in the CFMS Monthly email that goes out to CFMS members who have signed up for it. (If you don't receive our monthly email you can subscribe here: https://bit.ly/ENMonthlySignUp .)
CFMS will also publish a news message on the CFMS website and will promote the recruitment cycle on Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, and X).

A link with the position descriptions (English and French) will be part of those publications. There will be a separate application form for each portfolio/category. The links to those application forms can be found in the file with the position descriptions as well as in the news message on the CFMS website. You are welcome to apply for multiple positions,  please note that you will have to fill out an application form for each position.

Please make sure to answer each question in the application form. An unanswered question may bring down your application’s average score during the marking phase of the Recruitment process.

If there are not enough applications for several positions, CFMS may decide to extend the application deadline. If you require a personal extension to be able to send in your application(s), a 48 hour extension may be given when you email the Recruitment Coordinator.

When applications have closed the recruitment coordinator will anonymize them. Each application will be assigned 5 markers, who will receive a marking sheet to fill out. Each marking sheet will result in an average mark per application from each marker. The average mark from the 5 markers together will result in a final mark.

The marking process takes approximately two weeks to complete.

After processing the marking sheets, the final marks will be shared with the Portfolio Directors who will contact the applicants.

If the position you applied for requires an interview (National Officers and Committee Leads) you will receive a meeting invitation from the Portfolio Director.

If no interview is required you will either receive an email that will request you to confirm your availability and acceptance of the position offered or you will receive an email with CFMS’s regrets. (In case of the latter we encourage you to apply again in the next recruitment cycle.) You will receive a separate email for each position you applied for.

Who To Contact

For questions about the recruitment process you can email

  1. The Recruitment Coordinator during a recruitment cycle.

  2. The Administrative Coordinator outside of recruitment cycles.

For questions about certain positions, please reach out to the PD(s) directly.