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Interview Help (NHS)

weltweit said:
Don't be scared by moments of silence, you are allowed time to think of your answers.

Make eye contact with whoever asked the question, and the rest of them if you have time.

Make a list of questions you have for them and take it with you, refer to your list at the end and go through the questions one by one even if they have already been answered during the interview. You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.

At the end, ask them what happens now? What is the next step?

If you feel brave, ask them if there is anything they are concerned about which might rule you out for the role, be prepared to think on your feet, this is your chance to answer your objections face to face and it could be vital in getting you to the next stage.

There is a nemonic to remember about countering objections, I can't remember it at the moment, if I can find it I will post it for you.
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In moments of silence buy yourself some time and nous by reflecting any difficult questions back to them.

Such as that's a good question please expand on how this is relevant to this particular role. Anything really just do what it takes to buy something thinking time and look good at the same time.
 
A good question to ask them is..' Why do you like working here?'

Interviews are weird, especially in the public sector, About 6 months ago I had an interview for a local college, an hour with 2 ( or 3 people cant remember ) then an hours technical exam.

The money was really poor for what they wanted, and I didnt get it.

Contract Im on now for far more money was a 20 min chat and offered the job the next day. It madness.

I wish you the very best of luck, and from what you have posted on here I'm sure you will be fine, you have a passion for it, make sure you show that.
 
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ruffneck23 said:
A good question to ask them is..' Why do you like working here?'

Interviews are weird, especially in the public sector, About 6 months ago I had an interview for a local college, an hour with 2 ( or 3 people cant remember ) then an hours technical exam.

The money was really poor for what they wanted, and I didnt get it.

Contract Im on now for far more money was a 20 min chat and offered the job the next day. It madness.

I wish you the very best of luck, and from what you have posted on here I'm sure you will be fine, you have a passion for it, make sure you show that.
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Yup. Sounds like you have the skills UnderOpenSky you just need give a good show at the interview.

Don't forget the basics like good body posture, eye contact, agreeableness etc.
 
ruffneck23 said:
A good question to ask them is..' Why do you like working here?'

Interviews are weird, especially in the public sector, About 6 months ago I had an interview for a local college, an hour with 2 ( or 3 people cant remember ) then an hours technical exam.

The money was really poor for what they wanted, and I didnt get it.

Contract Im on now for far more money was a 20 min chat and offered the job the next day. It madness.

I wish you the very best of luck, and from what you have posted on here I'm sure you will be fine, you have a passion for it, make sure you show that.
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Thanks man. I'm actually feeling really really torn about the whole thing and if it's a good career move. The money is better, although we've been told there will be a pay review later this year. Less hours, but I mostly wfh, so some of that time will be taken commuting (but it's super close) and more holiday. I'm not that worried about the technical stuff, it's just making sure I don't get blindsided on the interview by something simple.

I'm a bit of a strange place though where I work and I'm not sure if it's good or bad (it's both). There's only the boss/owner, me and another tech. Boss wasn't hands on with the business for years, despite being super technical, but when someone left and wasn't replaced he said he'd step in more. He basically doesn't do any kind of phone calls or meetings, all coms happen over WhatsApp. If I have a problem with anything Microsoft based or some thing that runs on Windows, I'm probably on my own. I get to fuck around on Windows Servers, VMWare, Linux servers, I've literally got the keys to kingdom other then our own Microsoft tenancy. But it's all so disjointed, like there's very little leadership. I hope one day that's this is gig I want, but sometimes I want to have a chat and be told why my ideas are stupid or how they need to be improved and it makes me nervous to start things. Case in point is we've still got clients using VDIs based on 2012 that needed to be sorted by November. I've said I'll do the project and have syspreped some images and will deploy them, but I know if it's not networking related, I probably won't get much support if I hit snags. I've got another client I'd love to ditch their roaming profiles, but it's a huge job which I'd love to involved with, but not lead. But then this week he deployed a new site to site VPN for all our stuff and I noticed we couldn't communicate with a DC he asked me if I could fix it and he spent a couple of hours with me over WhatsApp whilst I looked at routing tables, desperately trying to it all out with the help of ChatGPT. But that doesn't come as often as I'd like. He spent weeks writing his own PowerShell tools with MS APIs so we could do stuff more easily, but of course if I can't do something with that, I can't Google it.

