What to Do If You Get an Interview Question You Cannot Answer

A common mistake interview candidates make when they're prepping is to try to perfect their answer by starting it, stopping it, redoing it again and again and again until the answer is perfect. This actually doesn't help you because it doesn't replicate what you'll be doing in the interview. 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 look at what to do when you get asked a question that you know absolutely nothing about. We're going to look at how to answer a question about what to do when you see a fellow consultant bullying one of your juniors. And we are going to look at an example of someone's weakness where they get overexcited and take on too many things. And we're going to discuss whether that is an appropriate weakness to choose. Okay, let's get stuck in. So first up, we've got a student question of the week. This is a question from one of our Academy students. And the question this week is, I am terrified they're going to ask me something that I genuinely don't know. What would I do then?

Okay, I mean, this is quite a common fear, right? Because that's, you know, everyone's kind of worst nightmare interview-wise. I think the first thing to say about it is it's actually quite unlikely that you'll get asked a question that you genuinely have no clue about. If you've done any amount of interview prep and any amount of reading around, you know, the trust, the job, you are very unlikely to be caught out. I, in fact, in all of the students that we've coached, I don't think anyone's actually said this to me, I had no clue. People have said, I didn't really answer it very well, or, I could have done better, or whatever. But I've never had a situation where people have said, I just didn't even understand what they were asking me. No.

But I think what it comes— I think part of this comes from a place of not feeling prepared. So, once you feel prepared, you don't have that fear because you actually understand that there's only so many types of questions they can ask you. There's only so many, they can word it in different ways, but in the end, it all boils down to the same principles. And that's why just, you're better to be focused on building good foundations with your prep than trying to second-guess a million answers. So, what you want to do is apply any question they ask to the foundations of your prep. to the core parts that you've prepared. Because questions will come up that are worded in different ways, but you need to be able to relate it to your own experience, to your examples, to your USPs, to your senior-level thinking, and be able to then answer the question. So yeah, it shouldn't be that common that something comes up that you have not heard of. It would be— yeah, I think that would be a surprise. But let's say it does. Let's say they Ask you about the, I don't know, something report, which is probably what people are— most people are worried about. They ask you about the something report and you have no clue what the something report is. What would you advise people do then?

Own it. I would say, I'm sorry, I actually haven't heard of that report. Um, could you possibly refresh my memory? And then hope that Maybe it's just a, you know, you understand that it was the investigation into blah blah, but you just didn't know who, you know, how the report was being referred to, for example.

Yes.

In which case, you can make some sensible comments about it, hopefully. If that sheds absolutely zero light on the subject, then I think you can say, you know, I'm so sorry, I actually don't know what you're talking about. Is there anything that you can tell me about it? And then you can just do your best to try to apply it. If you can possibly find a way for them to just enlighten you a little bit such that you can then make some form of answer about it and get a couple of points out of it, that is better than just saying, I'll pass.

Yeah, because I'll pass is a definite zero. You can't score if you've not said anything. So, you're just trying to salvage— I mean, yes, the answer is not going to be ideal. You just need to accept. You maybe should have known that, the something report. You didn't know it, but can you salvage something? Because you don't know, maybe the other candidates don't know it either, or maybe they've had terrible answers overall. You don't actually know where you're sitting at that point, but you know that if you just pass, it's a zero. So I think asking them, and maybe they'll say, I'm not able to tell you. Maybe they're not allowed. Maybe they've decided they won't give any candidates further information. Or maybe they'll say, well, it's something to do with, I don't know, say patient safety, a patient safety-related report. At least then you've got some sort of thread to go on to talk about patient safety principles. Maybe you'll hit the mark. And maybe you just say, look, I don't know what the report is, but I do have experience with patient safety. I've got experience with using PSURF or whatever it is, and these are some of the key themes, chances are you're probably hitting something around it. You won't score brilliantly, but it's better than a big fat zero.

Yeah, and I would in that situation keep it fairly broad brush and fairly wide. If they give you that patient safety clue, for example, yeah, as you say, something about PSURF. Maybe if you're somebody who's done a lot of risk management, you could talk about that. You know, if you've been the investigator or you've responded to a complaint, or you could even chuck in your duty of candour example there.

