In this episode of the Ace Your Consultant Interview podcast, hosts Becky and Tessa Davis provide practical guidance for candidates applying to consultant roles in a highly competitive environment. They begin by addressing a student’s concern about standing out among many strong applicants and emphasize the importance of thorough preparation, not just last‑minute cramming. The hosts stress that candidates should map their existing skills and experiences to the specific job description, focusing on what they learned from past projects rather than merely listing activities. They critique an overly detailed “mistake” example, demonstrating how to condense an incident into a concise narrative that highlights the error, the corrective actions taken, and the broader learning. The episode then walks through a common interview question – “What challenges is the trust facing and how will you help overcome them?” – and outlines a research strategy: attend pre‑interview visits, review CQC reports, board minutes, risk registers, and national surveys to identify priorities and risks. They advise candidates to weave this knowledge into their answers to show genuine interest and preparedness. Finally, Becky and Tessa share a tip on sounding like a consultant: adopt a big‑picture, system‑level perspective in every response, using language that reflects senior‑level thinking (e.g., discussing root‑cause analysis, service‑wide guidelines, trainee experience beyond a single shift). They encourage candidates to shift from a personal‑action focus to a service‑wide impact focus, thereby demonstrating consultant‑level mindset without pretending to already hold the role. The episode concludes with a recap of these strategies and an invitation to future episodes.
Chapters
If you want to sound like a consultant in your answers, think not only about this one patient in front of you, but about the bigger picture, the pathways, the system, and the whole process.
Hi, I'm Tessa.
And I'm Becky. And this is the Ace Your Consultant Interview podcast, where we help you stand out and succeed in your consultant interview.
Before we get into today's episode, if you're prepping for your interview, make sure you're 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.
In this episode, we're going to talk about how to stand out when you've been told that there are loads of great applicants for this job. We're also going to look at how to deliver examples succinctly so that you can get on to the learning from that, and also how to demonstrate that you are the person to help the trust overcome the challenges that are facing them at the moment.
Let's get going on today's episode. So first up, we've got a student question of the week, and our question is that, I keep hearing that there's lots of great candidates who've applied for the job I'm applying for, so how do I make sure that I stand out when everyone else is so good?
I think this is a common concern, especially at the moment, where, you know, some specialties in particular are super, super competitive. There are relatively few jobs out there. And people are worrying about this. Yeah, it's a legitimate concern. But happy news, there are some particular strategies that you can use to overcome this. One of those is to prepare.
Yes, preparing helps. So, not waiting until the last minute and then worrying about this. But when you know that it's going to be competitive, and you know that it's the job, you're going to be applying for a job in the next 6 to 12 months, then You want to beat these people, you need to work harder than them and prep harder and prep in the right way. So, yeah, prepare is a good first step.
And, yeah, I was going to say, joking aside, that's not a joke. You do actually need to prepare.
No.
So, but I think that the point is, you don't have to be, you know, all singing, all dancing in terms of you've done everything, you've done the PhD, you've done the research, you're a top educator, you've got an honorary post here, you've done whatever else. It doesn't need to be that. What you need to be able to do is to show the panel how you are relating your skill set to the job that they are advertising, and really demonstrating what are the skills and attributes that you've got as a result of the things that you've done. I think one of the common pitfalls that people get themselves into is that they don't adequately describe what they've learnt from doing, say, a particular project because they think, you know, oh, everyone's done an audit, or loads of people are good educators. It's not about the fact that you've done an audit or the fact that you've delivered a teaching session. It's about demonstrating what that meant. You know, what did the audit mean? What skills did you use? What difference did it make to your practice? How did you involve others, you know, all of those kind of things. And similarly with the teaching, you know, how did you map it to the curriculum? How did you assess learners' needs before the session? How did you evaluate what you'd done? What feedback did you get? All of those kind of things. So it's about finding ways to sell yourself and aligning that skill set rather than just thinking, oh, there's nothing special about me.
