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STRUCTURE OF THE CONSULTANT INTERVIEW
Recruitment
for consultant interviews is different to the recruitment
that is carried out for other grades. The Trust is no longer
recruiting someone who will be passing for a few years (and in
some cases a few months) but a long term asset who will be able
to work within the existing structure to help provide the best
service to patients by taking relevant initiatives and by
co-operating with other colleagues. In reality they are
recruiting a colleague more than a doctor.
For that reason, consultant interviews
are as much an exercise in
gauging your personality as they are a tool in measuring your level
of initiative, awareness and motivation.
The panel
Typically, you will
face a single panel of up to 8 people. That panel may include:
the Chief Executive of the Trust, or a representative
the Medical Director
the Clinical Director of the department you will join
one or more Consultants from the team. When your work involves
close
cooperation
with other teams, there may be consultants from those teams too.
a Collegiate and/or Deanery Representative
a manager (such as risk manager or human resource manager)
one or two potential colleague with whom you may a have working
relationship.
e.g. A nurse consultant,
nurse specialist or even a GP.
a lay person (often a non-executive director of the Trust,
or an HR Manager
or a patient
representative)
You should make every
effort to find out who will be on the panel, as this will
strongly direct the way you need to orientate the answers to
some of the more difficult questions. For example, the answer to
the question "Do you feel that the increasing role of nurses is
a benefit or a danger to the medical profession?" will obviously
be different depending on whether there is a nurse on the panel.
So, if they haven't told you who will be on the panel, call a
secretary and find out!
The
questions
As a consultant, you
will be expected to function as a safe doctor, but also, for the
first time, to take responsibility for a team at a high level -
all this whilst working in harmony within an already established
team. This includes taking a proactive stance towards teaching,
a logical and safe approach to resolving problems and conflicts,
a good understanding of the environment in which you will work,
etc. This is a big step from your SpR job interview, where interviewers
might have been mostly concerned with your ability to be an
effective trainee.
For this reason,
consultant interviews tend to have a more informal style and
contain questions of a more personal and managerial nature,
which will help them understand your motivations in more depth
and gauge whether you will be a good fit for the team.
Questions tend to be subdivided as follows:
Your CV. This would involved asking you to summarise
your training or picking on
particular aspects of your experience. This would either aim
to clarify some obscure
areas of your CV or to ask you to defend lack of experience important
areas such a
research, audit, etc. For these questions there is no substitute for spending
time
analysing your past experience and training so that you are well prepared.
Your interpersonal and other non-clinical skills. This
would involve questions on
team playing, leadership, communication skills, ability to deal with
stress, etc. Do not
assume that the most basic questions do not come up at consultant
interviews.
Questions such as "What are the attributes of a good team player?" are making a
come-back on the
consultant interview scene.
You managerial skills and ability to resolve difficult
situations. As a junior doctor,
your duty was mainly to report problems to a senior
colleague. Now, as a consultant,
you will actually be required to deal with it. No more passing the
buck, you must take
responsibility. Whether you are dealing with an underperforming
colleague, a colleague
under the influence of drugs or drink or a consultant who is breaching
protocols or
guidelines, you will need to demonstrate that you are able to consider all aspects
of the
issue including the patients' perspective, the reporting and legal aspects, and the
colleague's perspective.
Your interest in clinical governance and quality assurance.
Clinical governance
and Good Medical Practice are crucial aspects of being a
doctor. As a senior doctor,
you will have personal responsibility to make sure all aspects
are implemented and
applied consistently. You will need to demonstrate a good understanding
not only of the
topic discussed but also how they impact on your job from a practical
perspective. This
would include questions on NICE guidelines, NSF, risk management, research
and its
important, audits, etc.
NHS issues and politics
As a senior doctor, you will need to form opinions about
current issues in order to
determine how your unit should react to them. For example,
how will MMC affect you,
what about Choose & Book / Patient Choice? ISTCs? Depending on
the specialty that
you are applying for the topics will vary but you will all be
required to demonstrate a
good understanding of the main issues and how they affect you and your
specialty.
CONSULTANT INTERVIEW
TIPS
TIP 1:
HAVE AN EFFECTIVE PREPARATION PERIOD
Many candidates either under-prepare
or over-prepare for their medical interviews.
Most people also prepare in the wrong way.
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Under-preparation: Being under-prepared is often the result of the misconception that,
because interviewers can ask so many different questions, it is very difficult
to prepare for anything. As a result, answers become disorganised, contradictory
and lengthy, the candidate loses his/her way in unnecessary details and misses
out crucial opportunities to put across his/her skills in a positive light.
