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

Honestly sign up with an agency or to one of the private covid labs - their ts and cs are pretty crap so they won't be as choosy. Dd is working with lots of people with PG qualifications who are jumping from one entry level lab role to another, in order to build up their lab experience (apparently to be accredited Biomedical Scientists they need to tick lots of different experience boxes). (And get your Hep B vax so you can work with blood products.)

You might be loosing out as you don’t have any lab experience, even for an entry level job where they will be training you. They probably get applications from people who already have worked in a lab/ done a masters with a big lab project. Could you maybe focus on why you want the job. As it’s nhs I assume it’s in a certain speciality eg pathology so I would read up on the career structure in that speciality. I would then try to demonstrate how working in that field really interests you. For research jobs we like it when candidates have read about our research and show an interest in the field. But different for service labs but there must be some way you can demonstrate interest. For example during your degree you learnt about how pathology is crucial for correctly diagnosing disease and identifying what treatment to use. Good luck.

Oh and I assume you'll be applying for the NHS scientist training programme for next year?

That example of your friends results btw - I'd imagine they were looking for an explanation - not just 'I wouldn't give them their results' but 'I wouldn't give them their results because I don't have their full history and their clinician would want to be able to explain what the results meant, discuss any further treatment and give my friend the chance to have their questions answered, which obviously I wouldn't be able to do'.

@titchy

That example of your friends results btw - I'd imagine they were looking for an explanation - not just 'I wouldn't give them their results' but 'I wouldn't give them their results because I don't have their full history and their clinician would want to be able to explain what the results meant, discuss any further treatment and give my friend the chance to have their questions answered, which obviously I wouldn't be able to do'.

Wow, that's such a great response. I've been thinking on this question for ages, will probably never come up again and didn't know what to add :( god I'm just useless.

What are these agencies people are mentioning? I was with an agency but was only offered the food production job.

Also, yes it's within histopathology!! My dream area. I so want it. Ty for all the help so far it's been amazing and can't wait to start again with prep tomorrow!

@ILeanne94

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

My most recent junior for an entry level office role had only worked in retail and hospitality before. It was problem-solving and teamwork examples from those jobs that swung it, and openness to conversation.

As I say, stop trying to be the perfect candidate with the perfect answer. Focus instead on being you and showcasing yourself.

The test results question is about patient confidentiality and data protection. They were looking for those key words. You cannot look up the records of friends and family.

Have you looked at non clinical roles in the NHS? It's a way to learn about the culture of the organisation, find out about policies and procedures.

Just google lab technician vacancies yourtown - even the big agencies like total jobs (or is that a consolidator - no matter) will have something. Are you just looking at the nhs website?

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 grin 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

Ok, so the persuasion one is a good example of an answer you can prepare that might be useful in other scenarios too. The reverse also comes up – as in – making sure you’re open minded and so you can cover both in this scenario. Hopefully you have an example, but if you don’t, er… make one up in advance. You could talk about the time you were in a team and working on a project with a colleague and where you had opposing views on the best way to proceed with determining the solution. You could say that you (for example) scheduled some time for you both work through the pros and cons of both approaches with the positives and negatives of each. That you made sure to listen to their plan in case there were benefits to their approach that you weren’t aware of (because you’re open minded and flexible remember! ) but then through that process it became clear your approach was in fact the best, objectively and your team member was happy to go along with it without feeling bulldozed – hurrah!! That type of thing. It can be generic, think of how you actually might approach a situation like this, role play in your head. Maybe come up with a version of it that's about where it's a manager for example.

The one about the friend calling – if it seems like they’re wanting a bit more then maybe it’s to show you understand why not (even though it seems obvious). You could say something like ‘Well I know my friends understand that I wouldn’t do something like this anyway, as integrity in my work is really important to me, but I’d obviously say no due to (and quote whatever is relevant here to your trusts data privacy rules / GDPR / etc – (whatever it is – google it!). You have the chance to tell them something about you and your integrity here and that you know why and that you know why specifically for this trust!

Not sure if this is helpful, but if it is, give us any other ones you might be stuck on, I bet other people have better ideas than me anyway. We can come up with examples.

