hi welcome to the video about preparing
for interviews particularly clinical
psychology interviews my name is Farhana
I'm an assistant psychologist and I am
preparing for interview we have two new
people here would you like to introduce
yourself so I'll start off with Andrea
I'm Andrea I'm also a assistant
psychologist and I'm also in the process
of preparing things this year I'm David
Murphy I have been involved as an
interviewer on clinical psychology
courses for many years about 25
years I think and I'm the previous and
director of the Oxford Clinical
Psychology programme so one thing that we
wanted to mention is that we're not
going to be speaking about specific
processes or the individual courses
however it's best that you get this
information from the individual courses
themselves we're going to be focusing on
how to prepare for interviews and we
might go into particular elements in how
to make it a successful interview for
yourself and what we mean by success is
not getting a place it's more about how
you can do or how you can perform as
best as you can in those interviews and
make it an enjoyable experience for you
and that's why we're here to give you
some of these tips and skills so I hope
you benefit from this I was wondering if
I need to mention anything else from the
team here before we move on to the first
question we get approached to say about
the different types of enthusing this
for harness said we're not going to talk
about this any specific course in detail
because that would take ages
and you the best places to go to the
courses but they briefly the most common
format is a sort of traditional
interview with you and a panel of often
three or four people typically members
of course staff often psychologists from
the local area and often a service user
representative or expert by experience
representative so most of courses will
have an interview of course some
courses have other bits as well so other
courses have a task where you work in a
group to discuss a particular issue or
trying sort of do a particular task and
some courses also have roleplay exercise
where you might roleplay with an actor
or a member of course staff and also you
may be asked to look at a piece of video
and then discuss that so there are
different kinds of things but the end of
the day they're all or all of these kind
of different processes are about trying
to assess your you assess you on on the
sort of competencies and characteristics
the courses are looking for and I think
we're going to go and talk about that in
a moment okay yeah so we're gonna first
start off with what does a perfect
interview look like so I'm gonna ask
David and write Andrea what does a
perfect interview look like is there
such a thing called perfect interview I
think I think this is a myth that there
is a kind of formula
a perfect interview and I think
sometimes people can think that you know
if somebody's got on a course they've
managed to put things together in a
particular way that's sort of you know
kind of a code to crack getting on a
clinical psychology course but I mean
thinking about I mean I must have done
many hundreds of Hindus of people for
medical psychology courses and I would
say that people who have got placed some
course is their interviews look very
very different and the sorts of things
that they bring are really very
different some people bring a particular
strengths other people bring quite
different strengths people have passions
and sort of interests in one area or
another and so the really I would say
you know you never find a sort of common
content in any of the into a think the
common theme in a successfully - again
going back to what we were saying
earlier is that the applicant is the
interviewee is able to really
communicate to the panel what their own
what they're bringing what is it about
themselves that they're bringing to this
course their particular strengths that
particular kind of experience and their
particular interests as well because
that's that's the important information
because I do think there are a lot of
myths around the right things to say the
right words to use this idea that they
sit with lots of tick boxes they have to
take and and that I think can be quite
stressful in an interview so it's useful
to hear that it's more about bringing
and showing your personality and
strengths so it's important so I was
just wondering about the competencies
and the skills that would be needed in
interviews so I think this is it's
really helpful to think what the
interviewers are looking for and they're
not certainly not looking for any
particular kind of buzz phrases or words
or
remembering you know a particular thing
because that this is not a memory test
what they're looking for is the
particular kind of attributes and
competencies that have been identified
as being important in clinical
psychology and in clinical psychology
training so they're going to be a range
of things to do with you and your
interpersonal skills you and the values
you bring to the work that you do but
also more kind of academic and research
yours that are to do with your being
able to understand and apply
psychological frameworks being able to
understand and conduct research so
there's a kind of range of competencies
that the interviewers are looking for
and the interview is that means that
they're going to be assessing those
things or you know that they we've
mentioned earlier about the different
kinds of tasks but all of them are
tapping into those different kind of
areas that people are looking for and
it's important I think to bear in mind
that when you come to the interview
the application form is you
