Consultant interview video
A consultant interview is unlike any interview that you will have experienced during training. This video has been produced to look at the interview process and offer best practice advice from three experienced consultants.
Consultant advisors
The main speaker is Dr Helen Goodyear, Head of School of Paediatrics and Associate Postgraduate Dean for Less Than Full-Time (LTFT) Training, Careers and Professional Support, Health Education West Midlands (HEWM). Dr Goodyear has wide experience of consultant interview panels and also delivers careers support to prospective candidates in the West Midlands.
Also taking part are Dr Alex Bailey, Consultant Psychiatrist for Westminster Community Mental Health Team and Dr Hannah Skene, Consultant in Acute Internal Medicine for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital who give their own advice and tips as previously successful candidates.
"Make sure you go and meet all of the people that are involved in the job because that stands you in good stead. I met with our chief executive, medical director all of the service directors; that was really important. And have an understanding of your job as more than just the clinical aspects. It is really important that you understand what the NHS is these days and where it is going and how it relates to the rest of social care and society in general." (Dr Bailey)
"Preparing yourself to be a consultant is really difficult as a registrar. You can do the clinical work, you have the knowledge and skills - that’s accepted; you’ve completed a training programme. It’s the non-clinical skills that you need to prepare yourself for mostly. That’s about getting involved in the way that your service works and is developed. So invite yourself to committee meetings within the trust, get involved with projects where services are being developed, try and understand how finance works.
Try and act up as a consultant for three months in your final year. Not everybody gets the opportunity to do it but it’s a really valuable chance to understand some of the non-clinical work you’ll be doing as a consultant. And then when you go to an interview you have not just that experience but also a real understanding of what it takes to be a consultant and what a Trust will be looking for in a consultant." (Dr Skene)
Find out more by reading a real-life story about a consultant interview by Dr Helen Jewitt, a consultant anaesthetist, based in South Wales.