Yeah.

Get something out of it if you possibly can.

Yeah. And then, kind of like we've said in the previous episode, which is you need to move on in your mind. Like, this was not great, you didn't know the something report, you feel like you should have, You have to move on because this is the prime way you can really trash your interview is by one question not going well and then just dwelling on it. And the next one, you're still thinking about that one and you give a bad answer there and then the next one and then the next one and so on. And you just tank your interview. So, um, you need to have, just tell yourself a plan beforehand. If a question doesn't go well, I will do my best and then I will just move on. and stay focused. And yeah, so, but I think probably one of the more important things is to avoid getting in the situation where you have that fear about something you don't know. And that comes with once you start feeling prepared. So, you know, by the time our students go into their interviews, they shouldn't be feeling fear of the unknown. They should be feeling that whatever they— because what we want for them the night before their interview is that they feel that whatever they get asked, they will be able to come up with something and say, sensible to say, and that, that's a much stronger place to be.

Yeah, and this— that's a really interesting point actually, because I, I did a mock interview for somebody this morning, and she did a great interview. And when we were reflecting back on it, I said, what did you think about that question? And she said, oh, I just totally made that up. Um, and I, and I was thinking, what? Because it sounded really specific. And I said, Do you, what do you mean? And she said, oh, it's not a question that I've, that I've practised. And, and what that says to me is she's, she's exactly got the strategy right.

Yeah.

Because now she can apply strategies and principles to any questions that she gets asked. It doesn't matter whether she's been asked that particular question in that particular form before, but she knows how to answer any question because she's got a bank of unique selling points that she can use as examples. She's got some strong examples that she can pull out of things like mistakes and conflicts, and she's got a strategy, and all she needs to do is just put it together.

You can't tell which she knew, which questions she felt prepared for, and which she didn't. That's so good when you can get to that place where they're just giving— you're giving a consistent standard that sounds fine. Like, whatever happens, it sounds fine. Um, so yeah, that's really good. Okay, let's move on to our, um, golden example. So this isn't, this isn't exactly a golden example this week, but it is the weakness which We— it's just outside what we would call a golden example, but it is something that we get our students to prep because it's quite a common question. What is your biggest weakness? Really important to have prepped this beforehand, before the interview, so that you don't overshare in the moment. So, what have we got as the example of a weakness?

So, we've got, I can get overexcited and sign up to multiple things, which can add up to me feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Okay. So, signing up to multiple things, I would assume they mean joining lots of projects, I think, or joining lots of teams for projects. Yeah, I guess so. So, it's quite a nice way of expressing it is by being overexcited. I think quite a common one people use is saying yes to everything, which is kind of what this is, but it's quite a nice way of saying it because it's reflecting like you're just really excited to be part of everything, and so you say yes to things. What do you think about this as a weakness, then?

I like it. I think it works well. It's not one of our massively deal-breakery clichéd weaknesses. It's not showing you in a terrible light, equally, nor is it, I'm a real perfectionist, which I think we both feel really ick about, because it's not a weakness.

Or, I will, my other least favorite one is, spending too long with the patients because you just care so much. You just really care, just really care about them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, because, because either of those are, you know, my real problem is that I'm just a bit too good.

Yeah, I'm too nice, I care too much, I'm too good at my job. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, so as the teenagers would say, those give me the ick. Um, were you allowed to say that? Yeah.

Oh, just thought I'd say that.

So, this one is nice because it shows you're keen, you're enthusiastic about getting involved with stuff, but you recognise that that can lead to a bit of, you know, personal overwhelm.

Yeah.

And then you might, you know, reflect on a time when, you know, this all came home to me when I realised I had 3 deadlines in the same week, and I was, you know, on call for the weekend, and it had all gone a bit pear-shaped. And then you can just address it in a really nice way. I've now got some strategies that I use to prevent this from happening again. And then you can talk through the things that you do. You know, I agree with myself, number of projects I'm going to take on, or, you know, I look at it quarter by quarter and decide how many commitments I'm going to take on, whatever it is. But actually, I like this because you come across as a nice, normal human with a problem that everyone can imagine. And some strategies that you can use to overcome it.

