Each year I do a round 700 hours of coaching with various clients for job interviews. Clients often ask for advice on what to do if they make a mistake in a job interview? What should you do if you make an error or stuff up? There’s quite a few posts about what you should do after a job interview if you realize you have made an error. But not so many about what you can do to effectively recover from a mistake in a job interview.
Some quick tips for dealing with making a mistake in a job interview include: taking your research notes about the job with you to the interview to help you, apologizing as soon as possible if you make a mistake, and asking for clarification or taking a sip of water if you are having a mental block. A half answer is better than no answer at all. And always leave the interview on a positive by thanking them for their time, even if you feel you have performed poorly.
Let’s go through some of the various scenarios now in more detail.
How to Prevent Yourself From Making a Mistake in a Job Interview
Before I discuss how you can recover from your mistake in an interview. Let’s talk about how you can prepare yourself effectively so that you minimize the risk of an error.
The most obvious thing that you can do to prevent yourself from making a mistake is to give yourself plenty of time to research the role and practice possible interview questions.
But what if you don’t have a lot of time to prepare and practice?
My favourite strategy for getting ready for a job interview will also help you to be better prepared for questions. With the bonus of something handy to take with you into the interview.
I call this process job alignment.
Put simply draw up a table with 3 columns in it.
Column A will be the selection criteria. Put each criterion in a single row by itself. And if there are other topics in the job description that you think might be relevant to the interview questions, for example organizational values. Put these in a row as well.
Column B is your evidence. You have probably already considered this in your application. But put it down again and go over it thoroughly. Do you really meet the criteria? Can you explain this effectively. Does your evidence include examples of achievements and outcomes?
Your final Column is Column C. And it is here that you want to come up with at least one good example that shows how you meet each criteria.
With this job now done you are armed with the information, you need to succeed in your interview.
What to do if You Make An Error in Your Answer?
Okay you have made it to your job interview and you have prepared your best. But sometimes things just happen.
So what should you do if you realize that you have made an awful mistake in answer to one of the questions posed?
Recover Quickly if You Can
If you realize mid-answer that you have made a fundamental error. For example, maybe you got the dosing of a medication wrong. It’s best to apologize straight away and correct your mistake. Then move on.
Whilst making mistakes in a medical job interview can be particularly fatal. Correcting yourself may actually be seen as a good sign. After all, errors do occur in medicine and if you can recognise one in yourself then you are showing a good trait.
Don’t Disrupt the Interview Flow to Correct a Mistake in a Job Interview
One thing you don’t want to do is disrupt the interview flow in order to correct a mistake.
If you do realize halfway through the interview that you made a mistake in question 1. Make a note. Write yourself a quick bullet point if you can.
Then when it comes time for the wrap up of the interview. Take the opportunity to add a correction.
Don’t make a big deal of your error. Just quickly point out that you want to correct something you said earlier and state your correction.
What to do if You Have a Mental Block?
We have all been there. You get asked a question that you know that you have prepared really well for. But your mind turns to fog. Perhaps you struggle to remember a term or a diagnosis or a name of someone important that you want to mention.
The first thing to do is to avoid panicking. Ask the interviewer if they can repeat the question. You can use this time to think. There is also nothing wrong with asking for a few moments or taking a sip of water. If you are still struggling after all this, then you should at least deliver a half answer as this is better than no answer at all.
Again. Some additional information may come to you by the time the interview comes to a close. If so request to add some clarification to your interview.
What to Do if You Are Asked an Odd or Confusing Question?
If you have done your preparation effectively you should be able to anticipate the intent of each interview question. But occasionally interview panels design weird questions for which the reasons are not immediately obvious. Sometimes these questions are designed to determine whether you have the skills or attitudes required to complete the job you are applying for.
If you are confused by a question or the angle in which you should respond, always try to bring your answer back to demonstrating a skill or quality you possess that shows you are able to do the job. This is a great time to consult your job alignment table for some inspiration.
Again. You may want to ask the interviewer for clarification or to put the question in a different way.
Make an Apology. But Don’t Over Do It
If you make a mistake during an interview, a simple apology can quickly remedy the situation. But don’t let this linger. Try to turn the interview back to a positive.
Focus on What You Bring to the Role
Once you have apologized focusing on your professionalism and qualifications can help save your application. For example, if you make an error discussing a clinical scenario. Try to point out how you are very systematic in your clinical practice and all the things you have learnt to do to remove errors from your practice.
Thank Them for Their Time
Even if you feel you have made a really bad mistake in a job interview be sure to end the conversation on a positive. The best way to do this is by telling them how thankful you are for their time and attention. This could potentially balance out your mistakes.
Use This Experience to be Fully Prepared for the Next Interview.
If you make a mistake in a job interview. Learn from your mistakes to present the best version of yourself in the next interview. For example, if you realize you were thrown by a number of the questions asked during your interview, write as many of them down as you can remember. And practice these questions for next time.
Forgive Yourself for Making a Mistake
Try to use your mistakes as a learning experience to make future interview performances more impressive. And most importantly, forgive yourself, because mistakes do happen.
2020 was an unusual year. That’s obviously an understatement. Despite all the pandemic concerns the need for doctors to be helped with their doctor job applications remained ever-present. Possibly prompted a little bit by the advent of video interviewing. In 2020 I clocked up 437 coaching hours, including my first group interview coaching session. This was a highlight for me as all 3 candidates gained entry into the highly competitive RANZCOG program. So. We’ve prepared this reference for you for medical recruitment 2021 to help you make the right choices.
If you are preparing for a new job in medicine in 2021 then here is a summary of what we at AdvanceMed advise that you should be doing right now:
Keep an eye on the main annual medical recruitment portals. We don’t anticipate as much disruption this year. But its always good to know your timeline as well in advance of time as possible.
There are plenty of things you can be doing now to prepare yourself for your next career move in medicine, regardless of whether there is a clear application date, these include preparing your resume, gathering referees and beginning the process of interview preparation.
The majority of interviews this year are likely to be again conducted via videoconference, therefore, its important to invest some time and effort preparing to interview on this medium.
Let’s now look at some of these issues in more detail including the key things you can be doing now to be present the best version of yourself on the day.
How Best To Prepare Yourself for Medical Recruitment 2021.
What key advice do I have for medical trainees who would like to know how they can prepare themselves for medical recruitment in 2021? Here are my top 5 tips.
1. Enact Your Medical Selection Plan Now.
There’s no reason to wait if you know that you are going to be going for a new job this year. Annual medical recruitment is likely to be one of the most important events of the year for you. You should be enacting the first part of your plan now if you have not already done so. Make sure you find out as soon as the jobs portals and timelines open when you will be able to apply and when your interview is likely to be.
Even if you are a bit uncertain. Perhaps you are an IMG doctor who thinks they might get an interview opportunity. But doesn’t really know. You should not wait till the interview call to start preparing. Because by then it’s likely to be all too late for you. Start putting the preparation in now.
Of critical importance to your preparation will be your Resume. There’s plenty of advice on this blog about how you can make this document stand out. You should be aligning this with the competencies being sought for the position/s you are intending to apply for. Think about adding in a story about COVID-19 that shows off one of these competencies. Ensuring that you have relevant, recent, and diverse referees to speak on your behalf is also something you can be doing now.
You should also be thinking about starting your interview preparation and medical interview coaching if you are intending to use a coach. Many candidates that I coach start this process far too late. In my experience, there is little risk of starting too early (you can always pause for a bit if you lose momentum). Interview skills are like muscles. They need regular training to help you show your best on the day. The problem is. If you haven’t interviewed for a while. This muscle is likely to have atrophied.
2. Practice
This is the most vital tip in my opinion. You should definitely treat the interview as an examination or a performance. I’m betting that throughout medical school you practiced and prepared for exams. So why would you expect to just turn up for your next job interview, “wing it” and turn in a great performance?
Your next job in medicine is just as important, if not more important than getting a pass on an exam. So you need a bit of a practice schedule and you need to actually practice. I recommend giving yourself at least 6 weeks if possible and do at least one practice session per week prior to your actual interview. If you have less notice of your interview then obviously you will need to condense this and increase the frequency. Better yet. If you are anticipating a new job in the next 6 months. Think about setting up a practice schedule now.
3. Find out what the panel is looking for
You need to understand what the interview panel is looking for. So you can practice the right questions and prepare the right examples. I’m often asked by doctors.
“How can I predict what sorts of questions I will be asked?”
Well. It’s actually a lot easier than you think.
The questions you get asked in the interview should relate to the Selection Criteria. So to find these go to the appropriate section on the job description and review it. They are usually placed towards the end of the document. These should give you a fair indication of the types of questions you will be asked.
Sometimes, particularly for college selection, rather than selection criteria, there is a competency framework. These are normally easy to find on the college website. Again these will give you a very good guide to what you will be asked about.
You can then generate appropriate questions or there are places online you can find a bunch of them. You can access our free question bank here.
4. Review your CV for examples.
Your CV or resume is a treasure trove of achievements from which to draw upon examples of your past work (or at least it should be). Review your CV for examples so that you can use these as part of your answers to questions when you engage in the annual medical recruitment process.
Remember providing an example from your past work is extremely powerful at the interview.
Dr Anthony Llewellyn, Career Doctor
Sometimes you will be asked for an example as part of a behavioural question. But don’t be afraid to offer one, even if the question is a hypothetical question.
You are basically telling the panel.
“I can do this. Because I’ve done it before.”
And panels know that past behaviour predicts future behaviour so they will value this information.
5. Review Your Video Conference Set-Up
It’s important to understand that your next doctor job interview is most likely to be conducted on something like Zoom. There are significant differences in interviewing on video versus in person. Both from a technical perspective as well as from a practice perspective.
You should definitely be reviewing and modifying your videoconference setup and your environment as well as actually practising interview questions using video. The latter is actually a good idea in general as it affords you the chance to record and review your performance.
Why do I say that you need to record yourself and watch yourself back? Well. Interviews are as much about body language and tone of speech. In fact even more about these things. Than what you say.
So. It’s important to know how you appear during an interview.
The only way you will know this is to observe yourself.
Here’s a great example:
Often when I am coaching candidates for an interview I notice that they appear quite stiff in their presentation. This is normally because they are trying to control their hands. By sitting on them or anchoring them in their lap. Actually, you generally want to let your hands get involved in your interview performance. Once we fix this problem. The visual performance always looks a lot better.
There are a number of options for filming yourself for an interview performance. My recommendation would be to use a desktop or laptop set up and record yourself on Skype or Zoom. This way you should easily be able to get at least a head and shoulders view of how you look whilst seated. It’s particularly important to be able to see what you do with your hands.
Alternatively, you can use your smartphone with a tripod if you have one or even just a stack of books on the table. Selfie videos are not as good as you have at least one hand engaged for the filming purpose. Similarly observing yourself in the mirror is not as good as you cannot rewind and go back.
7. Engage an Expert
My final tip is to get some interview practice with an expert.
What do I mean by an expert?
I mean anyone who has had significant experience being a member of a selection panel and/or experiences in coaching candidates for interviews.
Preferably both.
So as a minimum. Try and get someone like a Director of Training or Director of Medical Services to give you a couple of sessions. These people have generally sat in on hundreds of interviews.
Don’t fall into the trap of relying on feedback from fellow candidates, your family, or friends. Their feedback is likely to be unhelpful and too much on the positive and encouraging side. Because they have no context for what the panel is looking for and they are too invested in your success and you as a person. You want as critical feedback as possible.
And. If you want to up your game and performance to a higher level.
The most obvious reason is that interview coaching can help increase your chances of getting a job. There are a number of ways this can occur.
Coaching can help you overcome any nerves or anxiety you have about the process. Coaching gives you a chance to experience answering many different interview questions. Coaches provide you with feedback to help improve your responses during interviews. The more you practice with a coach, the more confident you will become. By engaging with a coach you are also ensuring that you commit to your own practice regimen, which is important for a good performance.
Some reasons you may want to consider engaging a doctor interview coach.
It’s been awhile. If it’s been a few years since the last time you interviewed for a doctor job or if your last interview was fairly simple and you anticipate this one will not be the same, then a coach can help you rehearse and regain your interview confidence.
You get nervous before interviews. A little bit of anxiety is good going into an interview. But too much anxiety can affect performance. Practicing with a coach can help you feel more comfortable, relaxed and prepared.
You get interviews, but not offers. Often its difficult to get honest feedback from medical interviews. A coach may be able to help work out what is going wrong for you.
You are not sure about something on your CV. Maybe you have had to have a break in work. Or your last job didn’t go so well. Are you perhaps switching specialties. A coach can help you with how to tell the right story in relation to these sorts of issues.
Its your dream job and you want to land it. A coach can help with feeling confident in these situations.
On the other hand, if you’re a confident interviewer and have always tended to perform well during interviews, then a coach may not be necessary.
Types of Interview Coaching
There are many types of interview coaching. Some coaches meet with you in person, and others speak with you online or on the phone. In general interview coaches work on something called “performance coaching”. Think of it like a sports coach working with an elite athlete. A key element is practice with feedback. The more practice and the more immediate the feedback the better.
If you meet the coach in person or online, they can also help you develop effective visual communication. The coach can work with you on facial and body expressions that convey trust and show active listening.
Coaches may also help you with other elements of the interview, including how to ask the right questions of the employer, how to research the job and the panel, and even some advice on how to dress.
How to Find a Doctor Interview Coach
There are lots of coaches available to choose from. Career coaches often offer interview coaching. Some things you should consider in a coach are the following:
What is their training and experience in interview coaching?
What sort of knowledge and experience do they have with the actual interview process. Medical interviews can be fairly unique, particularly in terms of the types of questions asked and what panels may be looking for. So someone who has actual doctor interview panel experience is ideal.
Do they provide face to face coaching or on the phone or online. Face to face may seem best initially. But consider that you may need to travel to see the coach and often during normal work hours. Phone coaching and online coaching may be more convenient and cut down on travel.
What feedback is provided after each session. Phone and online coaches can often give you a recording of the session for you to review.
What is the price of the coaching.
If you cannot afford a coach, there are some opportunities for less expensive or even free coaching. Your Director of Training may be skilled in interview coaching or may be able to recommend another Consultant in your hospital who is.
Some Things You Ought To Consider If You Are Planning On Medical Interview Coaching This Year. Before You Commit
Are you planning on undertaking medical interview coaching in 2019?
A Wrap Up Of 2020
2020 was another successful year for coaching clients. Demonstrating the value of performance coaching to secure career progression. We managed to help clients secure some fairly competitive posts, including Paediatrics, Cardiothoracics, Radiology and Ophthalmology in some pretty prestigious locations (think Prince of Wales & Royal Melbourne).
Overall I’m probably most proud of helping those trainees who were passionate about their career choice but were being let down by a lack of confidence and poor past advice.
Late last year I did a project for the College of Radiologists looking at their trainee selection processes and how to incorporate things like diversity into the future selection of trainees. I look forward to hearing some results from this work.
Whilst the median number of coaching sessions for 2020 was once again 3. Some coachees, in particular trainees, opted for an additional fourth or fifth session. I clocked well over 500 interview coaching sessions.
Some also approached me for some “last minute” coaching. A once-off medical interview coaching session can be challenging. Particularly in relation to not overloading the coachee with too much new information. However, many doctors reported these sessions as helpful, particularly in being able to calm their nerves prior to the interview and to ask background questions and test out potential work examples to use.
There remains no doubt in my mind, however, that a planned and stepped out coaching approach is far superior and will address higher levels of interview capability and performance.
Key Observations
The format of most interviews remains remarkably conservative. Usually a single small panel of 3 to 5 running for 15 to 30 minutes (shorter for more junior roles, longer for more senior)
The types of questions remain highly predictable and if you practice enough you will likely cover the majority (with slight variation) bar any clinical problem they may put to you
Questions about experience (some what of a waste given they already have your CV), conflict resolution, strengths and weaknesses and preparedness for the position remain popular
Ethical questions, particularly in relation to trainee doctor wellbeing and managing upwards appear to becoming more popular
Most doctors can identify 3 or 4 good examples (good stories) from their CVs that can be used to fit the range of interview questions. Sometimes to more than one question and even if an example is not asked for
Thanks to our community and coaching clients. We have now collected more than 640 interview questions. Providing a useful bank of questions for you to practice upon.
Key Considerations For Interview Coaching
Career coaches often offer medical interview coaching. There are lots of coaches available to choose from if you live in a capital city. Less so in rural and regional places. But video technology now lets you connect virtually and also offers some additional benefits (such as not having to travel and the ability to record sessions easily). Some things you should consider in a coach are the following:
What is the coaches training and experience in interview coaching?
What sort of knowledge and experience do they have with the actual interview process? Medical interviews can be fairly unique, particularly in terms of the types of questions asked and what panels may be looking for. So someone who has actual doctor interview panel experience is ideal.
Does the interview coach provide face to face coaching or on the phone or online? Face to face may seem best initially. But consider that you may need to travel to see the coach and often during normal work hours. Phone coaching and online coaching may be more convenient and cut down on travel.
What feedback is provided after each session? Phone and online coaches can often give you a recording of the session for you to review.
What is the price of the coaching?
To this I would add that your medical interview coach really should know about video coaching in 2020. For obvious reasons.
If you cannot afford a coach, there are some opportunities for less expensive or even free coaching. Your Director of Training may be skilled in interview coaching or may be able to recommend another Consultant in your hospital who is.
My Approach For 2020
I have a passion for medical career development and truly enjoy working with other doctors in a coaching format to reach their goals.
For 2020, I will continue to be offering the 3 session online coaching service as my main format for coaching doctors who wish to improve their medical job interview performance.
As an additional bonus this year I will review your video confernce set up for you. To make sure it looks good for your actual interview.
All this in addition to the ability to offer coaching at a mutually convenient time in the comfort of your own home (or private work area if you prefer). With a recording of each session available to review usually within the hour.
I am always happy to work with doctors on a once-off basis when I can. But I will continue to prioritise coaching clients on a sessional coaching plan.
What Can Be Achieved In a Single Session?
In short. Quite a lot.
We can:
Orientate you to the interview process.
Resolve any queries you may have about the panel.
Practice an opening type question, during which we can also introduce some techniques for relaxing into the interview.
Go over your work examples as they relate to particular common questions.
And review some interview answer frameworks.
What Are The Benefits of a Series of Coaching Sessions?
Everything that is covered in a once-off session can be covered but with more depth and the opportunity for deliberate practice so that improved performance sticks and generalises.
We also use the extended time to develop better examples and practice answering multiple questions in relation to past example and hypothetical frameworks.
