EP 41: Consultant Interview Scenarios: What Panels Really Want to Hear
In this episode Tessa Davis and Ben guide candidates through common consultant interview challenges. They first dissect how to answer hypothetical scenario questions, warning against over‑reliance on a single personal anecdote and recommending a brief statement of relevant experience followed by a broad, structured response. A "golden example" of a conflict over a gynae referral illustrates how to keep the vignette concise, focus on de‑escalation, patient advocacy, and professional communication, while avoiding unnecessary diagnostic detail. The hosts then break down the frequently asked question "How would you support a trainee in difficulty?" highlighting the need to blend pastoral support with a clear understanding of formal escalation pathways (educational supervisor, TPD, head of school, clinical lead, etc.) and to showcase any mentoring or coaching credentials as unique selling points. Finally, they stress the strategic advantage of knowing who sits on the interview panel: ask HR for the list, use pre‑interview visits to gather intel, and tailor answers to panel members' likely priorities (e.g., COO concerns about flow and finance). Throughout, practical tips, pitfalls, and recommended phrasing are provided to help candidates present themselves as competent, consultant‑level problem solvers.
Chapters
One big mistake that people make is not knowing who's on their interview panel.
In this episode, we're going to look at how to deal with a hypothetical scenario when it's given to you by your interview panel, and also how to answer the question on how would you support a trainee in difficulty? Let's get into it. Okay, we're going to start by looking at our student question of the week. This is a question that's been put to us by one of our academy students. So what question have we got this week, Ben?
So, the question is, if the panel give me a scenario and ask me to describe what I would do in this particular situation, how should I approach it? So, that, that's the question.
Okay, so they're giving you a hypothetical scenario, um, like you're in a situation where something— I don't know, you see someone bullying someone else, you see someone's always turning up late or whatever. Um, okay, so this is quite common.
Mm-hmm.
I think there's a few places where I think you can go wrong here. I think the first place you can go wrong here is by recognising a scenario, an example where that's happened to you, and answering it all talking about that story. So, actually, this happened to me because I had a trainee who always turned up late, and then you talk about how that specific case and how you approached it. And the problem with that is you're answering it very focused on that one case, but with a hypothetical, there could be lots of ways that this has played out. And so you end up just putting all your eggs in one basket instead of being able to take a step back and a bigger picture. So I think if they give you a hypothetical scenario, you have to remember to have a broad perspective on the key aspects of it that you might be covering. So that's one thing.
Yeah.
But having said that, I do think a good way to start a hypothetical answer is to give an idea of the extent of your experience with that scenario. So if we're going to talk about the— we're going to talk about the trainee in difficulty shortly, but let's say they say, how would you support a trainee in difficulty? You would start by saying, actually, that I do have experience in this because I've done X, Y, and Z, or I don't have experience in this, but I did mentor 10 medical students, and one of them had an issue with X. So, it means that you're about to answer a hypothetical question, but it's giving the context of your experience. So, this, what you're about to say, is not being plucked out of thin air. It's coming from some experience that you have. So, you want to keep it short, but I always think that after a hypothetical question, just giving one line of your experience is a good way to start. And then make sure you take a broad approach.
Yeah.
What do you advise people with this sort of hypothetical question? hypothetical scenario?
Yeah, I think it's often useful to just kind of frame it a bit and, you know, say something, you know, like, okay, well, it— so this is an example of conflict, um, and I've got some experience of managing conflict, um, so I can talk you through my approach. Or, you know, this actually— sometimes they give quite shocking examples, and I think one of the key things about that is to kind of make sure you're calling it out. You know, so, this is an example of racism, and we don't tolerate racism under any circumstances.
Yeah.
So, the first thing I'm going to do is call this out. So, I think part of this is about demonstrating that you can manage the scenario, applying skills and experience that you've used before. Some of this is also about demonstrating that you're thinking at consultant level. This is a senior-level interview. You know, if we see somebody overtly bullying or harassing somebody else, or an example of racism or sexism or, or, you know, other things that are significant issues, then we call them out and we know what the process is for managing them.
Yeah, don't be afraid to say this is not okay. Okay, and I think the other thing is just that sometimes with these hypothetical scenarios, they give them, if it's relevant to the team, So, you might actually know, like, if there's been an issue around bullying or racism or sexism or something, you might actually have found this out in the pre-interview visits. And I know we kind of bang on about the pre-interview visits a lot, but I think they really are the key to getting a feel for what's likely to come up and what's happening. And so, you may know if they give you a heads up, this has been an issue, something's been going on, have a think about how you would answer questions around it. Because if they've not got a culture of bullying, I'm not sure there'd be a real reason to choose to ask this question in a substantive interview. So, it's probably something that's relevant, not even necessarily to the team, but maybe the directorate or the trust or something. So, yeah, I'd have a think from your pre-interview visits about what scenarios might come up and might help you have prepped in advance.