You can do this!!

Also - practice out loud at home or in the car or wherever. You'll feel stupid but that's part of it, make answering these types of questions something that you've done before. Take a breath before answering each question so that you start the way you mean to. You don't need to be perfect, just hitting the main key areas. Also - the fact you're so passionate about working in this area is a huge plus. You can do it.

For someone who fluffed their way through job interviews - of course I had the basic qualifications, if not perfect - 7 years single mumhood having put me out of the working/office life....

Any mums and especially single Mums are the best managers! They keep everything together. This was said to me by my "getting back to work coach"

Just have a good - not dishonest! CV - and be personable, professional and all you can do is your best.

If you don't get the job, don't despair. It's just an interview which will hone your skills for the one you will get. Positivity is everything;

I’m in a senior position in an nhs pathology department and have been an interviewer for the type of role you are applying for many times.
Sometimes there hundreds of applicants for one job - you are doing well to get to the interview stage.

Questions we always ask:
Core values/mission statement of the Trust -an easy win if you have looked these up beforehand as many do not.
What’s do you know about (discipline you are applying for)? Some applicants don’t even know they have applied for!
Basic understanding of Quality assurance question.
Scenario based questions - don’t get too hung up on these, there’s no one correct answer! (Sometimes after the interviews we even differ on what answers we liked best.)
Silly or small talk type personal question - again no correct answer, often to end the interview on a happy note.

Always a positive for me are the applicants who make the effort to ring us up and ask a few questions before they apply, some departments allow a short visit to the dept beforehand or on the day of the interview.
There is a very friendly twitter community that may be worth a look, I’m sure there will be a few threads on interviews.

Hope that helps - don’t give up. X

Thank you all so much for such lovely and long replies! I appreciate it massively! I'm really going to work on trying to be more general and have key points to discuss instead of exact wordings and memorise it which never works well!

@Crumpledtoad

I’m in a senior position in an nhs pathology department and have been an interviewer for the type of role you are applying for many times. Sometimes there hundreds of applicants for one job - you are doing well to get to the interview stage.

Questions we always ask:
Core values/mission statement of the Trust -an easy win if you have looked these up beforehand as many do not.
What’s do you know about (discipline you are applying for)? Some applicants don’t even know they have applied for!
Basic understanding of Quality assurance question.
Scenario based questions - don’t get too hung up on these, there’s no one correct answer! (Sometimes after the interviews we even differ on what answers we liked best.)
Silly or small talk type personal question - again no correct answer, often to end the interview on a happy note.

Always a positive for me are the applicants who make the effort to ring us up and ask a few questions before they apply, some departments allow a short visit to the dept beforehand or on the day of the interview.
There is a very friendly twitter community that may be worth a look, I’m sure there will be a few threads on interviews.

Hope that helps - don’t give up. X

Thanks so much! What is the Twitter community? Would love to follow.

I have made contact this time and she ignored a couple of the questions so I'm guessing they were bad ones not a great start

@titchy

That example of your friends results btw - I'd imagine they were looking for an explanation - not just 'I wouldn't give them their results' but 'I wouldn't give them their results because I don't have their full history and their clinician would want to be able to explain what the results meant, discuss any further treatment and give my friend the chance to have their questions answered, which obviously I wouldn't be able to do'.

but that's not the answer! That's a straight data protection question. You might well say that you would gently explain to your friend that you can understand how worried they must be etcetera and demonstrate tact in the response but you'd need to be answering about staying within the parameters of your job and tthe importance of making sure that information is shared only through the correct channels.

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.

This is spot on. I am at a v senior level but applied and failed to get a job in one department and the questions were terrible. I'm now doing the exact same job in the very same department only placed by an agency

@ILeanne94ILeanne if it was something you wanted to know that you couldn't find out elsewhere then it can't have been a bad question.

Do you think perhaps you are trying too hard to answer properly when actually saying something more general like 'I'd make sure I was familiar with all the required procedures and in the event that I wasn't sure I would seek advice from a senior colleague...and then waffle a bit about understanding that following proper procedure is paramount and you are a quick learner.
If these are entry level jobs it's perhaps showing that you are prepared to work as part of a team and seek advice that they need you to demonstrate.