So part of me massively craves something that feels a bit more normal in a big org, but I also know that I'll be totally siloed and won't get a chance to fuck around as much and it might limit me moving on after this? Ah well I'm going for it, probably won't get it, but I've not had an interview since I've worked in tech beyond the one for this job, so it will be good experience.
 
Aye public sector is generally very high pressure. They will try to squeeze every inch out of you unless you're lucky enough to land some back office role that doesn't require a lot of interaction.

The grass isn't always greener...
 
Tbh I don’t find the public sector high pressure compared to the private sector environments I’ve worked in. But YMMV

What I valued the most was being part of a big team, job security, no risk of being outsourced, and things like the holiday and sick pay.
 
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Elpenor said:
Tbh I don’t find the public sector high pressure compared to the private sector environments I’ve worked in. But YMMV

What I valued the most was being part of a big team, job security, no risk of being outsourced, and things like the holiday and sick pay.
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Yup the annual leave at DWP was great. Adding in the privileged days and the Flexi time I used to build up I ended up having a week off every nine weeks (six weeks a year) That's almost a week for every two months. Pension was great, team mates excellent and after five years I got a nice £10,000 tax free for accepting a voluntary redundancy and then moved on to a job with double the salary so it definitely had its perks but boy did they work us into the ground.
 
savoloysam said:
Aye public sector is generally very high pressure. They will try to squeeze every inch out of you unless you're lucky enough to land some back office role that doesn't require a lot of interaction.

The grass isn't always greener...
Click to expand...

I suspect that might be the case. I wonder if I need that for a bit. When the shit hits the fan at my current place it can be super stressful for reasons mentioned above, but a lot of the time I just feel aimless. I'm not sure it's doing my mental health any good.

Elpenor said:
Tbh I don’t find the public sector high pressure compared to the private sector environments I’ve worked in. But YMMV

What I valued the most was being part of a big team, job security, no risk of being outsourced, and things like the holiday and sick pay.
Click to expand...


Yeah being part of a proper team really appeals. I work for an MSP, but it's nothing like what I've read most of them are like, they seem to be burn out central, having to account for your time in billable hours and all sorts and we have none of that. When someone approaches me on LinkedIn it's almost always for an MSP post.

I do get decent sick pay and don't even bother checking with the boss anymore if I've a medical appointment. I just let my colleague know. The boss didn't even realise my colleague was on holiday for a week it's how little monitoring we get.
 
Got the job. Was an odd interview, but the pointers on this thread really helped me get in the mindset. Was really suprised to hear so quickly. They just called and it was only this morning, so hadn't had time to process if I wanted it or not. In terms of responsibility it's a step back, but the money is better and they say they try to promote from within and the salary for L3 sounds very good, so I'm hoping a good career move.
 
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UnderOpenSky said:
Got the job. Was an odd interview, but the pointers on this thread really helped me get in the mindset. Was really suprised to hear so quickly they called as it was only this morning, so hadn't had time to process if I wanted it or not. In terms of responsibility it's a step back, but the money is better and they say they try to promote from within and the salary for L3 sounds very good, so I'm hoping a good career move.
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:)

well done

unusual in almost any sector for a decision that quick now, don't know how usual that is for this sort of thing in NHS

although there's now an unspecified process of them sorting out paperwork, references, and if it's the sort of job that needs a DBS check then that's a whole new unknown - especially this time of year with people taking up new jobs in schools etc.

hope it goes well
 
Once you’re in, you’re in to some extent with big organisations like this.

