To think I just won't get a job?

[ILeanne94]

9 unsuccessful interviews...I'm doing something wrong. I honestly do so much prep as well but the information just isn't sticking... Going over policies and procedures and then also trying to go over answers to your scenario questions. Yet here I am, just had my 9th unsuccessful job interview.

My next one is on the 30th, an entry level NHS position.

These roles before have been entry level but I do have a degree and I feel I prepare a lot of answers and things but on the day they will ask me something and if it's not an exact question I prepared I am lost and end up trying to waffle something together or have to skip it completely!!!

I really am needing a job and any advice would be amazing. Thank you

@LifeWithBellsOn

Having interviewed candidates for mid-level NHS jobs recently I can say it's really disappointing how many candidates miss out on the basics. My opening question is along the lines of 'this role involves doing x and y for (name of Trust), what can you tell me about the Trust?'. This is just my super-friendly way of asking 'have you actually bothered to google us before turning up for this interview?' I've recently had candidates for roles at Band 7 (definitely not entry level) who clearly hadn't. What's the point of this ramble? Do the basics. What does the employer actually do - for bonus points pick up one extra stand out fact from the website, be friendly, open and enthusiastic. For an entry level job there will probably be a fair number of candidates with broadly similar skills (on paper) so you need to stand out a bit so here your biggest asset is you. Sure you can prepare all the standard answers you want but adding in a little sparkle of what makes you special might just swing it.

See I'm struggling quite a lot at finding exact info about the department tbh apart from how many specimens they deal with a year... I actually haven't been asked the question before only "why our trust" and I listed some things about the nhs trust

@NoSquirrels

You need to think of it as a conversation not a Q&A style grilling, first and foremost.

Questions like that or "what would you do in this situation" my mind goes blank as they just sit and stare at me and I can't even think of a situation in my head as I've only prepped for other examples

What would* you do in an unfamiliar situation you hadn’t prepared for? Work it through out loud. In a way it’s not what^ you say it’s how you describe your decision-making to them. “Show your workings” as they used to say at school - what matters as much as the ‘correct’ answer is how you got there, and if it’s not the correct answer someone can identify the misstep and suggest what you’d do instead and then you agree enthusiastically “Ah, great point..,” etc and then everyone feels like you’re someone they can train, and open to feedback…

Seriously. If your feedback has been “not aware of certain situations" (you are now though, right) and "lacked certainty" you can totally address this - “certainty” is more about projecting confidence that you’re someone who will problem-solve.

Maybe I'm focused too much on exact words in the answer. I've been looking at some courses online and they mention including exact words so I'm trying to remember it exactly in that way :S

"Yes! And I always have some lovely STAR prepared answers before the interview but they will not ask those ones and ask something else and I try and fit it around the scenario I've already thought about and then I get confused and don't know where I'm leading I've had it twice that they go "okay let's move on" and in that moment ik I instantly won't get the job lol"

Please please don't try to cram a situation that you have prepared into a different question....its sooooo annoying to the interviewer.

Have you looked at agency?

I got depressed after 3 interviews, joined an agency and haven't been out of work in the NHS since.

Lots of people find somewhere they like in the NHS by doing lots of agency there first so by the time they interview, they are the known candidate and have been asked to apply and also, they know they will like the job.

Thank you so much for the advice so far. I'm really desperate for this one on the 30th. There's 20 being interviewed tho, with my track record it's not looking great but I'm hoping I can try to start prepping a bit differently now

When you are prepping your STAR examples are you thinking in terms of competencies? Competencies are a skill or the ability to do something relevant to the job, for example good communicator, organised, focused, responsible, team player etc. You can normally work out what competencies they'll be looking for in an interview by analysing the person specification and/or the job description. From there I'd recommend trying to think of 2 examples for each competency related to the types of job you are looking for using the STAR approach. Practice speaking about those examples. Maybe write out bullet points on index cards to help you remember them. When you are in an interview and they ask you a question, take a few moments to think about what competency they are asking you about, recall your example, decide which one to use and then get started.