Over this time you incorporate relaxation and “panel warming” techniques into your answer approach. You become better at selling your examples and competencies and agile at answering a range of question
Now that Australia appears to have succeeded in dealing successfully with the initial impact of COVID-19 and getting ourselves prepared, there are signs of society returning to some sort of “more normal”. Many doctors, myself included are returning their minds back towards the medical career process. With all the disruptions to the health system and society, in general, it’s not a surprise that there is also a level of uncertainty about what is happening with medical recruitment this year and some uncertainty about how best to prepare. So. We’ve prepared this medical recruitment 2020 reference for you to help you make the right choices.
If you were preparing for a new job in medicine in 2020 then here is a summary of what we advise that you should be doing right now at AdvanceMed:
Keep an eye on the main annual medical recruitment portals. Many have already signalled that recruitment is about to commence.
There are plenty of things you can be doing now to prepare yourself for your next career move in medicine, regardless of whether there is a clear application date, these include preparing your resume, gathering referees and beginning the process of interview preparation.
The majority of interviews this year are likely to be conducted via videoconference, therefore, its important to invest some time and effort preparing to interview on this medium.
Let’s now look at some of these issues in more detail beginning with an assessment of where medical recruitment is up to currently in Australia.
The good news for medical recruitment 2020. Medical Internship is on track.
First the good news. The medical internship recruitment system is going ahead as planned as per the original dates for 2020. All States and Territories will begin to receive applications on 4th May 2020 and close their portals on 4th June 2020. With the majority of intern offers being sent out in July.
This is fantastic news if you are a final year medical student worried about commencing your internship in 2021. But there is one big caveat. You do have to still graduate first. And it’s reasonable to say that the majority of medical school programs have been put into disarray in Australia due to concerns about exposing medical students to COVID-19, diverting normal supervisory resources to COVID preparedness and enforcing social distancing in clinical environments, which has significantly challenged clinical placements which are absolutely important in the final years of medical school.
The Australian Medical Council, Medical Board of Australia and Medical Deans have been working together to put in place changes and processes to assist medical students in completing their education on time, which should help.
But one of the paradoxical outcomes of Australia being more successful in dealing with COVID-19 is that there hasn’t been a mad rush to adopt alternative models of placing medical students in pre intern posts as has occurred in other countries like the United Kingdom and the United States.
So it remains somewhat uncertain whether there may be a decline in the number of intern positions taken up in Australia in 2021.
The Not So Good News. Some Colleges have delayed Selection into Training.
The not so good news is that some colleges have made announcements in relation to delaying their normal selection into training processes. In particular, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has indicated that its selection into the various SET programs for 2021 is delayed until further notice. My information is that RACS is hoping that they may still be able to conduct their normal panel interviews in person later in the year.
Other colleges have indicated that there may be some disruptions but that selection into training will still occur. Many like the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have indicated that interviews will be conducted using videoconferencing.
Of course, some colleges have more “skin in the game” for selection into training posts than others. So there has been little or no impact for example on the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which generally selects trainees for Adult Medicine and Paediatrics into basic training after they have secured an employer post. And does not conduct interviews for selection.
The Mixed News. There Is Some Disruption to the Annual RMO Campaigns.
The mixed news is that the impact of COVID-19 preparedness and uncertainty around some college selection processes has caused some of the State and Territory Departments of Health to place notices on their jobs board indicating that there will be some impact on annual medical recruitment related to COVID-19.
In particular, NSW Health has, as of the writing of this article, placed a pause on its process and indicating it is considering a range of options for medical recruitment. And the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria has placed a pause on its selection to Radiology training posts.
However, a scan of most of the other State and Territory medical recruitment campaign sites, for example, Western Australia and Queensland, appears to indicate that these jurisdictions are on schedule to open as planned.
So What Does This All Mean?
My interpretation of all this information is that there is likely to be a small level of disruption to the annual medical recruitment processes across Australia. However, the combined fact that internship is on track and that many of the States and Territory RMO campaigns appear to be “situation somewhat normal” would indicate that annual medical recruitment is likely to commence on or near to normal schedule across Australia. States like NSW and Victoria are unlikely to totally abandon or significantly delay their systems if other jurisdictions are going ahead.
Expect, perhaps, that some positions, in particular ones linked to college selection, might be delayed to a later round and recruited to a little bit later than usual.
How Best To Prepare Yourself In These Uncertain Times.
So what advice do I have for medical trainees who would like to know how they can prepare themselves for medical recruitment in 2020.
Enact Your Medical Selection Plan Now.
My first piece of advice would be to try and treat the process as you would normally do. That would mean for most doctors that you should be enacting the first part of your plan now if you have not already done so.
Of critical importance will be your Resume. There’s plenty of advice on this blog about how you can make this document stand out. You should be aligning this with the competencies being sought for the position/s you are intending to apply for. Think about adding in a story about COVID-19 2020 that shows off one of these competencies. Ensuring that you have relevant, recent and diverse referees to speak on your behalf is also something you can be doing now.
You should also be thinking about starting your interview preparation. Many candidates that I coach start this process far too late. In my experience, there is little risk of starting too early (you can always pause for a bit if you lose momentum). Interview skills are like muscles. They need regular training to help you show your best on the day. The problem is. If you haven’t interviewed for a while. This muscle is likely to have atrophied.
Review Your Video Conference Set-Up
Finally, it’s important to understand that your next doctor job interview is most likely to be conducted on something like Zoom. There are significant differences in interviewing on video versus in person. Both from a technical perspective as well as from a practice perspective.
You should definitely be reviewing and modifying your videoconference set up and your environment as well as actually practising interview questions using video. The latter is actually a good idea in general as it affords you the chance to record and review your performance.
As we turn to measures of social distancing in order to reduce the impact of COVID-19 it’s quite likely that your next job interview will be a video job interview conducted online. Having spent the past 4 years coaching doctors online, I am uniquely situated to give you some tips on how to ensure that using video for your next job interview does not impede your success.
If we were to summarise the key things you should be thinking about when invited to a video job interview via a video link they would be as follows: 1. Treat the interview with the same level of seriousness and preparation that you would any other job interview 2. Practice with the technology beforehand and make sure everything is running well beforehand 3. Have backup plans in place in case the technology fails 4. Be aware of additional things you will need to consider such as your background and lighting.
Shortly I will dive into these video job interview tips with a bit more detail to ensure that you are correctly set up. But before I do this let’s talk about why your success in being able to cope with a video interview might also be important.
Can You Handle Technology?
For most jobs these days being an adept end-user of technology is important. Employers don’t want to spend lots of time training you how to use common technology when they can probably find other candidates who can already do so. Medicine, the area that I work in is no different.
So I am going to go out on a bit of a limb here and suggest that we will see a couple of recruitment trends arising out of the COVID-19 crisis:
Employers will move over to interviewing more candidates on video and many won’t go back as they will discover benefits from this approach.
The ability for candidates to handle the use of video will be taken as a proxy for their general overall level of skill in information technology.
Why Employers Will Love Video Interviewing
I predict that once employers embrace video interviewing they will soon discover that it offers great benefits over traditional interviewing. A key issue will be flexibility. Candidates will be able to more flexibly attend interviews and panel members will also be more flexible in their attendance.
Some video interview systems even allow candidates to lodge their answers to questions independent of the panel, who can then come in and review the recordings later.
This type of approach can be used to ensure that all panel members have reviewed the candidates even if they are not in the same room at the same time, which can be a compliance issue for recruitment in some industries.
Why Your Ability To Use Video Technology Is Important
In a traditional face-to-face job interview, your oral communication is normally assessed by the panel as part of your overall performance. From this assessment, implications are made about your general ability to communicate. These assessments will often be wrong as communication performance in a stressful job interview is often unlikely to correlate with normal day-to-day communication.
In the same vein, you might be the most technology literate candidate but if you are seemingly struggling with the video technology you will probably be judged by the panel, in this case unfairly, that you will have big problems using the technology in the workplace.
So let’s look at how you can turn this potential bias into an advantage for you.
1. Treat A Video Interview the Same As Any Normal Job Interview
The mantra has always been that you should always attend the interview in person if at all possible And there are good reasons for this. So much communication is missed if you are not there live. Particularly body language, which can go a long way to interpreting cues from the interview panel, for e.g. “are they liking my answer right now or not?”
But having worked in online video platforms now for the past four years let me reassure you that the technology is definitely catching up quickly and whilst it will probably never really completely replace an in-person interview. If you use the right technology and the right approach you can definitely come very close, even to the point of being able to see most of the important body language cues.
This is why my first tip has completely nothing to do with the actual medium or technology but a reminder that you should be treating the video interview just the same as any normal job interview.
This, of course, means things like preparing beforehand, finding out the names of the interview panel beforehand, having the appropriate outfit on, combing your hair, and arriving early to the interview.
In relation to arriving early. This will generally mean logging into the video platform a few minutes ahead of time. Say for ten minutes. Depending on what platform the interviewer is using you will normally be placed into some form of waiting room until the panel is ready to see you.
Like most interviews, you can probably safely assume that they will be running behind. Depending on how familiar they are themselves with the technology they may be way behind! Remember this year, in particular, a lot of places may be doing this for the first time.
Whilst you are finding out about the interview panel members’ names also ask about the video platform to be used for the interview. See below.
2. Include the Fact That You Are Conducting A Video Job Interview Into Your Preparation
If you know that your interview is going to be conducted via video it makes sense to actually practice that way. This can be a big advantage for you. Practice answering interview questions using video technology. You can even use something like (my preferred video platform) where you can record your answers and watch them back OR be engaging with an interview coach or colleague online for feedback.
3. Make Sure You Have a Good Set Up
I recommend setting up a room in your house or apartment as your interview practice and actual interview space. If possible use a desktop computer with a fixed camera and either ensure that the inbuilt microphone is suitable or think about getting a USB microphone.
In most cases the inbuilt webcams and speakers of a modern desktop PC or laptop are fine so you should not need to add to these. But if you have something a bit older you may have to upgrade (see below).
I do suggest improving your microphone and speakers over the use of headsets and earplugs and the like. Just because these can be visually distracting and take away from a professional look. For this reason, discrete wireless earbuds are more preferred over anything with wires or which can be more obviously seen.
Make sure this desktop PC is on a desk that allows you to sit at it comfortably with easy access to the mouse, keyboard and some space to put documents down, in case you need to be referring to something during the interview.
If you don’t have a desktop PC then your next best option is a laptop. Again try to sort out an area where you can have this sitting in your house for practice and particularly look at the section about framing below.
A tablet is the next best option. If so, you need to be able to fix it in a position somehow. You definitely don’t want to be holding it selfie-style during an interview.
If at all possible, avoid doing the interview on a smartphone.
Here are some Amazon options for webcams, speakers, and USB mics based upon the assumption that you are stuck at home and drop-shipping is your best option.
USB Mic.
I like Blue Yetis for a USB Mic. You can get cheaper versions but if you are going to upgrade I reckon it’s best to get something with good audio quality.
WebCam.
The Logitech Brio is a good multipurpose WebCam that has the ability to record in 4K and decent inbuilt microphones which can avoid you needing to also purchase a USB microphone.
make sure your face is in the centre of view but they can also see your shoulders and hands.
You should spend some time getting the framing of your video capture correct.
Test your eye level and make sure you are positioned correctly in the frame. While it’s ideal to have your medical school or college degrees or awards on display, they shouldn’t be the sole focus on-camera—you should be!
You don’t want to connect to the conference call only to find that the other participants can’t see you properly or that half your face is cut off onscreen. In addition, having your eye level too high or too low can make it difficult for the other callers to effectively communicate with you for the duration of the conference.
So it’s crucial that you double-check this before you begin. The best positioning is to have your face firmly in the centre of the frame with your torso visible so that your hand gestures can also be observed.
As for the angle, the camera should be placed at your eye level or just above. If you are using a laptop, place something beneath it to raise it until your eyes are at the same level as the camera lens.
5. Declutter Your Background
Make sure your background is uncluttered and professional. Less is more. Get rid of all the family pictures hanging on the wall. The same goes for anything that can make you look unprofessional — clutter, clothes, piles of boxes, and food and beverages.
Sit at your desk and take a selfie or a screenshot of what others see in your background. Or use the inbuilt webcam to guide you.
Remove objects on your desk or on your wall that may detract. If you have windows behind you make sure that the lighting is ok (generally lighting coming from behind will make your face dark which is not ideal). If what’s behind you is something else. Think about whether you need to set up a screen.
6. Check Your Lighting
Lights and angles are as important for video calls as they are for professional photoshoots. As a general rule, avoid fluorescent lights, which can cast unflattering shadows. Avoid overhead lights, too, as they can create dark under-eye shadows.
Place your primary light source behind your camera. This way, the light and the camera point in the same direction. You could also use two light sources behind the camera, one on the right side, one on the left.
7. Make Sure You Have Good Bandwidth
Now is the time to upgrade your bandwidth (if possible) if it’s not great. If that’s not possible consider your options for other things like 4G.
A good way to test whether your bandwidth sufficiency is to try testing the actual platform you are going to use.
8. Practice With Their Technology
You may have a preferred video platform but you will probably not be allowed to use this and be asked to use whatever the employer prefers. Some employers who are well adept at this process will probably send you some information about how you can test out the platform or even arrange a quick time to test it with you.
As mentioned earlier you should try to find out beforehand what platform the interview will be held on.
9. Have a Back-Up Plan If Everything Goes All Wrong
Technology can and does fail. It is important to plan to have some redundancy. In particular, have a backup plan for when the internet fails. Practice setting up a 4G hotspot and being able to switch over quickly in case you need to.
Also, anticipate that the technology that the interviewers are utilising will fall over. Enquire as to whether there is a backup plan, for e.g. switching to a phone call, if so what number should you call in on?
10. Get Their Framing Right
This might be a little harder to do than getting your framing right. But once you log in to the interview check whether you can adequately see all members of the interview panel. They may be in one room or possible also joining remotely.
If someone is too far off in the distance (so that you can’t see their lips move when they talk) you can at least politely enquire whether it’s possible for them to adjust the camera.
11. Stare Into the Camera
A really good tip for making the video interview seem like a real interview is to be aware of where you are looking. Often you are looking at your screen to see who is talking to you. But this may well be then taking your eyes away from your camera.
Try to bring the video frame that you are looking into the centre of your screen so that you can still be looking as directly as possible into the camera. Most webcams have a light to show that they are on. If you stare right at this light it will ensure that you are making eye contact with the other side.
12. Never Blame the Technology
A key rule of interviews is to keep things positive and never make excuses or blame anyone or anything else. This extends to technology. If despite all your and their best efforts the technology is just not working then it’s best to just soldier on in a positive way.
Related Questions.
Question. What’s the Best Platform For Conducting Video Interviews.
Answer. There are now many great platforms for meeting up online. The one I prefer to use is . There’s a range of reasons for this but key amongst these are:
its ease of setting up and use
its integration with many other applications
its reliability
With the paid version of you can also record your sessions.
In the business of modern medicine, there are a few overarching priorities. Primarily, creating a thriving business brand and organizational culture that drives the patient experience. These shifting priorities are now dramatically changing recruiting practices in medicine. If you have not interviewed for a job post for a while, you may well be surprised by some of the medical recruitment trends and what sorts of tasks you will be asked to perform.
Preparation is key during any recruitment process. In this post, we provide a summary of some of the new approaches that you can expect to see regarding the selection process. Some of these advancements in doctor selection processes include the use of psychometric tests to pre-screen candidates, and other forms of technology such as candidate tracking systems with artificial intelligence.
Read on so that you can better understand some of these trends So that when you go for your next job you can present yourself in the best possible light.
Technological Advancements and Specialized Skill Sets
More healthcare recruiters are looking for specialized skill sets and a foothold on modern medical technology. These compelling characteristics can set you apart from the competition. As such, they should be highlighted on your resume and throughout the interview process.
It should come as no surprise that more medical facilities are incorporating technology into their daily operations, from using tablets in lieu of paper charts to centralized HR payroll systems that strive toward improved retention. Showcasing your skills with emerging technologies, such as mobile medicine, applications, and health wearables is attractive to recruiters looking for someone who meets the needs of both the present and the future. As retention is an overarching goal in the face of a doctor shortage, proving your long-term value is a must.
Attention Spans are Decreasing
Crafting a resume is both an art and a science, as well as a process that’s ever-evolving. The best practices of yesteryear are now dated and can cause your resume to be cast aside, despite showcasing years of experience and skills. While there are still many human recruiters who haven’t converted to data-driven hiring and automation, they’re taking a similar approach: a quick scan for keywords to increase pre-screening efficiency.
It’s estimated that the modern recruiter makes a decision about whether or not to interview you within six to eight seconds. Thus, having a shorter, punchier resume will make a bigger impact during the job search process.
Use a resume template that highlights three key areas: your name, the key skills and qualifications the employer is looking for and a personal statement that connects you to the rest of your resume. Avoid including a headshot, there’s plenty of evidence that this will go against you rather than for you. In addition, as previously mentioned, social media plays a significant role in modern healthcare recruiting. Including a headshot takes up valuable real estate on your resume with a superfluous image that’s easy to find online.
As the healthcare industry is facing a doctor shortage, highlighting specialized skills will make your resume more appealing to recruiters. Use a template that frames these or gives them a prime spot on the page.
Value-Based Alignment. Key Medical Recruitment Trends
As healthcare organizations work to build brand awareness that attracts both patients and top talent, assessing value alignment is becoming more popular during the hiring process. You can expect to be asked questions about what you value, your ethics, and your ability to collaborate and cooperate.
Expect questions like:
Tell us about an ethical dilemma you faced and how you handled it.
Tell us about a time you worked with a team and it failed. What would you change?
How do you balance giving quality care while mitigating costs? What steps do you take to improve one aspect without damaging the other?
Value has multi-faceted meanings in the healthcare business. Take time to learn about the organization you’re applying for, their mission statement, their philosophies, philanthropic efforts, etc.
Reading the Digital Footprint
Facing the world with integrity and class is essential in the digital era, especially leading up to the hiring and recruiting process. Employers have been looking at social media for a long time, but now they’re being transparent about their actions. This is especially important to consider in terms of finding value-based alignment and organizational culture.
Before you start the application process, take time to scan your social media, and remove anything that could be viewed as inflammatory or unprofessional. Consider everything from photos of you on vacation to memes and links you’ve shared. It’s also worth adding to your profiles to highlight your extracurriculars that add value to your career, such as volunteering and continued education.
Using Personality and Skills Assessment Tools
Skills assessments and personality tests will become a staple for the modern physician hiring process. These tools have been growing in popularity in the business world, and you can expect to see them in medicine as well.
Using these tools allows the recruiter to assess your fit with the organization and challenges you to show evidence about what you say about yourself in your resume and interview.
Situational Judgement Tests.