I was told almost immediately that I was unsuccessful when I applied for a few NHS roles.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
:)

well done

unusual in almost any sector for a decision that quick now, don't know how usual that is for this sort of thing in NHS

although there's now an unspecified process of them sorting out paperwork, references, and if it's the sort of job that needs a DBS check then that's a whole new unknown - especially this time of year with people taking up new jobs in schools etc.

hope it goes well
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Cheers. Yes. I need to get a conditional offer from HR, then references, DBS etc. Luckily I don't hate my job, I actually feel slightly guilty to be leaving.
 
UnderOpenSky said:
Got the job. Was an odd interview, but the pointers on this thread really helped me get in the mindset. Was really suprised to hear so quickly. They just called and it was only this morning, so hadn't had time to process if I wanted it or not. In terms of responsibility it's a step back, but the money is better and they say they try to promote from within and the salary for L3 sounds very good, so I'm hoping a good career move.
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Congrats!
 
UnderOpenSky said:
Thanks. I'll probably regret saying this but I'm actually looking forward to not mostly WFH.
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I do get that. I'd hate to commute every day but equally I hate being stuck in the house every day too. My current pattern - Mon and Weds in the office, Tues and Thurs at home, Friday off - suits me perfectly.
 
UnderOpenSky said:
Got the job. Was an odd interview, but the pointers on this thread really helped me get in the mindset. Was really suprised to hear so quickly. They just called and it was only this morning, so hadn't had time to process if I wanted it or not. In terms of responsibility it's a step back, but the money is better and they say they try to promote from within and the salary for L3 sounds very good, so I'm hoping a good career move.
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Congratulations :)
 
silly question (and aware i'm jumping on your thread) but what's 'the done thing' in terms of what you wear to interviews these days?

i've potentially got an interview in a couple of weeks (local authority mid level sort of office based technical thing), and it's the first in-person interview since well before lockdown, and i'm conscious that office dress codes seem to have relaxed a lot since - with current organisation, it seems only to be chief officers who even wear a tie now.

i don't want to look a twat by doing it wrong either way - gut feeling is if in doubt err on the side of too formal rather than too casual

although i'll have to buy a jacket at least if i want to do the 'smart' thing - my pre-covid weddings funerals and court appearances interviews suit doesn't quite fit now :(
 
thanks - in the BC years (before covid) i'd normally wear suit / jacket to an interview - if i can get away without the jacket now, that will save the time + cost of getting one...
 
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I tend to just wear a short sleeve shirt and trousers. I wouldn't want a jacket anyway as I can run warm and under stress I'd hate to be sweating.

But I also work in IT...
 
It took them two weeks to get me a conditional offer. They mailed my boss for a reference at the same, I was told I'd have a little time as wanted to let him know myself :(

They also want orginal documents for ID checks in the next 5 days. It's 2023 and all stuff is paperless. Bank says it takes 7 working days to get a statement.
 
UnderOpenSky said:
They also want orginal documents for ID checks in the next 5 days. It's 2023 and all stuff is paperless. Bank says it takes 7 working days to get a statement.
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Do you have a passport or driving licence? If you do that should make it easier - and they might accept printed copies of bank statements/council tax bills, etc., alongside the official ID docs.

When I first had to get DBS I had to order a birth cert as I'd long since lost it - that was annoying. But recently the passport has been sufficient. Hope you get it all sorted.
 
farmerbarleymow said:
Do you have a passport or driving licence? If you do that should make it easier - and they might accept printed copies of bank statements/council tax bills, etc., alongside the official ID docs.

When I first had to get DBS I had to order a birth cert as I'd long since lost it - that was annoying. But recently the passport has been sufficient. Hope you get it all sorted.
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Weirdly this isn't for DBS but their ID checks. I've done a lot or DBS and CRB before that and printed statements haven't been a problem.
 
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