Your Interview Prep Questions Answered

What I'm gonna do is look through and go through to answer some of the questions that we didn't get to answer from Wednesday's session. So on Wednesday, we had a fab free live training where we had about 550, 600 people there, and we did our best to get through a lot of the questions, but we didn't get through them all. And so what I'm gonna do is answer the rest of them now. If anyone drops by and they've got questions, then we can look at them specifically as well. But let's have a look at some of the questions that we got asked. Okay, here we go. So these are questions about interview prep in general. So one was, can you give examples of MDT working? So one of the things that is really important to remember is that when you're talking about MDT working, your gut instinct might be to think about a great case that you managed. A really sick patient where you were the team leader and you used all the teams— nursing, porters, whatever, you know, the other specialties, you used the physio, you used everyone in the hospital to help manage this patient, and the patient was managed really well. Or it could be MDT working where you were in an MDT meeting and you discussed a patient and you all clubbed together and you pooled all your knowledge to manage the patient well. Now that's true, that is an example of MDT working, but it's thinking at a smaller level than you want to demonstrate in your consultant interview, because at your consultant interview you want to demonstrate that you can take a step back and think about broadly how to deliver good MDT working to improve the service of all of your patients. So a stronger example of MDT working will be one of your unique selling points that you've got. So your unique selling points should be 5 things that are your key skills or projects. That's what you want to do. And your unique selling points within there, one of them, maybe most of them, will be MDT working. So for example, if you did a QIP or an audit where you made change and you used— you will have been part of an MDT team with that. That is a much better example to show MDT working because it means you can talk about how good it is to work as an MDT, but also you can showcase one of your USPs. So when it comes to choosing an example for MDT working, think beyond the leading a good resource case and think actually at how you've delivered good MDT working to bring about lasting change for the service. What other questions have we got? How do— what structures do you recommend? So we'll talk about, uh, we, we use a few key structures in the academy. So the first one, which is for the tell me about yourself answer, is PERM. And I much prefer perm to camp because in camp, what happens in camp is that you, you say all your stuff, you tell them everything about yourself, and then at the end you have to add something like a hobby. So at the end you'll say like, and I like horse riding on the weekend, or, and I've got 3 kids and 2 dogs. And I always thought it was so weird to put that in because it doesn't really mean anything and it just, it's a fact about you, but it doesn't tell them anything about what you're going to be like in the team or anything like that. So instead of camp, we use perm. We put the P at the start, but the P is not personal, it's passion. So what is your passion for this job? And that's a really important thing because it's how you connect with the panel. If you work in a place, then finding your P is quite easy because you want to say essentially something like, you know, I know this place really well, I've worked here for the last 3 years, I absolutely love coming to work and I love the team, and I'm really excited at the opportunity to do this for the rest of my career. It's a very short thing to say. It's like two sentences, but if you can start off your interview with that, it really sets the tone for the panel well. Because although even if you know like the clinical lead or maybe even the clinical director, you're not going to know the chief exec. You're not going to know the lay chair. You're not going to know the college rep. And so what you're saying to them at the beginning is, "I really love this place. I love this team." And I know this team, and that differentiates you from someone who is not who doesn't know the team at all, and is just like plumping for the job because it looks good. So that connection—it's not going to score you a particular a certain number of points, but that connection that you build with them at the beginning is I think immeasurable. So if you can find a way to say your P and think about what you want to say for that, your why you want the job. You essentially put that at the beginning and then do the rest, which is experience, research and education, and management. The other structure that we use quite a lot is IMSO, which is instant mission steps outcome. And this is really good when you're talking about choosing good examples. And I might just take a minute to talk through some examples. So we in the Academy, we have 5 golden examples, which is a time you made a mistake, a time you had to conflict with a colleague, A time you had a conflict with a patient, a time you did duty of candour, and a time you worked well in an MDT. So the mistake one is usually the one that people find the hardest to come up with, or, and the conflict with a colleague. So for a conflict with a colleague, the safest thing for you to do is to have a conflict with someone else of the same grade as you in a different specialty where they're annoyed at you rather than you being annoyed at them for something that is not your fault, but is a system problem. Now that's quite a lot of criteria to have, but if you can follow them, it's really going to be— it's going to stop you coming up with some crazy example where you were— where you're made to look bad. So like you're annoyed with someone because there's someone not turning up on time and someone not pulling their weight, or yeah, you were— you had had enough of your SHO, or you got annoyed with a nurse, or your boss was doing the wrong thing. So all of these things are conflicts with colleagues, but they don't make you look good. And remember, with these examples, the focus is for you to show them how you would handle that situation. So that means if you're in that situation, like you're in a conflict when you're in their team, how