know not really part of that process so
you're kind of starting with a blank
slate so all the information that
they're going to be rating that on is
going to come from what you say in the
interview or what you do in the tasks so
I think that's a really helpful thing to
sort of focus you on making sure that
you're communicating information that's
relevant to the job that the interviews
are doing which is assessing on these
tasks so it is a kind of a partnership
because they can't do their job without
you doing their and you know you can't
just go in there and say what you want
to say because they've got particular
things they're looking for so it's about
trying to match what you're bringing the
interview with what they're looking for
and just sort of sharing from my own
experience from last year because I
interviewed last year as well was that
my very first interview I had done a
lot of prep a lot of reading about
theories and things and an adjust and
in the interview - I felt slightly disappointed
that
all the things I've read and also quite
overloaded with all the information I
took the interview and that's something
I'm trying to change this year because I
regretted not having spent more time
reflecting on my own experience and I
think that's a better way of preparing
yeah I think that's a helpful thing that
you mentioned Andrea because I've
mentioned about the skills and
competencies earlier but reflection and
ability to learn is obviously also
important because they're not looking
for the kind of finished product at the
start of training they're looking for
you're looking at your ability to
benefit from the experiences that you're
going to have on training and the
teaching and the clinical experiences so
demonstrating your ability to reflect
and and learn from experiences is really
important and so when you're presenting
information about things you've done
it's helpful to describe what you've
done but also to to you know as
important this is what you've taken away
from that what you've learned what you
might do differently next time so there
is a strong emphasis on reflecting from
your experiences in your answers so in
terms of telling your story thinking
about your experience learning and
preparing these stories for interviews
what would you kind of suggest and
advice for our viewers I think what's
really important is to that this is
something that you need to do before the
day because you know it will take you
time to sort of sort through the
experiences that you've heard and think
about you know how you don't use these
competences how you develop these
competencies in in particular situations
so it's it's helpful to have thought
through those things in advance and and
talked about you know thought about what
details you need to provide to set the
context what details you need to you'll
be able to communicate the
the story and you know also what you
learn from it so it's helpful just to
think about key experiences that have
that have shaped you and helped you
develop these competence isn't there
going to be different for everyone so
there is no definitely no "right
thing" you can read on the internet about
this it is about reflecting on your own
experience and I think you have some
good ways of thinking about presenting
that in terms of content and reflection
yes one of the acronyms that I was
thinking about what you're speaking
David is the star model and I use this
last year for an interview where you
think about a situation the task what
you did so action and then I think the
last one was a reflection and that was
really helpful because it's very
coherent with making a very succinct
answer and it gives you that element to
reflect on your the steps that you took
so and that invites you to be able to
think about your personal experiences
and what you would have done differently
and that's what I believe and what I've
been told by trainees to do a reflective
because they want someone to be you know
thinking about what they can learn from
each experience and that's what clinical
psychologist is going to be doing
learning from the experiences
incorporating both research and clinical
elements of it and you know it's always
continuously improving those elements in
your in your practice how about you
Andrea? Well I have a slightly simplified
version of that which I find quite
useful when I think about cases
which is more around context so thinking
about the context the client where did
you work what was the moment then the
content which is sort of the answer to
the question and then reflection so like
context content reflection and I found a
quite useful
so the three main things I think is
important to bring up in interviews
because I had at last they were had a
mock interview and one of the things
that came up after the mock interview
was that I hadn't provided enough
context so that's why I made that
framework to help me prepare for
interviews and that's a really good way
of preparing - mock interviews so you
know what is the value of more continues
and is it is it worth having more
continues before the clinical interviews
it's definitely a very helpful thing to
do just practically I I always suggest
that people try and have mock interviews
with people that they're not so familiar
with because I think it's very difficult
if it's somebody you're seeing every day
to get yourself into interview mode so I
would suggest that you try and if it's
possible find somebody who it doesn't
well ideally somebody who actually knows
about kind of core psychology to use
would be ideal I think just but but it
doesn't have to be and I think you know
it's more helpful just you know to be
able to rehearse some of these things