I recommend 2 examples for each of the competencies you are likely to be asked about because it's good to have a back up in case you've already used one up earlier in the interview! I also always recommend taking a few minutes to think about the question and how you can best answer it before you start talking.

Have you had any paid work? Get a job, any job (hospitality etc are desperate for workers) then apply for careers afterwards, whether it's washing pots, waiting on tables or pushing trolleys in the supermarket car park it show employers you are willing to work. You may also learn things about yourself and learn soft skills that will help you leapfrog into long term work

Just to add that if you focus on speaking about your competencies rather than preparing answers for actual questions then you are less likely to be caught out because the exact question that you prepared for doesn't come up.

@gogohm

Have you had any paid work? Get a job, any job (hospitality etc are desperate for workers) then apply for careers afterwards, whether it's washing pots, waiting on tables or pushing trolleys in the supermarket car park it show employers you are willing to work. You may also learn things about yourself and learn soft skills that will help you leapfrog into long term work

I'm currently employed in retail! But always try to link the scenarios to my work experience/summer programs as it's more relevant

@Geezabreak82

Just to add that if you focus on speaking about your competencies rather than preparing answers for actual questions then you are less likely to be caught out because the exact question that you prepared for doesn't come up.

Oh that's interesting!! Great idea.. so have scenarios for each of the person specific skills they want for the role, making it only about 6 instead of trying to imagine every single scenario question possible

By employed in retail ofc that's considered a "job" but it's part time and even recently I did agency food production work to top it up as there has been no overtime so it's hard to really view this as a job as I can't treat it like a proper one

Can you give an example of one of the questions? Maybe we can think up the type of answer you might need to give, and that might give you a bit of a way to approach other variations.

Are they the type of questions you have to relate to your experience? Stuff like

Tell us about a time you made a mistake and what you did to fix it?
Tell us about a time you had to work as a team… etc….
(Remember not what you would do, but what you did… which is what an interviewer said to me…)

I hate this style of interview and as I haven’t worked in a long while had to relate experiences from my volunteer work with a sports club! I did manage to get a job, but it was excruciating! I’d try to think up some scenarios you’ve experienced and write those down. A few notes to jog your memory with a header that gives the gist of it.

One example I have in my head is how I stuffed up a budget, had to own up to it and live with it as it couldn’t be changed, and in future I would do xyz investigation and review of said budget. It actually Relates to personally moving countries, rather than a workplace scenario but it’s still applicable as problem solving and showing lessons learned

You’ve had some great feedback on the specifics of technique.

I just thought it might be helpful to also examine the numbers. You seem disheartened at having done 9 interviews and thinking that it means you are not doing well. But look at the numbers. For your next interview they are interviewing 20 people. I assume there is only 1 vacancy. So on a straight numbers perspective you only stand a 45% chance of getting a job with 9 interviews.

Keep doing what you are doing. Keep turning up and interviewing and you will get something. But it might take 10 or 20 more interviews.

As an interviewer I never wanted to see that the candidate could recite learned detail but that they could think and reason.

This sums it up perfectly. If you're relying on reciting answers you've pre-prepared and learnt off by heart, you will absolutely fail at interview. They want to know about you and how you think and communicate, not how well you memorise things.

It sounds like you’re lacking examples. I coach in interviewing techniques as part of my role. For those of us who find thinking on the spot tricky, I suggest a three flexible examples training technique. Basically think of three experiences that link to the JD or represent your skills at their best (ideal a mix of work / volunteering / community roles) and then spend lots of time thinking the example through and using them to answer questions. What did you do well, what challenged you and how did you overcome challenges, how did you manage conflict. They work for ‘give us an example’ or ‘ describe a time when’ or ‘demonstrate how you would’ type questions. It stops you fretting about not being able to think of things - you have three examples on the day that are absolutely imprinted on your brain and you can twist to pretty much anything. Loads of luck xx

I always find it off putting when a candidate is trying to remember an answer they have prepared. Usually this means they don't quite answer the question or not as fully as someone who genuinely works it through in their mind in front of me.

