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Consultant interviews. Can you tell me about the application process?

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I didn't get the consultant job that i applied for. I came across as unprepared and didn't have answers on several management issues

You must prepare!!

The consultant interview interview panel is likely to include

• chair of the trust

• chief executive

• medical director

• clinical director

• external college representative

• lead clinician/colleague

• university representative (for academic appointments or )

• human resources representative

Areas that you should have some knowledge on for your medical interview include:

• NHS Plan

• Department of Health

• Healthcare Commission

• National service framework

• Patient-led NHS

• Payment by results or activity

• European Working Time Directive

• Patient-led service

• Modernising Medical Careers

• Hospital at night

• Foundation trusts

• Primary care trust

• Strategic health authority

• NHS Direct

• National Project for Information Technology

• Choose and book

• Electronic patient records

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• The medical interview usually starts with the college representative who will go through your medical CV and effectively prove to the panel that you are appointable. They will be looking for consistency in sub-speciality areas of expertise and overall training. Questions for this part of the medical interview are fairly predictable.See our consultant medical interview guide for these questions
  
  The rest of the medical interview can be a bit more difficult with particular troublesome areas coming from the university representative which can inculde medical education topics and research questions.It is wise to prepare for this section of your consultant medical interview in detail.Other difficult areas are the clinical lead who will be looking at managing difficult colleagues, the medical director who will ask clinical governance related questions and the chief executive who really can ask anything he wants.
  Preparation is mandatory for a successful candidate. Find out about the trust in detail and evaluate your strenghts. You will after all be trying to demonstrate a higher added value to the trust than other candidates. Remember preparation is vital and the interview starts at the pre-interview visit.Forget this at your peril.
  
  For more information on the consultant interview process follow some of the links below:Good luck.
  
  

  The consultant interview guide was a real life saver. I quickly got up to speed on all issues that i needed to prepare. The medical education section was brilliant and helped me prepare for questions on androgagy from the University representative.A++++++

  
  
  
   

   Small group Consultant Interview Courses.Limited to 8 candidates maximum for quality training 

   
  
  

The Consultant Medical Interview

This process normally takes in the region of 3 to 4 weeks.  You will be informed by the Human Resources department of your invitation to attend interviewby either telephone, email or post.

Candidates must be aware that there is normally very little time between the publication of the short-list and the interview process itself. Normally it is released a week before the interview which gives candidates approximately 10 days to prepare for the interview itself.  DonÙt forget that during this 10 day period you will also have to make appointments to see the Chief Executive, Medical Director and Clinical Director and also provide your normal clinical duties atwork.  This leaves very little time toprepare for your interview.  Ideally,this preparation should have been done prior to being invited for interview.

The Pre-short listing visit

Within the job advert itself candidates will be invited to contact a member of the department to find out abit more about the job. If you have never worked in the hospital or department before it makes sense to find out a bit about both and therefore you canarrange to have a look around the department during a “pre-short listingvisit”.

You will need to arrangethis appointment before you plan your journey. It is common to have many applicants for an advertised job and it may impact of the department to have 50 applicants wondering around the department on the same day. The department willmake a decision which is usually an all or none decision about whether to allowcandidates to visit before the short listing process.

The main aim of thepre-short listing visit is to assess whether you would like to apply for the job.The interview itself doesnÙt formally start at this point however impressions made by you during your visit will stay with you if you decide to apply. It issensible to have done some basic reading about the hospital and job before you meet the clinical director. Generally speaking you should approach this visitwith a similar attitude to the pre-interview visit.

Some departments have unwritten rules that they will not consider an application for short listing unless they have made a pre short listing visit.

The Pre-interview visit

The pre interview visit isan essential part of the job application process. The trust and department will be employing the successful candidate for an estimated 30 years and the dynamics of the department could be damaged if they do not select someone who will fit into the job and department. Nearly every department across the UK has at some point appointed the wrong person who has at a later date caused problems within the trust or created conflict at some level. It is very difficult to remove a consultant once appointed and therefore they will want to meet you to assess how you might fit in. Personality and your opinions aredifficult to assess on a CV however these are easily assessed on a face to face basis. The interview process formally starts during the pre-interview visit.

