EP 59: What to Wear to Your Consultant Interview

The biggest mistake candidates make is thinking that one great answer is enough. Real interviews test whether you can still think clearly on question 4.

If you're prepping for your interview, make sure you've signed up to our free 5-day email crash course. It breaks down exactly what you need to do to stand out, and you can sign up via the link in the description. Coming up this week, a student mistake where a scan was ordered on the wrong patient. The interview question that catches people off guard. Have you ever underestimated how something you said landed? with a colleague, plus the wardrobe question everyone's too embarrassed to ask, and why rehearsing one perfect answer isn't the same as being interview ready. Okay, welcome back to the Is Your Consultant Interview podcast. I am here with Becky. Nice to see you, Becky. Good to be back at it with another episode.

Always great to be here.

Cool. Let's go. So first up, we've got a question of the week. This is a question from one of our academy students. This is a question that I know we get asked all the time, which is, what should I wear to my interview? What do you reckon?

Yeah, I get asked this quite a lot too. And I think that, I think when people start asking this, it's really because actually they're just worrying about everything and there's just a general sense of worry and there's just like one extra thing to add to the list. I think for interviews you've got to go there looking, you know, looking smart, looking like you care about the job, but I personally think you also want to look and feel like yourself in the interview. Don't wear anything that's so uncomfortable that you're going to be thinking about what you're wearing rather than what you're saying for the whole interview. And also remember they want to appoint you, So you want to look and feel like you. Now, like, I personally like to kind of wear jeans most of the time, and I think that's probably not, you know, appropriate interview attire.

Or pajamas. I like to wear pajamas.

Oh, it's a great look. Um, so I think you really can't turn up in your onesie, but I, I think also the days of looking completely corporate, uh, are probably Past now. Um, so I think it's something smart and, you know, interview appropriate, but also something that feels like you. How do you approach it?

Well, yeah, we've had some, some of our guest speakers talking about this, haven't we, in the Academy? Like, how to find— because you do, you don't want to feel like you say, like you're stressed because of what you're wearing. The goal is to feel good in what you're wearing, but also, yeah, I definitely have to have made an effort. You don't want anything that's distracting. So, you know, the exceptionally jazzy tie, I don't think is a good option where the panel's just all staring at your tie. So I think you just need to be careful about that. And I think also it's having thought about it before, so it shouldn't be a morning of the interview kind of thing. Just know what you're going to do, have it all set out, have it ready, and know it's something that you feel good in. I don't think you want shoes that you can't walk in, that sort of thing, because you need to be able to get in the room comfortably, sit down comfortably, and give a good impression.

Yeah. I've also had a few situations where I've interviewed people who have been wearing quite jangly bracelets and things, and when they've been talking, the bracelets have been jangling around. And one person, it was constantly knocking on her laptop when she was doing the presentation, and I found it incredibly distracting. And maybe she did too.

That's the audio equivalent of the jazzy tie, I think, where the panel's just like, all they can hear is this one sound of the thing jangling.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, personally, I don't think a novelty tie is ever okay.

Interview or not.

That's a whole other story. But yeah, I think just be aware of things that are gonna distract the panel, because you want them to focus on you. So, your outfit has to be, you know, enough about you to feel like you're turning up as yourself, but it can't be the focus.

So, somewhere between pajamas and wearing your wedding dress?

Somewhere between them, maybe somewhere in the middle. Yeah.

Good. Okay. And what I'm gonna ask whether, 'cause I think we get asked this a lot, if men have to wear a tie with their suit, do you have strong feelings about this?

Aside from the no-novelty-tie feeling, which is a feeling that I carry every day, no, I don't particularly think that men need to wear ties. I think that, I think that a shirt looks fine, an open-neck shirt. I know a lot of my male colleagues would feel that they wouldn't, that they don't feel interview-ready without a tie.

Yeah.

And if that feels like you, then absolutely wear a tie. But equally, I think if you're in a specialty that, you know, doesn't wear a tie, and, you know, you feel smart without one and you feel like yourself without one, that's also fine.

Yeah, I think as long as you look smart and like you've made an effort, then I think that's fine. Next up, we're going to look at an example, one of our golden— one of our 5 golden examples that students come up with. So we've got an example here of a time We made a time you made a mistake. What's the one we've got this week?

So, this student has written, a mistake I made was when I accidentally requested a CT head scan on the wrong patient. There were 2 patients with similar names in bed spaces next to one another, and I requested the CT head on the wrong patient. By the time I realised the mistake, the wrong patient had had a head CT. What do you think about this as a mistake?