As an example, "tell us about a time when you experienced conflict within a team?" Someone may have prepared the answer to "what do you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses?" Then give me a rote list, which may include "not brilliant at conflict resolution". This type of pre-prepared answer that sort of relates to my question would not get to the points that I'm trying to gauge, which in this example would be self-awareness, capacity to take criticism on board and learn from it, professional growth from entry level roles, ability to work alongside colleagues with different opinions, training (and ability to use it) in emotional intelligence etc.

@Pawtriarchal

Can you give an example of one of the questions? Maybe we can think up the type of answer you might need to give, and that might give you a bit of a way to approach other variations.

Something like "Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully persuade someone at work to see things your way." Was an example I had before and ended up just stuttering and she was like okay let's move on. Of course the whole way home I was thinking what I should have said I just find it so hard in the moment, even when it was a "what would you do if a friend called and asked you to check their lab results" and I obviously said about how I wouldn't be able to and would say they needed to wait to receive them back and I remember all 3 of them looking at me and going did you want to expand on that?? Like I really wouldn't know what else to add lol

Sympathy with you op. I have been rejected today for a job that I matched all the person spec as well as the desirable criteria. I have asked for feedback, and I hope that will help me. It seems they just found someone who was more suitable than me. It’s disheartening and I’ve felt very down since hearing.
The job market here is very tough. I’m desperate for a job as we cannot meet our outgoings and will be choosing between heating and eating. I’m over qualified for lots of jobs, so don’t even get short listed. I can’t give up, but each rejection is shattering my confidence.

Some really good advice on here. Don’t be afraid to ask for a question to be repeated if you need to buy yourself more time to think and if you really have a brain freeze, be honest with the interviewers and ask if you can come back to question at the end rather than skip it.

Definitely don’t try and have too many scenarios prepared - I have 5 or 6 experiences which can be adapted for most questions by just changing where to put the emphasis e.g. leadership, making difficult decisions, working under time pressure. I wouldn’t use the same example more than once in an interview but you can quickly pick up on the behavior the question is asking about and know which experiences you can use.

Do you take prompt/note cards to your interview? I’d take it as a positive if an interviewee had the self awareness to know their mind might go blank in an interview and have found a solution to help themselves.

@godmum56

"Yes! And I always have some lovely STAR prepared answers before the interview but they will not ask those ones and ask something else and I try and fit it around the scenario I've already thought about and then I get confused and don't know where I'm leading I've had it twice that they go "okay let's move on" and in that moment ik I instantly won't get the job lol"

Please please don't try to cram a situation that you have prepared into a different question....its sooooo annoying to the interviewer.

I think you can actually do this to a certain extent. A pp mentioned prepping competencies; if you do this and they ask about a specific scenario you’ve not experience with, a lot of times you might be able to display transferable skills/competencies, but be up front about it!

e.g. Well I’ve never dealt with xyz specifically, but I’ve demonstrated my ability to xyz (competency that scenario is about, e.g. analyse complex information / build effective relationships with senior people) when doing xyz by… …. …. This had the outcome of xyz and so I feel confident I would be able to perform effectively in the scenario you’ve given.

This why, as pp’s have said, focusing on principle rather than nitty gritty is important.

Also remember some workplaces are terrible at writing good interview questions. I’ve seen too many which are effectively 3 questions in one and would tie anyone in knots if you tried to answer all at once. There’s nothing wrong either addressing the first part of a question and then asking for the remainder to be repeated as a reminder before finishing tackling it.

@KiwiDramaQueen yes you can demonstrate that you have a competency but not ramble off.....its important, essential to tie the answer to the question.

oh and PS @KiwiDramaQueen the three in one questions are gifts....make notes of what the question is and say "well that seems to me to have three parts ie xxx yyy zzz so let me take those individually.

@godmum56 ok, gotcha, yes