As mentioned in chapter 1 you will have a short period of time once invited to interview and the actualday itself and will need to be switched on in order to arrange to see the many people who you need to see during the pre interview visit. It is therefore wise that you prepare for this visit with the same degree of effort as you would for your AAC panel interview. Details of how to prepare, dress, communicate and more are discussed in detail within the consultant medical interview guide which can be purchased from this site.

You should make appointments to see the clinical director, medical director and chief executive and whilst you are there it will do you no harm to say hello to as many prospective consultant colleagues as you can. As these managers diaries are already busyand will become full with other candidates visiting you may need to visit the hospital more than once. Once you receive your invitation to interview it isnot a bad idea to get straight on the phone and arrange these visits for hopefully the same day. This will save you having to make multiple visits.

There are some who advocate making appointments as late as possible so that you are one of the last candidates to see these managers. The theory is that you will be fresh in theminds of those whom you see however this is not an approach that we would recommend.

Please dress with a suit (male) or smart attire (female). Some say wear your second best suit and savethe best suit for the interview itself however I would just go with the best that you have for both the pre-interview visit and the interview. Take several copies of your CV (3-4) on good quality paper as it is common that these managers will see you between meetings or clinical commitments and may not have your CV to hand. Do not attempt to contact the chairman, the royal college representative or the university representative before the interview as this is considered canvassing and is not allowed by the AAC panel. Your application canbe thrown out if the panel decides that you have been canvassing external members of the panel.

The Advisory Appointments Committee (AAC)

• The Chief Executive

• Medical Director

• Royal College representative

• Chairperson (a lay member, usually the Non Executive Director)

• Clinical Director

• Consultant colleague

• University Representative (usually if there is ateaching or research component to the job which most advertised consultants posts have)

Each member of the panel will follow a structured process whereby they ask questions for approximately 5 to 10 minutes.  The questions will have been decided before the interview and should be put to every candidate.  This should be the foundation for a levelplaying field.  If you look at the dynamics of the AAC there are normally two external members.  One being the Royal College representative who is normally a consultant in the speciality that the advertised job is forand secondly the university representative who may not be from the department.  There will also be dynamics between the management appointments (Chief Executive and Medical Director) and the department which is represented by the Clinical Director and the consultant colleague.On a simple note the department will be trying to impress the management, who in turn will be tryingto display the Trust in a positive light to the two external representatives.

This is where the consultant medical interview becomes a difficult process. If the candidate does not understand the dynamics of the committee they may not answer the questions appropriately in order to keep the general body ofthe AAC panel happy.Commonly, there is a conflict between management and clinicians.  Management may be interested in cost effectiveness and turnover which naturally is not compatible with the clinicians vision for delivering a high quality service.  Therefore, candidates should balance their answers so that they are aware of this potential conflict in order to keep bothsides of the equation happy.

For example, a candidate who continually refers to providing a high quality clinical service which under no circumstances is negotiable may satisfy the clinicians assessment however will fail on the managerial assessment. Likewise a candidate who disregards quality of clinical services  and would rather put forward a more cost effective approach to his or her work will get approval from the management staff but not the clinical staff.
It is therefore important, that when answering questions, candidates are awareof the dynamics of the committee and tailor their answers accordingly.Not all interviews will bethe same; however they will follow the same structure.  The panelÙs purpose is to find the right person for the job and, therefore, it is in their interest to initially welcome you and make you feel comfortable.  This initial ‘friendlyÙ section of the interview will then lead into the main section where different approaches may be used by each of the AAC members.
It is important that the candidate remembers that the opening, friendly sectionis to attempt to help the candidate shrug off initial nerves so that they become more fluid with their answers.  Do not forget that this is still an assessment. Drop your guard because the interview starts in a nice, friendly manner and you could make a fatal mistake for your application.
During the final stages of the interview the Chair will give you theopportunity to ask Questions, donÙt, after which you will be told how the committeeÙs decision will be conveyed.

