How Do I Stop Myself Rambling In My NHS Consultant Interview?

Ever had that feeling when you're in an interview that you're just rambling? You start to wonder if the panel is paying any attention to you at all. You're not sure what on earth you're going to say next. Well, in this video, I'm going to show you a simple structure that you can use to answer 90% of your interview questions for your NHS consultant interview. So why do we need frameworks? A framework is there to help you structure your answer. It's so that you've got something to fall back on. But it's not set in stone. But it's great to have it there. Structures are just like clinical guidelines. You use them lots at the start of your career when you're not very experienced, because if you aren't certain about what to do, you know that if you use a guideline, it's going to keep you safe. But as you get more experienced, you refer to these guidelines less and you're more likely to deviate from them. You'll do it confidently but intentionally. You'll think through and be able to rationalise. And that is the same principle to follow with structures and frameworks. They're there as a guide for you to fall back on, and once you get more experienced, you don't need to use them, or you can choose not to use them. Before we go on to talking about my favourite structure to use in consultant interview questions, I've put together a list of the 15 most common questions that are being asked in NHS substantive consultant interviews this year. You can download them for free at the link here in the video, and it's also in the description underneath the video. Right, so my all-time favourite structure is the simple 3-point structure. This can be used for 80% of the questions that you'll be asked in your consultant interview. In this 3-point structure, you start with an intro, and the intro is just to provide context and to lay out your 3 points. You're going to name your 3 points. Then you go through your 3 points. Point 1 is this, point 2 is this, point 3 is this. And then you'll give a short summary that restates your 3 points and closes your answer. Timing-wise, it's going to be around 30 seconds for your intro. You're going to talk about each point for 45 to 60 seconds, and then 30 seconds for your summary or your close. The reason this structure works so well is that it encourages you to think of more than one point to explore, so you don't put all your eggs in one basket by saying, this is, this is the way to answer this question, but it gives you a range of options. And it also forces you to develop your points further because you know you're going to have to talk for around 60 seconds on one point, and in your interview, that's where you're going to score the real points. But remember, before you do any of this and you start talking, Use a pause before you answer to come up with your 3 points, because you don't want to have to think about what else you're going to say once you've already started and launched into the answer. So you're going to take a pause, which means silence. You're going to think of your 3 points, make sure that your points are related to the question, and then once you've done that, you're going to start your answer. And if you do that, you will not go wrong. So this is a very simple structure to use. Of course, there's other structures too, and we go through them in my Asia Consultant Interview Academy. But this one, the 3-point structure, is very clear, very easy to use, and can be applied to most questions. If you just focused on the 3-point structure, you are still going to have a great interview. When you start using this structure, you might find it hard to spend 60 seconds talking about one point. But despite what you might feel the first time you do it, I promise you 60 seconds is not that long. What you want to do here is push past the superficial level of the comment and develop and explore your answer more. Because the alternative is that you're just listing points. You just reel off lots and lots of points, but you never explore them further. What you want to do is to develop a point in more detail so that you go beyond the theoretical and you bring in your skills and you explain the relevance of your point to what you'll bring to the team. And there's a few ways to help you expand and develop your point. You can use a specific example. You can reflect on how you felt. You can use numbers to add weight. You can use names of courses, of journals, of apps to add authenticity, and you can share what you learned. These are all ways that you can help add specifics. So if we used an example, which is the question, how do you manage your time effectively? And we choose one point, that might be that we prioritise tasks. Then you can look at the theory. The theory is just saying it's important to prioritise so you get the urgent things done. And that's true, but it's just at the superficial level. Level. And often people stop here and they'll move on to the next point, but instead I want you to keep going and to push yourself to develop it more. So you can add specifics. Last month I had 3 projects running. I had a research paper deadline, I had some teaching to prep, and I had a complaint to respond to, and I had to work out which was the most urgent. So I made a plan to complete the most urgent in the current week, and I allocated time for the others the following week. This adds some realism and experience to what you're sharing. Or you could reflect on how you felt. I really find that when I'm not managing my time well, it has a knock-on effect because it's so stressful. And actually, I feel so much better when I'm on top of things, and that's why I implemented my prioritization strategies. So this adds authenticity. It shows a bit about who you are, the type of person you are. Or you can use numbers. I usually have less than 2 things in my major priorities list, and then I've got a longer list of 5 to 10 smaller, less important tasks. And sometimes if I can pick off quick tasks in 15 minutes, I just do them then and there. So this shows that numbers are a great way of helping the panel visualize what you're talking about. So this could work with teaching sessions and research projects. You say how many people attended, how many patients' data were collected, how many days was the course, um, you know, how many speakers were there. You can see that it even makes a difference when talking about time management in the example I gave you. You can use names. So I could say, I use an app called OmniFocus to help with prioritization. I tag tasks and I allocate urgency. So when I add these names, it makes it more real and more relatable, and you really know that it's something that I do. Or you can talk about how you shared what you learned with others. So I used to find managing my time much more difficult, but since I use OmniFocus for prioritization, it's actually made a massive improvement, and I've even converted some of my colleagues to use OmniFocus too. So I'm showing here that you share your learning with the team, and that's how I'll be able to add to the department that I'm joining. These are all ways to develop your point, and you won't be able to use them all because the time won't allow, but you'll be able to use one or two of these in each point. So think through this as a framework to work through if you're struggling to know how to expand on your points. Now you know the simple structure that you can use for at least 80% of your interview questions. But what is it that you should be telling the panel about yourself When you share your interview answers, how can you sell yourself well? Well, that's what I'm going to be looking at in the next video, which you can watch here.