Yep, agree. Good example. Well done.

Yeah, we like it.

Okay, so next up we've got an interview question breakdown. This is a question someone, one of our students, have been asked in an interview recently. The question is that your junior tells you— or sorry, a junior. Yeah, your junior. It says your junior tells you that a consultant is bullying them. How do you deal with this? What do you think?

This is a good question.

It is a good question.

Um, but you've got to be careful with this. There's— I think there's quite a lot of nuance around how to answer this, and there's some potential pitfalls. You've got to be really balanced in the way that you answer this. What's your gut feeling about this? Do you like it?

My gut feeling is that there's something going on in this department that's caused them to have to ask this question. That is my gut feeling, because It's really a bit of a weird situation, a junior coming to you as, I assume, senior trainee or consultant or whatever, to say another colleague is bullying them. It's just a bizarre— like in most— yeah, you wouldn't really come up with that as a question because it wouldn't be relevant unless it's relevant.

Mm-hmm.

So, I think it's a bit of a red flag to me about what's going on in the department. But by then you're in the interview chair. So, you may know this already from your pre-interview visits that there's been something going on. And I think this is kind of a good reminder that you can sometimes anticipate questions that they might ask. So, if you, in your pre-interview visits and your due diligence that you've done in the run-up, have been made aware that there has been an issue with bullying within the team or within the broader service, trust, whatever it is, then you can anticipate they might ask a question about how to deal with bullying, how to create a culture where people can speak up, something about whistleblowing, and just practice questions around that so you're not blindsided by it. So, my feeling is that this was probably a predictable question or a predictable type of question that maybe you could have known. And this is the difference between doing good pre-interview work and not, because if you hadn't done good pre-interview work, you could be fully blindsided by this question and give a really awkward answer to it. Whereas if you've actually done the work before, you might have known that this is coming. So, that's my first thought on the question.

Oh yeah, I think that's a really good insight, actually. Yeah, if you hear, we're doing some work on culture, you've got to think, what's going on? So, but as you say, you're now in the chair, you're now part of it.

Yes, it's too late for errand beastards anyway.

It's too late for wishing that you hadn't applied. I think that the first thing is that there needs to be some sort of balance here, because obviously it's a case of bullying is not acceptable under any circumstances, and so you might want to go down that That's not acceptable, and this is how I'm going to deal with it. Boom, boom, boom. But also, you do need to understand what does this junior mean? How do we support our, you know, how do we support our colleagues? Why do they think that they're being bullied? Can we find out a little bit more information about that and support them around that and think about how we might escalate? And then, if it is a bullying situation? What are the, you know, uh, policies around that, and how would we take that higher? So I think you've got to just take a moment and think, right, what, what do they need to hear about this? What does senior-level thinking look like in this context? Um, what, what do they need me to say as a As a consultant in this department, what do I need to do?

Yeah, it's thinking also about your relationship with your fellow consultant, because they're accusing one of your colleagues of bullying them, which is a big deal. And so your response needs to also be mindful of the fact that you are part of this senior team. That doesn't mean you defend bullying. Of course you're not defending bullying. But your guts can't be to— or your immediate instinct and response can't be to jump to, Right, well, I'm gonna be calling the medical director and we have a zero tolerance and this is, you know, 'cause all of that is true. You should have a zero tolerance to bullying, but you also need to understand more, exactly like you said, you need to understand more before you go for it. And part of it will depend on your relationship with the consultant that has been accused as well. If it's someone you've got a good relationship with, you could chat to them about it and ask them their perspective on what happened. That's fine.

Yeah.