Other candidates also wake up too late or leave it until they
get short-listed to start thinking about their interview. In
many cases, it is too late.
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Over-preparation:
Over-preparation often combines with
poor strategy and results in candidates rehearsing answers until
they are perfect. People who make this mistake are easily thrown
off balance by questions they have not prepared; the answers they give
sometimes also do not quite match the question asked. Generally, they
come across as bad listeners and are unable to deviate from their prepared
answers.
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Wrong preparation: Many candidates believe that preparing
for an interview consists principally in taking a list of
hundreds of questions and testing their ability to come up with
"something" quickly. Rehearsing answers to many questions is the
final step of the process, where you pull together all the
elements that you have gained during your preparation. Think
about it: the first day you learnt to take blood, you didn't do
it 100 times in 10 minutes... Similarly, don't try to answer
100 questions in 10 minutes as it will only result in making you
sound vague on the day.
What is the right
preparation for a medical interview?
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Spend time on your CV:
First you should spend
some time looking at your experience and your CV. The best
candidates are those who are able to provide personal answers.
This is only possible if you know what you have achieved. Aside
from that, it is embarrassing to be asked a question on your CV
and not be able to answer it.
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Spend the time to know yourself:
Many questions relate
to your ability to exercise one skill or another. Some of these
questions are so common that there is no excuse for you not to
have an answer. Interviewers can sometimes be unforgiving. Many
candidates would not be able to answer personal questions if
they were being questioned by their own friends in a relaxed
environment. If you cannot explain what makes you a good
communicator in your living room, in 5 minutes, when your best
friend asks you about it, you cannot expect to be able to answer
that question under pressure, in 2 minutes, with eight people
staring at you. Think about what you are good at and what makes
you good at it; think about examples of situation where these
strengths have had a strong impact, etc. The more thinking you
do beforehand, the less thinking you will need to do on the day.
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Spend time looking at key questions:
There is little
value in looking at hundreds of questions too early. You will
only perpetuate your mistakes and will not teach yourself to
think about the question and its different angles. Instead, if
you have time, try to pick one theme per day (research,
teaching, confidentiality, etc) and look at different questions
that relate to that theme. You will learn to look at the same
information in different ways and you will teach your brain to
make the connections that will enable you to think laterally at
an interview. You should spend at least 5 minutes on each
question, taking the time to derive good content and to organise
your thoughts. Our courses are specifically designed to help you
in this process by giving you the tools and the direction you
need, which makes you save time in your preparation. Our
experience shows that, on average, successful candidates spend
15 to 20 hours preparing for their interview.
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Practice: Only once you have done this preparation
should you practice your answers someone else, or by talking to
your mirror/walls. Doing it too early will only serve in either
giving you a false sense of security or in making you panic
depending on how confident you are.
TIP 2:
Do not assume that
standard answers WILL make you SUCCEED
Many candidates believe that by regurgitating a ready-made
answer, they will get the job. This is a myth. You should not
believe anyone (including some senior doctors) who tell you that
you will get the job by learning a standard answer. What will
really make the difference is the personal style that you
adopt in formulating them and how you back up your claims with
relevant and well developed examples. This is also what makes
our coaching so successful and so different. We work with you to
extract the right information at the right level of
personalisation. Your answer must be UNIQUE, not the same as
hundreds of others.
TIP 3: DO NOT TRY
TO BE DIFFERENT BY LOOKING FOR UNUSUAL ANSWERS
Many candidates believe
that they need to be different to stand out. This makes them
scared of addressing some questions and they live in fear of
sounding boring. As a result they try to be clever and to find
"unusual answers". This is a dangerous game. What makes you
stand out is not the fact that the content of your answer is
wildly different to your competitors' answers, but the manner in
which you express and back up good ideas, and the confidence that
you have in your delivery and in your opinions. Consultant interviews
(and generally speaking, medical interviews) are not
about being original; they are about being all-rounded.
TIP 4: ORGANISE
YOUR ANSWERS
Many candidates' answers are made up
of a long list of ideas, most of which are irrelevant or not
backed up. There is no point putting across 20 ideas if the
average human being can only remember 3 or 4 ideas at a time.
You will just drown your interviewers in a mass of information
they can't digest. As a result they will either lose interest
and start looking through the window, or they will get a
headache trying to make sense of it all. Put yourself in their
shoes! They have been sitting there listening to the same old
answers from everyone. Make their job easy, don't make them
think too much, organise the information for them. In our
experience, those who get the jobs are not those who have an
absolutely flawless content in their answers. They are those who
have a good structure and make them personal, even if they only
have 70% of the expected content.