The Consultant Medical Interview involves some of the most senior clinical and management staff of theTrust.  Unlike other medical interviews the interview is highly structured. There are various representatives present on the panel who have separate roles.  Fortunately these roles are well known.  When you prepare for your interview you should sit down and practice questions that may be asked by eachof the categories above. Each of the representatives, their role and the type of questions that they ask are discussed in detail below.

The Chairmans role

The Chairman is normally one of the non NHS executives or the Chairman of the Trust.  They are lay people, ie not medically trained, however they have been appointed to sit on the Executive Board of theTrust and help in the strategic planning for the Trust as well as the day today running.  The function of theChairman is to chair the AAC panel.

They will sit down before the interview  process on the morning ofthe interview and introduce all of the representatives to each other.  They will also be responsible for determining the order in which the representatives interview the candidates.  Before the interview starts questions that areto be asked by each individual member will be discussed in order to prevent thesame question being asked twice.

When you enter the interview room youÙll be greeted by the Chairman. They will introduce themselves and also the other members of the panel and indicate what each of their roles are. After this introduction the chairman will hand you over to the first member of the panel and the interview will start.  Normally the first member of the panel to interview the candidate is the Royal College representative. The chairman alsoasks questions at the end of the interview. These are discussed later in our consultant interview guide.

The Royal College representatives role

Historically, a representative from the relevant Royal College is invited by the Trust to attend the interview panel.  Recently, with the formation of Foundation Trusts, Trusts are no longer required to have a Royal College representative present.  However this has not been enforced by any Trust and the time natured presence of the College representative continues.

The College representative will be a consultant in the same field as the applicant.  They may however have a different subspeciality interest.  The representative will have seen the CVÙs previously, as they would have been involved in the short listing process.  The main role of the Royal College representative is to run through the training aspect of each applicant and to determine, from the College perspective, whether the candidate has the training for the job.  Generally speaking, candidates who have been invited for the interview have the appropriate training and the skills to do the job.  It is essentially a formality that the College representative runs through the training of each candidate to clarify that this is the case.

This is normally the first part of the interview. It is generally quite relaxed and involves a general chit-chat about where and when you have done your training.  They will also be interested to explore any additional professional training that you may have done, for example, a BSc,MSc or PhD.  If you are applying for asub-specialised field they will also be interested in the length of training in this field and will also want to find out about what specialist societies youare a member of.

Basically, they are there to rubber stamp your training and also go into detail, how much interest and what duration of interest you have in this particular sub-speciality field.  Questions that they may ask you include:

• Tell me about your training?

• Tell me about yourself?

• What was your training program like?

• How do you know youre fully trained?

• How do you know that you can do the job?

• Are there any aspects of the job that you feel uncomfortable with?

• Are there any aspects that you wish youÙd receive more training on?

• Tell me about your Bachelor of Science degree?

• Tell me about your PhD? What was your thesis on?

• Why have you done all your training in London?

• Why did you move training programmes?

• Did you enjoy working in X hospital?

• Tell me which societies you are a member of?

• Why are you not a member of Society X?

• Why have you not been to any of their annual meetings?

• Do you think that the EWTD has affected your training?

• Do you feel ready for a consultant job? How do you know?

• When is your CCT due?

• Are you on the Specialist Register?

• Are there any cases that you might be unhappy with as a consultant?

• Talk me through our CV?

• Tell me about your training?

The basic position that you should adopt is that you are the “finished article”. You have been trained to a high standard, one set by your Royal College. You are competent in every aspect that is required for the job. There are no holes and no areas which require more training. Whilst there are naturally going to be areas that you might be unhappy with, do not express this to the panel unless it is simply a case that you donÙt have the training for it. For example, a paediatric anaesthetist would not be expected to perform an on-pump valve transplant in a 70 year old.They would simply not have the training.