Yeah. And the reality, whether it's right or wrong, is that it actually doesn't matter how great the applicants sound anyway, because they could sound great and they could be great, but they could still be terrible interviewees. And whether it's fair or not, the process is you have to perform on the day, and that is not related to how many PhDs you have. So it's just related to your interview skills. So actually, forget— you can only do what you can do as far as what you've got, but you can do a lot to make the most of it in your interview. And that's the part that's within your control. your control. So, yeah, I would forget about them. And actually, I don't know, when people tell candidates that there's lots of great applicants applying, I always think it's a bit unfair because it's kind of like psyching them out to say, oh, we've had lots of great people applying. And I think that's a bit unfair. So, I think you need to push all of these thoughts to the side because they do not serve you well. It does not help you to think about how amazing everyone else is or how many of them there are or anything like that. You just need to focus on you and making the most of what you've got. Okay, let's go on to our golden example of the week. We've got a mistake example this week. Do you want to run us through what the mistake example is?
Yeah, so I made a mistake regarding who was the allocated colleague for a joint theatre case, confirming this colleague was unavailable in the morning. And so as a result of their unavailability, we switched the order of the patients on the theatre list. which meant feeding a toddler who should have had priority. We then realised that it was another colleague who was allocated for the list, so the first patient had an avoidable delay and the parents were understandably very upset. That is a mistake example. What do you think about it?
So, the mistake is that you made a mistake because you thought one colleague was unavailable, but it was actually the other colleague that was unavailable. So, that's the mistake. So I think it is, um, I mean, it's a mistake, so that's fine. Um, yeah, it's got a lot of deep— it's heavy on the detail here, uh, trying to work out. And then you're like, the toddler, what, what, suddenly there's a toddler there and there. Yeah, so I think that there's— I think it could be cut down a lot.
Yeah.
It just takes a long time to explain that, and your mind is wandering, thinking, trying to follow it all and think about it.
Yeah, I do too, because I mean, something like, a guy in a muddle about who was supposed to be covering the theatre list, and as a result of that, a toddler was not in a warm-up when they should have been.
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
Something along those lines. I think, as you can probably tell if you've listened to any of our podcasts before, we don't like a whole load of detail in these examples. It's really not the look we're going for. What we want is to be able to understand the incident that led to the, you know, your reflection and your learning in a really succinct way. So, if it takes a load of telling, you know, try to condense it. If you really can't tell it without a long story, it's not the right example.
Ditch it, yeah. But this one, I think, yeah, you summarised it in a way that was very succinct, probably got the same information across and was fine. And it is a mistake, and it did have an impact, It's not a disastrous impact, but it did have an impact, and the family would be annoyed. Um, so yeah, I think this is actually a really nice, honest mistake to share. Good, good example.
Yeah, and then you can just talk about, you know, how you rectified it. You know, you apologise to the parents, you know, put the child on a later list, whatever, whatever you did. Um, and then just talk about some learning that's come out of it for you, and if there's any wider learning that needs to come out, you know, making it clearer on the rota who's doing what, whatever it is, you can you can talk about that as well. I think it will work well, but just keep it brief.
Okay, let's look at an interview question breakdown. This is a question that one of our students got asked recently in an interview. The question is, what challenges is the trust facing, and how will you help overcome these challenges? What are your initial thoughts about this question?
This is a common question and one that you should be prepared for.
Yeah.
So I think it might come up as the Trust or the department or the service, something like that. But either way, you should have a reasonable understanding of what's going on in this place that you are hoping to work in as a consultant, and specifically, what can you do about it? So if you've had any prior thoughts about that, then this question should feel like something that you expected and should feel like a really nice opportunity for you to showcase some of what you personally can bring to help them through the next year, 3 years, whatever it is.
So how would you go about finding out what challenges the trust are facing?
I think the first thing is you can ask about that at your pre-interview visit.
You can just ask, yeah.
Yeah, and that's why it's important to go to them, you know, and you can ask, what are your priorities at the moment? Probably when you go to those visits, they'll tell you all of that kind of stuff anyway. I mean, spoiler alert, there'll be something about finances in there at the moment, won't there? Everyone's broke.
Yep.
So, you know, think about that. You could also have a look at the CQC report.
