At first glance, the instant super-brief immediacy of Twitter does not seem to present itself as a tool for developing and recording you
r CPD. However the rather lovely people at @OTalk_ seem to be doing this pretty well. They run weekly, curated discussions, using the hashtag #OTalk about key OT topics and offer transcripts that you can use to include in your CPD record. You can see their back catalogue at OTalk.co.uk. If nothing else, it is a great way to link up with some like minded OTs. One of the areas that they have looked at before and are covering again today, is OT interview preparation. I’ve looked back, over one of the transcripts from the last time they ran this topic, to see the sorts of questions that new graduates seemed to be asking and outlined my thoughts on some of the key themes. Hopefully they will be useful for the rest of you?
OT interview preparation key questions.
Should you visit before your interview?
I would suggest that you should ALWAYS visit, if at all possible, if you are shortlisted for interview. If you can’t visit,then arrange a time when you can phone and speak to one of the team (there is usually a contact name and number on any NHS Jobs interview advert). Just be aware that whoever you visit or call is likely to be extremely busy, so check with them how long they have at the outset and plan some key areas you want to talk to them about before you go. Visits give you your best chance of checking out if the role and team feel right for you. But remember that even though it will be much more relaxed than your interview, you still need to present yourself professionally. On a personal note, I believe I got my first job largely due to the efforts I made to visit before hand. During my interview I was EXTREMELY nervous and was unsuccessful but was called back later in the week when a new vacancy came up. The feedback I had was that that I presented much more confidently on my visit and the panel thought I would fit in well with their service. On that basis they were willing to give me a shot! Twenty three years later I am still grateful for that opportunity and the OT interview preparation I invested at the start of my career.
What type of things will you go through in your interview?
Well that really depends on the level and clinical area that you are applying to. For a band 5 post, as a panel we are looking for a therapist with a good understanding of the role of the OT in the clinical area (or areas of a rotation) required for the pos; the right qualities and values to work within the NHS; and with specific clinical knowledge and experience to get up and running quickly. I have looked at some of the key types of questions you may be asked before in a ‘top 5 band 5 OT interview questions’ post. But in addition some key advice would be
- When talking about professional issues be professional and use professional language and terminology for example make sure you are talking about function and meaningful occupation not just ‘doing things’ or ‘getting dressed’
- Demonstrate your professional knowledge in your answers by using the OT process, models and frames of reference to structure your thinking and responses, particularly if you are answering clinical case study type questions.
- Use examples wherever you can to demonstrate how you actually transform the theory into practice.
Be honest! If you really don’t know what you would do clinically in a situation tell us. But then, use your clinical reasoning to make the best answer you can. Seeing how you think is probably more important that what you actually think at this stage in your career. A good team will be looking to develop your clinical knowledge with you so that your reasoning can become more sophisticated. Demonstrating that you know your limits and how or when you would look for help is a valuable thing for us to understand. BUT, beware the default answer trap of saying just that you would “check with your supervisor” if you are unsure of a course of action. It is a bit of a ‘cop out answer’. Yes it is important to do that, but your supervisor is wanting to help you develop and coming to them with a tentative plan (even if it is not spot on) is much more helpful than looking to them to solve your problem. How you handle clinical uncertainty in an interview situation is the best indicator of how you will handle it in the real world.
What should I know about the organisation I am applying to?
As much as you can is a pretty trite, but honest answer. It should form a key part of your OT interview preparation. The more you know, the more you can structure and inform your answers. Some of this information you can get from your visit or phone call. Particularly information about the local demographics, the particular challenges that the service face, the nature and geography of the area for any community work and so on. I have previously pulled together a brief video of how to read Job Adverts that outlines how to get more information about the organisation itself towards the end.
Would discussion how you could fit in or what you want to achieve come across as conceited?
No not at all … depending on how you present yourself. If you are talking about how much you alone will achieve, that doesn’t really resonate with team work does it? Be realistic. Your first few years in your post will really be about finding your professional feet. Most new graduates say that they really started learning as soon as they got their first job. So demonstrating that your achievements will focus on supporting the team objectives, along side nailing your own development is a general rule of thumb that should help you get the balance right.
Should you take your CPD folder with you?
Again we would say YES. If an interview panel don’t ask for it, you’ve lost nothing. When we interview, we tend to look through it at the end while one of the panel are going through some final HR type questions. We are particularly interested in fieldwork educator reports, and the nature and quality of the reflections so make sure these are prominent. Generally interview panels will have a very limited amount of time to get through your folder which are often full of information. So make it as easy to find these key bits of information as possible. Also when you hand it over if there are things that you really want the panel to know about you make sure it is marked up and tell us about it. One of the best CPD folders I had presented to me had a sample summary right at the front, composed of a final placement fieldwork educators report, a key reflection and a letter from a client all of which were directly relevant to the post we were interviewing for. Whether you should refer to your CPD folder during an interview, I am personally less convinced about. You should know what the contents are, particularly the reflections and so should be able to describe these without referring to them – you wrote and learnt from them after all. It often breaks the flow of an interview if you are searching around in a folder for a particular reference and can suggest that you need prompts to answer your questions. If on balance, you do feel it really adds value to your answers use it very sparingly as a tactic and make sure the folder is organised enough so that you can jump straight to it.
Will I have to do a presentation?
Possibly, but in my experience these tend to be more part of the interview process for band 6 posts and above, if we are talking about NHS posts. If you are asked, we will be looking to make sure you can communicate (not just read slides of a screen). Slides should enhance the message that you are sharing and not be the message itself. Keep to time and be prepared to answer follow up questions. Prepare handouts and have a back-up plan in case the IT plays up.
When should you apply for a post if you are still at university?
This is dependent on the ‘market conditions’. Currently in our area we are experiencing a shortage of OTs graduating and we have lost a January graduation date of our post grad course. SO the only time new graduates enter the market is in the summer. We have interviewed in February for graduates that will not be able to join our service until they graduate in June ( and then they will be working as band 4 until their HCPC registration is completed). You will always face competition from OTs that are already graduated, but this should not put you off. If you are able to demonstrate that you have the potential you may do well, particularly if we are aware that movements in our service mean we know that posts will be coming up in the future. In other areas you may find that there is an over supply of graduates and you may not even get shortlisted. So try looking further afield if this is something that will make you feel more secure. Even if you don’t pass either the shortlisting or the interview stage you have prepared your application early for other posts or had some vital interview experience. We are more than happy to help you develop your application or help you improve your interview techniques with 1:1 interview advice if you think it will help.
Should I consider a Locum post as a band 5?
I feel fairly strongly that locum posts are definitely not suitable for new graduates. Having recruited a range of locums in a variety of clinical areas, I am aware that we demand an experience and skill level that allows you to hit the ground running. We may have been unlucky in our appointments, but but whenever we took on new graduates as locums it took significant amounts of senior staff time to oversee, monitor and support the decision making of the locum. If you are considering it, be really honest with yourself about whether you are confident that you can independently manage the caseload at a band 5 level. You may have had a really successful final placement in an area or have worked in a similar role as a technician prior to training, but even then give it some serious thought. As a locum you are taking responsibility for your own development and competence. It will not be the job of the service you work in to do these things. If you need that (and I would suggest that all new graduates need that), seeking it from your employers whilst in a locum role will be frustrating for both of you.
I will be joining the #OTalk tonight to see if there are any other questions that pop up. Hopefully between us we have helped with your OT interview preparation. Good luck!