will you be? How will you cope with it? And that's what's really important to show them. So it's less about the actual conflict and more about how you handle it. And the same with the mistake, it's less about the mistake and more about how you handle it. So you want the mistake to be really short, sweet, simple, relatable, not something weird and wonderful. And then the bulk of it is talking about how you dealt with it. So one of the questions someone asked was about mistakes. So what's a good mistake example, or can you give a mistake example? So a mistake will be something every day that happens. So for me in pediatric emergency, it will be labeling the blood Bottles the wrong way, or taking a blood sample, leaving it on the side and forgetting about it, or calling in the wrong patient from the waiting room and having a whole conversation with them, or leaving someone out in the waiting room because I didn't miss them in the queue or didn't realize they were there, um, and then they're really annoyed. So these are like the very common everyday things that no one would think, uh, Tessa's terrible to work with. They'd just think, okay, fair enough. But then You talk about how you felt and how you handled it. So you say, you basically say, oh, I realised I'd left the bloods on the side and it was found 3 days later or something. You think, oh well, I realised I'd made a mistake and I felt terrible. I felt so bad because I know what a stress it was getting the bloods from this family, and I knew that they wouldn't be happy having to do it again, and it was gonna be a big deal getting them back. That's what you say. And then you go through the steps. So what did you do? Called them, you did the patient safety stuff, you did all the steps that I'm sure you know. But the key is finding good examples first. So it's really worth you spending the time to go through your examples and make sure you get them right because you don't want something terrible. What you don't want is the panel distracted thinking about your mistake, thinking like, hmm, like if I was in that situation, what would I do? And why did Tessa do that? So these things are distractions because it means the panel's thinking about that instead of thinking about How great you are at dealing with mistakes, and that's why it's important to get your examples tight. What happens when you apply to a role with a team that you've previously worked with? Is there anything to avoid? So the main thing. So when you're in that situation, you're actually a massive advantage because you know them, and so that means not just that it's not it's not that they know you and they're more likely to score you higher. I mean, that may be true, but it shouldn't be. But actually, it's that you. You have the understanding of the team that you can bring into every answer. So it's not that you're saying, you're literally saying, I know this team, which you will say, but it actually means that you can tailor your answers. Because sometimes I've seen people who've, in fact, I was speaking to someone today who's not in the academy, but who knew someone who'd been for an interview. And their feedback was that they had been told that their answers were essentially too generic. And in fact, I've heard people be told that before. Your answers are not specific enough or not natural enough or not like you, not personal enough. And what that means is you're giving answers that anyone could give about any job. But what you want to do is give answers from you about this job. And that's where the being specific. So yes, you get the general themes, but then you bring in you and then you connect that with them. And if you can do these things, that's very special. So when you are in the job and you know them, you actually have an advantage of being able to understand them and know how to bring that in. So you should be bringing that in all the way through. The thing I would avoid doing when you're interviewing with a team that you know is just assuming they know stuff about you because they know stuff about you. Because although they know stuff about you in real life, for the purposes of the interview, they can only score you for what you say. So if you're like, well, they know I've done all this, so I'm just going to skim over it, then they can't score you for stuff you don't say. And remember that even though some of them might know you, other people won't know you on the panel. And even though you think they know stuff about you, they probably don't realize the extent of what you've done, and they might not remember it anyway. So for all these reasons, you need to just pretend when you go in that you're treating it the same as if you were doing it with a panel that you didn't know. And that way you're going to be much clearer at saying what you mean, saying what you want them to get across, what you want them to know, and scoring highly. How do you stand out when you don't really have a USP? This question breaks my heart a bit because you do have a USP. All of you have USPs. It's just about managing to find them. And so anyone who's struggling to identify them needs to just have a think through of the stuff that they've done, which will include audits. Quips, being on committees, any pathways, guidelines, service changes, clinic changes, anything around working in a different place, working overseas, maybe going to any roles that you've done. So any sort of leadership roles or committee roles, all of these things, business cases that you've done, publications, research, any of these will are potentially USPs. And the USP, it doesn't mean that you need to be the only person that's done an audit, but it's about bringing out the unique parts of your audit and conveying that to the panel. Okay, how do you answer a QI project question? So a QI project question might be broad, like what's your experience of QI, or it might be specific, like what do you think the advantages of quality improvement projects are? And either way, Probably one of your USPs will be a QI project. So I would think through themes of what makes a good QI project and also what are the challenges of QI projects. So that will be around change, around getting stakeholders on board, around advocating for change, practicalities, sustainability, clear goals, right timeframes. So there's lots of things that will make a QI project be actually successful but also challenging. And