I suspect you are preparing so much they are not seeing your personality and so can't envisage you in the team.
You'll get the one you're not really sure you want and care least about!

but that's not the answer! That's a straight data protection question

Yeah I was assuming that they were asking as if OP had her friends results having processed them. Obvs if the samples are labelled with hospital numbers or she's not inputting the results then she'd have to look them up which is a no-no.

I've interviewed for quite a lot of roles, at the extreme end, one of the worst interviews I did the candidate had written out his answers to every ossicle question he could think if. When I asked him something he would flip through the binder to find the closest match then read it out word for word.

It was an uncomfortable interview and none of the answers fully addressed the question.

As advised above think about the core themes, generally when you read a job and person spec it tells you the competencies that apply to the role eg Agile, collaborative, decisive....

Keep any notes to 1 side of A4 or a couple of notes cards, don't have reams and reams you'll get flustered trying to find what you're looking for.

Bullet point and just basic reminders eg

Agile:

• Project X where deadline bought forwards suddenly, reprioritised, communicated with everyone, set new actions, phase 1 & 2, achieved goal.
• Rescheduling rota due to Covid impact, complicated, quick turnaround, business impact
• temp work, different role each week, lots of new systems, quick learner, positive feedback.

Have a couple of key points about why you think the company will be a good fit for you based on the research you've done on them and the role.

If you have any really really good examples of work you're very proud of that don't fit the theme put them into your notes under 'misc' as they may still fit dependant on the questions they ask.

Also think of a decent question or two to ask at the end. Things that show willing like 'will there be training opportunities' or even something current like how has the covid pandemic affected the work of the lab'.

It's more about leaving on a good chatty note and 'whats the annual leave' doesn't achieve that

I work in pathology in the NHS. Ask for feedback from the labs you’ve already interviewed at. Ask to go for a look around before your interview.
For entry level positions in labs, don’t mention that you have aspirations of progressing up the pay bands! They like people who they think will stay long term, as entry positions are often like a revolving door and it takes months to train someone…then they leave.
If you get a question that you don’t know an answer to, either say “I would ask my line manager what the correct procedure was/ or I would look in the S.O.P”. They don’t want anyone guessing anything, because that’s where major errors occur. Also, the questions they ask relating to how you would deal with situations involving others are designed to see if you will work well in a team. Avoid anything confrontational.
When you were asked “how would you get someone to see things from your point of view” how did you answer? If it was my interview, I would have explained that it’s not my role to change someone’s point of view. If it’s affecting the work we are doing, I would tell them that I would have a quiet word with my line manager.
Good luck.
Feel free to message me if you want any further help. I could put you in touch with one of my colleagues in histo if you want?

Oh and with roles like these that are highly regulated the 'right' answer if you don't actually know the right answer is that you would follow the policies and protocols of the Trust and if you were unsure you would either look it up or ask for assistance.

Your friends test results question.

'If my friend asked me to look up her results I'd explain to her that I wasn't able to do that and direct her to make contact with whoever arranged the tests. I understand the importance of data protection so would follow the relevant policies and protocols of The Trust. If I was ever unsure about what information I could divulge and to who, I'd check the policy or ask my manager or a colleague for help.'

You're getting a lot of input but I'm still going to add my 2p.

-your data protection/friend's results answer was a great start and HalfShrunk has expanded that perfectly.

• which illustrates the point: that in NHS interviews you don't get marked down for talking too much. Show that you've understood the point of the question (eg that one is about confidentiality), explain how you'd follow procedures/get support (as per HalfShrunk) and if possible, add an example where you've faced that or something similar and acted appropriately.

Just another point. If you fluff an answer or go blank, but suddenly have an epiphany during a following question, it’s okay to say towards the end of the interview “can I just come back to that question you asked me about X…?” Then give your answer. DH did this recently in an interview (fluffed an answer, moved on, realised he’d got the wrong end of the stick about the question, went back and provided a more substantial response) and it seemed to be well received.