Preparing for a consultant interview: Advice from a regional advisor

Applying for your first consultant's post can be a very stressful experience and therefore it is advisable to start preparation for the interview in your final year of training. If you have been granted a CCST, your clinical abilities will not be in dispute, and it is often the other aspects involved in the preparation for your application, which generate most anxiety. It is important to read widely on managerial and medico-political issues and to attend a formal management course. Your CV should be updated regularly to incorporate all the non-clinical skills that you will acquire in the year prior to your CCST, and then, once a post has been advertised, adapted to include all the requirements in the person specification. Your preinterview visits should be carefully planned and will provide you with some valuable insight about the Trust, the department and the job itself (not to mention possible questions that you might be asked!). Practise your interview technique and have some prepared answers ready for the more predictable questions you are likely to be asked.