so you really want to bring all of these things into your answer, and it's usually best to do that within the theme of bringing in one of your USPs. So then the next question— I'm just looking at other questions— questions about trust strategies. So it's very common that you're gonna get asked a question About trust values. So it's usually the last question or close to the last question of the interview, like which trust value do you embody the most? You know, tell me why the trust values are important. So you definitely need to know your trust values because you're going to look really silly and you're going to feel really embarrassed if you don't know them. But likely they'll ask you to talk about one of them. Now trust values are all very fluffy. And so it can be difficult to think about what to say about them. But rather than speaking generically, again, bring in a USP. That's what you want to do is bring in a USP. So rather than say a value is like compassion, then rather than saying I'm a very compassionate person and then talking for 3 minutes about compassion and say, you know, you essentially are going to say I'm really nice and I've been really nice to patients and these are all the times. Rather than that, bring in one of your USPs because for sure in your USPs you'll have shown compassion or teamwork or collaboration or whatever. And it's much stronger to say, these are 3 ways that I showed compassion in this project, and the project was very successful. And so that helps you bring in specifics much stronger. Um, okay, and then let's look at another question. What are the main differences between locum consultant and substantive consultant interviews? Um, so in a substantive consultant interview, there's specific rules about Who needs to be on the panel? They have to have a college rep. They have to have a lay chair. They'll have a rep of the chief exec. They'll have someone from HR who's probably not involved in scoring you, but is involved in making sure things run smoothly. So there's a certain representatives that they have to have, and the post has to have been formally approved by the college, which is why the college rep has to be there. And they will ask you probably between seven and twelve questions, and every person who is applying will be asked the same questions, and the lay chair is there to make sure everything is above board. Um, you know, the best person, the person who scores highest on the day, gets the job. In a locum interview, they don't have these rules, so you could just be interviewed by 2 people who are just the consultants on the team. They can decide how they want to interview you. They could ask you 20 questions, or they could ask you one, and actually they can you know, they could do different things for different people. So if there's a few of you applying, they don't have the same restrictions about having to ask you the same questions. So you, you might find you get some more questions that are tailored to you, like, I see you worked here, tell me more about that. Or, you know, I see you come from a district hospital, so how do you think it'll be working in a tertiary hospital? So these questions can be more tailored to you, which you can't do in a substantive interview because everyone would have to get asked the same questions. So with a locum, it's much more ad hoc and you don't know how it's going to go. And sometimes it might just be a cup of tea and a token question and a shake of the hand, because really in locum interviews, the trust can— the team can appoint in whatever way they want, which may not be fair, but it's just the way it is. Whereas in a substantive interview, that won't happen. So in the end, a locum is much more unpredictable, but because you don't know, you're better just to prepare the exact same as you would prepare for a substantive interview. And that way, You're well prepared for whatever they ask and you're not going to get any surprises. Okay. So then someone's asked, what's the quality you're looking for from the best, most suitable candidates? So I think this is probably, I would challenge the way that you're thinking about this. So they're not looking for a quality like being a good team player, being a good communicator. They do want all of these things, but you're going to demonstrate these through specifics. You're going to demonstrate them by showcasing your strengths, showcasing your projects. So what you want is to work through thinking about your unique selling points, what you bring to the team and what the team needs. And if you can find that these 2 things match, then you're going to be in a good place. But the key thing that you need to do in an interview is score more points than anyone else. And the best way to do that is to give clear, structured answers that hit the mark of what they are looking for. Um, okay, then someone's asked, is it worth meeting with a department when there isn't even a job yet but there might be one in the future? Um, so yes, there definitely is. So before jobs are advertised, when you're coming to the end of your training, you're thinking about, about jobs, definitely reach out to people, uh, in areas where you might go, uh, you might want to go and work. Um, and this is just part of networking. So you're— although it feels weird, they're not going to be surprised because people do it all the time. And you're just saying, hey, I'm just coming up to the end of my training. Say, if you've met them, you always— you can make the connection. But if not, say, I don't think we've met yet, but I'm coming up to the end of my training. I've heard amazing things about your department. Um, I'm just starting to think about jobs, and I was wondering if it was possible to meet up with you for a coffee at some point. That's it. And then, um, what you'll do is you'll go and meet with them, you'll have a chat, and this is not an interview. This is literally just a social event. But you'll get a feel for them where they're up to with their jobs. So they might say, we might have a job coming out next year, or they might say, we've not got a job coming out for a while, or whatever it is. It's fine, but you've got your name out there, you've made a connection, and it means they know your face. So when a job comes out, they might keep you in mind. They might let you know when the job comes out, or certainly they'll recognize you from your application. So