You could also Board minutes, last board minutes would be good for this. So definitely look them up there. They they are freely available online, so you'll be able to find them and just have a look through. You don't need to read like cover to cover, but you need just see what the overview is. Pick out some key things because and then you can even say actually I read the board recent board minutes and that looks really good because it's not like you're not you know I read the recent board minutes and also when I met so and so the chief exec before they said. So, these are all ways that you can use your knowledge and show them that you've got that knowledge and that you've done the work, because it also just shows you care, you've made the effort, and that's important too.
And also, thinking about things, I know that one of the things on your risk register is X, and I've got the skill, you can elaborate on it, how to help you overcome that, for example. Or, one of the things that came out on the National Training Survey is, and I'm somebody who can deliver X to help you support that. Um, you know, there's so much that you can do with this. Um, you just need to have done a little bit of homework, not absolutely tons, to be honest. No, it's quite easy to find this stuff out and then to think about how you might help them mitigate those risks.
Yeah, this is why it'll be really embarrassing if you don't know how to answer this, because it looks like, like, how can you be applying here when you don't even have a clue what's going on. So yeah, this is going to look silly if you don't know. So definitely prep this in advance. Think about the priorities for the trust, for the department, the challenges they're facing. It's really likely to come up, if not directly, you will be able to drop it in somewhere else anyway. So it's still worth thinking about.
Yeah, not wasted.
Okay, and then we're going to go on to our tip and trick of the week. The tip and trick this week is how to sound like a consultant. So do you think there's a way that we can just get people to just come in and they'll be like, yes, you sound like a consultant, you've got the job. Um, what, what sort of things would you— this is a common worry from final year trainees going for a consultant job, I think.
Yeah, this is, this is understandable, um, particularly if you haven't already been in a consultant post or acted up or whatever. So in a nutshell, for me, this is about looking at big picture and system and process rather than just that one patient in front of you. And I think if you can use some language that demonstrates that you are doing that, then that will stand you in good stead. So, you know, for example, if you get asked a question about, you know, a patient safety incident or something, how do you address a patient safety incident? Then it can't just be, I go and speak to the family and say sorry, and then I fill in a DATEx, and that's me done. Obviously. But, you know, think about, okay, well, actually, I was involved in investigating a safety incident. And then you can talk about, you know, I did a root cause analysis. I looked at the system around this. And then in order to prevent this from happening again, We put a new guideline in place, we had that ratified, we've done some teaching around it. So, consistently just elevating your answer from the one patient to the process, the department, the wider world.
Yeah, and it's like, it's similarly like if you're asked, you know, how do you make sure trainees have a good experience? And then you could answer, well, when I'm on a shift, I make sure we do a huddle in the morning, and we do a board round, and I make sure I know what their learning objectives are for the day, and I make sure they all get their breaks, or whatever it is, which is fine, and that's really good. But the senior-level question is, that's fine when you're on a shift, but what happens when you're not on a shift? How do we make sure that all our trainees get a good experience regardless of who's on shift? And that change of perspective is what allows you to demonstrate senior-level thinking. And it's not that the first one's bad. It's still good. It's true, and that's fine. But you're talking about you being good rather than the service being good. And if you can learn that change in perspective and demonstrate that, not just when you're asked directly about consultant-type things, but actually across all your answers, and talk about it from a service perspective, that's how you convey senior-level thinking, consultant-level thinking across the whole interview.
It's just a slight shift in perspective. But once you start doing that, each time you answer a question or during your prep, think about what's the bigger picture around this. And thinking about changing pathways and things like that, rather than just getting it right for my one patient today.
Yep. So, you're not pretending that you're a consultant. If you're a final year trainee, they know what you are. They shortlisted you for you. So, you're not pretending you're a consultant. But what you're doing is showing that you understand the mentality of being on the senior team and the priorities of the senior team, which are about delivering safe, effective care to the whole population, everyone that the service serves. That's what you want to come across in your answers. So yeah, and this is it. Once you can master this skill, your answers are going to be way better and you're going to feel more confident about them as well. Okay, I think we will wrap up there. Thank you, Becky. It's been fab. I will see you next week in another great episode. See you there.
