If I asked a room full of International Medical Graduates what the hardest part of their journey has been, most would say the AMC exams.

I disagree.

The hardest part is staying focused when nothing seems to be happening.

Every week I sit across from doctors who have done everything right. They have passed the AMC MCQ. Many have spent thousands on preparation. These candidates have rewritten their CV five times. Some have applied for twenty jobs. Fifty jobs. Some tell me they have submitted a hundred.

And then — silence.

No interview. Zero acknowledgement. Without feedback. Sometimes a generic rejection thanking them for their application before letting them know they were unsuccessful.

That silence is more dangerous than any exam question.

Not because it means you are not good enough. Because, over time, it quietly convinces you that you are not.

I have watched excellent doctors — people who would be safe, kind and brilliant on their first Australian ward round — slowly lose their belief in themselves because their inbox stayed empty for six weeks. I want to be very clear with you about what that silence actually is, and what it isn’t.

Rejection Isn’t Personal. It Just Feels That Way.

Australia receives thousands of applications from overseas-trained doctors every year. Some hospital jobs collect hundreds of applications in the first forty-eight hours.

You are not competing against one or two other applicants. You are competing against doctors from every corner of the world — many with Australian experience, many with permanent residency, many who simply happened to apply on the right day for the right role.

Sometimes the successful candidate is not the best doctor. They are the best fit for that particular position.

That is an important distinction, and it is worth reading twice.

Stop Measuring Your Worth by Your Inbox

One of the most common mistakes I see is refreshing email every hour after an application goes in. Every hour of silence chips away at confidence, and the internal script starts to write itself:

• “My CV must be terrible.”

• “They think my English isn’t good enough.”

• “I’ll never get a job here.”

None of that is evidence. It is fear talking.

Hospitals are busy. Recruitment takes weeks — sometimes months. Many employers never contact unsuccessful applicants at all. It is frustrating and it is unfair, but it is the reality of the Australian medical recruitment system. Do not let someone else’s silence write the story of your worth.

The IMG Journey Is a Marathon

Resilience is a word that gets thrown around until it means very little. So let me be specific about what I mean.

Resilience is not pretending everything is fine. It is continuing when you are tired—after another rejection, after another exam attempt, and after another application disappears into what feels like a black hole.

The doctors who eventually walk into their first Australian job are rarely the most brilliant. They are the ones who refused to stop.

I have coached candidates through four attempts. I have watched doctors sit their AMC clinical after every one of their friends has already passed. And I have watched every one of them, eventually, walk into a hospital they earned.

Don’t Put Your Life on Hold

The saddest sentence I hear from IMGs is this one:

“I’ll start living again once I get a job.”

Months become years. Birthdays get missed. Relationships strain. Bodies stop moving. Confidence disappears. And when the job finally arrives, the person who takes it up is exhausted before they have even started.

Please do not do this. Do not make your happiness contingent on an email.

Keep exercising. Spend time with your family. Cook a real dinner. Go on a holiday if you can afford one. Volunteer at a community clinic. Learn something outside medicine. Your career matters, but it is not your identity.

Every Rejection Is Data

I know it does not feel like it, but every application you send teaches you something.

Maybe your CV is not built for the Australian system. Perhaps your cover letter is not showing the strengths you actually have. It could be that your referees need updating. Or maybe you are applying to hospitals that do not usually recruit IMGs.

Every unsuccessful application is a chance to learn something concrete. The only application guaranteed to fail is the one you never send.

Use the Waiting Well

Waiting is unavoidable. Wasting the waiting period is optional. If interviews are slow, this is what a good week looks like:

Practise your communication skills. Work through AMC clinical cases with a study partner. Attend a workshop. Complete an online short course. Do a hospital observership if one is available in your city. Update LinkedIn. Read about the Australian health system — the PBS, MBS, mental health treatment plans, referral pathways. Learn how a GP-registrar conversation actually sounds.

None of these are wasted hours. Each one adds a small piece to your professional profile, and eventually those pieces are what recruiters see.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Everyone Else

Social media has made this harder than it needs to be. Someone posts that they have passed the AMC. Someone else announces a registrar position. A third shares photographs in scrubs on their first hospital day.

What you do not see is the three years of rejection emails. The failed attempts. The financial pressure. The lonely nights. You only see the finish line.

Comparison is one of the fastest ways to lose motivation. Your journey will never look identical to anyone else’s — and it shouldn’t.

Ask for Feedback, But Do Not Obsess Over It

Get someone experienced to look at your CV. Ask whether your interview technique needs work. Sit a mock interview. Absorb constructive criticism when it comes.

But do not spend six months redesigning your resume instead of applying. At some point, good enough really is good enough. Perfection delays progress.

Consistency Beats Motivation

I hear this a lot: “I’ve lost my motivation.”

Of course you have. Motivation is a mood, and moods come and go. Discipline is what carries you through.

The IMGs I have watched succeed do not wake up inspired. They wake up committed. Some mornings they feel positive. Other mornings they wonder why they started. They keep showing up either way. That is the whole trick.

There Is No Shortcut. There Is a System.

Everyone wants the secret — the perfect CV, the perfect interview answer, the perfect hospital, the perfect strategy.

The truth is quieter than that.

Apply. Improve. Apply again. Study. Learn. Show up. Success is rarely one spectacular effort. It is hundreds of small efforts stacked over time.

At Oyamed, this is exactly why our thirty-hour and sixty-hour coaching programmes are not built around a magic bullet. They are built around a repeatable system — the same system that gets our doctors through the AMC clinical and into their first Australian jobs.

Who You Surround Yourself With Matters

This journey can feel lonely. Your support network is not optional.

Spend time with people who encourage you. Step back from those who tell you Australia does not want IMGs, that there are no jobs, that you need ten years of Australian experience before anyone will hire you. None of that is true, and repeating it out loud does nothing but wear you down.

Every week, IMGs secure positions across Australia. The opportunities are real. Your job is to be ready when yours appears.

Remember Why You Started

You did not become a doctor because it was easy. You became a doctor because helping patients mattered.

Between exams, applications and rejection emails, that gets easy to forget. Don’t let it fade.

Everything you are doing right now is temporary. One day you will walk into your first Australian hospital as a doctor. You will have your own patients, your own colleagues, your own responsibilities. The rejection emails will not matter. That silence will not matter. This long waiting will not matter. It will just be part of your story.

The One Piece of Advice I Give Every IMG

Do not let a rejection make the decision for you.

If you decide to stop, let it be because you have genuinely decided that medicine in Australia is no longer the life you want. Not because one hospital did not reply. Not because one recruiter said no. Not because one interview did not go the way you hoped.

One application means very little. One rejection means very little. Even ten rejections mean very little.

Your career will not be defined by the hospitals that did not choose you. It will be defined by the one that eventually does.

Stay focused. Keep improving. Keep applying. And when your opportunity arrives — and it will — make sure you are ready to say yes with a smile on your face.

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Dr Vinu Verghis is Academic Lead at Oyamed AMC OSCE Coaching. Oyamed offers thirty-hour and sixty-hour one-on-one AMC OSCE coaching, CPD-accredited masterclasses, and a library of teaching resources for International Medical Graduates preparing for the AMC MCQ and clinical exam. If you’re preparing for a sitting and want a look at the framework we use, reach out at enquire@oyamed.com.