Anybody worked in NHS IT ?

[maxplanck]

My DS 1 has an interview for an entry grade position, working on the help desk at our local hospital. IT service desk technician is the official title. It will be his first paid job since graduating with a CS degree. Currently his only work experience is working in a charity cafe and he’s surprised he’s actually been given an interview !
He’s desperate to get the job so obviously wants to prepare really well for the interview. He’s read through the job description and is trying to tailor his skills to that but is there anything else he should know ?
I’m thinking maybe read about the trust ethos. Struggling with anything else not having had an interview for 25 years 😳…
Any ideas ! Tia.

My son is an NHS IT manager. I worked for the NHS too. They used to ask questions about your strengths and weaknesses, what you’d do in a set situation, hobbies and interests, experiences of teamwork. Years since I had an interview though! Good luck to him

I've just finished a period of job seeking, having been made redundant in December after 12 years with the company.

I've been successful, being offered the first and second jobs I'd applied for, and having 2nd/3rd interviews for another 2 (I'd accepted one of the 2 I was offered, so stepped out of the interview process for those).

I'd say, put the job description into chat gpt (or another AI platform), and ask it to suggest what questions may come up for that type of job. Then ask it for sample answers and tailor to make them fit his own experience. Using this really helped me think of situations in my own previous work experience, so I used AI as a tool to assist rather than to 'steal' the answers.

All the interviews I had used the ' Tell me about a time when' format, and expected STAR responses (Situation, Task, Action and Result)

NHS mark more for star based answers, so tailor them to your competencies, also strengths and weaknesses and even though it is a non clinical position there may be questions about the trust, what the values mean to him etc. so research the trust aswell!

There will always be a question about:
-confidentiality
-equality, diversity and inclusion

I would prepare answers for these with examples.

For the EDI question, I would look up reasonable adjustments for staff, access to work and how IT may need to approach supporting staff who have a reasonable adjustment in place, in relation to answering questions/queries. It may be that staff need information written down or in an easy read format for example.

Full disclaimer, I work jn NHS recruitment.

I'd recommend avoiding AI to research answers-it is typically easy to detect and is detested by recruiting managers.

There were some interviews the other day where 90% of the interviewees used the same example for the EDI question!

Our NHS trust is big on its values, and includes questions relating to them in any interviews, so ask him to research what the values are for the trust he is applying to. Good luck to him!

Not IT, but similar. Would agree, there will always be a question about the trusts values. I'd also recommend reading the most recent articles on the trusts website.

Our interviews tend to be competency based, so I'd advise looking at the essential criteria on the person spec and preparing answers based on each of those. As PPs have said, using the STAR technique is a good way to lay out all your points.

Edited for a typo.

Thanks everyone just seen the replies. Very helpful

It will be competency based usually. So make sure he's read the JD and has prepared examples for the key compentcies