Consultant interviews - pre-interview visits

Why they matter

We know they're painful and we know they take time (especially if you are not local) but everyone who has ever applied to a consultant post will tell you that pre-interview visits are one of the most useful tools for your preparation to you consultant interview.

As a candidate, you will know little about the Trust and its politics, particularly if you are an external candidate.  For example:

• Do you know how the Trust is faring against the cost savings targets imposed by the government?
• Do you know the extent to which the department has contributed towards those targets?
• Do you understand the impact that external competition is having on the Trust?
• Are you aware of the measures they have proposed to fight back?
• Do you know what the key priorities for the Trust are over the next 3 or 5 years?
• Do you know how the Trust's views on the Care Quality Commission report? 

Even if you are a local candidate, you will aware mostly of day to day matters, but will likely have little awareness of the bigger picture.

The role of the pre-interview visit is not just to show your face for them to remember it two weeks later for the consultant interview; but for you to gain information that you will find useful to gain a better appreciation of the job and the Trust so that you can enrich your answers at the consultant interview. For that very reason, you have to try and see as many people as you can who are relevant to the post and the Trust. Many people believe that it is simply a formality where you meet the members of the panel. In reality, most but not all members of the panel are relevant; also, there are also people who are not on the panel who could be important to your preparation.

Who you should see

In your shortlisting letter, you will normally have been given the names of all the members of the consultant interview panel. You should ensure that you visit as many of these as possible, except for two of them:

• The lay chairman, as his role is primarily to direct the operations and, most often, he will not have a very hands-on role within the Trust. Having said that it is worth noting that some chairmen like to be asked, so it is worth asking for an appointment just in case, expecting in most cases to be rejected. 
   

• The Royal College representative, whose role is to offer an opinion on the job description and person specification and to check your appointability . He will have little or no involvement with the daily activities of the Trust and will therefore have nothing useful to contribute in terms of pre-interview information. Unlike the chairman, we would advise that you do not even bother contacting them at all.

As well as the relevant members of the consultant interview panel, you should make an effort to meet other people who will have information that you can use. This may include consultants from the specialty who may not be on the panel, business managers, clinic or theatre managers, matrons/senior nurses/midwives, consultants from related specialties, PCT representatives, service user representatives (if appropriate). Some trusts may ask you to attend an MDT meeting prior to your interview. If you have not been formally invited, you can always ask to attend. Similarly, if you can, you should ask if you can attend some Trust board meetings.

The list of people you should visit therefore includes:

Use your common sense to determine who, outside of the interview panel, would be most appropriate to visit. If you are struggling through lack of knowledge of the local setup and relationships, a good strategy to use is to ask the clinical director whether there are specific people whom you should visit.

In large Trusts, the Chief Executive and Medical Director may refuse to see you (essentially because they have other things to do than talk to prospective applicants across all specialties). If that happens to you, don't worry, it is common practice. But make sure that you have tried to contact them because we know several people who were rejected simply on the basis that they had not made an effort to contact the higher level managers. If you are applying to a DGH you stand a better chance of being seen by the Chief Executive and the Medical Director.

If anyone refuses to see you, see if you can find an alternative person who could give you the same type of information as they would. Remember that the aim of pre-interview visits is not just to show your face to the panel but to get information; therefore if the Chief Executive is not available, perhaps a deputy is; or some other higher level manager.

Do your homework before you visit anyone!

When you do your pre-interview visits, don't just turn up with your hands in your pockets, expecting to have a nice chat and take notes. This is your opportunity to make a good first impression in anticipation for your consultant interview and you must make sure that you come across confident and sound intelligent. The pre-interview visits may be informal but a bad performance could destroy your chances of getting that consultant post.

