This month we are happy to welcome Jan Burns from the Salomons course to talk about the Clinical Psychology interview.
Interview:
- Gives you an opportunity to tell us Salomons about your professional + personal experiences, as well as personal qualities that you could bring to the profession
- 3 people at the interview
Presentation:
- There is a presentation task supplied with the offer letter of an interview.
- Focus on your academic, clinical and research knowledge skills. It will assess your communication skills.
- Questions are asked at the end, stick to the allotted time.
- 4 people in this stage-one a trainee
Hearing the outcome:
- All candidates will be notified of the decision by the phone (a phone number will be asked for at the interview) on Thursday evening or Friday.
- If you have not heard by Thursday night-do not despair, there are a lot of calls to make and they intermingle peoples phone calls with who got on the course and those who do not.
- If you have not been selected then you will be offered feedback-please do ask!
- Salomons will ask you for feedback, Salomons take it seriously and will act on it-so please do return your forms.
- Selecting for diversity: there is no 'type' for Salomons-they ask themselves-'will this person be a good clinical psychologist?'
What are we looking for at the interview?
- Genuineness
- Good profile across academic, clinical, research and personal qualities
- Not just gained experience but integrated it, thought about it and used it
- What have you made of your experiences-what have you learnt?
- Show that you have really thought about this being the profession for you, and that you want to work for the NHS
- That you are prepared to make a difference
- Look at your academic work
- Longitudinal Study: Over the last 23 years Salomons have been carrying out a study looking at where the Salomons Clinical Psychologists go- 83% are still working in the NHS, with 65% working in the region
- Look at the Website: http://www/salomonscaspd.org.uk/clinical_psychology/
- Has a description of the place and programme
- Short listing criteria (look at before the interview)
- Programme structure & content, advice for people with disabilities, information about staff and research interests
Myths
- Salomons ask you about upsetting things and make you cry - Behavioural interviewing means that you will be asked how to manage new situations from drawing on experiences from old ones. They do not purposefully make you cry!
- Salomons purposefully don't look at you in the presentation - The interviewers need to make good notes during the presentations as they see so many people and need to be able to differentiate.
- Salomons make you stay 2 weeks at the start of the programme in a residential block - At the beginning of the course you are 'invited' to spend 2 weeks in nice big white country house with a 3 course dinner and breakfast-you are not obliged to stay and trainees often see this as a huge perk!
- Salomons like 'touchy feely' people - there is no particular type for Salomons.
Questions put forward to Jan
- If you are put on the reserve list-how likely are you to get on? Does vary, but quite unlikely as in 4-5 years, about 3 people on the reserve list have been called upon
- What preparation is recommended before the interview?
- Read application form
- Look at selection criteria
- Think about what you have learnt from clinical, research, academic and personal experiences
- Don't over rehearse
- Do prepare presentation well, be prepared for questions and rehearse this part- keep the presentation in the time frame too
- Regarding entry requirements-does a Masters help? - A Masters will help as point of selection, it will only be looked at after the interview process if two candidates cannot be separated
- Has there been a cut in the number of places? - No the London region still has all the same number of places as they did the previous year. And hopefully this will increase
- Where is clinical psychology going? - Seems that the job problems around a short term problem. Clinical psychologists have found it easy in the past to get a job out of training, but now the situation is more realistic for clinical psychologists-with some redundancies and having to hunt for a job.
- What happens about working out of the NHS? - If in the interview you recognise you are working out of the NHS region- you should do some research and understand the ways of the NHS
- What to wear? - Formal dress, suits are a good idea.
The group thanked Jan for coming up to see us all and discuss the interview process.
The next group will be on 27th March, and we welcome Glenn Waller to talk about eating disorders. We hope to see you there (please e-mail NTGPG@hotmail.co.uk if you do wish to attend so we can put your name on the list) .
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