I mean, I think it's quite probably quite bad to say in an interview, I would feel, because you are radiating someone's brain that didn't need it. So it's, it's, yeah, it's, I mean, it's not like a never event, is it? But it's, it's pretty bad, I think. Do you think? I think it's probably too bad to use as your For your interview example.

I do too. I think it's, I think it's risky.

Yeah.

To be honest, I, I actually think that this would, this would fit the criteria for a duty of— almost fit the criteria for a duty of candour example if somebody else had made the mistake. Yeah. Um, well, I think it is not almost, it would be.

It would, it would be a good duty of candour.

By definition, harm has been caused because we've irradiated somebody's brain and we don't know what the consequences of that are.

If it was your family member, you would not be best pleased about this. And also it's kind of, the way it happened as well is sort of carelessness because it was similar names next to each other and really could have been avoided. So I think if it was like an arm X-ray, that might be different, but I think a head CT is probably—

Yeah.

Too significant that it goes into the category of, yeah, distracting, too big a deal, just with the view that you want your example to, so the main point of your answer is about the part which is how you handled the mistake, and the story shouldn't be distracting to the panel, and they're like, oh, my God, how did this happen? And I think this is a bit, how did this happen? I mean, we know why— how it happened, 'cause they've explained, but it's not a common thing. It would be unusual, very unusual for this to happen.

Yeah.

So, I think it's a notable thing. And one of the things in our checklist for the Academy is, like, would— this is as to whether we have a how the hell did that happen bin, which is where we put examples where you would hear it, and you'd be like, how the hell did Tessa get into that situation? And I think this is one of those. I think one of the things is, yeah, just thinking, like, is it a notable event in your team at the time? Like, if you were asking someone about it now, do you remember that time this happened to Tessa? And they're like, yes, we're still talking about it now, even though it was 3 years ago. That probably would be in that category, 'cause I would remember that if it happened in our team.

Yeah.

So, it's probably too notable to be the one that you would use in your interview.

Yeah. And not only have you irradiated somebody unnecessarily, but somebody else who needed a head CT— Didn't get it, yeah. Had it in a reasonable timeframe.

Yeah.

So, I think on all counts, it's a no. Yeah.

Okay. But if you could use it in a different way, as duty of candour, or it wasn't— well, I suppose it'd be too hard to use this because it is your mistake. But if you were the person on the other side, another senior person on this shift at this point, This would be a good one as duty of candor.

Yeah, very much so. Yeah.

Great. Okay. Next up, we've got our interview question of the week where we talk about a question that's come up recently. So this question is, tell me about a time you underestimated the emotional impact of something you said or did on a colleague. Well, this is, I think this is quite tricky, like even just listening to the question, you're kind of having to think about what it's asking and what it means.

I remember when the person who'd had this at their interview told us about it, and my initial thought was, oh my God, that's an awful question. And I've subsequently asked it to a few people in mock interviews, and people generally don't like it. Which is why I ask it, because I actually think that it's useful to throw in a sort of something that feels like a bit of a curveball, because it makes people think on their feet. But actually, if you think about it, there are ways that you can flex other examples that you've prepared. And, and actually, sometimes if you've prepared an answer for a conflict with a colleague, Mm. that May fit the bill for this, depending on what it was.

I guess giving negative feedback to someone is another thing that comes to mind.

Yeah.

Because that could be a senior thing, like having to give feedback to a trainee or something and trying to do it in a way that was sensitive, but really you didn't really, yeah, in reflection, you could have done it differently.

Yeah. I've heard, I asked this this week to somebody in a mock interview actually, and she Answered it beautifully. It was about a time that she'd supported a colleague through a particularly difficult period in their life. And a few months later, they came back to her and said how much of a difference she'd made and her actions had made at that time. And she said, I had completely underestimated the impact that I was having in that moment.

And it just— That's really nice, yeah.

Brilliant.

It is. It's brilliant because the first time you hear this question, you think about something bad you've done that's had a negative. But actually the question, and we say this a lot to candidates, like, don't throw yourself under the bus if you don't need to. So if the question's not directly asking you for a negative, a complaint, you know, a bit of bad feedback, don't give them a negative if they're not asking. And actually this question is not asking for a negative. It's just saying emotional impact, which could be Good emotional impact. Um, and that's a, that's a great way to do it.

Yeah. You know, imagine if you are somebody who does regular, you know, debrief, for example. Mm-hmm. And perhaps you've really helped somebody to unpick something difficult that they went through.

