How Can I Choose Solid Examples For My NHS Consultant Interview?

In your NHS substantive consultant interview, you're going to be asked a question like, tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a colleague, or tell me about a time when something else. You want to choose an example that showcases you in a good light. So often interview candidates choose terrible examples that might even put the panel off employing them altogether. And in this video, I'm going to show you how to avoid this and how to choose gold examples. My first tip in choosing great examples is don't go with the first thing that you think of. As soon as I say to you, tell me about a time you made a mistake, you're going to think of something terrible that happened. Sometime a patient came to serious harm, or you were involved in an SI, or there was something really dramatic. It's just natural. We're only human. The first thing that comes to mind is going to be the most dramatic thing. But this isn't what you want to use in your interview. I want you to go beyond that. So once you've thought of the first thing, keep thinking. Think of the everyday. Think of the relatable. Think of the things that when I hear it, or you tell it to someone else, one of your colleagues, they'll say, oh yeah, I can see how that happened, or that, that happened to me as well. You want to choose examples to share that are very common and relatable and don't need a lot of explanation. You don't want some big complex example that needs lots of context. And that mainly means keep it simple and don't choose drama. I've got a couple of frameworks to help you choose your gold examples. But before we do that, I've put something together that will help you get started with your prep. If you'd like to get a sneak peek at some interview questions, I've put together a list of the 15 most common questions being asked this year in NHS consultant interviews. You can download them for free at the link in the video, and it's in the description underneath the video too. When you have thought of some examples for scenarios, I want you to filter them through my how the hell did that happen bin. Whenever someone says to me, I don't know if this example's too significant to use, or this might be too recent. It's not because they don't have better examples, it's because they haven't dropped their examples in the how the hell did that happen bin. Some questions to ask yourself to see if something should go in the how the hell did that happen bin is: was this a memorable event in your career? Did it need formal escalation through a pathway reserved for significant events? Was it a source of notable stress or conversation in your team at the time? Did a patient come to serious harm? If the answer of to any of these is yes, then your example should probably go in the how the hell did that happen bin. Have you heard of this thing happening to other people? Do you think it's happened to someone on the panel? If your answer to any of these is no, then it probably should go in the how the hell did that happen bin. This bin is reserved for all the challenging things that inevitably happen to us throughout our careers. Its contents should be shared with your trusted colleagues, with your loyal friends, with your supportive partners, but its contents should not be tipped out over your interview desk. For example, things that should go in the how the hell did that happen bin include conflicts with your junior colleagues, conflicts with nurses, second-guessing your seniors, causing harm to patients, reporting other staff members through formal channels, going to court for your involvement in a case, being a poor team player. Because these don't show you in a good light. You'll just end up thinking, how the hell did Tessa get into that situation? Don't get me wrong, it's not because they don't happen. I know that lots of different situations and regrettable things happen. It's just that they don't all need to be shared in your interview. Once you've run your example through the, your, the how the hell did that happen bin, the examples that don't get dumped in the bin, these are great examples. These are the examples that are relatable to everyone on the panel. And remember, what's the point of the panel asking you to share an example? Well, it's not to wow them with a mind-boggling story. They're not trying to see that you're a great storyteller. It's to show them how you handle situations you encounter and therefore how you'll be when you're in a team with them. So if you think of the people that you'd want to work with, ideally it's someone who's easy to get along with, who's collegiate, who knows how to rise above pettiness, because all we want is to deliver great patient care in a team that gets along with each other and supports each other. So make sure your examples showcase your ability to be that person. And if you ever feel like you can't think of any good examples to share, you aren't thinking hard enough because examples happen hundreds of times every day in public health systems and you've been working in them for years. So you're just looking in the wrong places. You don't need to choose examples that are memorable. You just need to choose examples that are routine, that are relatable and common, the ones that happen to all of us every day. Once you've passed your examples through the how the hell did that happen bin, the ones that you still have to use, I want you to pass them through the choosing gold examples checklist. With the how the hell did that happen bin in mind, the choosing examples checklist will make sure that you don't use examples that put you in a bad light. So you should have filtered out the worst ones with the how the hell did that happen bin. But this is a second check to make sure you've got great examples. Checklist point 1, is this example about you? Did it really happen and were you central to it? Checklist point 2 is, are there any deal breakers in there? And checklist point 3 is, did you learn something? So let's go through each checklist point so you can see exactly how this works. Point 1, is it about you? So your example needs to be true. I know it seems a bit silly to say, but there is a temptation to embellish an example or to come up with something that puts you in a good light. But this is really a bad idea because you'll just end up getting caught up in a wave of lies. And what it'll mean is that you're not going to sound genuine. You'll make errors. If you get challenged or asked questions, you won't be able to answer it. It's just not necessary. There's so many different scenarios that we come up against every single day in healthcare that you don't need to make something up. Instead, take the time to think about what scenarios you've been in. And you should be central to the example. So it shouldn't be something that happened to someone else. It should have happened to you. It's not something that you walked past in a corridor or heard about. You need to be the key player. Checklist point 2, are there any deal breakers? Now, these really should have been filtered out in the how the hell did that happen bin, but it's definitely worth a second check because some still sneak through that filter. So there's several types of deal breakers, but they mainly come under the following categories. So clinical skills deal breakers, teamwork deal breakers, and probity deal breakers. So clinical deal breakers is going to be when you cause Significant harm to a patient. We all make mistakes, but the aim of being asked to share an example is so you can demonstrate how you handled a situation. It's not for the panel to get distracted by a significant incident. And clinical deal breakers really should be in the how the hell did that happen bin, because instead of the panel marvelling at your great skill of handling a scenario, they spend time thinking about what happened. Was there any error on your part? What would that mean if you were in their team? And it just distracts the panel from concentrating on your answer on what you did and in scoring you well. And it's not that we don't make mistakes, we all do, but in the interview you want the panel to focus on you, how you handle situations, and how you deal with pressure. And that's the reason they're asking you. Teamwork deal breakers. Yeah, I get it, conflict happens, colleagues argue, things don't always go to plan. However, the panel wants to employ someone who will integrate into their team well, so there's no need to hammer them over the head with examples of your bad teamwork. In particular, red flags include berating your junior colleagues, battling with nursing staff, having conflicts with colleagues that have to be escalated through formal channels. And to be clear, that doesn't mean that you're wrong to have experienced these. It just means that your substantive consultant interview is not the place to discuss them. And probity deal breakers: don't be unreliable, don't be dishonest, don't steal anything. Fairly, fairly obvious, but I'm stating this in case you were thinking about sharing it. And checklist point 3. Did you learn something? So did this example help bring about change? And change could be you changing your practice, the team changing their practice, inter-team pathways, governance processes that were followed. But also tell the panel how you felt, because it's good to be authentic. How did it feel when you had that conflict? How did it feel once you realized that you'd made a mistake or that you'd had An issue. Tell the panel in an honest but planned way. You're going to come across as authentic and the panel will feel more connected to you. Once you've got an example that meets this checklist criteria, then this is gold. Write it down and hang on to it. Once you've got a great one, you'll realize just how versatile it can be. So now you know what it takes to choose solid gold examples. But what about the other questions they're going to ask you in your interview? I'm going to share some of the common question types that will be asked and show you exactly how to answer them. And you can check that video out here.