Job interview

Ok, so as promised....

My interview was on Wednesday so on the Tuesday night I drove up to stay with Kim. The drive up was fun, lots of Michael Jackson playing on the radio that day, and apart from the minor mishap when a lorry cut across 3 lanes and I saw my life flash before me whilst on the M6, it was a nice drive.

I had done a fair bit of prep; I knew about the hospital and the initiatives there and had some idea about the structure of the team. I also reread key policy and legislation and made sure I got my head around the changes due to take place on April 1st, as well as key guidance linked to the area of practice. I also trawled recuitment sites and found the 'typically asked interview questions' in order to prepare answers for those, in case I got tongue tied or my mind went blank, and finally I thought of some questions to ask the interviewers that weren't the usual clichés.  The day before I reread all of that, and got my self into the right frame of mind: Positive thinking. I had a quick inspirational chat with myself in the mirror, affirming that I was ready for the interview, I knew my stuff and I am a capable and passionate OT. Then I went out for dinner!!

During dinner we chatted about the NHS and bits and pieces and I was given advice on interview questions, how to answer etc and it really put my mind at ease.

In the morning, as per usual, cue outfit change. But thankfully I was with someone who has an abundance of beautiful and smart dresses...so it wasn't an issue.

My satnav decided to take me a different way to the hospital than I had planned, which threw me but it was an adventure, 'Jane' got me there safely, it was fine.

I was early. I like being early. I handed in my IDs for photocopying and waited. I reread my notes and had an idea of what was in my portfolio and double checked all of that against the job description. 

"Breathe, just remember to breathe"

That was the best advice I was given. 

I had been told to plan for being there 9-5.  The interviewers came down and explained how the day was going to work. Firstly, in the morning, there was the tasks. I was verbally presented case studies and asked how I would respond, there was 3 questions; and I was give an 'article' and had 4 questions on that. Pretty standard stuff, and wasn't too difficult. After all the candidates had completed the tasks, individual feedback was given. I scored 4/4 on the article and 7/11 on the case study (I sneaked a peak at the notes when the feedback was being given).  On the day there was 5 candidates, 2 had not arrived, and it was the second day of interviews. In total I think about 15 were short listed  there was 2 posts. After lunch we were told if we were successful and had progressed onto the panel interview.

At this point, I was happy if I went home, it had been a very positive experience, and would prepare me for future interviews well. 4/5 people went on to the panel interview.

The panel interview was 30 mins long. There were three interviewers; two specialist OTs and the Head of therapy. Each asked 3 questions. I was confident with the answers for 8 of them, and fluffed up answering 1 of them. At the end I asked my questions and had a discussion about some topics that arose from my questions, thanked them and left. By this point I was feeling very happy and positive. I had learned a lot about my self in terms of how I cope in stressful situations, about the types of questions, and I realised that on the spur of the moment all sorts of information I didn't know I knew popped into my head.

I paid my massive car parking charge and drove back to the cotswolds. The first song on the radio as I left the hospital? MJ - Man in the mirror. As Katie always says 'make that change'... It felt like I was on the way to doing so. Reflecting on the day during the drive I realised that this was one of the moments I had been waiting for the past 3 years.

I got home to be greeted with lovely lemon muffins made by Katie, and I hadn't even had the chance to have a cup of tea before I got a phonecall - I got the job!

It's strange, I haven't finished the course, qualified or graduated yet, but I have a job. Awesome!!!


xx