One of the tests you can expect to see is a Situational Judgment Test (SJT). These are now being used by a number of Colleges in Australia, including the College of Ophthalmology (RANZCO) and College of General Practice (RACGP)
Consider an SJT to be similar to your virtual first day at work. During your SJT, you’ll be presented with various realistic and hypothetical scenarios and asked to present the best possible response. This tech-driven tool uses an algorithm to assess your answers and compares you to industry and organization-specific benchmarks.
The University of Sydney administers a Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI) to applicants, which is a great example of this tool in practice. The SJT is used to evaluate essential soft skills, like empathy and integrity. The UCAT is another prime example of an SJT in action.
As this sort of evaluation becomes more prevalent in healthcare hiring practices, it’s worth revisiting the ethical expectations of the contemporary medical practice.
Hogan Personality Inventory.
Personality-based tests, like the Hogan Personality Inventory assessment, also help organizations determine your fit for the role and their culture. This test is now being used by the Australasian College of Dermatologists for its selection of trainees. This Hogan Personality Inventory asks questions that determine how well you work with others and how you motivate yourself, then analyze the results to see if you would be a fit with the organization.
Being prepared is the key to landing the job you want, and when it comes to getting hired, knowledge is power.
The Birkman Method
The Birkman Method is a rising star in the healthcare recruiting world. This personality assessment tool provides deeper insights into someone’s perceptions and reactions to events. What makes it so appealing to healthcare recruiters is that it allows for a deep dive into how someone deals with stress. With just shy of 300 questions, it’s not hard to see how detailed the results can be.
As a doctor, stress is a part of the job. The Birkman Method not only helps recruiters identify any red flags with self-management, but it also helps identify potential leaders and strong interpersonal skills. These are invaluable insights in the face of a doctor shortage.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has long been used in the corporate world as a valuable assessment tool. More recently, however, the healthcare industry is seeing the benefit of using this approach to screen candidates.
An overarching theme in medical hiring is looking beyond qualifications and hard skills to soft skills and interpersonal communication abilities. Professionalism and bedside manner is what will set one candidate apart from the next.
The MBTI is being used in medical schools as well as candidate screening to highlight burn out risks, adaptability, and communication skills. Be proactive and take the assessment for yourself.
Related Questions
Question. How can I build a resume that highlights my name and skills?
Question. How can I brush up on the ethical expectations and best practices to prepare for an SJT?
There’s no harm in reviewing the medical Code of Conduct to brush up on ethical expectations. It’s like taking a driving test: even if you’ve been driving for years and follow the rules of the road, refreshing your knowledge will help you feel calm and confident during your evaluation.
Question. Are cover letters still relevant in digital recruiting and hiring?
Yes. Unless the organization you’re applying to specifies that they don’t want a cover letter, it’s always worth including a brief introduction to your resume. Use this opportunity to make a connection and create intrigue. Check out our blog post on writing a cover letter here.
Are you a doctor preparing for an upcoming job interview. Or are you contemplating your next career move? For many doctors, job interviews are a regular and even annual process. For some doctors, they can act as an annoyance (i.e. why do I need to reinterview for my job). For other doctors, they can be nerve-wracking (i.e. I really would like this prized training or consultant post). Very few doctors would actually say that they enjoy the process of a job interview. Yet job interviews are crucial for our career progression. Here are some top tips for doctor job interviews.
As someone who has literally interviewed well over a thousand doctors for jobs and now prepared over 500 doctors with interview training and interview coaching, I’d like to give you a hand by outlining my top 11 tips for preparing for a doctor job interview. AND. At the bottom of this post (to encourage you to read the post) I have also placed a link to some free training you can take to prepare you for the doctor job interview.
So first, let’s look at the most important tips for how you should best prepare for a doctor job interview. Unsurprisingly, practice and preparation is the most important tip that you can implement to ensure your success at your next doctor job interview. But try not to make this practice unfocused. It’s important to understand that there are key aspects and components of any job interview and it is much more effective if you spend time practising each of these. This is the same principle for how high-performance athletes achieve success in their sporting careers.
Okay, let’s dig in a bit deeper now to these tips starting with the most obvious starting point. Practice and Preparation.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #1
Practising Is The Number One Tip For Preparing For Your Next Doctor Job Interview.
It should go without saying but the absence of practice and preparation generally leads to underperformance and is the number one reason for job candidates being unhappy with the result of their interview.
Yet. Surprisingly many doctors do not practice or prepare for job interviews. In fact a poll, we are running on a related post indicates that well over 2/3 of doctors either did not prepare at all or only prepared the night before for their last job interview!
Think about that a bit more. What this means is that if you actually do some practice you are probably boosting your chances significantly and likely elevating yourself to the top third of candidates. Just by taking the process seriously.
But how long should you practice for a doctor job interview? The answer to this question is a bit more complicated than you would initially think. But in general, the best advice would be to give yourself at least a few weeks and try to do a number of actual interview practice sessions in that space of time. At least some of these practice sessions should incorporate some form of feedback.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #2
Make Sure You Practice The Smart Way.
But it’s not just about the amount of practice. It’s how you practice. When a high performing athlete attempts to improve their performance they don’t just do more competitions or play more games. They do things smarter. They engage in what is called deliberate practise (usually with a coach). They break the components of their sport down to more definable elements and concentrate on improving one of these at a time.
The same should apply to your interview preparation and practice. You need to spend time mastering the various elements of an interview. Elements such as:
beginning the interview
talking about yourself
providing examples
answering hypothetical questions
not getting flustered by an unanticipated question
giving each panel member attention
wrapping up the interview
Trying to practice doing all of these things at once is going to lead you to become overwhelmed and likely to give up. Conversely, the point where you feel bored in practising one of these elements is probably the best indication that you should move on to another element.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #3
Read The Position Description Several Times.
It’s surprising how many doctors tell me that they are uncertain about what the panel is actually looking for. When the answer is actually staring you in the face.
Best employment practice (which is often backed up by strict policies and guidelines) guides selection panels to ask questions looking for evidence that meets the advertised selection criteria for the role.
So if you understand the job description and, in particular, the selection criteria. You will understand what the panel is looking for. And be far less surprised by the sorts of questions you get.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #4
Prepare Examples Based On The Selection Criteria.
Trust me on this one. You are much less likely to be thrown by an interview question if you have taken the time to prepare an example that fits each of the selection criteria.
At a bare minimum, you will at least have something relevant-ish to talk about whilst you are trying to work out exactly what they are asking in that curveball question.
But more likely your answer to any question will now start with the phrase “Yes, I can actually think of an example that demonstrates that particular issue”.
Of course. Not all interview questions directly ask you for an example. But even if it’s a hypothetical question it’s rare for the panel to knock back an actual real-world example that shows your competency in that particular area.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #5
Practice Common Questions.
Following on from the above point it’s important to practice common questions that generally come up in the interview. Medical job interview practices are remarkably stable. I generally see the same types of questions being asked across various jobs and consistently across time as well. A good starting point is to find out from past candidates what they have been asked before.
Make sure you are prepared to answer particularly common questions like:
Can you give an example of work conflict?
What would you do if your colleague was upset?
How have you prepared for the role? and
Do you have any questions for us?
With the help of past candidates, we have collected over 600 past interview questions in our interview question bank.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #6
Prepare For The Most Common Starting Question.
Without a doubt, in the majority of most doctor job panel interviews, the most common opening question is some version of providing the panel with an overview of your strengths and fitness for the role.
Most commonly asked in a very lazy way “Tell Us About Yourself?”
Even if you are participating in a multiple mini interview process there will be stations and questions where you need to be able to talk succinctly to your strengths and fitness for the role. So it’s important to be able to answer this type of question well.
There are a number of methods for doing this. Most notably the CAMP method. But it’s important to understand and practice these frameworks well before applying them.
Many doctors forget that before you even open your mouth to answer a question, there are lots of things that happen in the interview, which can definitely affect the outcome (see below). One of these is your ability to engage the panel in positive body language.
The easiest way to do this is to perfect using your smile in the interview. A well-placed smile at the start of the interview will not only convey an aura of positivity, but it will also help you feel more relaxed at the start of the process. And might just also trigger a reciprocated smile from some or all of the panel members.
Bearing in mind that many panel members make their minds up about candidates in the first few seconds. It’s so much harder to dislike someone if you are smiling at them.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #8
Get All The Other Details Out Of The Way Early.
Another way of being more relaxed about your upcoming interview is to handle all those interview-related matters early so you don’t have to stress about them and can concentrate on your actual interview preparation.
Things like:
what outfit you will wear
working out how to get to the interview (travel options, parking options)
what pieces of paperwork you need to take with you
finding out the names of panel members
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #9
Don’t Arrive Too Early.
It’s obviously important to not be late for your interview. But did you know that you can also reduce the result by arriving too early?
Arriving more than 30 minutes could mean that you are bumping into other candidates who are ahead of you in the interview schedule, increasing your anxiety. It could also annoy the interview panel or secretary because they feel that they have to entertain you or offer you a coffee.
If offered a coffee, politely decline.
Better yet. If you do arrive a bit early. Check-in at the desk to let them know you have arrived. But then tell them that you are going to stretch your legs for a bit.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #10
Take Your Time In the Interview.
Doctor job interviews, particularly the trainee doctor ones, can seem and actually be quite short! So the tendency is to try to rush to ensure that you maximise your time.
This, however, can be a real error as it often leads to a response that the panel interprets as unsophisticated, rambling and unfiltered.
It is still possible to give sharp succinct answers if you prepare properly and learn how to provide structure to your responses. More often than not the panel are looking for broad principles rather than detail.
Top Tips for Doctor Job Interviews #11
Ask For Feedback At The End Of The Interview.
Asking for feedback after the interview process is inevitably unsatisfying. The panel has usually forgotten the details of your interview by that time. And all they have at their disposal normally is a bunch of handwritten notes, which they may feel uncomfortable interpreting for you.
The best time to ask for feedback is at the actual end of the interview. You might choose to use this approach as your final question to the panel. If so try to be specific, ask if there was a particular question you did badly on. If there was, perhaps there’s an opportunity to add to your answer.
Asking for feedback at the end signals that you are both interested in and open to feedback in order to improve. Which is generally considered a good employee character trait.
Need More Help Preparing For Your Next Doctor Job Interview?
With the above tips, you should be able to more effectively prepare for your next interview. But if you are looking for more guidance and help to even better prepare we mentioned above that there is some free training currently available.
If you would like to take advantage of this training just click on the link below.
Related Questions.
Question. If I am thinking about getting a coach to help me with my interview preparation what should I be looking for?
Answer. A coach is a really good idea for interview preparation. In fact, one of the problems that often cause candidates to seek me out is that in past attempts they have relied on other types of people for feedback, such as family and colleagues. Often this type of feedback can be misleading and worsen your performance. There are lots to consider in choosing a good coach. Price is obviously one. But like in most situations you generally get the quality that you pay for. So don’t just choose the cheapest coach. Look for coaches who can provide good testimonials and references from past clients. Look for coaches who have had actual experience in coaching others for the type of interview you are facing. Coaches who offer a free or discounted initial session are often a good choice as they wouldn’t generally do this if they were not confident in the service they provide. Finally don’t just choose a coach in your local area. There are actually not that many really good interview coaches in a place like Australia. You are far more likely to find a good coach by looking for online coaching options. Online coaching has a number of benefits over attending a live session. For one it eliminates travel. Secondly, often you can get more convenient booking times. And finally, you generally can also get a record of your session to review later.
Question. Are there any good places to find interview questions to practice on?
Answer. You will generally find that if you look online and ask within your networks that you will be able to get your hands on some interview questions to prepare on. It’s important however that you do vet these questions. Make sure that they are relevant to the selection criteria and other information about the selection process. Questions from last year are likely to still be based around the same process. But questions from 5 years ago are probably not. To help you get started we have collected over 900 questions from a range of job interview types in Medicine on our AdvanceMed Question Bank
Recently we ran a poll as part of some free training that we have been offering to doctors to help them better prepare for a doctor job interview. We ask the participants in this training what their approach to their last job interview was. So far over 100 doctors have registered for this training and the results are very interesting.
Only 11% of participants indicated that they just winged the interview (i.e. did no preparation) which is a good result. But 53% of participants indicated that they had only done some preparation the night before, versus equal parts having done one practice session 18% or more than one practice 18%. We have added the same poll to the top of this post and would be interested to see what your approach was last time.
So How Long Should You Take to Prepare For a Doctor Job Interview?
As someone who has coached hundreds of doctors through the interview process, I can definitely vouch for the fact that doing some amount of practice for the interview is much more likely to help you succeed. But the question is how long and how often should you prepare for your next doctor job interview? The answer to this question is a bit complicated but in general, the best advice would be to give yourself at least a few weeks and try to do a number of actual interview practice sessions in that space of time. At least some of these practice sessions should incorporate some form of feedback.
But let’s unpack this a little bit more. Because there are definitely a few ways of practicing smarter so that if you have only a little bit of time then your practice can be more effective and if you have heaps of time you will get the maximum out of your endeavours.
We will start by looking at why you should practice and then how you should practice.
Why Should You Practice For Your Next Doctor Job Interview?
I’m assuming that most of you are probably sold on the idea of some sort of practice for your next medical job interview and will skip over this section to the next heading.
A question I would pose if you are not sold on interview preparation is why? Perhaps you have always been good at job interviews. There are some lucky ones who are. Or perhaps more likely you have been lucky up until this point.
Did you study and prepare for examinations in medical school? For most, the answer to this question is yes.
I’d like you to think about a job interview as similar to an important clinical exam. In many ways, its even more important than an exam as it will likely determine the speed and progression of your career. A job interview is a performance. And performances are skills. Skills need development to get to a high level but also top up to sustain them.
The reason so many doctors struggle with doctor job interviews is not that they haven’t had the skills in the past to do well at an interview (for example a clinical examination). But we don’t sustain this skill over time. Because we don’t really need it all the time.
So, unless you are regularly interviewing for jobs. Which thankfully is not the majority of us. You won’t be getting the type of skills practice you need. Unless of course, you do some practice of your own.
Exactly How Much Practice Do You Need?
The answer to this question is a bit complicated. Because it depends on what type of practice you are doing. You should obviously be practising answering questions. But there are many ways of doing this. Apart from establishing that some practice is better than no or little practice, there is no real empirical evidence out there to guide us as to what a good amount of practice is for job interviews.
If you are looking for a good rule of thumb based on my personal observations about 6 practice sessions of an hour each spaced a few days apart is a good medium to head for. This is based on about 100 coaching engagements where I was providing about 3 of these 6 sessions. So if you are practising without a coach you may need a few more.
Can You Practice Too Much for a Doctor Job Interview?
Absolutely you can over practice for an interview. But in my experience few doctor job candidates get to this point. If you are practising regularly you will eventually get to the point where you feel a bit bored about the whole thing. This may be the point where you want to slow down your process a little. As regular practice will help you overcome the anxiety of performance but if you are too practised this will show across in the interview. And you won’t have that small amount of anticipation anxiety that most people use to get themselves alert and awake for a good performance.
However, be wary that you are not just boring yourself because you are going over the same processes over and over again.
Which leads me to.
What Exactly Should You Practice for a Doctor Job Interview?
Questions obviously. But consider what types of questions. And also consider practising components of these questions so that you get better at structuring your answers.
You should be able to anticipate what types of questions you might get from a doctor job interview by reviewing the selection criteria.
Be strategic about what bits of what questions you practice. Use deliberative practice and feedback methods to accelerate your performance. When you notice that you are only making fractional gains. That’s the time to move on to practising another bit of another question.
What Forms of Feedback Should You Incorporate In Your Doctor Job Interview Preparation?
You have to be careful about who you choose to help you with your coaching. For a real case study wake-up call see the video below I made about Kevin’s experience.
There’s a lot of risk in asking friends, colleagues, and family to review your performance. They are cheering for you. So it will be hard for them to give you the critical feedback you need. Plus. They don’t really know what the panel is looking for.
My advice is to choose either someone who has sat on many similar panels before or think about hiring an interview coach.
Also, consider recording your sessions. So you can watch them back. Try to do one question or one part of a question and then force yourself to review the performance straight away. This is playing on the immediacy of feedback. It’s what high-performance athletes do. And it works.
Related Questions.
Question. What Is The Best Way To Record Your Interview Preparation?
You can record yourself easily on an iPhone or similar mobile device. However, it’s best to not be holding these “selfie-style’. Try seeing if you can rest it somewhere so you can be sitting relaxed. Ideally, you want to frame your shot so you can see from the waist up. Just like a real interviewer would see you.
If you want to step it up a bit. You can also get a free which allows you to record yourself in a meeting for up to 40 minutes. This is ideal for both live feedback sessions with say a coach or to review the recording later (and even send it to someone else for review). Zoom is the system we use for our coaching at AdvanceMed
Question. What Should I Consider In Selecting An Interview Coach?
There are a number of things to consider. Price is obviously one thing. But like in many endeavours you get what you pay for. So it shouldn’t be the only consideration. Actual knowledge of the doctor job interview process is quite desirable. Look for a strong track record and also consider that there are quite a few advantages of video coaching over face-to-face coaching. For more, we have written a blog post on this topic for you.
Question. How Can I Best Get Feedback On My Actual Interview Performance?
The best time to ask for feedback is at the end of the actual interview if you are brave enough. Check out this video we made about this topic.
Have you ever had an interview failure before? Did you really suck in your interview! Well, this post is about how not to suck in the job interview. As an Executive and Career Coach, I have helped many candidates prepare for job interviews as well as sat in on quite a few (both sides of the table) myself. So I wanted to share with you some tips for avoiding an #epicfail in your next job interview.
What’s the best way to avoid interview failure and sucking in the job interview? Well, there are shortcuts and hacks of course. But like everything that is important in life. The number one way to avoid failure and succeed in your next job interview is ensuring that you have put in sufficient practice and preparation.
The rest of this post will be dedicated to exploring this in more detail.
First, off the rank, let’s talk about how to enter their job interview room and not suck in the first few minutes. One of the best ways to suck in the first few crucial minutes of the interview is to do something awkward when you enter the room. The most common trap here is the handshake.
No one wants to shake hands with a limp-wristed interview candidate. Or even worse, see someone stumbling over a desk or a chair to try and extend their hand knocking over a jug of water. That’s a really great way to get off to a bad start. You’re going to be nervous from the get-go and the panel members are going to think that you lack confidence.
So how could we not suck at that moment? Well, my first tip here is do you really need to shake their hand in the interview? Often it’s best to take the lead of the chair of the interview panel, and the interview panel members themselves. If they don’t offer a hand. Maybe don’t offer yours. Particularly if they are set up behind the big desk or it means that you are going to have to shake more than five or six hands and a big panel interview.
