Apologies for disappearing
for a while. The stresses of final year came straight after the first lecture and I've been struggling to keep up. But I promise to be consistent from now on!
So second round applications officially opened Friday and I thought what better time to post about the interviews.
The London Collaboration:
I only went through the London Collaboration interview which was a 2 station process. I started with station 2 where I initially
had a medicines optimisation task. This was followed by a
role play with a patient who was refusing to take his medication. Then to finish I was asked to describe a time when I went out of my way to help a patient or a friend. This
station was quite easy and the interviewers were really engaged, smiling and encouraging which
helped. In the next station it was the complete opposite. The interviewers looked like
they wanted to be anywhere but there which threw me off a couple of times. They
initially gave me a prioritisation task which required a good understanding of the roles of different hospital
pharmacy staff. Following this I had a few questions to answer.
These included ‘why do you want to work in London?’ and ‘Tell us about a time where you worked in a team to achieve a
particular goal, outside of your degree.’
From my understanding the second round interviews will be with individual hospitals and you
will not have to sit an interview for multiple hospitals like with the London Collaboration. But I thought I should add a quick summary
of this year’s collaborative hospital interviews as I have been told that this
will be the new set up for hospital interviews next year. I will write a more
detailed outline closer to the next application period.
General Tips :
For those going through this a second time and even those going through
it the first time you’re probably desperately seeking advice on what you could do to
maximise your chances. Below I have quickly summarised the general tips
suggested by students who sat these interviews and lecturers, most of which I used myself to secure a place.
1.
Smile - From everyone's experiences it was clear that the interviews varied greatly. Some
people had really friendly interviewers that would smile and nod encouragingly when you got
stuck. Then there's the other side, which was common, where the interviewers
looked bored out their minds, fiddled with papers and kept glancing at the clocks. This is sometimes a technique
to see how you are under pressure and other times it just might be because they’ve been sitting there all day. The last thing you should do in this
situation is get worked up and drop the ball. I know it’s easier said than done but
try to smile as much as possible. Avoid revising or talking
about the interview itself before going into
the interview. Talk about something different with a friend, crack jokes or
remember something that made you laugh. Even pull funny faces in the mirror of
their bathroom, if nothing else works, so you can laugh at how ridiculous you look. Just try to look as cheerful
as is possible as this is a patient centred job you are applying for at the end
of the day.
2.
First Impressions stick so
make it a good one - I walked in
with a big cheesy smile and said good morning in the most cheerful voice I
could muster. This I believe portrayed a friendly and welcoming personality
which is needed as a pharmacist. Thankfully they smiled and said good
morning back which was an excellent beginning to the interview. Remember people usually make a judgement about you within the first few
seconds of meeting you. So for the rest of the interview you
would be either reaffirming their judgement or trying to prove you’re the
opposite. Keep this in mind before you walk into your interview.
3. Read the person specification - Most people will remember to read their
application answers because really who remembers what the wrote weeks after they’ve
wrote it. But not everyone reads the person specification which
is one of the most valuable documents on the Pharmalife profiles. I used this
both when I was writing my applications as well as before I went for an
interview. It allowed me to tailor my answers to fit within their mark scheme.
By showing how you meet the person spec through your
answers you are effectively showing them why you’re the perfect person for the
job and saving the interviewer and yourself a lot of time and stress.
4. Know where you are
being interviewed - This may seem like an
obvious one but you need to actually research the hospital you're being
interviewed for. The more research you do the more you seem genuinely
interested in the hospital and it shows your enthusiasm. Read the job
description to begin with and then move on to the hospital’s website. What are
their values? How have you reflected this through your experiences? Have they
made any changes recently or introduced a new service? Do they have any special
schemes or opportunities for their staff? What does their CQC report say? What
makes them stand out for you? Even try typing their name into Google and see
what comes up past the first few hits and then present all these findings back
in the interview by embedding them in your answers.
5.
Use S.T.A.R Answers - If you are asked a question don’t ever just dive straight in.
Take the time to think. You need to articulate your
answer in a coherent manner that actually answers the question fully. Mumbling
for 5 minutes about the Sudafed tablets you didn’t sell the hypertensive patient and then
realising they were asking you about teamwork will only harm your
interview score. When answering any question related to a past experience use
the STAR technique shown in the
picture below.1 This will allow for your answer to flow and for you to
tick all the boxes on the interviewers sheet.
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| Image from: http://srg.az/library/recruitment-azerbaijan-innterview-tips/recruitment-azerbaijan-using-the-star-technique-to-shine-at-job-interviews |
6.
Record Yourself - This was an amazing
tip I heard from one of the fourth year pharmacy students at Kingston University. Record yourself
answering some of the questions and then listen back. Do you sound dull, boring, engaging, interesting? You could also try watching yourself in the mirror to
look at your facial expressions when you’re talking.
This might make you notice a few bad habits you have and give you time to
change them. E.g saying ‘umm’ or ‘basically’ a lot or even a monotonous
voice which would put people to sleep.
7.
Practice but to a limit - This sort of links in with the first point but try
and bullet point your answers for the most common
questions and then have a friend ask you some at random.
Although its common knowledge not to memorise answers for interviews, so they don't sound
rehearsed, it would be a good way to see how you come across when answering
questions. I used this tip before my interviews and didn't
realise that although I am usually a chilled person I looked super serious when answering the questions.
This allowed me to make a conscious effort to smile during my interview and the
interviewers smiled back (well some did).
This list is by no means
exhaustive. Everyone will have tips and tricks to learn from and
research makes the best preparation. My next blog post will have a mini question bank
you can use to get you started. These will be just a collection of questions compiled
by Zahra, a 4th year at Kingston University, from students who have attended interviews this past
month.
All the Best!
S.