And also to just tread a bit carefully.
Yes, that's true as well. So be aware of what— who you're talking to and the sensitivities around what you're saying. So let's go into our golden example of the week. This is a golden example that one of our students has suggested. Today we've got the example of conflict with a colleague. So I'll talk us through this. So this is someone who was seeing a teenage girl with sudden onset of left iliac fossa pain. Had been seen by the gynae team and discharged with a plan for outpatient follow-up. So I guess maybe this is someone in emergency, in the emergency department. And they were worried that it could be ovarian torsion or a cyst. And so they contacted the gynae registrar who said, no, it's not a gynae problem. The patient is not tachycardic, and therefore they're not in pain. That's the scenario. What do you think about that?
Okay, I mean, this is a fairly common type of scenario. Uh, you're trying to make a referral to somebody, for whatever reason they don't think it's for them.
Yeah.
Um, and there's, there's often conflict around that. So, so I think this is potentially a good example because it's, it's a kind of common scenario. We can all imagine this happening. I also like it because, you know, your role here is to advocate for your patient and to get them the next bit of care that they need. And I think the other thing that I like about this is it's probably the case, you know, and you could tell this appropriately, that, you know, the guiding registrar or, you know, the receiving person is annoyed with you. And therefore, you have to de-escalate that. And it's generally better, in this conflict example, if the person is annoyed with you and you de-escalate it, rather than you were annoyed with them, because then you look a bit intolerant and difficult, and that's absolutely not the look we're going for in your interview.
This is true, because the way that it's phrased just now, we don't know— we know we're not happy with the kindy reg. But what's the conflict? Is the conflict that we're saying, get down here, that's ridiculous, or is the conflict that they're saying, no, stop phoning me, I've already discharged this patient? And it's a much better look if it's them getting angry at you, because they're not the person that's currently having a job interview, so that's fine. But yeah, you don't want to look intolerant or grumpy, or like you can't get along with your colleagues. So, you want to be on the other end where they're annoyed at you, It's not your fault, and now you can show how you addressed it and de-escalated it.
Yeah. So, I think try to condense the storytelling as much as you possibly can so that, so that the kind of vignette is short and clear. So, you know, I was referring a patient to the gynae registrar because I was worried they had some kind of gynae pathology. They felt that it— there's no way that it could be gynae because the patient wasn't tachycardic, and they were absolutely refusing my referral. They were really annoyed with me. for phoning them. That's enough. We don't need to know what the diagnosis might have been. We also don't need to know what the end of the story was. And it's not helpful in this scenario for you to say, and by the way, they did help her. She did actually have an ovarian torsion, so I was right. Yeah. The temptation to do that is great. Resist it. It's not helpful. No, agreed.
It doesn't help.
We want to hear about your ability to de-escalate, to put patient care at the centre. And to, you know, have a robust but professional conversation with your colleague and to all remain professional and courteous throughout. That's the goal.
Yeah. So, we like the example, just needs a bit of tweaking, I think, but it actually is potentially a good example and it's relatable and it's, yeah, I think it would be useful.
It'll work.
It'll work. Okay, let's go on to talk about our interview question of the week. This is where we break down a question and I gave you a little preview of what was coming up, which is that we're going to talk about how would you support a trainee in difficulty. I really like this question, and it does come up fairly commonly. How would you approach this?
I like this as well. It's an opportunity to show that you've got a variety of strategies for supporting a trainee and that you can employ, you know, educational and pastoral techniques for doing this. So I think it's great. You can come across really, really well here. So I think there's multiple different ways that you could approach this. You might talk about, you know, how I'd recognise it, and you, you know, you might give a little example of about a time when you recognised that a trainee was struggling because you're such a fantastic supervisor and you check in with them regularly and all of that. That you might talk about, you know, I would support them by regular meetings and then, you know, an action plan, and this is the sort of thing that I would do. We'd set some objectives. I've done this before, and this as the outcome. And then I think the other thing to recognise here is that this is an opportunity to demonstrate that you understand what that pathway is. What's the process of escalation that you as a consultant need to do? So, you know, thinking about their clinical and educational supervisors, thinking about the TPD, and also, you know, recognising if this is a privacy issue. And what the escalation points are, given those various different scenarios. I really like this question. I think you can come across well here.