But if you are planning to go in with a power shake or really good handshake, why not practice that beforehand? If you’re one of those people who’s not used to shaking hands in social situations, and you’re planning on shaking hands in the interview, then incorporate this into your practice.
Not Having An Example
The second great way you suck in an interview is to not have a good example when you’re asked for it.
In most interviews for jobs these days, there’s going to be at least one question where they say, can you tell me about a time when you did…And then it’s going to be over to you.
What the panel is looking for are areas and examples of your past work or possibly even something in your education or even outside of education and work, where you can show that you’ve risen to that sort of challenge in the past before.
Now it’s extremely awkward if you have not got an example of prepared and there is a big long pause and silence while you try to think of something.
How can you know what sort of examples you need to prepare for the interview? Well if you actually go and read through the job description, you’ll find some selection criteria which give you a lot of information about the sort of examples of past work that they may want to hear from you. These would generally be about things like meeting success targets or in a team resolving conflict, and using communication skills. It depends on what the selection criteria are for the job, but if you read through those selection criteria, you can then think about your own career, your own work, your life, your academic success. And you can then think about the sort of examples that might be needed in the interview and be prepared for the day.
Gender Stereotypes
The next sure-fire way to suck at an interview is to fall for Gender stereotypes.
What do I mean about gender stereotypes? These days, most interview panels are normally comprised of both male and female members of the existing team. And they may throw a question to you, which is a hypothetical situation about working in a team and you start referring to a certain team member as she or him. But they actually haven’t given you that information.
So a classic example is inside the world of medicine where they might ask you about resolving a conflict between yourself as a doctor and a member of the nursing staff. And you start referring to that member of the nursing staff as she or her or a lady. That’s a sure-fire way of putting yourself out of alignment with any member of the panel who’s got any appreciation for gender diversity in the workplace.
So the solution here is to avoid referring to people as she and he based on stereotypes.
Performing in a job interview is a skill. But the problem with the job interview as a skill is that it is only a skill that you very rarely occasionally use and the rest of the time it’s meaningless.
Dr Anthony Llewellyn | aka The Career Doctor
Talking Too Much
The next great way to suck at a job interview is actually talking too much.
What do I mean by talking too much?
In interviews, you can talk for too long in terms of your answers. You can normally tell this because you find yourself rambling on rather than being succinct and giving an organized response. Or, you can talk too much about yourself.
When you talk too long and you talk about yourself, that means that you are not talking about the actual job you’re applying for, the organization that you want to join, the interviewers themselves, and the team that you are intending to join. You are also not talking about the teams that you’ve worked within the past and the connections you might have to other people that might be helpful in the role.
This is all important stuff as it sells you to the panel. Far too often I hear people talking about themselves in “I terms” rather than “We terms” in relation to the successes they’ve had in their career
You see the panel may be looking for someone brilliant, but they also don’t want someone who’s going to dominate them. They want someone who can come in and brilliantly contribute to the hardworking and high performance of the existing team.
Silly Questions
The next way to suck at the job interview is to ask a silly question.
At the end of each interview there’s usually a time where the panel says something like:
“Those are all the official questions we have for you, but do you have any questions for the panel?”
How often have we managed to completely unravel a really good interview process by asking a silly, or stupid, or dumb question at the end of the interview?
Examples of silly questions are questions that show you really haven’t done your basic research. Such as what are the rosters for the job, or where will I exactly be working, or who will I be reporting to? Or questions that might give the impression that it’s not really the job you are interested in, but something else. Like questions about salary.
There are a number of ways of correcting this problem and avoiding sucking right at the end of the interview. One is to think about whether you really need to ask a question at all.
You can often just answer that last question by saying something like. “No thanks. I’ve had enough opportunities to ask questions already. Thank you very much for the opportunity”.
If you are really intending on asking a question then do your research and prepare a question that will dazzle them or wow them.
At the end of each interview there’s usually a time where the panel says something like: “Those are all the official questions we havefor you, but do you have any questions for the panel?” How often have we managed to completely unravel a really good interview process by asking a silly, or stupid or dumb question at the end of the interview?
Dr Anthony Llewellyn | aka the Career Doctor
Can You Really Wing It?
Can you tell what all these points are leading up to?
If you have had a bad interview performance before, you’ve probably thought of a few reasons why it went wrong. It might’ve been that it was a high-pressure environment and you just got stressed. It might just be that you felt you didn’t “click with the interview panel”. It might be that they asked you all the wrong questions. Or maybe you just had a bad day.
What do all these reasons or excuses have in common?
They all reflect the fact that you probably didn’t prepare and practice for the interview.
Performing in a job interview is a skill. But the problem with the job interview as a skill is that it is only a skill that you very rarely occasionally use and the rest of the time it’s meaningless.
And the problem with skills that we don’t use very often is that they degrade quite quickly. We’re not regularly practicing our interview performance. So without regular practice and preparation in the lead-up to your interview, your interview performance is likely to suck.
So the number one tip for not sucking in the job interview is to spend the time to practice and prepare for your job interview.
Related Questions.
Question. Are There Things I Should Prepare Prior to the Interview?
Answer. There are a number of things you should try to prepare prior to the interview. These range from doing your job research, to researching the panel members, as well as more practical things like putting together a portfolio of your work, making sure you have an appropriate outfit, and working out how you will travel to the interview. We have summed up a few of the questions you should ask yourself in this article.
Question. If I Think I May Need Some Coaching For the Interview. What Should I Consider?
Coaching is a really excellent way to maximize your interview skills practice in a short period of time. A good coach will not hold you accountable for your practice schedule but also help make improvements to your technique and interview responses. However, not all coaches are the same and a general rule of thumb is you probably pay for what you get. We have summarised some of the considerations in this article.
As a means for helping other doctors, at AdvanceMed we collect an open bank of real interview questions. These are questions that have been asked in a formal doctor interview process. Our community members regularly submit questions to this bank (thanks heaps by the way!). Not infrequently the questions that come through raise an eyebrow for me and I do wonder whether we are in fact providing a service to anonymously “out” weird, stupid and dumb interview questions and by proxy those that come up with them.
Here’s a recent example from a Pathology trainee interview:
If you can invite 3 people for dinner, who would they be? You can’t name family members.
So what exactly is wrong with this type of question and what makes it a “dumb” interview question? Whilst there is no issue with coming up with a challenging question for the job interview. The question does still have to make sense and allow candidates to provide an answer that helps you to judge them by the selection criteria that you have set out.
Context Is Important.
Everything is contextual in recruitment. So a question about inviting guests to dinner might well be very relevant for say an event management position, where one of the Key Result Areas is the ability to come up with a fresh program of speakers for the event sponsor.
But the selection criteria for most medical jobs that I have seen don’t include an event management function. They generally talk about behaviours such as demonstrating good clinical knowledge and skills, good communication, good teamwork, being professional, demonstrating ongoing learning, and practicing cultural respect and safety.
Maybe at a real stretch, a question about inviting people to dinner could infer something about how one goes about forming a team. But I can think of a dozen betters ways of constructing a question that gets to that issue.
Unfortunately, sometimes the doctors who attend interview panels in medicine think that because they are intelligent and perhaps have attended a one day course in recruitment and selection that they are all of a sudden an expert in human resources and recruitment and that it’s time for a “wacky interview question to challenge the candidates.”
Perhaps they may also feel that a creative thinking type of question gives them a different perspective on the candidate? Some useful insight into their personality or communication or teamwork style. But guess what? There are actual validated psychometric employment and other psychological tests that do a much better job of this than one interview question.
Stick To The Script.
I’d encourage all doctors and other professionals involved in the candidate selection process to stick to the script. By which I mean stick with the principle that each interview question should form a relationship to at least one of the selection criteria for the job.
I say this for three main reasons:
This principle actually makes it easier to design good questions and establish rating criteria
The information you gain from these questions from each candidate will be far more useful to you
Most importantly you are also avoiding getting into the tricky area of problems with discrimination and equal employment opportunity
Yes. That’s right. If you can’t prove how your selection process relates to the actual requirements of the position then you open yourself up to the possibility of candidates challenging the process as being unfair.
Good Job Interview Questions. Challenging Questions That You Should Ask.
Ok. So you have looked at the list of questions you are asking for the job and they are predictable and the same as last year. You would still like to be able to stretch the candidates a bit. What can you do?
Here are 5 questions that you can probably use in your next medical job interview. Bearing in mind that you do still need to ensure that they line up with the selection criteria.
Good Interview Question Number One.
What Single Project Or Task Would You Consider Your Most Important Career Accomplishment to Date?
Acknowledgements to Loud Adler for this question. This one question can tell a lot about a job candidate in medicine. Starting with whether they value outcomes and achievements in their work. It can also provide insights into how they go about accomplishing success, how they manage their time and incorporate feedback into their process, whether they get chosen to work on challenges and why, and how they work with others to marshall resources and create a common cause.
There are so many supplementary questions that can be explored off the back of this one single question.
And this question is easily related to the selection criteria of most medical jobs. For example:
Demonstrated ability to work effectively & harmoniously in a multidisciplinary team.
Demonstrated good organisational, time management and problem-solving skills within a complex clinical environment.
Proven commitment to ongoing learning and professional development.
Ability to contribute to quality improvement and / or clinical safety in the hospital.
Good Interview Question Number Two.
Tell Us About A Difficult Day You Had At Work
This is one of my current favourites. Once again it requires the candidate to dig into their career and choose an example of how they have performed. This time under difficult circumstances. If the example doesn’t seem all that difficult. Then this may imply that the candidate has not been truly tested. If the example blows you away it probably means that they are up for the challenge. But its also what they found difficult and how they handled it that matters most. For some, it might be difficulties in communicating or dealing with under-resourcing. For others, it might be difficulties with the emotional impact of work. Whatever the circumstances look for evidence of personal insight, coping strategies, advocating and escalating for help and of course, relying on one’s team.
This question is easily related to selection criteria such as:
Demonstrated good organisational, time management and problem-solving skills within a complex clinical environment.
Ability to work independently in a supervised environment and work in a multidisciplinary team
Good Interview Question Number Three.
Tell Us About Some Research You Discovered That Affected Your Practice.
Most candidates can talk the talk when it comes to using evidence in their clinical work. But it is surprising how many are stumped when asked to actually recall an example where they have used evidence to alter theirs and their team’s approach to care.
This question applies to selection criteria where you are wanting to see the demonstration of up to date clinical knowledge and practice (which is pretty much in every doctor position description), but often there is also a criterion about demonstrated commitment to learning and research. So it can address two criteria at the same time.
Good Interview Question Number Four.
What Does This Position Offer You And Why Do You Want To Leave Your Current Role?
A much-overlooked question is why a candidate is applying for the position. Granted in many doctor interviews its a matter of progressing from one stage of training to the next. However, as we go up the seniority ranks there tends to be less turnover. If a doctor is a genuine asset then usually their manager is trying really hard to keep them. So there needs to be a good positive reason offered in terms of things like:
desiring more responsibility
experiences that are not on offer in the current post
Any sign of negativity towards the current employer or service should be treated with caution. Strong candidates will be more sanguine about their current experience and less likely to say anything negative regardless of how bad the experience has been.
This question is often a better alternative to asking candidates to either “Tell Us About Yourself?” or “Tell Us Why You Are Good For the Job?” It invites a candidate to address any or all of the selection criteria. Although in Medicine, most will tend to focus on the clinical requirements first in their answer.
Good Interview Question Number Five.
Could You Demonstrate To Us The Following…
The last good question is in fact not a question but a test. And the test will again depend on the position and the selection criteria.
In the majority of jobs, which includes medicine, there is normally a key task that is important for the role and which can be simulated in an interview environment. Successful demonstration of this task will normally address selection criteria around clinical capability as well as often communication skills.
The “Skills Test” is used surprisingly sparingly in medical job interviews in my experience. But often very easy to deploy and quite useful.
In a past role, I recruited doctors to fill Resident Medical Officer posts in mental health. The role required a basic ability and knowledge of mental health (we could and did teach the rest) but importantly required the doctors to have up to date medical skills.
We would give each candidate a couple of ECG readings with a scenario which demonstrated common abnormal findings. This test was remarkably discriminating and quite reassuring in terms of hiring doctors who were able to interpret basic ECGs.
Some other examples where a Skills Test may be relevant:
Resident demonstrating how to complete a pathology form or prescription
Surgical trainee demonstrating a knot tieing technique
Surgical trainee consenting interview member for surgical procedure
Radiology trainee interpreting and completing a report on a Chest X-Ray
Psychiatry trainee watching a short video of a patient and reporting mental status findings
Advanced Trainee being asked to give a presentation on a recent update in their field
Consultant being asked to prioritize a ward round list
Related Questions About Dumb Interview Questions.
Question. Are There Any Interview Questions That A Panel Is Not Allowed To Ask Me?
Answer. Yes. There are. These are called discriminatory or illegal questions. There are laws in Australia and most other countries to prevent panel selecting people on the basis of background, preferences or characteristics which do not relate to the ability to perform the role. We have a post about this here.
It’s been a bit of a peak period for interview coaching the last few months. One question that I find that I am often being asked at the end of an interview coaching program by a candidate is: “Is there anything I should be asking about before the interview?”. So what are the sorts of questions to ask before a job interview?
There are definitely a number of key questions you should be getting the answers to prior to going into your job interview. For some of these questions, you should seek the answer from the person coordinating the recruitment. They will include the length of the interview, the format of the interview, the names and positions of the interview panel members, and whether you need to prepare anything for the interview.
For the rest of these questions, you should be seeking the answers from yourself, and possibly your interview coach if you have one. They will include answers to what is the panel looking for, do you have any weaknesses in relation to the job, and do you have the right examples prepared for the panel.
Let’s go over this in a bit more detail. Starting with questions you can ask of the recruiter and then questions you should be answering yourself.
Questions to Ask Before a Job Interview – Question to Ask the Recruiter.
I always recommend if possible that you check in with the person coordinating the recruitment a few days ahead of time. Some recruitment coordinators are very organized in providing you with information about the process. But more often than not you can find out more by being courteous and respectful.
Remember also that this person is often also an executive assistant working with the chair of the panel. So it helps to be making a good impression. Because panel chairs often do ask about whether candidates were polite or not.
Here are some questions to ask before a job interview of the recruiter.
Confirm the Details of the Interview.
Make sure you confirm the details of your interview. Because times and locations do change and sometimes can be wrong. Especially if the interview is being done across countries and time zones. How early should you arrive? Is there any paperwork that needs to be gone through prior to the interview?
Find Out the Names of the Panel Members.
Quite often interview panels are being pulled together at the last minute. So checking a couple of days beforehand is usually the best time to be able to find out their names. I think this is one of the most important questions to be asked as it is very difficult, if not impossible, to remember the names of interviewers if you are just introduced to them during the interview.
Find out the position of each panel member and do your research on them. What is their role, profession, and what are their interests? This will help you to tailor your question responses effectively.
How Long Does the Interview Go For?
Ask about the length of the interview. How many questions will there be in total? This helps you to know how long or short your answers should be.
Is There Anything You Should Prepare for the Interview?
Some interview processes involve getting you to prepare a presentation as the first question or coming in early to review the interview questions. It’s good to know about these things as early as possible.
Is There Anything You Should Bring for the Interview?
The interview is often the time when panels will want to view your credentials and 100 points of identification and other documents like working with children checks. You should also ask if it’s ok to bring things with you to the interview. I always like to bring a portfolio of things to look at and refer to during the interview. Having the job selection criteria to look at can be particularly useful when dealing with strange questions from the panel.
How Many Candidates Are Being Interviewed?
You may think that this is a question where you are unlikely to get a response. But recruiters and interview panels can be surprisingly candid about these sorts of questions. And it helps to know your chances going in.
Its also often possible to work this out based on the length of the individual interview and the total time allotted.
If it’s a position with multiple openings try to also find out how many people the panel is wishing to hire.
If the Interview Is a Video Interview Is It Possible to Do a Test?
Many interviews are conducted these days using video. Usually, you are asked to go to a link on the web using a browser on your computer. It’s a good idea to find out details about the system being used beforehand. And if possible to test it out on your setup as well as trying to connect to another location to ensure that you have the right equipment and appropriate amount of internet bandwidth.
Questions to Ask Before a Job Interview – Questions to Ask Yourself
Arguably even more important than having full knowledge of the interview process is having full knowledge of yourself. If you put yourself through your paces before the interview you are much more likely to succeed.
So here are some questions to ask before a job interview of yourself.
Do I Understand What They Are Looking For?
It may seem obvious. But between lodging that application and doing all that preparation you may have forgotten exactly what it is the panel is looking for. Review the selection criteria that came with the job description. Check out the role description and key responsibilities. Make sure you understand what competencies they are looking for so you can talk about how your own competencies demonstrate that you are a good candidate.
Can I Paint A Compelling Picture Of Why I Am the Best Person for the Job?
Most panel interviews start with a question along the lines of “Why have you applied for the job?” or “What makes you a good candidate?.” Make sure you have an answer to this question. What are the 3 key strengths that you bring that not only meet but exceed their expectations? Use examples and storytelling to paint a compelling picture.
Have I Anticipated Any Key Weaknesses?
The panel will not just be interested in any strengths you may bring to the role. They will be interested in any areas of weakness. Overall they will be generally cautious about giving someone who has significant weaknesses the job. Even if that is balanced out by significant strengths.
So it’s important that you have honestly considered whether you are truly weak in any particular area and have a plan for addressing this weakness.
For example, if the role calls for you to conduct research as part of the position. But you haven’t done any real research. Then you need to be prepared to talk about how you have other skills that would translate to this requirement and mean that you would not necessarily be starting from scratch.
Have I Thought About What Questions They Will Ask?
If you have been doing interview practice you probably have been thinking about what questions will be asked. But be careful that you are not just practising old questions that are based on outdated selection criteria.
If you have not done any preparation at this point you should at least be going through the position description and in particular the selection criteria and coming up with at least one question for each of these.
Have I Talked to Current Incumbents?
A commonly overlooked but easy thing to do in your preparation is to talk to actual people who are doing the actual job that you are going for. These people can give you all sorts of insights into the key challenges of the role and phrases such as:
“Well, when I was talking to one of the current doctors working in the role they mentioned some key things to watch out for in the first month were…”
Will go a long way with the panel.
Current incumbents can often also give you vital insights into the selection process.
Do I Know What Sort of Questions I Need to Ask?
Perhaps the final thing to think about is whether you have any questions about the job that needs answering. There is normally a period at the end of the interview when the official questions have been asked where you have a chance to ask your own questions.
It’s important that you don’t blow your interview by asking a question to which you have already been given the answer or which doesn’t show that you have put in your research.
On the other hand, asking a really insightful question can finish off the process on a high. It’s best to have prepared these questions beforehand rather than just winging it on the day.
