Interview HELP please!

[Crappingmyself94]

I have been invited for an interview for the local hospital. It is for "Bank senior health care assitant".
I've never really had a proper interview before.
I am currently a senior care assistant in a care home, I didn't have a proper interview for this job as I started in the care home as a kitchen assistant then moved onto the caring side.
I have also worked in savers but I got this job after a job came up while I was on an 8 week placement through the job centre.
I know my job inside out and would say I am very knowledgeable about care etc.
The interview is over Microsoft teams which has eased my nervousness a little as it isn't face2face.
I'm just unsure of what I will need to have with me and what sort of questions they may ask etc, I just want to be as prepared as possible.

If anyone could possibly help me out or words of reassurance please?
TIA x

I understand you are nervous but I suspect you will be just fine.

They may ask you things such as tell us about a time when you dealt with a difficult situation. Think of some things you have had to deal with during your time as a carer or even in personal life that you can use as an example.

If you aren't sure what they are asking don't be afraid to ask them to repeat the question or to say I am sorry I am not sure what you are asking. That is better than going off on the wrong track.

I wish you the best of luck.

Hi Tia,

Congratulations on securing an interview. I work in HR so can give you some pointers.

A great way to prepare for an interview is to look at the job advert for the position or if you got the interview by word of mouth you can ask them for a copy of the job description. My advice would be to use this to prepare, look at what the duties are and see if you have any examples where you have done those in a job before. The skills part of the advert or job description shows you what skills they want. Use this to know what they are looking for and look at your cv and find examples of where you have shown these skills.

They are likely to ask you competency questions such as give us an example of where you dealt with a high pressure environment at work. You want to answer all of these type of question by thinking of a particular job you handled pressure well and explain what the scenario was, what you did, how effective is was and what this taught you or you gained.

You can look up competency questions up on google for practice.

I tend to stick to the same scenarios at each interview but select them based what I think they may ask.

Also, check out their website and tell them you did this plus make sure you ask them questions too, it makes you seem interested.

I hope this helps.

I am ex HR - and done hundreds of interviews - so please do not worry - it is their job to help you relax. And what they want from the interview is for candidates to demonstrate how well they would be able to do the job. They want people to do well and are not trying to trip you up.

And nothing wrong with saying at the beginning that you are a bit nervous as you have little interview experience as you have always been promoted from within the companies you have worked for. Shows you in a good light!

PP posters advice is good re the types of questions you maybe asked. Probably scenarios will be about
1)Difficult situations
2) Team work
3) How you prioritise

but as PP said - the advert or JD will give you clues as to their priorities.

Also think about the regulations in your sector as there can sometimes be scenario/knowledge based questions.

So, for example, in schools it is always 100% about safeguarding...what would you do if a student disclosed a worrying pattern of abuse? For schools, they are looking for an answer which shows the applicant has some understanding (or good understaning if you already worked in schools) of safeguarding....so the answer would need to include

1. Not telling the students you would not tell anyone
2. Not asking leading questions of the student, just listening.
3. Reporting the disclosure using the school's safeguarding process (CPOMS/Line manager/whatever the procedure is)

This is just a basic example. For your role it maybe something about patient confidentiality? Patient choice? Patient dignity? Maybe think about what is the most important thing and maybe expect a question specifically about that.

Good luck!

Thank you all for your replies.
There are some great pointers that I will definitely take on board.
@SeasonFinale I have had many difficult situations that I have had to deal with that could use for examples haha.
Do you think if I have post it notes with little bits written on Behind my laptop would help me? Or would it look too obvious on the camera I am looking at something? Lol
@IdealisticThinker what sort of question would you think would be a good one to ask? I don't think when would my breaks be etc would suffice haha! The position I am going for is Bank so its like I am not exactly permanent staff, I would be picking up shifts when there is any, tbf I'm not entirely sure how it all works maybe I could ask that if they haven't covered it in the interview?
@PantyMcPantFace I have told them on my application that I my role change from kitchen assistant to carer and then was promoted to senior, it was on the employment history part asking why I had left the job...
Yes I 100% will get those sort of questions and am prepared for those type of questions :)

Yes to post it reminders on your monitor or the wall behind it!!

@SeasonFinale okay doke, I'll do that, thank youu :)

And don't forget, you don't have to immediately jump in with an answer. Take a breath . If you need a bit more thinking time repeat the question back (ora shortened version of it).

You've had some great suggestions OP.

I had a Teams interview, it was strange but I got the job so I must have done OK, it was all competency questions so I had to google examples of those and then wrote some bullet point notes of how I would answer them. Some things to keep in mind
Do you have a headset to make sure you can be heard clearly it makes a big difference.
To make eye contact you have to remember to look directly at the camera on your laptop occasionally not at the other peoples pictures on the screen. In actual fact they spent alot of their time not looking at the screen whilst I was talking but typing up their own notes.
I did my interview in my kitchen and taped notes to the cupboards around my laptop so I could use them to help me.

Have some questions ready to ask them, I always struggle with this bit as often I have put a lot of research in so don't feel that I have anything else to ask and get a bit flustered but after some research on interview technique I decided on the 3 below and was commended on my good questioning afterwards when I was offered the role.

If they work in your future department instead of general HR then I ask what they are most proud of being involved in since they have worked at the organisation and what they have found most frustrating. These questions gives you a breather and gives them chance to waffle on whilst giving an insight to the department.

I also say I know that I understand that often interviews are scripted and was there anything else that they would like to ask me or for me to elaborate on. - In my last interview my new line manager asked me how I had gotten on with my OU degree as he had completed the same one a few years previously so we chatted about that for a bit.

Oh and the only question that threw me was "What motivates you?" I was prepared for "What are your weaknesses?" which I wasnt asked, but I started to waffle on about how I was finding the last year of my OU degree difficult as I was struggling to motivate myself so I take a break and go outside away from the computer and spend some time in nature, its an environmental science job so it seems to have gone down well but I felt like I was waffling a load of rubbish at the time.

They also asked how I dealt with data which might be relevant to your role, I started talking about GDPR and confidentiality as in my current role I deal with alot of personal data and that is what came to mind first, and then realized they probably meant numerical data so I talked about data handing in my degree.

Also think about when you would escalate any concerns to senior staff ie nurses?
How would you know a patient was unwell?
How would you know the best way to move a patient from a to b?
Think about confidentiality, what would you do if a neighbour asked you how their friend mrs jones was doing on the ward.
Take a look at your local nhs trust values.
Are you prepared to be flexible, being move to different wards during your shift.
How do you communicate with people who have dementia, are deaf etc
What would you do if you had any safeguarding concerns?

@Crappingmyself94

I would suggest asking questions that show your interest, even if your bank it's still important because competition is fierce at the moment.

An example might be, what's your favourite part of working here? Can you tell me more about the team structure? What are you looking for in a candidate? I would avoid questions about holidays or break times etc and ask these once you have a verbal offer if it's not specified in your contract or offer.

Best of luck. I'm sure you'll be great assuming you've not had it yet.

@IdealisticThinker I had the interview on the 26/08 and I got the jobb!! 😁😁👏🏻

@Crappingmyself94 congratulations I'm so glad it all worked out.