A pre-shortlisting visit is a visit made to a trust to which you may be applying between the moment the advert has been released and the closing date of the application. The main aim of such visit is to gain information which will help you determine whether you to want to apply for the job or not.
You will undoubtedly have gathered a lot of information about the Trust and the post by reading the Trust's website, and various documents such as the job description and the person specification, but these are often vague, sometimes misleading and in any case they often only provide a representation of what the job will be in the first few months but not in the longer term. A pre-shortllisting can give you an opportunity to find out information which may influence (i) your decision to apply to that particular Trust and (ii) how you represent your experience on the application form and tailor your experience to the needs of the employer.
Some Trusts may make it clear that they do not encourage any pre-shortlisting visits; however, it is also the case that some departments may decide to shortlist only those who have demonstrated an interest in the post by having visited before, or at least called. This is more likely to happen in larger specialties such as anaesthetics where they could be a lot applicants per post (up to 100 for some posts) and where Trusts have to find ways of cutting down their shortlisting workload.
Finally, if you have trained in a different region, are unfamiliar with the Trust and its environment, and need to investigate other factors such as career opportunities, schooling, housing or transport issues, a pre-shortlisting visit may be appropriate.
In conclusion, if the advert encourages pre-shortlisting visits, you should try your best to make one. If the advert for the post does not specify whether pre-shortlisting visits are authorised, you should make an effort to find out by contacting the named contact in the advert and then act acordingly.
Since the purpose of the pre-shortlisting visit is to gather information about the job, the Trust and the area, you should therefore restrict your contacts to the team in which you would be expected to work (e.g. the clinical lead, a few chosen consultants, other key individuals such as senior nurses and the business/operations manager for that department) and, if appropriate, the clinical director. The best approach is often to call the named person on the job advert, the clinical lead or the clinical director and ask who would be available to talk to you.
At this stage of the process, you should not attempt to contact the Medical Director or the Chief Executive. You will have an oppportunity to meet them during the pre-interview visit, once you have been shortlisted.
If you have identified that the Trust welcomes pre-shortlisting visits but are finding is hard to make yourself available, you should consider arranging a telephone conversation with the relevant parties. Although not as powerful as a face-to-face visit, it will demonstrate that you have shown an effort, which will not go unnoticed. Some clinicians and clinical directors also often prefer that approach as telephone conversations tend to be more to the point and therefore waste less time.
At that stage, you are merely trying to understand what the situation is so that you can decide whether to apply and how to pitch your application. Don't forget that you will be back later for a pre-interview visit, during which you will have further opportunities to gather information. During the pre-shortlisting visit, your main concern will therefore be to get a feel for the team, the job and the Trust.
Before the visit, you will of course have done a lot of reading and the purpose of your questions will therefore be either to clarify aspects of what you have read, or to enquire about information not easily available. Herer are a few examples:
If there are issues which you know may cause problem it is sometimes worth raising them at this stage as the response that you get may influence your decision to apply for the job or not. This would include issues such as:
There are obviously many more questions you could ask depending on the responsibilities set out in the job description; but at this stage, keep it fairly generic.
The point of the pre-shortlisting visit is to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the job and ask questions which will not give a wrong impression. It will therefore be inappropriate to ask questions about:
Many candidates are concerned about doing pre-shortlisting visits because they have been told (or have read) that the Trust does not allow canvassing. Canvassing is essentially a situation whereby you approach members of the panel with the view to sell yourself and encourage them to consider your application more thoroughly. This is not to be confused with a simple pre-shortlisting visit where you limit yourself to enquiring about the detail of the post to which you are applying. If you pre-arrange the visits and stick to a normal line of questionning which is designed to enquire about the post being advertised, then you can't go wrong.
The pre-shortlisting visit is a forum which you can use to gather information about the post. You will get a chance to sell yourself at a later stage during the application process and the interview process, and as such it is a little premature to give them a CV; it might in fact be construed as canvassing. You may find however that some of the people you are visiting ask for a copy of your CV, in which case it would be judicious to have copy with you. In conclusion we would not recommend that you give your CV out unless you are being asked for a copy.
Yes, it is perfectly okay to take notes. Indeed it is almost recommended. Firstly, they will be giving you information and you will find it hard to remember it all. Secondly, if you take notes, they will see that you are treating the process seriously. It is also okay to write down the list of questions that you wanted to ask.
All this comes with a small caveat though: make sure you don't spend the whole visit with your nose in your notebook. It is also important to demonstrate an interactive personality.