Related Questions.
Question. Is There A Good Approach to the Final Interview Question.
Answer. Yes, there is. This is a common “question” that I get asked about. But it depends on your individual circumstances. In many situations, it’s actually OK not to ask a question. Particularly if you don’t have a good one. Here’s a video to help you out.
Question. When Do My Referees Normally Get Interviewed?
Answer. This very much depends on how many candidates are being interviewed and also whether there is some form of automated referee checking system. If there are large numbers of candidates. Then the selection committee will normally wait till after the interview to check referees. They will generally start with referees for preferred candidates. So if your referees are being interviewed at this point it’s a pretty good sign.
Most job applications still include a panel interview process as one of the final steps in selecting candidates. As part of this panel interview process, it is almost universally the custom to ask candidates at the end of their interview if they have any questions of their own. I am often asked by my coaching clients how best to respond in this situation. What are the best interview questions to ask employers? There is a myriad of approaches but here are 5 of my favourites.
In relation to the question about what question or questions, you should ask. The first point is that you do not actually need to ask a question. You can politely thank the panel for their time and indicate that all your questions have been answered already. You can also choose to use this opening as an opportunity to improve on one of your answers or talk about a strength that has not come out in the interview.
In terms of actual questions. If you haven’t been told already then it is often a good idea to ask a question about when the decision of the selection process will be made. Or you can ask a “future-focused” question, such as how will my performance be measured. Or you can actually ask the panel for some feedback about your interview performance.
Let’s go ahead and explore these 5 approaches in more detail. Including giving some examples of where each works best.
As a bonus. At the end of this article, I will also tell you about the best interview question I ever heard from a candidate.
You Don’t Always Need to Ask a Question.
Many candidates are of the opinion that they should have a good question prepared to ask at the end of the interview process in order to impress the panel further. Clearly part of the point of the interview is for you to impress the panel. But this needs to be done with authenticity. So it’s best to avoid trying to “contrive” a question to ask and remember that it’s your time and your interview.
If as part of your research you haven’t come up with a question worth asking, then, in my opinion, you are better off investing your time in other ways of preparing for the interview (such as practising panel questions). Rather than agonizing over developing a truly insightful question.
It’s absolutely OK to not ask a question at the end of the interview process. But it’s important that you handle this part of the discussion well. Most importantly you need to make it clear why you don’t have any questions.
Its perfectly okay not to have interview questions to ask employers. So long as you had done your research already.
The ideal situation for not asking a question is one where you have had plenty of opportunities to ask questions already.
For most of the job clients that I work with this tends to happen in relation to batch recruitment events. Such as the annual medical recruitment process where each year a number of doctors are given the opportunity to apply for higher-level training positions.
In these situations, there is usually a lot of time to prepare for the interview. As well as information provided via websites, one to one contact and information sessions.
Another scenario where this often occurs is for senior medical practitioner appointments, where often you have the chance to have an informal discussion with the chair of the panel prior to putting in your application.
A typical approach, therefore, would be something like:
Thanks. I don’t have any crucial questions at this stage of the process. The information you have provided me already via the [applicant package/information session/phone call…] was really useful. I’d like to thank you for the opprunity and look forward to hearing about the outcome of the process.
Suggested words if you don’t want to ask a question
*As an adjunct, many of the panel members that I talk to about this. And I talk to many. Are of the opinion that it is best not to ask a question if you don’t have a good one. See the end of this blog post for examples of questions you should not ask.
You Can Make a Statement. Rather Than Ask a Question.
Remember. It’s Your Interview. The time at the end of an interview is your last chance with the panel. And in many cases, they are probably running a bit over time and seeing this as more of a polite process rather than expecting you to engage in a long discussion with them.
That being said. You don’t want to leave the room if you feel that anything you have said so far may have reflected badly upon you. OR that there is something that you have not said, which needs to be said.
So. In both of these cases, what I recommend is rather than use this time to ask a question. Use it to address these issues.
So, for example, if you felt you missed out on something important in one of your question responses. You may say something like:
Thanks. I don’t have a question. However, if its ok, I would just like to go back to the second question and add to my answer that I would of course also place oxygen on the patient.
Example of correcting an error in your interview.
Or. If you haven’t made an error. But the panel hasn’t given you an opportunity to talk about your strengths. You can say something like this:
Thanks for the opportunity. I don’t have a question per se. However, I just wanted to highlight a couple of additional items on my CV in reference to my managerial skills. I know from the selection criteria that you are looking for abilities in this area. But we didn’t get to touch on these and I think they will be helpful for you in considering my application.
Example of using the time to highlight more strengths.
Ask When the Decision Will Be Made.
It may not be immediately obvious. But for many selection processes, the outcome may not be clear. A good safe question to ask (politely) therefore is when will the decision be made?
Obviously don’t do this if you have already been told. Which may mean checking back through your emails first. And also watch out as sometimes the chair of the panel covers this at the start of the interview or often more frequently just at the end.
Finding out this information can serve a useful purpose.
Firstly, it gives you an opportunity to time your thank you email. So, if the answer to the question is in 5 days time, send a quick follow up email 3 days later. Don’t ask about the result. Just thank them for the opportunity. Its just a simple reminder that you are an interested candidate. And it may make the difference.
Secondly, it may also give you a hint as to whether your referees have been contacted already or (more likely) will be contacted and via which mechanism. This also then gives you time to follow up with your referees. You can let them know what sort of questions the panel asked and (re)brief them on your strong points.
Ask For Some Feedback.
A significant proportion of the clients that I work with have had an unsuccessful interview in the past. These problems have generally been compounded by the fact that when they have gone back to ask for feedback. The feedback that they have been provided (if any) has been largely unhelpful.
This is not surprising. Interview panels are not really thinking about providing feedback to unsuccessful candidates. They are thinking about how to choose the successful ones. They often see a number of candidates in one session. So, unless something is written down specifically, it is actually hard to recall the specifics. In addition, panels are also often wary about what type of feedback is provided so as not to lead to the risk of the selection outcome being challenged.
There is however one good opportunity to get some useful feedback about your interview performance. And that is at the end of the interview itself. When your performance is fresh in the mind of the interviewers.
The benefit of asking for feedback at the actual interview is two-fold:
You get the opportunity to get some real and authentic feedback that can help you in the future
You show the panel that you are not afraid to ask for feedback in a high-stakes situation, which should translate in the mind of the panel to perceiving you as someone who will take on board feedback when offered
So to ask for feedback you would say something like this:
Yes. I understand that you can’t tell me the results of the interview at this point. But I was wondering if you would be able to give me some feedback on my interview performance? It may help me to improve for next time. Perhaps there was a particular question I could have done better on.
Example of how to ask for feedback at the end of the interview.
Please note in the above example I have suggested you ask for feedback on something you could have done better on. This is generally better than asking for feedback on something you did well. If you give the panel the opportunity to highlight an area of strength they will probably do that to avoid being too confronting. However, what you really want is something you can improve on.
Ask a Future-Oriented Question.
More often than not, this is my favourite last question approach. However, I would generally only use it if you feel that the interview has gone well.
The idea is to leave the panel thinking about you as a member of their team. If they are thinking seriously about what it would be like to have you on the team then you are very much in the running to get the position.
A standard approach here would be to ask the panel to give you some insight into the first few months on the job. So a question like:
Would you be able to describe to me what sort of outcomes you would be looking to see from me in the first 6 months and how I would know I was successful?
Example of asking a future oriented question.
Can be a really powerful question on a number of levels.
Firstly, it gets the panel thinking about your first 6 months on the job.
Secondly, it gives the panel the message that you want to succeed and are interested in measuring your success.
Thirdly, it also provides you as the job candidate with some vital information about the team that you may be about to join. In that, if they can give a thoughtful answer to this question. They are probably a team worth joining. And if they haven’t really considered this question. You may want to rethink whether you want to work for them.
The Best Candidate Interview Question I Ever Heard.
I promised at the start of this post that I would share with you the best ever response to the final question that I heard (obviously as part of an interview panel). Whilst I have been on many medical interview panels in my time. The actual best question came from an interview I was involved in for a health manager role. And it wasn’t so much the question that I remember but also the approach to it.
We were looking for someone with strong project management skills and the ability to work with the existing team, which had a reputation for being disruptive in a good way, but this reputation did not suit every candidate. On our panel was me as the chair, the team member who would be the new hire’s manager and a job expert, who would be the new hire’s colleague.
The person we were interviewing had impressive credentials and was equally impressive in her responses to our questions. What sealed it for me, however, was her insightful question at the end.
She chose to not look at me nor the potential new manager. But directly looked at the job expert (team member) on the panel and asked:
What do you like about working here?
Now. Others may be not so impressed by this question. But as someone who does highly value culture in teams. I was blown away by the fact that the candidate chose to dig into the team culture and bypass the management layers to get a more authentic response.
Interestingly it figures as the first question on this list of suggested questions to ask at the end.
Footnote. We offered this person the job. But unfortunately, she had been interviewing with other organisations and we were pipped at the post.
Related Questions:
Question. Are There Any Particular Questions I Should Not Ask At the End of the Interview?
Answer. Yes. There are a number of areas you should steer clear of. They basically involve any question that might cause the panel to doubt your passion and interest for the work versus the actual job.
So. Questions about salary levels or arrangements. Concerns about overtime or secondments. Or requests to not work with certain teams. Are best left to another stage of the process.
Question. Is There Anything Else I Should Consider Doing at the End of the Interview?
Answer. You should always check with the chair of the panel if they are finished with you for the time being. Sometimes the person administering the interview process may want you to sign some forms and/or show them some documents, like identification or working with children’s checks.
If you are unfamiliar with the organisation and have not worked there before. It’s probably also a good idea to have a look around after the interview. This is helpful to you and also shows your genuine interest in the job. It’s best, however, to arrange for a tour ahead of time. Rather than just raise it as an idea at the end of your interview.
Question. Should I Shake Hands At the End of the Interview?
Answer. This is a tough one to answer emphatically. In general, it’s best to take your queue from the panel. If they offer a hand then you should shake it. Otherwise, it’s ok to just leave with a smile on your face.
Are you looking for an easy way to predict the types of questions you will get at your job interview? I’ve worked with lots of candidates for various jobs both inside and outside of medicine and there is a reasonably simple and straightforward method that I show these clients which can help you to predict interview questions for the majority of questions that you will normally be asked during the interview. And this method also set you up for any unexpected “curveball” type questions.
So how can you tell what sort of questions you are going to be asked during the interview? The simple answer to this is that the genesis of each interview question should come from the selection criteria that are attached to the job description. If you can identify these selection criteria then you can also identify the types of skills, strengths, evidence and examples the panel will be looking for in the interview and practise questions formatted in the various interview question styles.
Whilst, it’s never 100% possible to completely predict the actual question you may be asked. I find that this sort of analysis paired with an intensive practice regimen will pick up about 80% of the actual questions fairly closely. But it’s always possible for the interview panel to go “off-script” on occasion, especially on medical panels, where some of the panel members can view themselves as self-taught experts in the process. For these occasions, I have a couple of other methods so you can handle the more odd question comfortably as well.
For the rest of this article, I will take you through my method for identifying questions in more detail. Give you a couple of examples and then talk about a couple of more tips to have you extra prepared.
How to Predict Interview Questions Step 1. First Find the Selection Criteria.
When you know how and where to look. It’s actually pretty easy to predict most of the questions you will be asked.
So here is a typical Senior Resident Medical Officer job from the NSW Health site.
SRMO Post
You can see that its for a
role in Intensive Medicine. So the sort
of doctor who might be applying for this role is someone in their third year of
Medicine who is looking at potentially training in ICU or perhaps Anaesthesia
in the future.
These jobs aren’t formally
accredited for training. So they are
almost 100% done as a small panel interview with perhaps 3 or 4 people on the
panel.
So its obviously worth
reading through the whole position description to see if it is a job that is
good for you.
But once we have decided we are interested in the job. If we want to work out the sort of questions we will get asked then we need to look at the Selection Criteria. Because in most countries like Australia the common practice (and normally also the policy) is to ask questions based on the selection criteria. Here are the Selection Criteria:
Selection Criteria
In theory, you should not be asked a question which is not related to one of the selection criteria.
So for this job we have 8 selection criteria which is the maximum allowed in NSW Health. Let’s look at some of these criteria. I am going to skip over the first one which is about having a medical degree and being registered with the Medical Board. You will need to be able to prove this when you apply. So you are not going to be asked a question about this. Unless there is a specific doubt or query about the evidence you have given.
Questions About Relevant Experience
Lets look at Selection
Criteria number 2.
“Completion of at least two postgraduate years including relevant experience in intensive care medicine.”
On the surface, this seems similar to the first criteria. In that, you either have this or don’t have this. But there are actually a few ways this criterion could come up as a question
AND a few ways of answering
it.
The first way this criterion could come up is in what I call “The typical opening or first question.” Panels often like to kick off the interview with a question that gets the candidate to talk about themselves. So you might be asked something general like:
“Why are you a good candidate for this role?”
OR even more general like
“Why are you interested in this position?”
Or more specific and more
targeted to the criteria. Like
“Can you outline how your experience makes you suitable for the position?”
If the panel was to ask this question in a behavioural format. Which they often like to.Then they might ask a question like:
“Can you give us an example of how your experience so far has prepared you for this role?”
Every Question Is An Opportunity to Highlight Your Strengths.
Now. I have just given you 4 questions that fit one selection criteria. So, you could now go off and practice all 4 questions. But actually, whilst the format of answering each of these questions will differ slightly. The content will generally remain the same.
With each and every question it’s an opportunity for you to emphasise your strengths to the panel. So in this instance, you would:
Give an outline
of your experience so far. Especially if
it is more than 2 years.
Talk about any
specific experience in intensive care if you have had some.
But also talk
about related experiences and training, such as working in emergency OR doing
an advanced life support course OR being given the opportunity to participate
on a Medical Emergency Team
And give the best
example of a case of a patient requiring urgent or intensive care and how you
contributed to that case and displayed skills and competencies relevant to
intensive care.
Demonstrating the Ability to Work Independently.
Let’s look at one more of these criteria. Let’s look at number 3.
“Demonstrated ability to work independently in a supervised environment”
More often than not. The most likely way this selection criterion will be assessed is through a clinical scenario.
If you undertake any coaching
with me or take my interview skills course.
We talk about how the clinical scenario is both an assessment of your
clinical knowledge but also an assessment of your ability to seek help and
access other resources.
So, you are likely to be
given a scenario where you have to have a method and approach for assessing a
sick patient. But there will be a point
where the panel expects that you discuss when you would seek help from more
senior colleagues. And this is likely to
be the more critical part of the question.
The approach to the question
is to show a balance between being able to act calmly in a situation, collect
information and conduct an initial assessment and then use your assessment to
gain input from the senior colleague.
Once again. As always. An example. It doesn’t need to be the exact scenario but just something similar. That demonstrates how you have actually done this before in real life is EXTREMELY POWERFUL.
Some Other Tips For Being Prepared For the Interview.
Question Banks.
Another great tip for making
sure you have practised the questions that you may be asked at the interview is
to find out from previous candidates what sort of questions they have been
asked.
You will find that if you ask around you will often be handed a bunch of “past questions”. If you get enough of these you will start to notice a bit of a pattern. That is the questions will start to repeat themselves. They may not be exactly the same. But in essence, they are the same question.
This is because medical position descriptions generally don’t change much year to year. So you can be fairly confident in using these questions to practice. And if you practice enough of them. Then you will find that you are familiar with most of the questions you get asked.
By the way, we have a page on the AdvanceMed site that lists over 500 interview questions. Categorized by various job titles. It’s worth exploring. Even if there are not many questions for your particular position. You will probably find questions under other categories are easily adapted.
Prepare an Example for Each Criterion.
My last tip is to have a good example for each of the selection criteria. This is useful. For a couple of reasons.
Firstly. You probably have
had to do this anyway when you addressed the selection criteria in your
application.
Secondly. Even if you are given a bit of a curveball question and you weren’t prepared for it. Having an example for each selection criteria will probably give you something to talk about that is relevant to that “curveball question”.
So that’s how you can work
out the sorts of questions you may be asked at the interview.
If you are looking for even more guidance you may want to look at purchasing our book
Or check out the courses and coaching available through this site.
Related Questions.
Question. Where’s a Good Place to Find Evidence for the Selection Criteria?
Answer.
I find a good place to start is your CV. Look at each selection criteria and then go through your CV and highlight areas that meet that criteria. Ask yourself is there enough detail here? Are there quantifiable results or a good example? If not you probably want to add these into your CV for this particular job application.
Question. Why Do Interview Panels Like to Ask Behavioural Questions?
Answer.
Behavioural questions are when the panel asks you for an example from your past that demonstrates a selection criterion. This is based on some reasonable evidence from organizational psychology and human resources research that asking for an example is more predictive of future performance than an answer to a hypothetical question. Its based on the principle that past performance predicts future performance.
Would you like 5 tips for preparing for your next medical job interview? Hello, I’m Dr. Anthony Llewellyn, doctor and medical HR expert and I love to share tips with other doctors about how to improve their performance in the job interview.
When approaching a medical job interview or any other job interview for that matter the key things you should consider are:
Establishing a practice schedule and actually committing to practicing
Get an understanding of what the panel is looking for, so you can predict the questions you will be asked
Review your CV for examples of your work that will increase the power of your responses to questions
Recording yourself practicing so you can see what you actually look like
Getting feedback on your performance from an expert
These are my top 5 tips based on years of experience in being a recruiter as well as coaching other doctors for job interviews. Let’s dig into them a little deeper.
1. Practicing
This is the most vital tip in my opinion. You should definitely treat the interview as an examination or a performance. I’m betting that throughout medical school you practised and prepared for exams. So why would you expect to just turn up for your next job interview, “wing it” and turn in a great performance?
Your next job is just as important if not more important than getting a pass on an exam. So you need a bit of a practice schedule and you need to actually practice. I recommend giving yourself at least 6 weeks if possible and doing at least one practice session per week prior to your actual interview. If you have less notice of your interview then obviously you will need to condense this and increase the frequency. Better yet. If you are anticipating a new job in the next 6 months. Think about setting up a practice schedule now
2. Understand what the panel is looking for
You need to understand what the interview panel is looking for. So you can practice the right questions and prepare the right examples. I’m often asked by doctors.
“How can I predict what sorts of questions I will be asked?”
Well. Its actually a lot easier than you think.
The questions you get asked in the interview should relate to the Selection Criteria. So to find these go to the appropriate section on the job description and review it. They are usually placed towards the end of the document. These should give you a fair indication of the types of questions you will be asked.
Sometimes, particularly for college selection, rather than selection criteria, there is a competency framework. These are normally easy to find on the college website. Again these will give you a very good guide to what you will be asked about.