TIP
5: BE PERSONAL IN YOUR APPROACH
For each question,
there are a number of points that can be raised. Most people who
have prepared will automatically come up with these points and,
in order to make a difference, you will need to personalise your
answers otherwise you will sound the same as everyone else.
Depending on the question that you have been asked, this can be
achieved in different ways.
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If the question is about your interpersonal skills, try to bring
in a few examples that demonstrate your experience. For example when
discussing team playing, describe situations where you gained experience of team work.
You should not go into too much detail but be specific enough to
be credible.
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Steer clear of definitions and grand statements. An interview is
a conversation, not a speech or a verbal essay. You need to appear natural and
confident in what you say. Do not be scared of expressing your ideas in your own words. For
example, when is the last time you used the word "flourish" at home or at work? So why insist
in using it in your description of Clinical Governance? Too many people try to explain simple ideas
using pompous words because they feel it makes them sound better. In reality it
makes them sound vague, theoretical and, sometimes, confused ... the interviewers are confused
too.
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Don't be afraid of expressing how you feel, what you liked, why
you enjoyed it, etc. They want to recruit human beings, not clones. Also,
talking about feelings helps bringing out your enthusiasm and passion for what you do.
It is very difficult to be passionate when talking about
cold facts. Facts are important to sell your credibility but
not your motivation.
TIP
6: STOP
OBSESSING ABOUT YOUR BODY LANGUAGE
There is little point in
worrying about how you cross you fingers or your legs if what
comes out of your mouth makes no sense. Body language is not
part of the marking sheet interviewers have. In fact most people
will ignore your body language unless it is really bad, in which
case it most probably means that you have very little confidence
and therefore that your answers are also very bad.
Most people
have a normal body language and interviewers will make
allowances for the fact that you are a bit nervous. If you spend
the time preparing well for your interview, you will gain much
more confidence in yourself and your body language will follow
naturally. The more you think about your body, the less you are
able to think about your answers.
TIP
7: DO NOT
SPEND MONTHS LEARNING THE MINUTE DETAIL OF EACH POSSIBLE
NHS ISSUE
There is always a danger
in knowing too much about one subject: they can ask you for more
detail until you fall on your own sword. At our last count,
there were over 95 possible NHS issues you could be asked at an
interview. Even if you spend just 20 minutes on each, it would
still take you over 30 hours of work. And that's just for the
basics.
Instead concentrate
and spend some proper time on 5 or 6 key issues of importance
either because they are of actuality or because they are of
close concern to your specialty. But do not confine yourself to
learning the basic facts otherwise you will go back to the realm
of ready-made answers. At medical consultant interviews, you will be
expected to show an understanding of the issue but also of it
consequences and practical applications. So spend your time wisely by discussing the issues
with colleagues and debating them. You will then start thinking about those issues in
different ways and will gain a personal understanding of them
that will enable you to discuss them freely at a medical
interview.
One feature of our courses is the fact that we spend
over an hour and a half debating those issues as a group, which
can help you save time in your preparation.
DO YOU STAND A BETTER CHANCE IF YOU ARE LOCAL?
In
theory, everyone has an equal chance of being recruited in the
sense that all interviewers should keep an objective mind in
their assessment of each candidate. However, like everywhere,
some people are 'more equal than others'.
It is true that, statistically, local
candidates have a better success rate at consultant
interviews. It is also true (and we have seen several
obvious cases of this), that some interviews appear to be fixed
and that, in some cases, external candidates have only been
invited to make up the numbers and that the job has been
advertised for one particular candidate.
However in the vast majority, the process is
fair, and we have seen many external candidates beat the local
candidate purely on the strength of their interview.
Why do locals tend
to be more successful?
If you consider the situation from
a common sense perspective, the interviewers are only trying
to consider whether you will be competent and whether
you will fit in the team. They will obviously have a better idea
of those skills in relation to a local candidate that they know
well than in relation to a complete stranger, even if it is
subconscious. As a result they may be more lenient
in respect of
interview mistakes. However there are three things to consider:
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They might not like the local
candidate in the first place.
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Internal candidates often make the mistake of being
complacent. They assume everyone knows them and loves them, and
often fail to sell
themselves effectively.
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Ultimately, if the internal candidate was bad at the
interview and an
external candidate complains, the Trust will
need to justify choosing the internal candidate.
So in conclusion, local candidates
at consultant interviews tend to be favoured provided
their prior experience has been positive. But many let
themselves down by taking their appointment for granted. They find at
their own expense that a better trained, slicker candidate has
overtaken them in the process. In our experience, with the right
coaching, 30% of external candidates who originally felt they would be at a
disadvantage because they were not local ended up being
successful. There is hope out there!