The University representatives role

If the advertised job has a teaching or research component to it then a representative of the attached university will normally be invited to theinterview.  This is someone who istrained with an interest in medical education and research.  They will hold formal medical education degrees and may be a professor of an academic department.  Usually the university representative is a practising consultant who has an honorary clinical lectureship or professorship with the university.  They may or may not be from the same field.The function of the university representative is two fold.  Firstly, they can ask questions on a research related area and secondly, they can ask questions based on medical education.Most prospective consultants fail to prepare for this part of the interview adequately. A detailed section on medical educational theory and teaching techniques is included in this guide for this purpose.

There is not really a clear cut distinction between what these individuals can ask. The clinical director can ask both clinical and non clinical questions, the medical director (responsible for clinical governance within the trust) normally asks questions on clinical governance and the chief executive can ask anything as long as thesame questions are posed to each candidate. Recent NHS topics, governance and management are the norm and these sections are described in detail in the A-Zof hot topics which can be found later in this guide.

Interview preparation can bea daunting process. You not only need to know about yourself but also theinstitution and the environment that you work in.Generally important areascan be broken down into:

When you get asked a question on any ofthese three areas there are two pieces of information which are vitally important.

• Firstly you must know the facts.
• Secondly you must use these facts to convey your opinion.

These are very much like building blocks.  They go hand in hand and are structurally related to each other.An effective answer conveys the correct factual information that is then used to convey a reasonable opinion.
Poor answers fail to follow this simple principle.  They either contain factually incorrect information or lack one or both of the components.  In order to develop an opinion you need to fully understand both sides or views on a particular topic. Only then can you give a weighted opinion on the topic.

Opinions that are not based on factual information are ineffective. DonÙt forget that the interviewer is looking for a set of attributes or a particular skill.  You need to demonstrate that you have the correct factual information that is constructively used to form a reasonable opinion.

Knowing the job

It is essential that you find out about the job for which youÙre applying.  When consultant jobs are advertised a job description and person specification are published.  The job description gives all the key information about the job and Trust.  It should outline the job plan and timetable, giving details on any direct clinical care programmed activities and also supporting programmed activities.  A weekly timetable should also be present which gives information on regular and flexible sessioned activities on each day of the week.  It should also describe what clinical services are present within the Trust and give a Trust profile including geographical demographics and details of the management structure of the Trust.  The duties and responsibilities of the post will detail exactly what additional activities arerequired.  This will include education,teaching, research and management responsibilities of the post.  An example of a job plan is shown below:

It can be seen above the time, location and type of work for each day of the week.Direct clinical care activities and supporting professional activities are also detailed.

The person specification for the job is one of the most important documents that you need to have. An example of a person specification for a consultant job is shown below:

As can be seen above, the general categories of the person specification include:

• Qualifications
  
• Clinical experience
• Management and administrative experience
• Teaching experience
• Research experience
• Personal attributes
• Any other requirements

The categories are also divided into “essential” and “desirable” characteristics.  All of the essential criteria should be displayed in order for a candidate to be eligible to be invited for interview.  Whilst itÙs not essential to have the desirable credentials most candidates will have the majority of these.  During the interview process the panel will need to confirm the presence of all the essential criteria and elaborate on the degree of desirable characteristics present in each candidate.

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• Consultant medical interview guides: To read more about the consultant medical interview process feel free to purchase our consultant medical interview guide

   

• Consultant medical interview courses Visit us at one of our consultant interview courses and receive our consultant medical interview guide, DVD of your mock interview and receive NHS consultant led video recorded mock interview sessions and hot topic workshops. It's all we do and it's why we are the best provider in the UK of this service. Why book a lecture based course or receive training from a communication consultant when you can have fully qualified and appropriate training.

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