You can then generate appropriate questions or there are places online you can find a bunch of them. You can access our free question bank here.
3. Review your CV for examples.
Your CV or resume is a treasure trove of achievements from which to draw upon examples of your past work (or at least it should be). Review your CV for examples so that you can use these as part of your answers to questions.
Remember providing an example from your past work is extremely powerful at the interview.
Dr Anthony Llewellyn, Career Doctor
Sometimes you will be asked for an example as part of a behavioural question. But don’t be afraid to offer one, even if the question is a hypothetical question.
You are basically telling the panel.
“I can do this. Because I’ve done it before.”
And panels know that past behaviour predicts future behaviour so they will value this information.
4. Record yourself and watch yourself.
Why do I say that you need to record yourself and watch yourself back? Well. Interviews are as much about body language and tone of speech. In fact even more about these things. Than what you say.
So. Its important to know how you appear during an interview.
The only way you will know this is to observe yourself.
Here’s a great example.
Often when I am coaching candidates for an interview I notice that they appear quite stiff in their presentation. This is normally because they are trying to control their hands. By sitting on them or anchoring them in their lap. Actually, you generally want to let your hands get involved in your interview performance. Once we fix this problem. The visual performance always looks a lot better.
There are a number of options for filming yourself for an interview performance. My recommendation would be to use a desktop or laptop set up and record yourself on Skype or Zoom. This way you should easily be able to get at least a head and shoulders view of how you look whilst seated. It’s particularly important to be able to see what you do with your hands.
Alternatively, you can use your smartphone with a tripod if you have one or even just a stack of books on the table. Selfie videos are not as good as you have at least one hand engaged for the filming purpose. Similarly observing yourself in the mirror is not as good as you cannot rewind and go back.
5. Engage an Expert
My final tip is to get some interview practice with an expert.
What do I mean by an expert?
I mean anyone who has had significant experience being a member of a selection panel and/or experiences in coaching candidates for interviews.
Preferably both.
So as a minimum. Try and get someone like a Director of Training or Director of Medical Services to give you a couple of sessions. These people have generally sat in on hundreds of interviews.
Don’t fall into the trap of relying on feedback from fellow candidates, your family or friends. Their feedback is likely to be unhelpful and too much on the positive and encouraging side. Because they have no context for what the panel is looking for and they are too invested in your success and you as a person. You want as critical feedback as possible.
And. If you want to up your game and performance to a higher level.
Question. What if there are no obvious selection criteria?
Answer. There should be selection criteria for any job that is advertised. Sometimes however the job writers or the job writing system make these difficult to decipher. If you have any queries about what the criteria are its best to contact the person whose name is associated with the role for clarification.
Question. How do I find an interview coach?
Answer. There are interview coaches available in most places these days. You can generally do a Google search and someone will pop up. We’ve written an article about how to find a good interview coach that is good for you. Bear in mind that you generally get what you pay for. So the price should not be your only consideration. Also, bear in mind that many coaches can assist you now over the internet. This can sometimes reduce the cost of coaching and give you access to a bigger pool of options.
Question. I get really nervous in interviews. Are there some specific things I can do about this?
Yes. There is. The first thing would be to engage with an expert coach so that you can get some help in improving your overall performance. Practice will help to reduce your nerves on the day. There are specific relaxation techniques that you can incorporate as part of your coaching or separately which will also assist with your performance anxiety on the day.
Career coaching is something I write about often. And there is a reason. Career coaching is something many professionals don’t give enough importance to. The truth is that a lot of people, especially medical professionals, can use career coaches to kick start or even keep their professional lives moving forward. This even includes medical students who are just entering the job market, as well as seasoned medical professionals looking to manage or make changes to their careers.
A good career coach can come from a range of backgrounds so long as they can help you fulfill your potential. They should also be able to understand your career needs, have achieved good outcomes for past clients and be someone you are comfortable with challenging you. If you are looking for a career coach in Melbourne there are plenty of good options. Some good general career and executive coaches include: Katie Roberts, Tenfold Coaching, Michelle Pizer and Noted Careers Coaching. For doctors specifically there is Jocelyn Lowinger of Coach GP. But you should also consider that there may be other good coaches that are a good fit for you elsewhere.
Limiting your search just to Melbourne may not necessarily be the smartest thing to do these days especially with online video technology. I will explain why later in this post.
But first in order to determine who might make a good career coach we need to know what one does.
Tip 1. Know What Makes a Career Coach
When
we think about coaches we often think about sports coaches. And it’s a
reasonable metaphor to start with. One way of looking at is that a coach
simply takes you from one point to another, just like a bus. But at the
end of the day, you have to determine what your destination will be.
This is where the parallel with sporting coaches and career coaches
tends to differ. Often in sports, the destination is reasonably clear,
for e.g. make the finals, improve my time for the hundred metres. For
careers, it may be clear, for e.g. get into surgical training, or not so
clear, for e.g. do I want to take on a managerial position? That is why
career coaches are so important. We spend a lot of our time working,
and the truth is that a few major adjustments to our career lives can
make huge differences to our professional and personal futures.
For
instance, imagine the impact of completing your specialty training
earlier could have on your annual salary and lifestyle. or how a
different career leaves you with more time to spend on personal matters
which could do to help you build a closer family?
Paying a career
coach to help you fast track your career or make career changes and
adjustments can be a very smart investment when it results in a
significant boost to your income or helps you to meet other important
goals.
Generally speaking, a career coach should help you find
greater fulfillment in your profession and help you have the dream life
you want to make out of your career. Let’s face it, for most people,
the lives we dream of living depend substantially on the careers we
have. Coaches can also help those looking for jobs, and ensure that
those using their services do the best they can to fulfill their most
cherished career goals.
Tip 2. How to Find A Career Coach.
Now
that you have made the decision to invest in a career coach. Getting the
right fit is very important for you. A coach who has achieved wonderful
results with one person might not necessarily help you attain a similar
level of success as your coach. Therefore, here are some tips for
finding a good career coach.
1. Don’t consider their field, but their potential to help you achieve your goals
As
you look for a career coach, it is important to remember that he/she
does not have to be an expert at your specific field. So, if you are a
surgeon, you do not have to focus on finding a career coach with a
background in surgery. Similarly, for any doctor nderstand that there are lots of coach without a medical background who can help you.
The
most important thing as you look for a career coach is to find someone
who will inspire you and help you achieve your potential. A career coach
should help you ask yourself thought-provoking and actionable questions
that help you attain a particular career goal. A good career coach
should also offer guidance and empower you to take appropriate action so
that your career keeps moving forward.
2. Find someone who understands your career guidance needs
As
you look for a career coach, you have to understand what your
expectations are as far as these services go. You should try to work out
beforehand what outcomes you expect out of the assistance the coach
offers. So, whether you want a better paying job, or a more fulfilling
career, or a different career path, you have to understand what kind of
assistance you need.
That being said. If we knew exactly what we
wanted. We might already know how to get there and not need a career
coach. So a good career coach will also spend time with you to truly
clarify your goals. Sometimes clients enter into career coaching with
goals in mind that are really not their own goals but other peoples
goals. Career coaches can help to clear up goal confusion.
Otherwise,
if there is no clear focus on what your career goals are, a coach can
also help you out with this. From there, find out what the career coach
you are evaluating promises to help you achieve and see if it matches
the specific career goals you have in mind.
3. Look into what they have achieved in the past
You
can also have a look at their coaching bios and find out what former
clients have to say of their skills. For instance, have the coaching
skills helped someone in your specific field get what they wanted? Also
consider their experience, because someone who is just entering the
field might not be in a position to help you navigate an important
career obstacle.
4. Choose someone you are comfortable with
How
you feel about your career coach should also matter. You should trust
your intuition based on the conversation you have with the coach. If for
some reason you have doubts about their abilities to help you with your
career, then it’s worth looking at what other career coaches have to
offer.
At the end of the day, you should have a great rapport with your career coach. This is important because however successful the coach has been in the past with former clients, he/she might not be the best fit for you if your strained relationship gets in the way of their offering you sound career guidance.
You
should not just go and book sessions with the first coach you find with
the expectation that your career will be changed for the better.
Consider making a quick call with them first. Most good coaches will
offer a quick free call service because they are confident in their
abilities and they know this helps clients to make a decision about
their services.
Tip 3. Investigate How a Career Coach in Melbourne Costs.
There is no particular standard by which career coaches in Melbourne or other parts of Australia fix their rates. Career coaching is essentially a free market. You will generally be getting what you pay for. If a career coach sets a high rate it is generally because their clients see the sort of results from their coaching to pay that rate.
Bear in mind that when you are paying
for an hour of coaching you are probably not just paying for the coaches
direct time. They will have administrative costs to factor in and
possibly support staff, insurances, rent, website etc… They will also
likely be doing some work for you outside of the session, such as
researching issues, setting up for the next session and responding to
emails from you.
In Australia, most basic level career coaches will charge at least $150 for a one-hour session.
Some may provide discounted rates depending on your ability to pay.
These coaches tend to be more targeted to younger people just entering
the job market and might not have the experience and expertise to work
with the majority of medical practitioners who already have a developed
career.
Mid-range career coaches will charge somewhere between $300-600 AUD per session. These are the types of coaches who tend to work with most doctors.
An elite level career coach in Melbourne may charge $1,000 or more a session. If you are working as a medical Executive or CEO you might be able to afford the services of such a coach.
As
I mentioned most coaches will provide a discount based upon your
ability to pay. They may also pay a discount if you purchase a package
of coaching. Sometimes you need to ask about this. It never hurts to do
so.
Several factors come into play as far as career coaching goes.
including, how long you will work with the professional, as well as the
complexity of the goal you are trying to attain. Obviously, if you want
help getting starting a career in a specialty with high barriers to
entry, you might expect to need more sessions and pay a bit more than
someone who just needs once off help preparing for an upcoming job
interview.
It is important to remember that each career coach will
charge you different fees for the same types of services. So, even as
you try to find a bargain, it is important to remember that you will
generally get what you pay for.
If you want cheap services, then you might end up getting poor quality services as well. Generally, coaches who have been in the business for much longer can and do charge more, and that because they are usually more successful at helping their clients achieve their career goals. This assurance obviously comes at a premium. But you will probably also find that because you are paying more they are actually seeing fewer clients and will give you extra support outside of the formal coaching sessions.
That said, you
can always negotiate with your career coach so that you get a price
that you can handle. However, what your career coach has to offer also
matters. For instance, if they have a vast professional network that can
provide you with other forms of career assistance, then you can expect
to pay more. As opposed to coaches who will only stop at helping you
polish up your interview performance.
Tip 4. Understand What a Career Coach Does.
Career
coaches can do plenty to assist you to accomplish your career goals.
Some of the things they can help you out with include the following.
Showing you how to deal with office politics
Help you understand yourself, your career strengths, and what value you can offer
Guide you on resolving feelings like frustration, anger, and resentment with regard to your current job
Help you meet with more success at work
Help you to manage difficult conversations and difficult team dynamics at work
Help you to get better feedback on your performance at work
Help you to manage your relationship with your boss
Help you to manage your relationship with your co-workers
Help you be a better manager, if your role involves managing
Show you how to land your dream job or career
Guide you towards your most appropriate career based on your skills and interests
Assist you in planning, developing and managing your career path
Help you recognize things that are stressing you at work and helping you deal with them
Help you identify problems that affect your career and satisfaction as a professional
Helping you find more passion in what you do when you are stuck in a rut
Helping you to make a difficult decision about exiting your current career
It is important to realize that a career coach is there to assist you, which means you have to play your part as well. At the end of the day, you have to work towards becoming what you want as far as your professional life goes and resolving any career issues you might be facing. Essentially, they use their training, experience, expertise and skills to help you overcome hurdle that keep most people from becoming all they would like to be. Otherwise, these professionals are also restricted by other factors, including your qualifications, your attitude, and how well you are willing to work with them.
Conclusion.
At the end of the
day, you can think of a career coach as an experienced friend who can
help you achieve your dreams more easily or with greater chances of
success. Once you know what changes you need to be making in your career, you should hire this professional to help you along. While at it, consider what the professional you have in mind can offer, how much it will cost you, and what assurances you have as far as delivering on their promises goes.
Related Questions.
Question: Who trains career coaches?
Answer.
The
career coaching industry is not regulated. But some take courses, and
others do it because they have enough experience in the corporate world
to offer the much-needed guidance to people in search of the services
require to resolve the career issues they are facing. There are some
international organisations which some coaches belong to.
Question: How does career coaching work?
Answer.
Basically, the service involves talking through issues and ideas in order to get the services you desire as the client. If you want to land a dream job, you can get confidence building sessions to help you do better at things like interviews in addition to technical skills, such as how to write a killer CV. Sometimes there may be other activities performed by the coach for you, for example administering surveys on your behalf to get feedback on your impact at work.
Question: Does it matter if my career coach is in Melbourne or not?
Answer.
Some
people think that where the career coach comes from matters a big deal.
However, this is not always necessary, even if the desire is to have a
face-to-face interaction with the career coach. In fact with
technology these days it is incredibly easy to connect with a coach via
video on your computer or even smart device. This actually offers up a few advantages.
Firstly, it potentially expands the range of coaches you may be able to engage with.
Secondly,
it often makes scheduling appointments easier as the coach is not
pinned down to meeting you in a certain office or location at a certain
time.
Thirdly, it means you are not having to travel somewhere to see the coach.
Fourthly, the sessions can often be recorded and provided back to you to review.
Being a success at what you do is a great feeling. This is why you need all the help you can to get to this point. On our blog, you will find a lot of tips and information on how to make the best of your medical career. Put together by an experienced team of doctors, this blog contains the critical information you need to manage your medical career and achieve your greatest career goals as a doctor in Australia. And is also helpful for other parts of the world.
Career coaching is something I write about often. And there is a reason. Career coaching is something many professionals don’t give enough importance to. The truth is that a lot of people, especially medical professionals, can use career coaches to kickstart or even keep their professional lives moving forward. This even includes medical students who are just entering the job market, as well as seasoned medical professionals looking to manage or make changes to their careers.
What is a Career Coach?
When we think about coaches we often think about sports coaches. And it’s a reasonable metaphor to start with. One way of looking at is that a coach simply takes you from one point to another, just like a bus. But at the end of the day, you have to determine what your destination will be. This is where the parallel with sporting coaches and career coaches tends to differ. Often in sports, the destination is reasonably clear, for e.g. make the finals, improve my time for the hundred metres. For careers, it may be clear, for e.g. get into surgical training, or not so clear, for e.g. do I want to take on a managerial position? That is why career coaches are so important. We spend a lot of our time working, and the truth is that a few major adjustments to our career lives can make huge differences to our professional and personal futures.
For instance, imagine the impact of completing your specialty training earlier could have on your annual salary and lifestyle. or how a different career leaves you with more time to spend on personal matters which could do to help you build a closer family?
Paying a career coach to help you fast track your career or make career changes and adjustments can be a very smart investment when it results in a significant boost to your income or helps you to meet other important goals.
Generally speaking, a career coach should help you find greater fulfillment in your profession and help you have the dream life you want to make out of your career. Let’s face it, for most people, the lives we dream of living depend substantially on the careers we have. Coaches can also help those looking for jobs, and ensure that those using their services do the best they can to fulfill their most cherished career goals.
How to Find A Career Coach.
Now that you have made the decision to invest in a career coach. Getting the right fit is very important for you. A coach who has achieved wonderful results with one person might not necessarily help you attain a similar level of success as your coach. Therefore, here are some tips for finding a good career coach.
1. Don’t consider their field, but their potential to help you achieve your goals
As you look for a career coach, it is important to remember that he/she does not have to be an expert in your specific field. So, if you are a surgeon, you do not have to focus on finding a career coach with a background in surgery. Similarly, for any doctor understand that there are lots of coaches without a medical background who can help you.
The most important thing as you look for a career coach is to find someone who will inspire you and help you achieve your potential. A career coach should help you ask yourself thought-provoking and actionable questions that help you attain a particular career goal. A good career coach should also offer guidance and empower you to take appropriate action so that your career keeps moving forward.
2. Find someone who understands your career guidance needs
As you look for a career coach, you have to understand what your expectations are as far as these services go. You should try to work out beforehand what outcomes you expect out of the assistance the coach offers. So, whether you want a better paying job, or a more fulfilling career, or a different career path, you have to understand what kind of assistance you need.
That being said. If we knew exactly what we wanted. We might already know how to get there and not need a career coach. So a good career coach will also spend time with you to truly clarify your goals. Sometimes clients enter into career coaching with goals in mind that are really not their own goals but other peoples goals. Career coaches can help to clear up goal confusion.
Otherwise, if there is no clear focus on what your career goals are, a coach can also help you out with this. From there, find out what the career coach you are evaluating promises to help you achieve and see if it matches the specific career goals you have in mind.
3. Look into what they have achieved in the past
You can also have a look at their coaching bios and find out what former clients have to say of their skills. For instance, have the coaching skills helped someone in your specific field get what they wanted? Also consider their experience, because someone who is just entering the field might not be in a position to help you navigate an important career obstacle.
4. Choose someone you are comfortable with
How you feel about your career coach should also matter. You should trust your intuition based on the conversation you have with the coach. If for some reason you have doubts about their abilities to help you with your career, then it’s worth looking at what other career coaches have to offer.
At the end of the day, you should have a great rapport with your career coach. This is important because however successful the coach has been in the past with former clients, he/she might not be the best fit for you if your strained relationship gets in the way of their offering you sound career guidance.
You should not just go and book sessions with the first coach you find with the expectation that your career will be changed for the better. Consider making a quick call with them first. Most good coaches will offer a quick free call service because they are confident in their abilities and they know this helps clients to make a decision about their services.
How Much Does a Career Coach Cost?
There is no particular standard by which career coaches fix their rates. Career coaching is essentially a free market. You will generally be getting what you pay for. If a career coach sets a high rate it is generally because their clients see the sort of results from their coaching to pay that rate.
Bear in mind that when you are paying for an hour of coaching you are probably not just paying for the coaches direct time. They will have administrative costs to factor in and possibly support staff, insurances, rent, website etc… They will also likely be doing some work for you outside of the session, such as researching issues, setting up for the next session and responding to emails from you.
In Australia, most basic level career coaches will charge at least $150 for a one-hour session. Some may provide discounted rates depending on your ability to pay. These coaches tend to be more targeted to younger people just entering the job market and might not have the experience and expertise to work with the majority of medical practitioners who already have a developed career.
Mid-range career coaches will charge somewhere between $300-600 AUD per session. These are the types of coaches who tend to work with most doctors.
An elite level career coach may charge $1,000 or more a session. If you are working as a medical Executive or CEO you might be able to afford the services of such a coach.
