Tessa Davis explains how to handle the final question in NHS consultant interviews. Avoid improvising, asking things you could Google, or bringing up salary and rota details. The safest move is saying no thanks if you've got your answers, or ask something brief and purposeful that shows you're thinking about the role.
There is a question that you know you're going to be asked at the end of your NHS substantive consultant interview, but nobody seems to be sure exactly how to answer it best. The question is, do you have any questions for us? Well, in this video, I'm going to tell you how to make sure you answer that question safely. Why is it important that you think about this final question? Because you know it's going to come up, and this question is actually not going to score you points. It's not going to be part of their scoring criteria for the interview, but actually it could lose you the interview if you say something that's terribly off-putting for the panel. So it's really important that you make a decision before you go into your interview about how you're going to answer this question. So either you're going to say no, you don't have any questions to ask, or you're going to say yes, you do. And you really need to decide which way you're going to go. Before we look at how you can go very wrong in answering this question, I've got something that I think will help you. 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 that are being asked in consultant interviews. this year. You can download them for free at the link in the video, and it's also in the description underneath the video. So how can you go wrong in this question? Well, the first way to go wrong in this question is just to see how you feel on the day, is just think, well, I'll just see how I feel if any questions pop into my mind. This is a terrible idea. You know that this is going to be asked, therefore make a plan beforehand. Okay? Don't wait to see how you feel on the day because you'll feel varying degrees of stressed, upset, or joyous. And either way, there's no benefit to just going with the flow on the day. So plan it in You would also go wrong by forcing a question that really you could have found out the answer to before. So don't just put a question there for the sake of it. And don't ask something where if you'd done a little bit of due diligence, you could have found the answer, because it's really going to annoy the panel asking them a question that you could look up on the internet, or that you could have called a colleague and spoken to and found out the answer to before. Equally, don't just pick something for the sake of it. They'll know if it's a nonsense question and it's just going to annoy them. You can also go wrong by asking an inappropriate question here. So please don't use this as an opportunity to ask a question about pay, about hours, about full-time equivalent or part-time equivalent. These questions should be discussed after they offer you the job. They do not need to be discussed in the interview. So talking about money, leave, hours, rotas, anything like that, it's not appropriate for the interview. So, so don't make the mistake of asking this as a question when they say, have you got any questions for us? So then it comes to answering the question. If you've made the decision, the simplest thing, and the thing that I would really recommend, is just to say, no thanks. No thanks. I managed to speak to however many people before the interview, and they were able to answer all my questions, so I don't have anything else to ask. That is the safest thing to do. But if you do decide that you really feel strongly that you want to ask a question, you know the question that you want to ask, just keep it brief and think about why you're asking. What is it you're trying to add to your score in the interview by asking this question, because remember, your goal of this interview is to score more points than your opposition, than the other candidates. If this question is not helping that, then there's no benefit to it, and it is only risking annoying the panel. So if you're going to ask a question, just make sure you're clear why you're asking it. Now you know how to answer that final question in your interview. You've got no excuses left. It's time to get prepping, get going, and secure your dream job.
