Didn't even get shortlisted - looking for career coach recommendations

[CareerCoachingAdvice]

I applied for a job in the NHS that I am fairly confident I am very well qualified/experienced to do. I found out at the end of last week I didn't even get shortlisted. I am gutted and it's really knocked my confidence. I have been working in a freelance/ consultancy capacity for over 15 years in this field - all with NHS clients and at a fairly senior level. Prior to that I did over 10 years in permanent NHS roles. My last permanent role was one band below the job I applied for.

I am very keen to move back in house for the next phase of my career and believe I have a lot to offer with the combination of consultancy and in house experience, but I don't think I am conveying it well enough on my applications.

Does anyone have any recommendations for career coaches or online resources that might help me? I feel I might be out of touch with how to apply for jobs!

I’ve been both recruiting and being recruited in the nhs recently and have some tips if that would help? I have experience of this at band 5-8a.

All tips gratefully received @FabuIous! This was an 8c role. I was last an 8b and did my fair share of recruitment into the team I managed at the time, but that was 15+ years ago - so I fully appreciate things might have changed since then.

I’m not sure my experience will be all that useful then, but I may as well pass it on. It obviously depends a bit on the personality of who is recruiting too. Also depends on the format of the application form, I’m in Scotland so it may be different.

• make sure you speak to anyone you can, set up a chat with the job contact given to ask more about specific priorities for the role etc. Try and speak to others in the dept/parallel roles etc.

• on the application form, where asked, detail exactly each required criteria in the person spec and also clearly how you meet them (…through x y z), rather than expecting them to extrapolate from the work experience part.

• depending on the format of the form, you can possibly include some of the criteria meeting in the ‘other info’ or ‘values’ sections, if you are otherwise out of room. I think this doesn’t apply to nhs England though.

Sorry if some of that is obvious, do ask me more about anything you think I might know.

It is very competitive out there.

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights @FabuIous - I genuinely really appreciate it. I did have an informal chat with someone before applying, but I didn't speak to anyone else.

The format of the form in England is employment history (max of 10 jobs) with 500 words for each role to set out roles/responsibilities/achievements, plus a 1500 word supporting statement. So quite a bit of world count available.

I thought I had addressed all the person spec, although I know I fall down on the "evidence of CPD" - it's an area I should focus on.

Perhaps in hindsight it wasn't the best possible supporting statement as I was pushed for time when I did it, but I still don't think it was awful.

I do appreciate that I've got no clue who else applied. It is really tough out there and with the ICBs in England having to make massive cuts, my sector will be especially hard hit so I expect the role attracted a lot of applicants - plus there just aren't many roles at that level that come up anyway.

Do you think the style of supporting statements has changed over recent years? I am very used to the format of "I am experienced in filing through my time working in the big filing department at X hospital. I was responsible for filing all the paper in the right order to tight deadlines." (Obviously this is an example!!)

Do you think the style of supporting statements has changed over recent years? I am very used to the format of "I am experienced in filing through my time working in the big filing department at X hospital. I was responsible for filing all the paper in the right order to tight deadlines." (Obviously this is an example!!)

Yeah this has definitely changed. Generally the fashion is less about listing what you were responsible for and more about what you actually did and the impact you had. So I achieved an X% improvement in blah blah by doing Y.

Also I'll pm you details of my amazing career coach. Not cheap but she is amazing.

Thank you @Fitzcarraldo353

It sounds like you might be a good fit for working with Laurie McPherson

I'm not her by the way but I have met her and been to one of her workshops

Oh we’ve tended not to love applications like that. It feels out of place in a clinical setting.

Most of the ones we see say ‘I have experience of the thing’ and the better ones say how with a bit of blurb like ‘through the management of a QI project to do blah blah’.