As I mentioned most coaches will provide a discount based upon your ability to pay. They may also pay a discount if you purchase a package of coaching. Sometimes you need to ask about this. It never hurts to do so.
Several factors come into play as far as career coaching goes. including, how long you will work with the professional, as well as the complexity of the goal you are trying to attain. Obviously, if you want help getting starting a career in a specialty with high barriers to entry, you might expect to need more sessions and pay a bit more than someone who just needs once off help to prepare for an upcoming job interview.
It is important to remember that each career coach will charge you different fees for the same types of services. So, even as you try to find a bargain, it is important to remember that you will generally get what you pay for.
If you want cheap services, then you might end up getting poor quality services as well. Generally, coaches who have been in the business for much longer can and do charge more, and that because they are usually more successful at helping their clients achieve their career goals. This assurance obviously comes at a premium. But you will probably also find that because you are paying more they are actually seeing fewer clients and will give you extra support outside of the formal coaching sessions.
That said you can always negotiate with your career coach so that you get a price that you can handle. However, what your career coach has to offer also matters. For instance, if they have a vast professional network that can provide you with other forms of career assistance, then you can expect to pay more. As opposed to coaches who will only stop at helping you polish up your interview performance.
What Does a Career Coach Do?
Career coaches can do plenty to assist you to accomplish your career goals. Some of the things they can help you out with include the following.
Showing you how to deal with office politics
Help you understand yourself, your career strengths, and what value you can offer
Guide you on resolving feelings like frustration, anger, and resentment with regard to your current job
Help you meet with more success at work
Help you to manage difficult conversations and difficult team dynamics at work
Help you to get better feedback on your performance at work
Help you to manage your relationship with your boss
Help you to manage your relationship with your co-workers
Help you be a better manager, if your role involves managing
Show you how to land your dream job or career
Guide you towards your most appropriate career based on your skills and interests
Assist you in planning, developing and managing your career path
Help you recognize things that are stressing you at work and helping you deal with them
Help you identify problems that affect your career and satisfaction as a professional
Helping you find more passion in what you do when you are stuck in a rut
Helping you to make a difficult decision about exiting your current career
It is important to realize that a career coach is there to assist you, which means you have to play your part as well. At the end of the day, you have to work towards becoming what you want as far as your professional life goes and resolving any career issues you might be facing. Essentially, they use their training, experience, expertise, and skills to help you overcome hurdles that keep most people from becoming all they would like to be. Otherwise, these professionals are also restricted by other factors, including your qualifications, your attitude, and how well you are willing to work with them.
Conclusion.
At the end of the day, you can think of a career coach as an experienced friend who can help you achieve your dreams more easily or with greater chances of success. Once you know what changes you need to be making in your career, you should hire this professional to help you along. While at it, consider what the professional you have in mind can offer, how much it will cost you, and what assurances you have as far as delivering on their promises goes.
Related Questions.
Question: Who trains career coaches?
Answer.
The career coaching industry is not regulated. But some take courses, and others do it because they have enough experience in the corporate world to offer the much-needed guidance to people in search of the services required to resolve the career issues they are facing. There are some international organizations which some coaches belong to.
Question: How does career coaching work?
Answer.
Basically, the service involves talking through issues and ideas in order to get the services you desire as the client. If you want to land a dream job, you can get confidence building sessions to help you do better at things like interviews in addition to technical skills, such as how to write a killer CV. Sometimes there may be other activities performed by the coach for you, for example, administering surveys on your behalf to get feedback on your impact at work.
Question: Does the location of the career coach matter?
Answer.
Some people think that where the career coach comes from matters a big deal. However, this is not always necessary, even if the desire is to have a face-to-face interaction with the career coach. In fact with technology these days it is incredibly easy to connect with a coach via video on your computer or even a smart device. This actually offers up a few advantages.
Firstly, it potentially expands the range of coaches you may be able to engage with.
Secondly, it often makes scheduling appointments easier as the coach is not pinned down to meeting you in a certain office or location at a certain time.
Thirdly, it means you are not having to travel somewhere to see the coach.
Fourthly, the sessions can often be recorded and provided back to you to review.
This is part of a new series focusing on how those doctors involved in the candidate selection process can help improve the outcomes of selection.
Having spent decades reviewing CVs, designing jobs. And, of course, sitting across the desk from interview candidates, I have learnt a thing or two about how to select well. So what sort of things would I teach the younger me about doctor selection if I had a chance all over again? Well. One of the things I would probably start with is how to write good doctor job interview questions.
Writing a good interview question for doctor selection involves:
First, understanding the key tasks of the actual job.
Second, developing a list of Key Result Areas. Things that are critical for the doctor in the job to be able to do.
Third, Developing clear selection criteria to reflect these Key Result Areas
And only then writing interview questions to assess candidates abilities to perform these key result areas.
Added to all this its almost essential to engage “job experts” – the doctors actually performing the job right now in the job analysis and criteria development and to think about other selection tools that can also aid you.
Job analysis and design.
Job analysis and design is a critical component in achieving good outcomes in any selection process. It involves examining the job to understand what knowledge, skills, attributes and values will result in a successful outcome. Research indicates that effective job analysis can contribute about a ffifth to the successful hiring of a candidate.
Ideally every time you advertise a position you should really review it again. However, for many doctors jobs, particularly trainee doctor jobs, which recycle every year, it may not be practical to do a full job analysis each year. And, arguably things don’t change that often to require an annual review. But it is worth considering doing this regularly, perhaps every 3 years.
The process of job analysis commences with reviewing the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for the position. This process gives you insights into what the outcomes of the job are and the key result areas.
For example, a key result area for a General Surgical Trainee might be ensuring that all surgical referrals for the team that come from the emergency department are seen and reviewed in a timely manner. This information then enables the development of selection criteria which will be the mechanism by which determinations are made about applicants’ suitability for the job as well as what the best tools, including interview questions, maybe for making such selections.
What’s The Hardest Bit of The Job?
Its often good to think about what the hardest part of the job maybe. The thing that new incumbents find challenging or the thing that can make the difference between a good performer and a not so good performer. This can often form the basis of more rigorous assessment of candidates, including reviewing their CV, referee checks, other assessments and of course the interview questions. Depending on how much time you have to interview you might even wish to allocate a fair part of the interview time to assessing this key result area, including using atypical means, such as a skills test or getting the candidate to give a presentation.
As an example, it might be decided that the hardest part of the job for a new psychiatry trainee might be being able to present a patient for an order to the mental health inquiry.
In which case, the selection panel might decide to ask candidates to come for the interview 30 minutes earlier. Candidates are then given access to a set of notes and a short video with a simulated patient and given the task of preparing how they would report to the inquiry. As the first part of the interview candidates are asked to outline the reasons why the patient requires further detaining in hospital.
There’s A Big Difference Between Competence and Performance.
Competence is what a doctor can do based what they have been trained to do so far. We can often assess this from what they say in their CV and to some extent their referee reports.
Performance is what a doctor actually does day to day.
Performance depends on competence however, it is also influenced by a host of other factors.
Obviously, a level of competence is required for any doctor job. But it is the performance that counts at the end of the day. Unfortunately, performance is often harder to assess than competence as it often calls for real-world situations.
Capability Frameworks Can Sometimes Be Useful If You Don’t Have The Time.
Many health departments have developed capability frameworks which describe the broad competencies and performance for staff. They describe the types of knowledge, skills and attributes required. Often times some of the language from these frameworks automatically populates into job descriptions within the e-recruitment system.
Every Specialty Medical College in Australia and New Zealand has defined a framework for its Fellows and Trainees. Most are based on the internationally recognized CanMEDS Framework. These can be quite useful reference documents when developing job descriptions as they tend to cover the range of capabilities that doctors need (e.g. communication, teamwork, medical expertise, leadership skills, patient advocacy etc…) And if used well you can use these frameworks to develop selection criteria which reflect where a doctor should be developmentally against these frameworks.
So for example a job description for a Resident Medical Officer might indicate that their management skills should reflect knowledge of key management tools and demonstration of effective time management. Whereas a job description for a Consultant might reflect that their management skills should demonstrate respect for the role of managers and active participation in unit leadership and management tasks, including people development and conflict resolution.
Can job analysis & design incorporate competency-based frameworks in medical trainee recruitment?
UK authors Plint and Patterson have demonstrated that we can predict progress in doctor training and job performance by conducting a thorough job analysis. In their 2010 study the authors conducted job analyses to develop selection criteria for general practice training. They then designed selection instruments and methods to evaluate candidate’s capabilities against these criteria and using a validation process to assess the extent to which selection methods provide valid predictors of progress in training or job performance.
However, one general distinction between competency frameworks and selection criteria is that competency frameworks often call for much greater numbers of criteria than which may be allowed for an individual job.
So the task if using a competency framework is to distil all this information into key criteria. Again, nothing beats a proper job analysis for this.
Enter The Job Expert.
All of this work can be made infinitesimally easier if we engage the actual job experts. Who are the job experts I hear you say? They are the people successfully doing the job right now. Which in Medicine, for example, means most of us.
I am amazed how often for trainee doctor interviews the panel is comprised of people who have either never done the actually trainee job, not worked closely with trainees or have been a trainee once 2 or more decades ago.
Having such a panel for trainee selection is just giving yourself an automatic handicap from the outset.
Job Experts on selection panels is considered best practice in many industries. But not medicine it seems.
Incorporating at least one doctor on the panel who is currently in the role can save you time in developing the right selection criteria, the right selection approach, the right questions and they generally also have a gut feel for which candidates will not be good fits.
So why is there such resistance to including trainee doctors on trainee selection panels?
Reasons For Resistance.
Possibly the main reason for resistance is tradition and a lack of understanding of the additional value a job expert brings to the table in selection.
Another problem can be that often trainee selection panels are hotly contested with lots of stakeholders (hospitals, training directors, colleges) wanting to ensure that their input is considered. So often the trainee on the panel can be jettisoned if there are already too many players.
Finally, it may be difficult for trainee themselves to participate in selection. They may feel that they are judging their peers or that they have not yet “earned the right.”
So What About Doctor Job Interview Questions?
Most recruitment manuals or training programs will suggest that interview questions should fristly be developed based on the selection criteria and then wherever possible put in a behaviourally-oriented way as a Past Behaviour Question (PBQ).
PBQs are questions which ask for examples of past behaviour. They tend to be recommended by HR exerts over “situational questions” (SQs), i.e. questions which ask an applicant what they would do in a particular situation.
The reason that PBQs are recommended is based on the idea that past behaviour is a better predictor of future performance. And there is some research that has demonstrated that PBQs may be more discriminative than SQs and that candidates find it harder to manage impressions (fake responses) in PBQs.
The aim of PBQs is for
the applicant to demonstrate through past behaviour that they are able to
demonstrate the selection criteria.
When asking about behaviours,
interviewers can note applicant responses according to the CAR approach:
Context: what the situation was.
Action: what the candidate actually did (as opposed to what others did).
Result: what the outcome(s) of the candidate’s action(s) were.
Lets take an example of such an approach to developing an interview question.
Lets say that it is determined that one of the essential criteria for an Anaesthetic Training post is that
The trainee demonstrates the ability to practice in a safe manner in the operating theatre and recovery.
A behaviourally oriented question could then be developed around this question, as such
“Please describe a time when you identified a safety issue in the operating theatre or recovery, or another similar setting. What was the situation (context), what was your involvement (action) and what were the outcomes (result)?”
A Problem With The Behaviour Approch?
The problem with PBQs is that many doctors are accustomed to answering PBQs and have little difficulty providing answers. Strong candidates may even suggest examples to questions which are not put in a behavioural format. It is not absolutely certain how to discriminate between a candidate who has clearly done their research and practiced answering in such a format versus one that has not. My preference would be to reward the cadidate that bothered to prepare.
On the other hand, it is also not uncommon for some candidates to miss or avoid the requirement to provide an example. Such doctors may attempt to answer in a hypothetical way. If this occurs the person asking the question should redirect the candidate to providing an example. If the candidate is unable to provide a suitable example, then it is best to complete the question and move on to the next and rate accordingly.
The CAR approach is sometimes referred to as the STAR approach
(Situation, Task, Action, Result), in which case questions are often asked
along the lines of: “Describe the situation that you were in or the task you
needed to accomplish.”
Is there a Role for Situational Questions or Clinical Problems in Interview?
In short Yes. whilst, the PBQ has come to be considered the gold standard approach to selection interviewing based particularly upon evidence accumulated from a range of studies in the 1980s and 1990s. However, recently Levashina et al (2014) re-examined some of the commonly held beliefs in relation to selection interviewing. This research indicates that the difference between SQs and PBQs may not be as dramatic as previously thought.
Selection studies have demonstrated that both PBQs and SQs in traditional panel interviews have comparable reliability and acceptability. But PBQs possibly have less “fakeability” and higher predictive validity for high-complexity jobs than SQs.
In particular, a mix of SQs and PBQs within a doctor interview format may be a valid approach and an area worthy of more study. Yoshimura et al (2015) in a study of 26 medical graduates applying for specialty training reported both PBQs and SQs as equally reliable and acceptable in a multiple mini interview format.
One popular use of SQs in doctor interviews is in the format of a clinical problem in the interview. I understand why panels feel the need to introduce a clinical problem to the interview. After all, the doctor will be doing clinical work. But there are quite a few problems with this approach.
The clinical problem will inevitably only test a small amount of knowledge and understanding of whatever field of medicine we are interviewing for. So how do we account for the false positives (the candidates who got lucky and were asked a question in one of the few areas they were good in) versus the false negatives (the ones who got unlucky and hadn’t brushed up on that particular topic)?
There are actually better ways of assessing clinical knowledge. Such as actual tests of clinical knowledge.
Practically these questions tend to take up a lot of time in the interview. Especially if the candidate has to read through a complex scenario and ask clarifying questions.
Where I am okay with a clinical problem being asked is where it may be being used to set the context for assessing broader competency issues, such as a doctors approach to collaborating with others or practicing safely.
But again if being able to successfully deal with a certain type of clinical situation is deemed essential for the role perhaps its better to ask the doctor candidate themselves for an example.
Related Questions.
Question: What sort of other selection tools are helpful in improving selection in doctors?
Answer. A number of innovations have been made in the space of doctor recruitment lately. As mentioned in this article when there is a situation of large or mass candidate selection. For example selection into a basic training program. Then a number of additional selection techniques can be applied.
You can test candidates before the interview. A couple of common tests are clinical knowledge tests and what are called situation judgement tests. These can be used to screen candidates to reduce the number interviewed overall and/or included in the final overall assessment.
You can interview candidates more often. The most common way this is done is called the MMI or Multiple Mini Interview. This is often done for medical school applications. Instead of being interviewed by one panel candidates progress around a series of rooms with one or two assessors in each who quiz them on specific areas of selection.
Even in smaller interview batches you can include more value in your selection by:
including a skills test where appropriate (i.e. getting the candidate to demonstrate a key skill for the role, for example tieing a surgical knot)
collecting references before the interview and asking the referees the same questions that you will be asking the candidates
Question: Is there a good all round doctor interview question?
Answer. The problem with all purpose questions can be that candidates have prepared for them. It would be easy to say that you should always tailor your questions to the role. However, questions like:
“How does your experience and skill set make you a good candidate for the role?”
Interviewing for a job as a doctor can be stressful, especially when its been a while since you may have had some practice.
A way that some doctors choose to improve their interview skills is to work with a coach. During interview coaching, a doctor meets with a professional coach to learn strategies for being more relaxed about the interview process and of course to perform better.
Should you work with an interview coach? And if so, how can you find a doctor interview coach in Brisbane?
Why Interview Coaching?
The most obvious reason is that interview coaching can help increase your chances of getting a job. There are a number of ways this can occur.
Coaching can help you overcome any nerves or anxiety you have about the process. Coaching gives you a chance to experience answering many different interview questions. Coaches provide you with feedback to help improve your responses during interviews.The more you practice with a coach, the more confident you will become. By engaging with a coach you are also ensuring that you commit to your own practice regimen, which is important for a good performance.
Some reasons you may want to consider engaging a doctor interview coach:
It’s been awhile. If it’s been a few years since the last time you interviewed for a doctor job or if your last interview was fairly simple and you anticipate this one will not be the same, then a coach can help you rehearse and regain your interview confidence.
You get nervous before interviews. A little bit of anxiety is good going into an interview. But too much anxiety can affect performance. Practicing with a coach can help you feel more comfortable, relaxed and prepared.
You get interviews, but not offers. Often its difficult to get honest feedback from medical interviews. A coach may be able to help work out what is going wrong for you.
You are not sure about something on your CV. Maybe you have had to have a break in work. Or your last job didn’t go so well. Are you perhaps switching specialties. A coach can help you with how to tell the right story in relation to these sorts of issues.
Its your dream job and you want to land it. A coach can help with feeling confident in these situations.
On the other hand, if you’re a confident interviewer and have always tended to perform well during interviews, then a coach may not be necessary.
Types of Interview Coaching
There are many types of interview coaching. Some coaches meet with you in person, and others speak with you online or on the phone.In general interview coaches work on something called “performance coaching”. Think of it like a sports coach working with an elite athlete. A key element is practice with feedback. The more practice and the more immediate the feedback the better.
If you meet the coach in person or online, they can also help you develop effective visual communication. The coach can work with you on facial and body expressions that convey trust and show active listening.
Coaches may also help you with other elements of the interview, including how to ask the right questions of the employer, how to research the job and the panel and even some advice on how to dress.
How to Find a Doctor Interview Coach in Brisbane
There are lots of coaches available to choose from in a capital city like Brisbane. Career coaches often offer interview coaching. Some things you should consider in a coach are the following:
What is their training and experience in interview coaching?
What sort of knowledge and experience do they have with the actual interview process. Medical interviews can be fairly unique, particularly in terms of the types of questions asked and what panels may be looking for. So someone who has actual doctor interview panel experience is ideal.
Do they provide face to face coaching or on the phone or online. Face to face may seem best initially. But consider that you may need to travel to see the coach and often during normal work hours. Phone coaching and online coaching may be more convenient and cut down on travel.
What feedback is provided after each session. Phone and online coaches can often give you a recording of the session for you to review.
What is the price of the coaching.
If you cannot afford a coach, there are some opportunities for less expensive or even free coaching. Your Director of Training may be skilled in interview coaching or may be able to recommend another Consultant in your hospital who is.
I wrote this post as I have been collecting questions that are typically asked at a resident medical officer (RMO) interview. So these top 16 resident medical officer interview questions are based upon what job candidates have reported are the common types of interview questions being asked by hospitals in Australia for resident medical officer jobs or what are sometimes referred to as junior house officer or hospital medical officer jobs in Australia.