Why do some local
candidates fail?
In practice,
the main factor making local candidates fail is that they take
it for granted that they will be appointed by their own
colleagues. Consequently they do not put so much effort into the
interview, their answers tend to be vague (typically: "as you
know I have done quite a lot of research..." and they make the
assumption that the interviewers won't mind since they have been
working together for some time. In practice there will be people
on the panel whom you will not know and they will get annoyed
and will feel excluded if you talk to your colleagues and almost
ignore everyone else.
How can you optimise your chances if you are a local
candidate?
Do not assume that you
will get the job. Assume that you know no one on the panel and
back up everything you say by drawing experience from your CV.
If you need to talk about a project that you have done with a
member of the panel, talk about it as if he was not there.
How can you optimise your chances if you are facing a local
candidate?
Your best bet is to
assume that the local candidate will not essentially be fully
prepared or will fall into the trap of taking the outcome of the
interview for granted. You should also have some faith in the
system. There are plenty of "non-locals" who get appointed
simply because they can demonstrate that they have a higher
calibre. Have faith in yourself too. If you turn up at the
interview already defeated then you stand no chance of appearing
confident.
Obviously no one
is totally immune from a situation where the decision has
already more or less been made. There is this saying "You can't
say the right thing to the wrong person" i.e. if someone has
decided that they don't like you or don't want you, then no
matter what you say they will not vote for you. In practice this
has two consequences for you:
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Make sure you create a good first impression - it can decide the
whole interview.
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If you feel they are hostile (i.e. you feel they have already
made their choice) then don't panic and try your best. You may not get the job but it
will be good training for other interviews. And you never know, you may have had the wrong end of
the stick and they may have just been testing your resilience under pressure.
WHAT ROLE DOES THE CV PLAY?
In the context of consultant
interviews, CVs are mostly used for the purpose
of shortlisting. Therefore the decision to recruit an individual will
be made purely on the basis of the interview.
However the CV may be used extensively during the interview itself,
as the panel may pick on some omissions or ask you to clarify
unusual aspects of your background or experience. Many candidates make three types of
mistakes in relation to their CV:
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They assume that everyone on the
panel has read their CV. Consequently they fail to elaborate and
to draw from their own CV to substantiate their interview answers. As
a result, they end up sounding vague and evasive.
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They fail to learn the content
of their CV. This makes them unable to elaborate on any
aspect of their CV, which can be a costly mistake, making
them sound dishonest. So, spend time refreshing your memory
about what you have written on the CV, but also on the
details behind the 'headlines' that you stated; e.g. What did you do in that
audit in 1999 and how
did it change practice? How exactly did you implement that
new teaching programme at your hospital? etc.
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They fail to prepare
explanations for the awkward areas of their CV. 90% of
CV-related interview questions are based on problem areas. If
you have little experience of research, teaching, audit, etc or
if you have had a career break, spend the time to derive good
answers. This will stop you going on the defensive at the
interview.
WHAT ABOUT PRESENTATIONS?
Presentations are everyone's
nightmare, but are a good way for interviewers to test a wide
range of skills including your communication skills (e.g.
ability to explain complex ideas in a succinct manner, ability
to deal with the unexpected by having to answer difficult
questions on the subject).
Preparing for your consultant interview presentation
can seem quite daunting to start with. However, in our experience the
topics that you are required to discuss are often similar to those that would normally come up in
interviews anyway,. The difference is that you have time to prepare. This
is a double-edged sword as having time to prepare means that you
are more equipped to shine, but on the other hand you have no
excuse if it all goes wrong.
Typical subjects for consultant
interview presentations include:
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How would you seek to recruit young doctors for your specialty?
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What are the issues affecting this specialty at the moment?
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How would you set up a new clinic for [type of patients]?
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How do you see this specialty evolve in the next 10 years?
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Why are you the best candidate for this post?
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Discuss a clinical topic (rarely).
Some panels expect you to prepare
slides/handouts, others don't. Either way your preparation should be the
same. Here are some important tips for presentations:
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Tip1: Prepare
well in advance.
Preparation does not necessarily mean
sitting down for hours trying to write slides. In fact you
should start the process by simply thinking about the issues to
clarify the messages in your own mind. This can take a few days
of simply general brainstorming. Only once you have gathered
your ideas should you actually start structuring your
presentation.
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Tip 2: Keep it simple.
The most
effective presentations are not the most complicated ones.