it's good just to put the feelers out there. That's separate from the pre-interview meetings, which you definitely have to do. So the pre-interview meetings are meeting everyone on your panel when you get shortlisted. And that's what you have to do before your interview, because for sure your competitors will be doing it. Someone said, what do you do if they don't respond to emails asking for a pre-interview visit? So there's lots of reasons why people wouldn't respond to the pre-interview emails. And from what I would advise you is that your job is to try to make them happen until they tell you no, they don't want to meet you. Because they might say no, I'm not meeting any of the candidates, and that's fine. But not hearing from them isn't a no, and there's loads of reasons why they might not reply. They might have missed the email, it might have gone to their spam, they might have terrible inbox management, maybe they're away, maybe they thought they'd replied but they didn't. There's lots of reasons, so you should be following them up if they don't respond. And actually in the Academy, we've got an email template for how to email them in the first place, but also then how to do the follow-up. And as far as times of follow-up, you will do the follow-up. It's going to depend on how long it is till the next— till your interview. Obviously, if you've got 3 days, there's not much time to follow up. If you've got 3 weeks, then you might follow up in a week's time and then send another one. You don't want to be harassing them, but you do want to follow up. And the main thing you don't want to happen is that your competitors are meeting with the panel and you have not made it happen. If it's that they're not meeting anyone or they're terrible at email management and they don't respond to anyone, that's different. But you, you want to make sure that your competitor doesn't have an advantage. Um, okay, then we've got some other specific questions about, um, what— where do you see yourself? Oh, let's do this. What, what's your biggest weakness? How do you answer what's your biggest— what's your weakness without giving a typical answer? So there's no typical answer. It should be genuine to you, and you need to think about what your weakness is. You don't, don't want to throw yourself under the bus. So, you know, things like that would indicate you're a bad team player, a bad communicator— these are not Good weaknesses to share in your interview. So you want something that's honest, but but minor, but has had some sort of impact. And so what you'll do is you'll say the weakness, and you'll say the impact that it's had, and then you'll talk about three ways that you're addressing that weakness. So that's the key is thinking that you're addressing it. It's not the whole answer isn't going to be about your weakness and how awful it is and all the things that have gone wrong. It's going to be this is the weakness, this is the impact, this is how I'm addressing it. And that's the strongest way to do your weakness answer. Someone's asked, when do you visit pre-interview, before or after shortlisting? So you do your visits after shortlisting when you've been called for interview and they know who's on the panel because you're meeting— you're trying to meet people on the panel. Then what else? What's— I think we've covered that. Does the course cover poor— that's a Course Academy question. Let's see if we've got any others. Presentations. So sometimes you're asked to do a presentation before your interview, which is true. So about 50% of interviews have a presentation before. It's usually five minutes or ten minutes. Occasionally, some people get told they will get the topic an hour before and they need to plan it, which is a bit more stressful. But just remember when you do that that everyone is in the exact. Same situation as you. So all of the candidates will be getting the exact same thing as you are. So presentations are usually around a future vision, future goals for the team, for the service, where you see your specialty going. So some sort of vision, future projection kind of thing, or what does the ideal service look like? And the key thing is to make sure you're answering the question and to think about what they would be expecting to hear from you, what they would want to hear from a candidate. So not to get carried away with your own agenda, but to think about what they want to hear from you. And remember that 5 minutes or even 10 minutes is just like a long interview answer. So you're probably still going to focus on 3 points, um, but these 3 points need to be carefully chosen to make sure that they answer the question and show an understanding of the team that you're applying to. And ideally, if you can bring in some of your USPs into there, then that's going to help make it a lot stronger as well, because you're going to be showing how what what you— you understand what the team needs and you are part of the solution to achieving that. So if you can merge these things, that's the best way. But one thing that's really important with the presentation is to make sure that it's definitely within time. So I, I would give yourself, you know, a bit of leeway time-wise. So a 10-minute presentation, in practice you should be able to do it in 9 minutes because it might run a bit longer on the day, and what you don't want is to be cut off Because you know this is 10 minutes that is within your control, um, that you have had fair warning for. So you want to make it as good as possible, and you want to make sure that you don't run out of time. So make sure you practice it before, and also make sure that you're not too reliant on the slides, because it could happen that the tech fails, and you don't want that to throw you. Because if it— if that happens and it throws you at the very first thing of your interview before you've even answered any questions, You're starting off on a very stressed footing. So actually you want to be able to do the presentation even if the tech fails. And it's happened to people before. They can't get the, you know, the team can't get the computer working, whatever it is, and you'd have to do it without your slides. So just be prepared that that might happen. Okay, so I think we've probably covered most of the other questions, and I think we will wrap up there, but feel free to contact me if you've got any other questions. Thanks everyone.