Sarah went from dreading interviews to landing her dream job after joining the Academy's Circle platform and practicing with webinars, peer sessions, and mentorship from Tessa. Speaking her answers aloud and getting feedback built her confidence enough to stay calm on interview day. When the offer came, she cried.
And the good news is? Yeah, the great news is that I got, I got a job, which I'm still very much in shock about. Yay, that's so good! Yeah, I was really worried about it. I'd had quite a, you know, a few different interview experiences as a trainee, um, some that had gone okay, some that had gone not so well, and it all kind of boiled down to nerves, just not really feeling like I was selling myself well enough, um, just not really getting a grasp of what, what I needed to to do to practice adequately, really. I joined one of your webinars about this course and I was just like, this looks brilliant. I think it's something for me. I wanted something that I could go back to and practice lots and lots rather than just a one-off day, which would be good intensely, but I thought, you know, the key was going to be practicing over time. I think the bit that challenged me the most was just getting started with the questions. And when I had that first phone call with you and you were like, you just need to get started. And that was the bit I was finding my biggest hurdle really, because I I was like, I just want to read more, I want to like research more about the perfect answer and like get, you know, get everything down. But actually the key thing I realised was just, just putting yourself out there and just starting, because otherwise if you're not saying it out loud beforehand, you're never going to know what you actually need to improve on and how it sounds. Even if it's the— you're not saying exactly the right thing, you can build on that. And I think that was the key thing for me really. So much better to say it out loud in front of people that are going to give you nice feedback than on the day of an interview. I still felt really nervous, I'm not gonna lie, but I felt I knew I'd done my preparation, um, and I was like, I'm not sure what more I could do. So actually it was nice going in with that feeling, to be honest. And I think without the Academy I wouldn't have had that, really. I wouldn't have had that, that feeling. I would have still been like up till like midnight stressing. So I was literally like sat at home, didn't know what to do with myself, waiting. And then I got the phone call and the clinical lead said to me, How are you? I was like, feeling quite nervous. And then she said, welcome to the team, which was just such a lovely thing, and I burst into tears. You're gonna make me cry thinking about it. It was like, as a trainee, I've always wanted to work with this particular team in this particular area. The, you know, the job I've chose— the training path I've chosen is very niche, so if I hadn't got it here, it would have been uprooting my whole family. It's just an amazing feeling, really. I'd say just honestly just do it because, um, and I've already recommended to so many of my friends because I just think whether you are at the place where you're in your final year of training and you've got a bit of time, or whether you are, you know, you've got a few weeks before a job, it just helps so much that everything that you've got available on the platform that you use, Circle, is just so great at prepping you. You know, whether you like practicing questions, watching webinars, and meeting with other people as well, that was something else I found so useful, being able to connect with others. Um, and you know, we did a few standalone practice sessions too, and it was just so nice knowing other people who were going through the same process. I just want to say thank you so much, Tessa. Like, I literally— I just— I think you're amazing, and I just— yeah, thank you so much.
