Interview Preparation, Understanding the Process

Podcast: Pre-Interview Meeting Tips: How to Turn Early Conversations into Interview Success

The pre-interview meeting is often underestimated, but it can be one of the most powerful tools in securing a job. In this conversation, Tessa and Becky discuss how to make the most of these meetings, uncover key insights about the role, and position yourself for a successful interview. From asking the right questions to listening for hidden clues about the panel’s priorities, these tips can transform your approach to nhs interviews.

Check out to the full episode:

Maximizing Pre-Interview Meetings

Becky: What are your tips and tricks around the pre-interview meeting?

Tessa: Yep, so I do think a pre-interview meeting can play a really important role in your ability to get the job. Although it seems like it’s not the interview and you are being scored on the interview, there is a lot of work that you can do before you even get in the interview room door that makes a massive difference. And I know we talked last week about how to approach contacting these people, but then when they say they want to meet and you go and meet them and make it happen, you need to make that worthwhile and know why you’re going.

Your initial feeling is you want to make a good impression and you want them to really like you so that they give you the job. And that is true – you do want to make a good impression. But the gold in the pre-interview meeting is, yes, it’s building a connection and meeting with them, but actually it’s the stuff that they tell you.

Becky: I mean, this is the stuff that’s uppermost in the mind of the clinical lead or the medical director or whoever else it is. Whatever call they’ve just come off, they’re thinking about that when they meet you and they’re likely to tell you, “Oh yeah, no, I was just chatting to somebody about implementing a new change across the theatre pathway.” Now you know about that and you can chat about it in your interview if it comes up.

Tessa: Yeah, so I think it’s two elements. You can chat about it in your interview and they’re likely to ask you about it in your interview because the panel are going to sit together and plan what questions they’re going to ask. The questions are going to be relevant – they’re not going to pick something that’s relevant to another distant hospital or service. They want to ask you about things that are relevant to their service. And these are the things exactly like that, that are at the top of their mind.

So rather than going in armed with 20 questions like, “What do you think about this? What would you say about that?” – that’s your agenda. It’s much better to be open to their agenda. Let’s see what they want to talk about. Now it can be variable because you don’t know how the pre-interview meetings are going to go. Sometimes they’ll fire questions at you. Sometimes they’ll say, “Okay, you’ve got me for 20 minutes. What do you want to ask?” There’s no way to really know that. It tends to be more of a conversation that is not as stressful as you think it might be because they’ve done it lots of times before and they often take the lead. But you should definitely go ready with some questions.

My advice is to keep the questions as open as possible: “What are the priorities for you and the service going forward? What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?” And then importantly, listen to what they say, and have the conversation from that line. So whatever they answer back is not like, “Great question, done, onto question three,” but actually you talk to them about it: “Okay, that’s interesting. And what have you done? What’s been done to address that? Or what are you hoping will be done to address that?” That’s where the gold is in that conversation, because what they tell you is really important to remember. You can actually reflect that back to them in the interview.

Becky: I think the other thing that’s useful to think about when you’re meeting with people pre-interview is that if you’ve been asked to do a presentation as part of your interview, that’s likely to be on something that’s the current priority for the department. So if you’ve asked about your vision for their service, then actually they are likely to share some of the stuff that they’ve got planned or that they’re hoping will come into action in terms of their service. Actually, it’s fine to share your vision, but you should also make sure that it aligns with their vision. That’s likely to come out at that pre-interview meeting as well. So it’s a source of potential gold for your interview.

Tessa: Sometimes they can essentially just tell you what is going to be asked in the interview. Sometimes they’ll say, “We’re going to ask you a question about a QI project, so make sure you know about that,” or “We’re definitely going to ask you about staff retention because that’s been an issue.” It’s really important to just pay attention to that. That’s obvious when they say it that way – it’s obvious. But if you didn’t go for these interviews, you wouldn’t know.

We had an example recently where a student, there was someone from another specialty who was going to be on the substantive panel because they were representing their service as an extra person. They told them during the pre-interview meeting to read the CQC report from their specialty. There’s no way you would have read another specialty’s CQC report in depth unless they’d been told that – but they got told in the pre-interview visit. And then they got asked the question directly about it: “Have you read the CQC report for this specialty? What did you think about it?” If they hadn’t gone to that pre-interview meeting, they would not have had a clue. That question would have massively stressed them out.

This is why it’s so important to go. But it’s also important to listen. That’s when they obviously tell you what the questions are, but often it’s more subtle – they might steer the conversation around topics that might come up. Once you’ve had that pre-interview meeting, come out and write down what they said while it’s fresh in your mind. Then brainstorm questions that might come up around that topic. If they’re telling you recruitment’s an issue, think: What questions might they ask about recruitment? How would you improve recruitment? What are the challenges with retaining staff? Prepare for those questions – they’ve given you a clear heads up. Massive amounts of gold can come from these pre-interview meetings if you do them well.

Becky: Yeah.

Tessa: I know it’s busy and stressful because you’re trying to prep for your interview, but remember – this is prep for your interview. In some ways, it’s one of the most important parts of prep. So make it happen.

Key Takeaways:

  • Pre-interview meetings are prep, not just formalities: Use them to gather insights that will give you a competitive edge.
  • Listen actively: Pay attention to what the interviewer shares about current priorities, challenges, or projects – they often hint at questions that may appear in the interview.
  • Align your vision: If presenting your ideas, ensure they complement the department’s goals shared during the meeting.
  • Take notes immediately: Write down insights from the meeting while they’re fresh and brainstorm potential interview questions.
  • Keep questions open-ended: Focus on asking about priorities, challenges, and recent developments rather than asking overly specific questions.
  • Follow their lead: Sometimes the conversation will be informal; adapt and respond rather than sticking rigidly to your prepared questions.