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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Spend the time to know yourself: Many interview 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.

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.

Practise: Only once you have done this preparation should you practise 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.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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 details 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.

TIP 8: Use the active tense when you describe your achievements/experience

Most candidates who fail at NHS consultant interviews get feedback of the type "You said all the right things but somehow it didn't quite come across" or "You came across too much like a registrar". Usually this is caused by use of vague language, or language which does not convey accurately the individual's contribution.

So, for example, a typical candidate would say "I attend MDTs on a regular basis". The panel member would have two issues with this: (i) what do you mean by "attend"- do you actually contribute? and (ii) what does "regular" mean? Rephrasing this sentence as "I present complex cases at weekly MDTs" would give a more active feel to the sentence and would show the candidate as being more in control.

Another example of a passive sentence is "I am involved in teaching on a regular basis". The use of the word "involved" merely conveys that the candidate is present but does not describe any of the contribution he or she is making. There is a difference between simply running through slides which were handed out to you, and actually writing new material for your lectures, both of which fall into the category of "being involved". This sentence "I write and deliver lecture to GPs on a quarterly basis on topics such as x, y and z", for example, would have a far greater impact.

Most candidates are worried about bragging and, consequently, try to tone down their contribution. They also allow the whole team to take credit for what is often their own personal achievement. So for example, candidates would say "I was involved in drafting a business case" when what they should really say is "I drafted a business case on xxx for review by the lead clinician and the managers, which was subsequently agreed and implemented with minimal modifications".

Using a more active style of wording makes the difference between an "okay" candidate and a confident candidate who can demonstrate they value they can add to the department.