about you know getting your you'll be
able to communicate the story in a kind
succinct but clear way and the other
thing that we know that's important
is that you're not reacting answers to
specific questions you're not it's not
like learning a script for a performance
it's practicing the process of
communicating things about yourself in
in a kind of relatively short period of
time and you know I think you I think
you would think that you you know doing
mock interviews you know it's helpful if
you actually have questions that you're
not prepared for because that can help
you deal with you know be able to be
present and react to what the interviews
are looking for yeah yeah and I just had
welcome to you the other day and the
colleagues I was practicing with they
had questions that they wanted to be
asked but for me I felt that that was
more nerve-wracking for me and I asked
the interviewer to ask me questions that
I wasn't aware
because it helps me to prepare for my
nerves and to answer a question on the
spot and that's what I struggled with
the most because my nerves build up when
it's on the spot and I don't know the
answer
formulating and answer in my head before
I answer the question is something that
I want to prepare more and more and more
so yeah it's really helpful having not
confused and an alternative can be to
have more regular question brought up
for example in supervision so I'm very
lucky a very nice supervisor
who's agreed to do that for so every
time I have supervision she'll bring
this other question she thinks could be
relevant to an interview so I have to
think on the spot then quite regularly
so I get used to the process and I think
that's been quite helpful yeah and I
guess one of the other things to think
about is interview nerves and mock
interviews are way to kind of manage
those interview nerves and there are some
other ways that I'm getting the panel
here can think and share about what
would you suggest in managing these
nerves yeah I think I mean that
interview nerves I think just sort of
thinking about things where I've kind of
coming out and each of you have thought
that into wasn't successful there's been
when somebody hasn't really be able to
communicate what they're bringing what
their strengths and and competencies are
that they're bringing in and that's
either because they kind of get
sidelined and kind of spend too much
time on detail something that they don't
really communicate about themselves or
that nerves have really got the best of
them and they've just not really be able
to think on the spot so I think there
are some things you can do on the day
which which maybe we can talk about a
bit later but I also think that
preparation is definitely key and I
think a lot of these things that we've
talked about about thinking through your
experiences in advance and doing mock
interviews are definitely really helpful
ways to
help you to feel more confident about
going into interviews and you know I
think having some sort of bits of
stories that of your experience that you
can draw on is helpful or you know and
you've got to balance that with being
responding to what the interviewers are
saying so but having things that you are
confident about we're going in I think
is that it's definitely a big help yeah
so I was wondering in relation to what
you said about being confident before
going into the interview what can
viewers and myself and aundrea do to
kind of build that confidence before
going into the interview I really think
that confidence comes a lot from
certainly familiarity with the sort of
things that you're going to be asked and
some experience but I think that sort of
deep sense of confidence comes a lot
from really having done that work
reflecting on and really knowing what
what your strengths and needs are so
that you're you know I think some of the
fear comes from you know somehow that
something's you know they're going to
find out that you know some aspect of
your kind of weakness is going to be
revealed in the interview and I think if
you really done that reflective work and
you know yourself well and you've
reflected on what your strengths are
that I think gives you the confidence to
go in there and just think what this is
this is who I am
and
going to try and communicate that to the
interviewers and there's different ways
of looking at your strengths I mean I
often recommend people to do the were
there's different kinds of strengths
question is that people can do and
there's other thing on Martin Seligman's
Authentic Happiness website that I often
suggest people do to help identify
what your own strengths are in that way
but also reflecting on the work that
you've done and thinking about which of
the how did these what did these things
that I did, what did they demonstrate
about my my strengths and my values? and
really being able to know who you are
and who you will be regardless of the
outcome of their clinical psychology interview -
so you're gonna walk in with those
strengths and you're gonna walk out with
those strengths then you're going to
help those strengths with you regardless
of the outcome of the interview in your
take those may be back again next year
if you need to go back next year or to
do something different but those are
strengths that are within you they don't
depend on the outcome of the
interview. When I was in Oxford I
the day of the interview I have to put
little signs up around the building for
people to try and help them remember
that and this is one of the signs that I
put up, and it's a quote from the source of
wisdom Dr. Seuss, and Dr. Seuss says "Today
you are you, that's truer than true,
there's no one alive who is youer than
you!"
