Consultant

Your interviewer is looking for strong management skills. You need to be creative and describe your toughest management task, even if it doesn't meet all the criteria. Most situations don't. Organisational and interpersonal skills, handling pressure and good handling of this question are indicative of effective management skills.

► What information would you need to be given by the management on a regular basis in order to perform your duties as a consultant effectively?

► What would you be guided by when treating children?

► Tell me about an ethical problem you have encountered in your practice. What did you do and what did you learn?

► How do priorities differ between a Level 1 and a Level 3 neonatal unit?

► How do you ensure that paediatric and obstetrics teams work together?

► Take us through your CV.

► How would you deal with a drunk consultant colleague?

Most companies, unfortunately, face these problems daily. If you can't deal with petty problems, you'll be seen as uncooperative. How you overcome these are important. Diplomacy, perseverance and common sense will prevail in difficult circumstances.

Think on your feet. Ask questions to get more details and break the problem into subsections. It is highly likely that you will have had some experience dealing with the subsections. Answer these and summarise the total. If you can't answer directly, state how you would go about solving the problem. Be specific and show your organisational and analytical skills.

The proactive, results-oriented person doesn't have to be told what to do. To convince the interviewer you possess this trait, give a series of short examples describing your self-motivation. Discuss one example in-depth, describing the extra effort, your strong work ethic and your creative, resourceful side.

Your interviewer wants to know how introspective you are, and to see if you can learn from your mistakes. Don't be afraid to talk candidly about your failures, especially if you learned something significant from them.

Employers like this question as it tests whether you understand some key business concepts like stock exchanges, the workings of corporations, and economic fluctuations, and whether you can look at the big picture for businesses as well as zoom in on particular stories.

Your answer to this will need to cover a number of issues. You might say, "Initially, I would assess how the program fits into the trust's values and vision. With the input of financial and clinical colleagues I would draw up a detailed plan, including five-year forecasts. I would ensure that everyone involved in the plan had clear responsibilities and appropriate deadlines. The performance improvement would allow savings to be removed from departmental budgets. I would manage a risk register for the program. Once delivered, I would ensure regular monitoring and reporting using financial and non-financial indicators. I would also ensure regular audit."

Know your key five or six strengths-the ones most compatible with the job opening. Discuss each with specific examples. Don't include your management or interpersonal skills unless you can describe specific examples of good management, or how your relationship skills have been critical to your success.

A potential employee needs a strong level of technical competence. Most strong managers have good technical backgrounds. Describe specific examples of your technical abilities, and how you resolved a technical issue.

Sometimes this question is phrased as, "What would your worst critic say about you?" It is important to state a weakness that is either a positive or a negative that you have overcome. This could include "not being assertive enough, so I took assertiveness training and had discussions with senior colleagues," "I used to leave work late but I have now taken steps to improve my work-life balance and try to finish on time," or perhaps "I take on too much work but I have learnt to delegate and manage others."

The interviewer is trying to determine compatibility with the open position. Be careful; don't say you dislike overtime, like management, or get too detailed. It's safe to say that you like challenges, pressure situations, opportunities to grow, or that you dislike bureaucracy and frustrating situations.

Maturation, increased technical skills and increased self-confidence are important developmental aspects. To discuss these effectively is indicative of a well-balanced, intelligent individual. Overcoming personal obstacles or recognising manageable weaknesses can help identify you as an approachable and desirable employee.

Knowing what's being written about in the business press is a big part of commercial awareness, but it's important that you demonstrate you know there's more to it than that.

Commercial awareness is also about understanding the fundamentals of how businesses work and having the skills to function effectively in the business world.

Pick two or three main factors about the job and about yourself that are most relevant. Discuss for two minutes, including specific details. You may mention a technical skill, a management skill and/or a personal success story.

Patient safety is paramount here. You should also make sure that you back up your answers with examples from your own practice, your specialty, or your local area. For instance, you might say, "Any service improvement would put patient safety first, as well as providing a higher quality and more sustainable service. The change would be clinically led, using evidence based medicine. The service would be tailored to local circumstances using national frameworks. Patients, the public, and staff would be engaged throughout."