In this instructional video, Tessa Davis walks viewers through the most common question types encountered in NHS substantive consultant interviews and offers concrete strategies for answering them. She begins with the ubiquitous "tell me about yourself" prompt, critiquing the traditional CAMP structure and proposing the PERM framework (Personal passion, Experience, Research/Education, Management) to create a compelling, passion‑driven opening. Davis then tackles the "greatest weakness" question, warning against clichés, fabricated strengths, and claiming the weakness is already resolved. She emphasizes authentic self‑awareness, describing how to acknowledge a genuine weakness, outline steps taken to manage it, and avoid deal‑breaker traits such as poor communication or time‑management. The third segment covers wildcard questions—unexpected, often quirky prompts like who you admire or what you’d ask the Health Secretary—explaining that interviewers use them to gauge composure under pressure. Davis advises applying a familiar three‑point structure and staying calm, noting that stress is expected. Throughout, she promotes a free downloadable list of the 15 most common NHS consultant interview questions and teases a follow‑up video on demonstrating senior‑level thinking. The overall purpose is to equip candidates with practical answer frameworks, avoid common pitfalls, and build confidence for senior‑level interview performance.
Chapters
We've talked in previous videos about finding your unique selling points for your NHS substantive consultant interviews and also choosing good examples. But there's plenty of other questions that are going to come up in your interview and that you need to be ready for. And in this video, we're going to go through some of the common question types that will be asked and show you how to answer them. So first common question is the classic, tell me about yourself. This is very likely to be the first question you're going to get asked in your interview, and it gives you a chance to tell the panel about you, and you will include some of your unique selling points in there along with other things that you've done. And you're really trying to showcase why you're a good fit for the team and what skills you bring. This question can be asked in different ways. It could be, walk me through your CV. Why did you apply for this role? Why do you think you're the best person for this job? They're all versions of the same thing. Now, I know most of you have probably been using Camp to help you with a structure to this. Clinical academic management personal. But I'm going to urge you not to use CAMP because there is nothing that makes less sense than sticking a P on the end of your answer. Because with CAMP, you just tack on the P to the end of your answer where you tell them all this great stuff you've done, and then you add a hobby like, and on the weekends, I love going cycling. This really doesn't tell the panel anything about yourself. I'm going to suggest you use PERM instead. Personal experience, research or research and education, and management. Put the P, put the personal right at the top, and don't tell them about a hobby. P is what it— what you're passionate about. What is personal to you about the job and why it's important to you, or about the specialty and why it's important to you, or about the team and why it's important to you. Whatever way you can connect yourself and show the panel that your passion for the role or for the specialty. When you start your tell me about yourself answer with the P, immediately you're going to relax. You're going to be talking about something that you love, and the panel is going to connect with you. They're going to see who you are, the type of person that you are, and the type of team member you're going to be. It's a much better way to start tell me about yourself than starting straight into rattling off your clinical elements of your CV and then sticking your hobby on the end. Now, before I go on to the second common question type, I've put together a resource that will help you with your interview prep. If you'd like to get a sneak peek at some interview questions, I've actually put together a list of the 15 most common questions being asked in NHS consultant interviews this year, and you can download them for free at the link in the video, and it's also in the description under the video. Okay, so the second common type of question is asking about a weakness. So you might get asked, what's your greatest weakness? Or what have you found to be a challenge in the past? And it's worth thinking about this question. When it comes up, candidates can get into a real pickle. What you want to do is avoid giving an answer that's a cliché, because this is your chance to show some actual vulnerability to the panel. And by fudging or faking an answer, you're going to lose out on that chance. So instead, be authentic and avoid these common mistakes that people make when choosing their weaknesses. Mistake 1 is making something up. Okay, you're not going to sound authentic when you use a stock answer. And I know it's tempting to avoid your actual weakness because it feels too raw, and instead you want to come up with an ideal weakness. Don't do it, because this is your chance to dig deep. If you think you're going to say, I'm a perfectionist, please stop yourself. It's too much of a cliché. Don't do it. Mistake 2 is stating that your weakness has been conquered, because if you claim that your weakness is no longer an issue, well, you aren't really answering the question then, are you, of it being a weakness? So acknowledge the weakness. Reflect on how you've tackled it. Think about how you manage it day to day to ensure it doesn't hold you back. Anticipate how it might affect you in the future and lay out how you plan to deal with it. And mistake 3 is choosing a no-go weakness. So avoid weaknesses that are deal breakers. And some weaknesses are really going to raise alarm bells for the panel and put them off wanting to have you on the team. So this would include communication problems, disorganization, poor time management, not being able to speak up. For yourself, these are all potential deal breakers. The 3rd type of question I wanted to talk about was kind of wildcard questions, I guess, where they ask a question that you weren't expecting and that seems a bit odd. So, who do you admire most? Or what 3 words would a colleague use to describe you? Or what would you ask the Health Secretary if you were stuck in a lift with him? These questions are designed to see how you respond in the moment. They're not questions that you're going to prep for. You can't prep for every single element of these. But if you've practiced and you're using structures like the 3-point structure we discussed in one of the other videos, then actually you're going to be able to use your pause and approach this the same as the others. Think of your 3 points and be able to answer them clearly. Just remember when they ask you a wildcard question that everyone is going to feel stressed by this question. So it's not unusual that you're feeling stressed. And that's one of the reasons that they're asking you. They want to see how you handle it under pressure. Now, you know, the common questions that will be asked and how to address them, but it might have left you with some worries about how to really show senior-level thinking in your interview, how to show them that you are ready for that consultant job. And that's exactly what I'm going to show you in the next video, which you can watch here.