That's really helpful.
yeah it gets you to be more in touch
with you know who you are what are you
bringing to the course and remind
yourself that it's it's about showing
who you are and your strengths and your
uniqueness rather than fitting into
certain profiles yeah sure and also you
know and that's not saying that you're
that you're there you know you're a
finished product it's you know you're
also thinking about well this is where I
am now and you know there's there's lots
of development that
I you know that lies ahead of me you
know and so recognizing that and being
able to accept that you know you know
you don't have to present yourself as a
finished article then you know
everything about everything because
that's completely unrealistic and it's
certainly not what they're looking for
but they're looking for someone who can
can learn and make the most of
opportunities mm-hmm and I guess that
really taps into our identity that's all
that might be quite different in terms
of feeling like you know you might be a
disadvantage so thinking about those
identities that you have or that
personal strengths that you have and how
it can benefit the system or clinical
psychology and how it can benefit your
service users so using it as a strength
so even though let's say being a person
of color let's say and not seeing the
many psychologists that are persons of color
you might see it as a strength now
because that's gonna help others
understand different races different
cultures different differences and
that's the strength in itself and
bringing that into the interview might
be helpful bringing that into the field
is gonna be really helpful because
there's a there's a population that
would you know benefit from people of
you know similar identities so
definitely bringing your strengths in
and be confident about your strengths
and your identity and that will come
across in interviews so in terms of the
courses that you have applied to and and
the courses that you've got interviews
for and how can you get to know what the
course is about and that's a question to
ask yourself because that's going to be
important for interview questions that
you might be asked so what can we do to
get to know more
about the course I think it's it is
important to know a bit about the course
I think it's it's unlikely that they're
gonna ask you too much yourself about
you know testing your knowledge of the
course but they think they definitely
will want to know that you understand
what I think was psychology training
entails so that you're making an
informed decision about putting yourself
forward to further program so that you
you know you might be committed but you
you're actually making kind of an
informed commitment you know what what's
involved in that in the course and you
know I have that particular coursework
but also it's important to know you know
if you've got more on what interview you
you may well be in the position where
you're making a decision so it's
important that you you understand the
way that different courses differ I
think and you can usually get that
information from you know ahead of time
or from the course website and also a
little tentative homework is a really
good source of information because it's
you know it's full of trainees
describing their own individual
experience of the course yeah so
understanding the course
they help to kind of make a firm
decision and one of the questions that
comes up quite often is how much
preparation is enough do it do I do a
day do I do a few days a week how many
things do I prepare for and I guess for
me when I spoke to trainees they
emphasized not to prepare too much
because that can come across in
interviews through over-rehearsed
offices so the advice was don't prepare
too much but prepare enough for you to
come across well an interview how about
you guys you know I definitely think
that's true I think if you prepare too
much then that's gonna sort of overwhelm
you as well I think if you think you're
just too much to say in a way so I think
it's finding that balance about how much
do you need to prepare are there any
gaps in the knowledge you think you
would be valuable but I think as I said
or I said before is that thinking about
your own experience in the flexion that
seems most important rather than gaining
lots of new knowledge and then speed
well I think that's everything right and
I think you know the answer is to do as
much preparation as helps you feel more
confident in you know that you've
reflected on your experiences but if the
more preparation you're doing just
making you more anxious and just you can
ruminating about it and it's really you
know
and I think as you say definitely what
you you know it's not helpful is trying
to sort of memorize answers because
inevitably you're not going to be able
to connect with the questions if you're
just kind of going with blocks of things
that you want to say so I think you
really want to reflect on you know what
do you know what are your experiences
what you find news that you bring and
then leave yourself you know free you
might to be open to to respond to
whatever questions they can ask you and
the last one is requesting reasonable
adjustments for disability or a need
that you need to get met for the
interview and that's really important to
think about prior to the interviews as
if you're stressed in all prior to the
interview on the day then that's going
to have an impact on how you present in
the interviews also that's really
important all you guys think about you
know preparing and requesting reasonable
adjustments before the day I think it's
really important to I mean it's
important to recognize that you know
courses have obviously a legal
obligation to make reasonable
adjustments on the basis of disabilities
and particular needs
so that you're not disadvantaged by about
in the interview process and there and
they will be committed to doing that and
obviously they're much more able to do
that if you like that flag that in advance to
them and they may well have a
conversation with you about what your
need is and so it's I think it's
definitely important I mean it's really
not something that you should be shy of
or think that you're going to be
evaluated in a negative way because it's
not that that's something that courses
will always ask for you to tell
them and you know they're expecting you
to flag it up and that they can do
something about so that you know you
though it's going to be
that before you sorted out before you
get to the interview