Yeah.

Or you are somebody who mentors somebody, um, and, and you've really helped them to work through some challenges and, you know, that's meant a lot to them. And at the time you underestimated that. These are all brilliant things. So I think I think it's worth— this is why it's worth taking the pause when you—

Yeah.

Get a question, because you can just comb through your catalogue of, you know, NHS experiences that date back a decade, um, and probably come up with something that shows you as a nice, normal, warm, compassionate human. Um, so I actually really like this question because I think it's a chance to get a real insight into the candidate. And as an interview candidate, it's an opportunity for you to show a bit of who you are in a really warm way.

I like this question. I haven't been using it in one-to-ones, but I'm going to start. I'm going to start using it.

You'll love it.

Except now if they've watched this podcast episode, they'll know it's coming. So it's a bit annoying. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Because it does make you think on the spot, but potentially you could come up with something really cool. Or you could come up with it, dig yourself a hole. There is a potential that you'll just start oversharing here with something really bad. So, yeah, you definitely need to have the pause.

Yeah. I think that's a key point, isn't it, about oversharing? Because actually, you've got complete control over what comes out of your mouth in the interview.

Yes.

You can choose what to share. As we always say, you don't have to throw yourself under the bus. So, if the first thing that comes to your mind is something that you'd rather not share, Think of something else.

Yeah.

You know, in a nice way, just take another moment and think of something that shows you in a better light.

Yeah. Good advice. Great question. Uh, so yeah, um, I'm glad that, I'm glad we've discussed that. Okay. Then we come to our tip and trick of the week. This is an interview tip. This tip is about how you practice questions because, um, we always say, you know, practice questions out loud. And actually, even if you've just got 3 minutes, You're walking to the bus or you're in between patients, you can practice a question out loud, which is true because you want to get into the habit of doing it. But there is value in practicing questions in a group together. And we— this is why we do kind of full mock interviews because that feeling of the interview is going to be 40 minutes, like your substantive interview will be 40 minutes. And I think the thing when we speak to people after we talk to them about how it went is, people notice how tired they get towards the end. And I've definitely felt this when I've been a candidate, is, yeah, you just, it's a long time to be answering questions.

Yeah. And I, that's overwhelmingly the feedback that people give me when I've done a mock interview with them, that they say, God, you know, keeping my concentration and my energy up for that long was really, really tiring. So, you're right.

Especially because the questions, the nature of the questions, they kind of get harder as you go on, just because that's the flow of the consultant interview. So the kind of easier ones are at the beginning, and then it starts to get harder, the senior level stuff, the management. And that's just when you're really tired and you've already answered, you know, 7 questions. It's hard to do that. And so I think in practice, if you can replicate that in some way, you'll at least know how you feel and be able to just remind yourself, okay, you need some strategies to be able to be like, Keep up the energy, keep going. You know, there's not long to go by this point, but you start to flag just when it's getting hard. So just finding a way to do longer mock practices with more questions, I think, is really helpful.

What I've had a few students do recently who've been— when they're strong, when they can answer, you know, pretty much any question, you know, in ones, Then I'd say, you know, just get somebody to shout 3 questions at you in a row, and you just answer one, they shout another one, you answer it, they shout another one, and you answer it.

Yeah.

So that you're getting 3 random questions. You have to think about it, you've just got to get on and do it. And make sure that you can keep your brain focused on, you know, 3 different questions.

Yeah, 'cause—

And recognise that it's not, you don't have to give the the absolute perfect answer. You've just got to get an answer out that's good enough.

Yeah.

That illustrates the point.

Yeah. Um, it's definitely not going to be perfect on the day because there's so many other things going on and yeah, nerves and just, you know, things don't go according to plan. That's, I think that's, um, what I know, even if you're not doing a full mock for the feeling of 40 minutes, that idea of having to move on to the next question and just doing a run of a few So your head's not in, well, hang on, I messed up question 1, and you're still thinking about question 1 when you're onto question 2 and onto question 3. So even like you say, doing 3 in a row, you have to just draw a line under that question, move on and focus on the next one.

Mm-hmm.

And that is, I think, a key part of like keeping the momentum going. Every question, fresh start, forget about what you, your deep regrets from the question before. You can worry about them later, but you can't let that affect you in the moment.

Yeah, I think that is really solid advice.

Yes, we are congratulating each other on our great advice.

We are in full agreement with that. We think our advice is great.

Our advice is excellent. Okay, on that note, I think we will wrap up this episode, and I will see you in the next one, Becky.