For resident medical officer interviews, you will commonly have around 20 minutes with a small panel of 3 or 4 and be given between 4 to 6 questions to answer briefly. These will generally consist of:
an opening question about your experience or interest in the role;
questions about past examples of handling conflict or dealing with errors;
questions about strengths and weaknesses; and
at least one clinical scenario where the focus will invariably be on recognising a sick or unwell patient and asking for help early.
So typically these jobs are at a postgraduate year 2 level. Hospitals often post these openings throughout the year in an attempt to fill gaps in their trainee doctor rosters. So these jobs offer opportunities for Australian doctors to move hospitals but also provide opportunities to get their first job experience in Australia.
I am posting this information as it may help both local as well as international medical graduates who are fortunate enough to be offered an interview for a resident medical officer-level job.
The Top 16 Resident Medical Officer Interview Questions.
Question 1. Tell us about your experience and how it makes you a suitable candidate?
I’ve written in another post about how this question is often just asked in the shortened version. “Tell us about your experience.” In which case it’s a very lazy question. It’s often asked because sadly on some resident medical officer interview panels, the panellists are slotted in the day before and do not have time to review your application and CV.
Regardless of how the question is asked you should answer it by telling the panel about how your experience makes you a good candidate.
Do this by picking out one, two, or three of the selection criteria and relating your experience to them.
So, for example, a common selection criterion is communication skills. So talk about how your recent experience has been working in a hospital with lots of patients who are from a Non-English speaking background and how you have had to collaborate (probably another selection criteria) with other members of the team to meet this challenge.
I recommend that you take a portfolio of relevant files to the interview. One of which should be a printout of the selection criteria. This is very handy for working out why they are asking certain resident medical officer interview questions.
Question 2. What are your long term career goals and why this hospital?
This is the other common opening question when it comes to resident medical officer interview questions.
If you have written a Career Goal Statement that is tailored to the job description then you pretty much have the basis of the answer to this question.
This question is digging into whether you have done your appropriate research. Have you identified a reason why the hospital will help you in your career? For example, does it have good exam pass rates? Or is there a particular subspecialty that is not available elsewhere?
Whatever the case you should be able to identify something of value in the position that will help you. Make sure that you are emphasizing that it’s a positive factor about the health service or hospital. Interview panels want to hear nice praise about their institution. But also make sure that you quickly bring it back from your personal needs to what you can give to the hospital.
This should be something or somethings reasonably unique to you and not what other candidates might also choose to talk about. See below for strengths and weaknesses.
Question 3. A member of the nursing staff complains that an intern is not attending calls and not doing duties properly, what will you do?
A big tip for this question is to avoid the inclination to stereotype nursing staff and refer to the nurse in this scenario as female.
Hypothetical scenarios are common in doctor interviews and especially for resident medical officer interview questions. This particular interview question bundles both the potential for work conflict (between yourself and the nurse, yourself and your colleague, and the nurse and your colleague) along with the topical matter of trainee doctor well being and what’s called the trainee in difficulty.
So the key here is to cover all the key principles in the scenario. To show you have a broad awareness of what might be going on.
Another very good tip for this question as well as most other questions is to list your key points first. That way the panel knows what you are thinking, even if you run out of time to address all the issues.
The key points here would be:
How you engage in the initial discussion with the member of nursing staff in a respectful and listening manner.
What your strategy for approaching your colleague is. And again, how you are going to conduct that initial conversation, which is often referred to as a “quiet chat”.
The potential outcomes of your “investigation” into the problem. In particular, how you would handle it if your colleague was resistant and how you would handle it if they confided in you a problem.
Your responsibility to discuss things with more senior colleagues.
Question 4. Describe an error you made in your practice and what you did to fix it?
This is an example of what is called a Past Behavioural Question. Panels like to ask for examples of past work that fit the current job challenges as demonstrating what you do is far more powerful and predictive than saying what you would do.
When preparing for resident medical officer interview questions you should definitely have an example of an error ready to give. As well as one about work conflict (see below).
The key here is to be able to give an example of an error that was significant but for which there was not a really terrible outcome. The best examples are system errors or simple communication errors. If possible it should be something where you caught the error yourself and then there was an attempt to look at the system to improve it for next time.
So for example an error where the wrong data was entered on a discharge summary because the electronic record system was unclear would be a good one. So long as the patient was okay in the end.
Answer all example-type questions using the STAR method.
STAR stands for
Situation
Task
Action
Result
Please. Please. Please don’t forget to give the panel the result of the example. So many times job candidates tell the story but then fail to sell it by going over the results of their actions. If you don’t talk about the results of your actions the panel will assume you are not results-oriented and probably also take feedback poorly. Not good.
Question 5. What strengths do you bring to this role?
This is sometimes answered alongside a request for weaknesses (see also below). If also asked for weaknesses. Start with weaknesses first and give just one. Then end with two or three strengths.
For strengths. Try to come up with something reasonably unique and remember it needs to be relevant to the role.
So things that are not unique to say are:
“I’m an excellent communicator”
“I’m a team player”
Because pretty much everyone does say that about themselves at these interviews.
It doesn’t have to be overly specific. Just something which you can back up. So for example, if you have done a lot of teaching in your career and have good feedback on this. This would be a good strength to highlight in terms of any teaching responsibilities of the role. There are always at least some medical students floating around that need looking after.
Question 6. A nurse is insisting to give medication to a patient whom you don’t know and you don’t know the medication. What do you do?
Some questions seem simple on the surface. But providing a simple answer is not going to get you very far. It’s obvious with this hypothetical question that you should of course not go ahead and prescribe the medication.
But you need to show your awareness of the needs of others in this situation, in particular the member of nursing staff and the patient.
How are you going to discuss your dilemma with the nurse and possible the patient?
Is the situation urgent? Will you need to call your senior for advice?
Do you have time to go away and look up the medication and review the patient’s file?
What will you be telling the nurse? Their job is probably being held up by your current lack of knowledge. So you should be indicating to them when you will be able to get back to them.
For hypothetical scenarios, the CanMEDS Framework from the RCPSC is a great model. It gives you lots of ideas about what sorts of issues to cover. It’s also the framework upon which every Australian medical specialty college has built its frameworks upon.
CanMEDS Framework
Question 7. Describe a situation where you displayed leadership skills.
Again. We are looking for an example here. So using the STAR method is recommended. It’s sometimes difficult as a trainee doctor to find opportunities to demonstrate successful leadership. So don’t forget “followership”. This is where you act like the first person to follow a leader and help them to enact a change.
Good examples are things like noticing a safety or quality problem on the ward and instigating a change. For example, perhaps a ward trolley was inadequately stocked and you worked to improve the situation. Be prepared however to demonstrate evidence of lasting change. Did you go back and check that ward trolley after you left that rotation?
Question 8. What is the importance of documentation as a doctor?
This question tests your awareness of some of the key requirements of the role of trainee doctors. Particularly the most junior trainee doctors where documenting (or dealing with computer information systems) can be 80% of the job on a daily basis!
Obviously documenting IS important. But Why? Again, the CanMEDS framework may be a helpful construct for you in this question.
You might also legitimately answer this question by saying: “Documentation as a doctor is tremendously important and I am going to give you 3 examples of why?” Then give three good examples.
There are so many angles to this question that giving 3 good examples is going to be just as good as covering every point that you could imagine.
Question 9. Describe a situation where there was conflict between yourself and another member of a team?
This question is a big but avoidable trap. You can avoid it by being prepared for it and having an example. Again. The STAR method is your friend and the key here is to be able to demonstrate that you managed the conflict to a point where you were at least able to have a good ongoing working relationship with your colleague.
It is important to not only describe the situation and the conflict. But also take the panel through the steps you took in terms of your communication and collaboration to work with your colleague on the conflict and how you showed respect to them.
Question 10. You are covering the obstetrics and gynaecology wards one evening and a 35 year old female patient who had a caesarian section 2 days ago is now presenting with severe shortness of breath and chest pain. What is your approach?
You can insert here any typical clinical scenario which might happen on the ward where the resident medical officer is called to review. Chest pain and other types of escalating pain are favorite scenarios. Usually, the scenario is in two parts. The initial question is in the form of the information you might be given when a member of the nursing staff calls you.
The next bit is the examination findings. Generally, the examination findings are either of a patient who is deteriorating or already in need of an emergency response.
So the key aspects of responding to these questions are not to give a textbook answer to the clinical problem. But to frame it in terms of your role as a very junior member of staff. You need to spell it out to the panel. You need to let them know that:
You would prioritise the call – Go Straight Away.
You would ask for vital signs over the phone.
You would ask the nurse to call an emergency response. If the vitals warranted it.
You would ask the nurse to stay with you to help.
You would have in the back of your mind a question about “What could be the worst case scenario here?” for example a pulmonary embolus.
You would take a quick history and examine the patient.
You would have a low threshold for calling a senior colleague and/or an emergency response.
Question 11. Describe a situation where you displayed effective communication skills.
This is similar to the conflict question above. And in fact. It is perfectly okay to use the same example to answer more than one question.
Other typical situations to think about for this question, include complex patients and/or patients and families with communication challenges and/or patients and families who are upset with their care.
Question 12. What qualities should a resident medical officer posses? Which ones do you have and which ones do you lack?
This is basically a variation of the strengths and weaknesses question.
But there is also a big hint stating you in the face. The position description, in particular the role statement and the selection criteria. So you can use these to your advantage.
You might start by saying something like:
“Well, I understand from reading the position description that the key roles and capabilities are as such…”
This shows you have done your research and you are willing to align your opinions with the panels’ views of what a good resident medical officer is.
You can then go on to highlight the sort of qualities that an individual might need to meet these criteria and match them to your own.
So for example. The ability to work under pressure is often a selection criterion. So you could talk about this requires the quality of being calm in a crisis and being able to juggle a number of tasks.
How To Talk About Your Weaknesses.
Basically, you should not choose to talk about something that is a big weakness that you have chosen to do nothing about.
You should also not choose the weakness that everyone picks. e.g. “I’m a perfectionist” or “I can work too hard.”
Ideally, you should pick something that you have identified that you are not so strong and have been working on.
For example, maybe you struggle with reading. And you know that this is important for the exams. So you have joined a study group where other members are better readers and you are challenging yourself and keeping yourself accountable that way.
Question 13. Describe a situation where you displayed teamwork.
Again. We are starting to repeat ourselves with this question and questions about communication, conflict, and leadership.
Great examples here are situations where you noticed your colleague was struggling. Perhaps they had a bigger caseload than you. And you stepped in. Others might include helping to onboard a new doctor to the team.
Question 14. You are called by nursing staff and are told that some antibiotics were given to a patient that were actually supposed to be given for another patient, what do you do?
Once again the CanMEDS Framework will be helpful here.
Let’s look at it in more detail.
Health Advocate.
So. Obviously your first concern is for the safety of the patient who was given the wrong antibiotics. Are they allergic? Do they need monitoring? Also, has anyone else been given the wrong medications and needs to be checked?
After this, there is the issue of disclosing to patients and their families what has happened. You are representing the hospital so you need to be able to talk about how you would carry this function out. You need to do the initial disclosure but then be aware that more senior staff should be informed and take it from there.
Communication.
So. There is how you communicate with the patients and families about what has happened. There’s also communication with your nursing colleague and there is communicating with seniors.
Collaborator.
You are needing to work collaboratively with the nursing team to identify all the current risks and deal with them. You also need to be mindful of keeping good relationships with the nursing staff. The nurse may be in trouble for what has happened OR possibly they were doing the right thing and a doctor has made an error.
Professional.
There will be hospital policies and protocols that need to be followed. You may not be aware of all of these but it’s your responsibility to find out about them. The incident will need to be reported and you should be making careful notes of your involvement in case there is an investigation.
Potentially in this scenario, there has been a breach of professional standards. But that’s not immediately evident.
Leader and Scholar.
Is this the only time this problem has occurred? Was it predictable in hindsight? Does there need to be some thought to changes that would prevent it from happening next time or an audit of processes?
You noticed I didn’t even mention a medical expert in all of this.
Question 15. Describe a situation where your consultant noticed that you have made a mistake and how did you react?
This one may be hard for international medical graduates to answer if they have not had any medical work experience for a while. If so, panels will usually accept a suitable example from another job.
This question is a variation of the error question. So again. The idea here is to not produce an example of something where it all went terribly wrong. If you think about it there are probably lots of times where your senior colleagues have pointed things out to you that have helped you improve. We learn a lot from mistakes. And this should be part of your answer.
An ideal answer would include how you encouraged your consultant to give you specific feedback about your mistake so you could improve for next time. Bearing in mind that most doctors are terrible at giving feedback to other doctors. And then how you measured your success.
Question 16. You are the Resident in Emergency and a patient suddenly collapses. What do you do?
Basically another clinical scenario where you are the first responder. You should not forget that even though you are in the Emergency Department you need to call an emergency so that others respond.
Once you start getting into going through the DRABCs. There will probably be some supplementary information provided about the patient. Along the lines of them being in shock. Again. Call for help whilst dealing with this situation.
Bear in mind that it’s a rule that doctors in prevocational roles should not be the only doctor in the Emergency Department so there should be someone more senior to call upon.
Related Questions.
Question: Should I Ask A Question At The End?
Answer. In most cases, you have probably already had a chance to ask questions before the interview. So it’s perfectly fine to say no. But remember that the final question at the end is a chance for you to go back and review some of your answers or clarify anything you feel you may have gotten wrong in the interview.
If you are after a good sort of question to ask. Think about asking for some feedback on how your interview went. Whilst the panel obviously can’t tell you whether you were successful or not. They may have useful insight for you. And this may be your only opportunity to get meaningful feedback.
You might also consider asking the panel what they feel that their biggest challenge is at the moment. Only do this however if you think you might be able to offer some assistance in meeting this challenge.
Some Things You Ought To Consider If You Are Planning On Medical Interview Coaching This Year. Before You Commit
Are you planning on undertaking medical interview coaching in 2019?
A Wrap Up Of 2018
2018 was another successful year for coaching clients. Demonstrating the value of performance coaching to secure career progression. We managed to help clients secure some fairly competitive posts, including Visiting Medical Officer, Managerial roles & Advanced Training roles. As well as gain entry to some prestigious training locations (think Prince Alfred & St George in Sydney & The Alfred in Melbourne).
Overall I’m probably most proud of helping one particular trainee. This was someone who was seeking to return from family leave to complete their advanced training part-time and facing a fairly discriminatory employer environment (despite all the overt signs and signals of EEO and encouraging part-time and job-share arrangements).
This was a reminder to me of some of the poor practices (and attitudes) that still pervade doctor recruitment panels in Australia. I took the time to write about this in a joint post with my colleague Dr Amandeep Hansra.
Earlier in the year I was also fortunate to do a review of medical recruitment practices for the RACP and was made aware of some innovative practices in relation to recruitment, in particular a move towards Multiple Mini Interviews for Trainee Selections. I predict we will see more MMI panels over the years. As well as what I am terming “hybrid MMI” approaches (these are generally interviews with two separate panels).
Whilst the median number of coaching sessions for 2018 was once again 3. Some coachees, in particular trainees, opted for an additional fourth session.
Some also approached me for some “last minute” coaching. A once-off interview coaching session can be challenging. Particularly in relation to not overloading the coachee with too much new information. However, many doctors reported these sessions as helpful, particularly in being able to calm their nerves prior to the interview and to ask background questions and test out potential work examples to use.
There remains no doubt in my mind, however, that a planned and stepped out coaching approach is far superior and will address higher levels of interview capability and performance.
Key Observations
The format of most interviews remains remarkably conservative. Usually a single small panel of 3 to 5 running for 15 to 30 minutes (shorter for more junior roles, longer for more senior)
The types of questions remain highly predictable and if you practice enough you will likely cover the majority (with slight variation) bar any clinical problem they may put to you
Questions about experience (some what of a waste given they already have your CV), conflict resolution, strengths and weaknesses and preparedness for the position remain popular
Ethical questions, particularly in relation to trainee doctor wellbeing and managing upwards appear to becoming more popular
Most doctors can identify 3 or 4 good examples (good stories) from their CVs that can be used to fit the range of interview questions. Sometimes to more than one question and even if an example is not asked for
Thanks to our community and coaching clients. We have now collected more than 420 interview questions. Providing a useful bank of questions for you to practice upon.
Key Considerations For Interview Coaching
Career coaches often offer interview coaching. There are lots of coaches available to choose from if you live in a capital city. Less so in rural and regional places. But video technology now lets you connect virtually and also offers some additional benefits (such as not having to travel and the ability to record sessions easily). Some things you should consider in a coach are the following:
What is the coaches training and experience in interview coaching?
What sort of knowledge and experience do they have with the actual interview process? Medical interviews can be fairly unique, particularly in terms of the types of questions asked and what panels may be looking for. So someone who has actual doctor interview panel experience is ideal.
Does the coach provide face to face coaching or on the phone or online? Face to face may seem best initially. But consider that you may need to travel to see the coach and often during normal work hours. Phone coaching and online coaching may be more convenient and cut down on travel.
What feedback is provided after each session? Phone and online coaches can often give you a recording of the session for you to review.
What is the price of the coaching?
If you cannot afford a coach, there are some opportunities for less expensive or even free coaching. Your Director of Training may be skilled in interview coaching or may be able to recommend another Consultant in your hospital who is.
My Approach For 2019
I have a passion for medical career development and truly enjoy working with other doctors in a coaching format to reach their goals.
For 2019, I will continue to be offering the 3 session online coaching service as my main format for coaching doctors who wish to improve their medical job interview performance.
As an additional bonus for 2019. Doctors who sign up for 3 sessions will receive a complimentary course of their choice tailored to their needs (e.g. CV, Job Application or Job Interview Skills Course).
All this in addition to the ability to offer coaching at a mutually convenient time in the comfort of your own home (or private work area if you prefer). With a recording of each session available to review usually within the hour.
I am always happy to work with doctors on a once-off basis when I can. But I will continue to prioritise coaching clients on a sessional coaching plan.
With AdvanceMed I managed to secure my first preference for Advanced Training. I was able to work on the confidence of my interview approach and believe I delivered a much better package thanks to the training!
Practice an opening type question, during which we can also introduce some techniques for relaxing into the interview.
Go over your work examples as they relate to particular common questions.
And review some interview answer frameworks.
What Are The Benefits of a Series of Coaching Sessions?
Everything that is covered in a once-off session can be covered but with more depth and the opportunity for deliberate practice so that improved performance sticks and generalises.
We also use the extended time to develop better examples and practice answering multiple questions in relation to past example and hypothetical frameworks.
Over this time you incorporate relaxation and “panel warming” techniques into your answer approach. You become better at selling your examples and competencies and agile at answering a range of questions.
