What Should I Expect In My NHS Consultant Interview?

Imagine sitting in the waiting area ahead of your NHS substantive consultant interview. You're waiting to be called in for your interview. Instead of sweating, panicking, spiraling, you're actually breathing deeply and calmly because you know exactly what to expect. I'm going to tell you what to expect in this video, so keep watching. So who exactly is on the panel? There's going to be a range of different roles being represented on the panel, and the number of people on the panel It's not going to be an exact same number for every single interview panel, but it'll be somewhere between 7 and 11 or 12 people for a substantive consultant interview. There'll be some clinicians there. These will be consultant colleagues and maybe the clinical lead. Their clinical director will be on the panel. There will be a college representative. They are there to make sure they offer support from the college and make sure that the requirements of the role are appropriate for the training path in the college. There may be a university rep. They won't be there on every interview panel, but if there is a university role or potentially a research role on— in the job that you're applying for, there will be a university rep. The chair of the panel is going to be a lay chair. This is someone who is not clinical and not medical, often a director of a board, sometimes a non-executive director of a medical board, sometimes just board-level experience in charities or schools or other organisations. Their job is to be there to make sure that the process is fair, so to make sure they don't appoint just someone that they like because they know, but to make sure that all the candidates get a fair process. There will also be a representative of the medical director. They're often looking at governance, at performance. The medical director themselves might be there, or they might send an allocated representative. And the chief exec will be there, or a representative of the chief exec. So depending on availability, some of these people might send representatives, but there will be someone who is there for the purpose of being their role on the panel. And before we get into what questions they ask, I've actually put together something 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 in interviews this year, and you can download these questions free at the link in this video, and it's also in the description underneath the video. So let's get on with the questions. So you've got this panel of 7 to 11 or 12 people. They're likely to ask 1 or 2 questions per person, and that'll be at the discretion of the panel. Occasionally they will follow up with a second part of a question, but the important thing to remember in a substantive consultant interview is that every candidate should get the same questions. So there won't be, or there shouldn't be ad-libbing, and they shouldn't be asking questions that are specific to you or whatever you put on your application form, because then it wouldn't be fair. Because everyone who's being interviewed needs to be asked the exact same questions. And bear in mind that the questions they ask are likely to be related to the role they have on the panel. So the chief exec might look at trust performance, at finances, at operations, at the vision and the values. Someone who's a clinical lead might look at your service metrics or look at flow in the service. One of your consultant colleagues or potential consultant colleagues might ask questions about you, about your experience, About what you bring to the role. So each person is likely to have questions that are related to their role, and that the flow of the interview is going to go around from each role to the next person where they ask their related question. So that's what you can expect with the questions. But remember that some interviews have extras. They have extra bits on top of the actual interview and the question themselves. Now, these won't be sprung on you as a surprise. You will know if you've got other elements to your interview. Most commonly, the extra is a presentation. So around 50% of you, when you're having your substantive consultant interviews, will get a presentation. Now, this presentation, you will be told in advance. I have known one person who wasn't going to get the topic until the day and was going to have to prepare it then and there, which I think is a bit harsh, but that is very unusual that that happens. And they knew before, it wasn't sprung on them. They knew that that was going to happen. So they went into the interview process being ready for that. Usually you'll get a week or so's notice for your presentation topic, and that topic is usually around the ideal service or development of a new service or a challenge facing your specialty. Most people are asked to prepare a presentation for 10 minutes. There is a bit of a trend towards preparing for 5 minutes, and the odd one has had 8 minutes, but generally it's going to be a 10-minute presentation about a topic around the service or the specialty. As well as a presentation, there are some other extras that people have to do in interviews. Some people have a stakeholder meeting or a focus group where they're having to run a focus group or that they have to chair an MDT. Now, this will not be a surprise. You will be told in advance, and it's okay to ask questions to the person who's emailed you with the information to say, can you give me some more information about what's required or what's expected or what the plan is going to be? So it's okay to ask. If they're not going to tell you, they'll just say, we can't give more details. That's all we can give. But you never know, you might get some more details. The most important thing to bear in mind for you when you're prepping your presentation or any of the extra things is that everyone who is applying is going to be in the same boat as you. They will also have the same notice period for presentation topic. They will also have the same time restrictions. So everyone is going to be in the same situation as you. So with whatever you get, you'll be able to make the most of it. So now you know what to expect when you walk in that interview door. You know who's on the panel, you know what kinds of questions and how many questions they're going to ask, and you know what other extras might be expected in the interview process. And knowing what to expect definitely helps you calm your nerves before you go into the room. What are the biggest mistakes that people make in their consultant interviews? In the next video, I'm going to show you common mistakes and exactly how to avoid them. And you can watch that video here.