I think so. I think where people go wrong is they just go down the exploring and supporting— exploring what's happening and supporting the person. So, like, take them aside, you'll find out what's going on, and you offer them support, and make a plan, and you go down one particular route. And that part— of stepping back and thinking, actually, there is a formal process for trainee in difficulty, and there is an escalation route. So, you've got, their educational supervisor needs to know, and then you can escalate up, TPD, head of school, if you needed to. So, there is a pathway of escalation for trainees in difficulty. And also, you've got your own management pathway, your clinical lead, clinical director, and so on, medical director, depending, obviously depending on what it is.
Mm-hmm.
And then all of the formal support for them as well that's available. So, I think you've got a chance to showcase uh, the official elements and then your sort of pastoral care. Um, and I think the best answers do all of these as well as giving a bit of your experience. Um, and the temptation is just to stick with, you know, I'd sit them in a room and I'd listen to them and I'd talk to them, all of which is good and you should do as well, but you mustn't miss out the formal escalation parts.
Yeah, and I, I think if you've got particular skills around, you know, you're a mentor Or you've done some coaching, or you've done some additional training that allows you to better support people, and you can demonstrate that, maybe that's one of your USPs.
Yeah.
You should absolutely bring that in here as well, because that sets you apart from the other candidates and shows that you've got something a bit extra that you can offer as part of this consultant team.
Yeah. Most people who are going for consultant interviews won't have supervised trainees. Because you wouldn't be in a substantive role already, likely, most people. Therefore, any experience you have of mentor supervision is good experience to showcase here. This is a great opportunity for you to do that at the start of your answer. Then we're going to look at our tip and trick of the week. This week, we're going to look at the tip around finding out who is on your panel. This is a big source of stress for people, I think. So, what are your thoughts on this?
Gold. This is absolute gold. If you get this information, most times when you get invited to interview, you'll be told who's on the panel. The panel will be formed of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If not, you should definitely ask because It does give you a bit of a guide about what kind of questions are likely to come up, and you can try to have a little think about what kind of questions they might ask. And also, these are the people that you're going to meet for your pre-interview visits, and those are the people that will be able to give you extra special intel that will guide your prep.
Yes, you can't meet them if you don't know who they are.
It is quite tricky.
It's harder. It's definitely harder to arrange the meeting. Sometimes people will just think, oh, well, they didn't tell me, so I couldn't meet them. But meanwhile, your competitors have found out who's on the panel and are meeting them. Your job is to see if you can find out who's on the panel, and the only way to find out is to ask. Now, if they don't tell you, it may be that they don't know because they're still scrambling together the interview panel. That is possible. Or it may be they're not telling anyone. That's fine. If they say, we are not releasing the names of the people who are on the panel, That's fair enough. Or someone recently who got the panel list, but it said who they could contact and who they couldn't. That's fine. So, you would just follow what they tell you. But what you don't want to happen is you just didn't ask, so you don't know, whereas other people have asked. So, it's always worth saying, can you give me any more information about who's on the panel? And usually, they would tell you. I think it would be unusual to go to a substantive interview and not know who was on the panel at all. So, if you're in that position, you're probably missing out. on information, so just, just ask. And this would be just asking the HR contact who invited you to interview, I think. You don't need to be doing it.
And meet those people if you possibly can. If, if they're not meeting people, then try to have a think about who they are, what their priorities are, and therefore what questions they might ask you as a result of that. So, you know, for example, if you've got the COO on there, the Chief Operating Officer, you know, they are all about you know, flow, processes, money, um, data, all of that kind of stuff. So think about what, what you can add, um, around those kind of areas, and therefore the kind of questions that they might ask and how you can relate your answers and your USPs to stuff that they need to hear.
Yeah, yeah. Um, because they're all there for a particular And so yeah, it's just, even if you didn't get their names, you could still do some of that. The other thing is, I think also make sure you look up the lay chair. If you get the name of the lay chair, just, you're not going, it doesn't mean they're going to ask you a question about their specialist career area, but it is actually good to know what they do. They will be doing some sort of very interesting role that is not being a medical person in the NHS. And if you have a look at what they've done, it will help just give you a bit of context. As to where they're coming from. It might help you tailor some answers to them. You can showcase your understanding of them as well and your knowledge. So, just because they're not a member of the clinical team doesn't mean you should just not bother thinking about them. So, have a look and do some Googling of them as well. Okay, I think we will wrap up there. So, thank you for another excellent chat. We will be back next week with more interview prep goodness. See you there. Thank you.