Concentrate on a few key messages, but present them well. If you
are given a title that is broad, it is sometimes better to
select a specific aspect to talk about, rather than trying to
cover too much on a large topic in a short space of time. If you
do take on too much, you may be thorough, but you will end
up with too much detail, which will present a confusing picture
to the panel.
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Tip 3: Do not overdo it on
the visual aids.
These should be used to
summarise the main points but should not be used as a prompt for
you. Remember: they are a teaching tool and will be used to
assess your teaching skills. Do not write too much down.
PowerPoint is not you aide-memoire. It is designed to make your
audience's job easier, not yours! If everything is written down,
it will look compact and confusing, you will end up reading the
slides which will be boring from everyone and you will fail to
make any impact. If you can use diagrams and pictures as well as
words to make it look more lively.
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Tip 4: Once you have a first draft,
give it a run.
If you are stumbling on your own words or if you
feel that the only way you can sound confident is by speaking
loudly, then it means your message is not clear in your head.
Rework the content so that there is a more logical progression.
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Tip 5: Get advice from someone who
hasn't heard it before.
Before you ask them what you should
change (which they probably won't be able to tell you anyway,
ask them to give some feedback as a listener. Which part of the
presentation did they find boring? Which one did they enjoy? Ask
them to give you the three things that they remember from your
speech. If they only remember the trivial stuff, then your
emphasis was wrong.
PRE-INTERVIEW
HOSPITAL VISITS
Should you make one and what are they for?
Pre-interview hospital
visits are more or less an obligation, especially if you have
been encouraged to make one! You should consider their
usefulness from different perspectives:
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They enable your future colleagues to see you in a more
"relaxed" manner (or at least in a setting where you are not being stared at by 8
people). This may act in your favour provided you are able to create a favourable first
impression as they may then be more lenient at the interview if they have a good feel for you.
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They enable you to see what the environment is like and whether
you would be a good match. Although a lot of people are over the moon to get
the job, they sometimes regret it once they have joined the team as they feel uncomfortable
or disappointed with either the nature of the job or the people. Use this opportunity to put
some feelers out.
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They enable you to find out information about the place. At the
end of the interview, you will most certainly be asked if you have any
questions. Practically speaking, you should not have any! The reason is that you should have found
out everything you need to know about the job and the place beforehand. This will give you good
information that you can then use to sell your motivation at the interview itself.
What should you do?
In terms of what you
should ask, this will very much depend on the nature of the job
as well as that of the hospital. You should therefore plan your
visit by looking at various aspects:
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Do you know everything you need to know about the job that you
would be taking up? If there are any aspects that you would like to clarify in
terms of the sessions that you would be expected to do, this is the time to ask (and not
at the interview where they will just tell you that you had plenty of time to find out).
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Are you fully familiar with the activities of the department in
terms of research, audit, teaching, opening new services, etc? Ask them what research
projects they are doing at the moment (Tip: you can prepare yourself a little bit by
looking up each person you will be meeting on Medline to see if they have any special interests
first) and to what extent you will be able to participate. You can also use this opportunity to
discuss the research you have done (if there is anything worth mentioning) and discuss how you
will be able to continue it when you start your job.
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Are there any current topics that are particularly relevant to
the department that you are joining?
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For example the hospital might have recently
become a Foundation Trust. You might want to ask what prompted them to do this, how
things have been going since, etc. If they have recently changed status, you might get a
question on the subject and you will need to know what they feel about it and how it is going
to affect them. That way, not only will you sound knowledgeable, you will also know if there
are sensitive issues that you should not get into.
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Choose and Book was introduced in January 2006 (after months
of testing). If this is relevant to your specialty, you might want to ask how they
are coping with it, what they think, etc. Again this will give you good clues for the interview
and will make you look keen during the visit.
-
MMC is also a big topic. You can use the opportunity to ask them
what they are doing in their department and how they expect this will impact
on your position. You can use this opportunity to demonstrate how keen you are on teaching and
getting involved in managerial issues such as assessments/appraisals.
Pre-interview hospital visits provide plenty of opportunities to
show off but you should be really careful not to appear arrogant
and cocky. Showing off will put you in a difficult position if
they want someone who is just expected to toe the standard party
line to start with. Instead you should use this opportunity to
find out as much as you can about various issues that may turn
up at the interview and to present a good image of someone who
is keen without being imposing.
NEVER FORGET: The
interview starts at the pre interview hospital visit. You need to create a good
impression at that time to ensure that when you turn up for your
consultant interview they already have a good idea of
what a nice person you are. If you say anything you shouldn't
say, you may
never be able to make up for it, so play it safe.
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