There will inevitably be discussions about the job, the Trust and current issues and therefore you must be familiar with at least some of the basics. This will include reading the following:

• Job description and person specification
• Trust's website
• Trust's "Annual Report" for the past year - available from Trust website
• Healthcare Commission report (Now named Care Quality Commission)
• Response of the Trust to the Healthcare Commission report
• Minutes of Board meetings
• Other policy documents made public by the Trust
• Minutes of PCT meetings

These documents are available from different sources:

• The Trust's website either directly or through a link to another website
• The Chief Executive's or Medical Director's secretary
• The PCT 's website

Some Trusts also offer candidates the opportunity to attend MDT meetings. If it is possible, then ask politely. This will give you a valuable insight into the work and relationships within the Trust.

What to ask

One crucial thing to remember is that the purpose of the pre-interview visit is not to show your face, hoping they might remember it days later at the consultant interview, but for you to find information that you can use during the interview, either to position your answers convincingly, or to enrich their content. It is therefore not simply a case of asking a few dull questions, but truly an opportunity for you to gain more knowledge about the post in which you may well spend 30 years of your life.

What you will be asking depends obviously on the role played by the person that you are seeing in relation to the post and to the Trust.

Members of the team

When you visit some of the consultants and other members of the team such as nurses and managers, you will want to find out about the job and about the team. Ask questions such as:

• What is the job about exactly?
• I have a special interest in x. I see that the job description includes x sessions of it. What are the opportunities to develop this further?
• How do you see special interest x develop over the next 2/5 years?
• Is the job a replacement post or a new post? (This will help you determine how much flexibility you have in negotiating a job plan.
• What are the opportunities to get involved in teaching, research, clinical governance etc?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the team?
• What are you expecting from the new recruit?
• How do you see this post develop over the next few years?
• What are the key areas of development / objectives for this unit?
• What are the key areas in which the department needs to improve?

Ask also about the relationship with nurses and basically anything you want to know about the job and the department so that you can identify whether you actually want to work there! If you know that the Trust is facing particular issues (e.g. trying to plug a deficit or merging soon with another Trust), ask questions about those issues e.g. "Where is the department likely to find money to save in order to contribute towards the reduction of the deficit?" (Important as this may affect some services) or "How do you think the merger will affect the services offered by this unit?" (a question which they may well ask you at the interview!).

Clinical Director

If the Clinical Director is part of the service that you will be joining then you can essentially ask the same questions as you would ask other consultants. If, however, he is from a different service then ask questions about the role of the department in meeting Trust objectives and how he sees the department develop. Ask about any problems in the department and how he sees your appointment make a difference to the current situation. You can also ask questions about the impact of any merger, move to foundation status, competition or other issue on the service.

Medical Director / Chief Executive

Both are essentially seeing you in a management capacity and will be more pre-occupied about the Trust itself and the positioning of the department to which you are applying within the Trust. You will therefore aim to ask questions which are less linked to the nature of the job and more towards the economic and political setting. Questions you could ask include:

• What is the Trust's strategy over the next few years?
• How do they see your future department help the Trust meet its objectives?
• How did/will the Trust benefit from its fundation status?
• How will the Trust be affected by a forthcoming merger?
• What are the key priorities for the Trust over the next few years?

Both the Medical Director and the Chief Executive are experienced at meeting candidates and will usually have things of their own to say. Listen carefully to what you are being told as the questions they ask you and the topics they raise will certainly come up at the interview.

Visiting those who can't make it to the interview

In some cases, you may find that the Chief Executive or the Medical Director may not be sitting on the interview panel and may be replaced by a deputy. If that is the case, you still need to see them. You want to see them because they have information that you will need to answer your questions at the interview and not simply because they are on the panel.

What you should bring on the day

It is perfectly acceptable to take notes during a pre-interview visit, particularly if you are given valuable information. In that sense, you may therefore bring pen and paper with you. Having said that, you must be careful not to spend your entire time scribbling otherwise you will fail to build a rapport, which could do you a great disservice.

In addition, you should bring a copy of your CV, which you should aim to leave with everyone you visit. This will ensure that they remember you and gain a little more information about you than the application form might provide.

Other than that, don't overload yourself. There is no need to bring your training portfolio or any formal documentation.