You might not be in a position to do that. And then you would need to think about appropriate escalation in that case and probably Your clinical lead is going to be first point of contact if you're not sure, or another colleague. Unless it's the clinical lead that's been accused, in which case it gets even more complicated. But best not to dig that hole. So yeah, I think just a broad recognition that this would be a very difficult situation. It's one of your colleagues who you respect and you work with, and a junior, and it's important that we have a culture where this doesn't happen. And so, yeah, everything that you do then has to be mindful of these things, and I wouldn't go down a route too specific and too like, this is what I'm gonna do, I'm dead set gonna do this. You need to just be open to exploring, I think, a bit more before you decide a course of action.

Yeah, I think it's different if, if the question comes up as you have witnessed bullying or you witness racist comments or whatever, then it's, this is not acceptable, we have a zero tolerance policy for this, and this is what I'm gonna do. But this is, in the first instance, hearsay, and it needs to be handled carefully.

Yeah, I think so. So yeah, this is definitely a challenging question, although questions around creating safe culture are not uncommon. But this is a very specific, very strangely specific scenario, I would say. Okay, and then we're going to go on to our tip and trick. So the tip and trick of this week that we're going to discuss is how to practice properly Because we always talk about, you have to practise. We bang on, you have to practise, you have to say answers out loud. But actually, there's ways to do that well, and there's ways to do that that don't help you.

Mm-hmm.

So, one of the ways that we sort of uncover that sometimes our students are sneakily doing is that before they send us their videos to review, because they send us videos of their interview answers, is that actually they have recorded and re-recorded it 500 times to get the perfect answer to send to us. This is— we find this out, like, not uncommonly, do we, Vicki?

Yeah, and it's like, that was a really good answer. They're consistently splashing out really, really, really good answers, and some of our students absolutely can do that. They all, you know, I would say they pretty much all can do it by the time they've done the work. But if you are spending, you know, a day researching your answer, uh, 4 hours preparing it, and then you record it 14 times and send us the 14th one, that's not helpful.

No.

Um, just, you know, just as, you know, in the interview, you're not— you can't spend that long over it. You've got to be able to get into the mode of, you know, thinking about, here's the question, taking 20 seconds to think about it, and, you know, bang out a few points that are sensible and appropriate.

Yeah.

It doesn't need to be the perfect answer. You know, we always say this, you're not looking to be a perfect interview candidate. There's no such thing. You're looking to be good enough, sensible, and demonstrating the things that they need to see. So, you've got to practise putting yourself under pressure and coming up with some answers and some sensible points Yeah.

Because— and also, what this is, the other element of that that we try to pass on to our students is, you're not trying to get the perfect answer for the mistake question or the perfect answer for how to manage well or how to improve wellbeing. What you're trying to do is to be able to answer any question they ask you in the moment to a good standard. And the way to do that is to practise lots of different questions. Stopping, like you say, you pause, you plan, you use your foundations, your milestones, you then deliver an answer. And even when you feel it's not going 100% to plan, you keep going, you get to the end, you end it within a reasonable timeframe. And that is what you need to practice. You need to actually practice that feeling of, hang on, I'm doing this answer, it's not perfect, it's not going— I wish I'd have said this, I wish I'd have said that. And instead of, right, I'm going to stop and start again, you actually push through that and get to the end. Because that, that is what the feeling that you're going to have in interview, you will not be stopping, starting, stopping, starting. And so you're not doing yourself any favours by doing the same answer, the same question and answer again and again and again and again. You're much better to just practise applying the principles to lots of different questions.

Yeah, it goes back to what we were just saying about, I'm— I was making it up. Yeah, you weren't making it up, you were using a strategy. Yeah. And we want you to have that strategy and to be able to just put it into place and just push through even when it's not perfect.

Yep. So practice is good, but you have to practice in the right way. Just practice with— look at a question, turn your stopwatch on, do your answer as live, and then when you get to the end, that's your answer. And then you reflect, how did I do it? Like, where did I go wrong? Was it starting off? Was it structuring my answer? Was it developing my points? It'll help you much better to improve that way. Okay, I think we will wrap up there. Another lovely episode. Thank you very much, Becky. We will be back. Next week to chat about more interview prep stuff, including how to stand out and make sure you get the job, even when it's getting more and more competitive these days. I'll see you there.