Confidence

Sell Yourself in Medical Interviews

Jane E Anderson

• Publisher: Jane Anderson P/L
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780994267849
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Formazione medica

Selling Yourself Matters

Congratulations! You have persevered through nearly a decade of intense study and rigorous training to become a qualified doctor. It takes an incredibly strong intellect and the utmost dedication to get to this point. You know what specialty training program you want to get into and now it’s time to nail the final interview – and this book can show you how.

Panels of Experts are Daunting

Panel interviews can be scary if you’re not prepared. The panellists usually show little emotion, which makes it difficult to know if what you’re saying is hitting the mark. And when you’re unsure, you can feel flustered. Your confidence nosedives. You stumble through your answers to the panellists’ questions, and you may leave the interview feeling as though you’ll have to try again next year, or even apply for another specialty. You can avoid all this turmoil by learning how to sell yourself!

How Interview Ready Are You?

You may be concerned about selling yourself too little or too much in the interview. What amount is just right? You don’t want to appear boastful or brash, but you also don’t want to miss out on your training program. This is your chance to achieve a training program in your desired specialty. You don’t want to miss out!

We all hate selling ourselves, but an interview is one of those times when you can’t be shy. You have to stand out from the crowd, of course, but there’s a way to give the panellists what they want to hear without sounding like you’re blowing your own trumpet.

From this book you will learn:

• What the interview panel wants to hear.
• Specific clinical, technical skills you need to sell yourself effectively.
• How to craft your answers so they demonstrate that you’re the best person for the job.
• A framework to build effective answers to medical behavioural, scenario and ethical questions.
• Techniques to increase your confidence, how to anticipate what questions the panel might ask and how to practice in the lead up to the big day.

About the Author:

Jane Anderson has worked with hundreds of doctors to get onto their dream training position across faculties such as dermatology, surgery, gynaecology, maxillofacial surgery, cosmetic surgery and urology. She has been featured in various national print and television media, speaks at conferences and mentors individuals. She is the host of the number 1 ranked iTunes podcast, the “Jane Anderson Brand You Show”, and is the author of three books on how to sell yourself. She has also been nominated for the Telstra Business Women’s Award in 2014 and 2016.

CHAPTER 1

WHY DOES SELLING YOURSELF MATTER?

Congratulations! You have persevered through nearly a decade of intense study and rigorous training to become a qualified doctor. It takes an incredibly strong intellect and the utmost dedication to get to this point. You know what specialty training program you want to get in to and now it’s time to prepare for your panel interview.

A strong intellect helps, of course, when it comes to your panel interview. The trouble is, nearly everyone else applying for the same medical specialty training program as you is equally as intelligent.

A panel interview is a whole different ball game to the years of study and training you have completed. Relying on your marks and achievements alone will not guarantee you success. To be in the coveted small percentage of doctors who get into their ideal specialty training program the first time around, you need to stand out from the crowd. You need to make a lasting impression.

You need to sell yourself.

What does it mean?

Selling yourself doesn’t mean being cocky or arrogant. It doesn’t mean beating your chest and shouting, “Look at me! See how great I am?” Selling yourself means feeling confident. It’s the ability to effectively communicate your skills and assets. It’s about being in control during your interview.

Panel interviews can be scary if you’re not prepared. The panellists usually show little emotion, which makes it difficult to know if what you’re saying is hitting the mark. And when you’re unsure, you can feel flustered. Your confidence nosedives. You stumble through your answers to the panellists’ questions, and you may leave the interview feeling as though you’ll have to try again next year, or even apply for another specialty.

You can avoid all this inner turmoil by understanding how to sell yourself!

Over the past 10 years, I have helped thousands of clients to position and market themselves to land their dream job. I have worked in human resources and on recruitment panels for government departments and some of Australia’s fastest-growing organisations. A lot of my time has been spent coaching people on how to progress to senior roles.

I’m not a doctor and I don’t profess to be one. However, I have worked with countless medical trainees and I know how to translate your skills into what the medical interview panel wants to hear. I will show you the techniques you need to know so you can connect with and impress the panel. With this book, you can gain the confidence to sell yourself and win a place on your specialty training program!

How ‘interview ready’ are you?

At this point in time, you probably don’t know how to sell yourself well. You may be concerned about selling yourself too little or too much. In Australia, we have what’s known as the “tall poppy syndrome”, where it’s undesirable to stand out. This syndrome is so entrenched in our culture, that the very idea of promoting yourself may make you feel uncomfortable. You don’t want to appear boastful or brash during your interview, but you also don’t want to miss out on your training program.

Take a look at the following model and see what level you are at. This will help you know what areas you need to improve on before you walk into your medical training interview. The model applies to most doctors I work with, who fall somewhere above (external) or below (internal) the line. There can be a marked difference between what they do (their activity) during their interview, and what they should be doing (focus).

•Level 1: If you are at this lowest level, you are verbose. You talk too much and offer too much irrelevant information to the panel. You may feel under-prepared and your nerves are out of control. The amount of confidence you have at this level is generally in the negative and working against you.

•Level 2: You are fearful. You’re unsure of what to say and are afraid of saying the wrong thing, so you don’t say enough. The problem is that the panel does not have sufficient information about your skills, so it gives you a low score. You need to switch your focus from how you’re feeling to what the panel wants to hear. Your confidence at this level is generally zero.

•Level 3: Most of my clients are at this level. They may have gone through the interview process more than once and feel frustrated that they’re not getting anywhere. This is commonly caused by practising with and getting feedback from the wrong people: well-intentioned family or friends who don’t understand the reality of the interview process. If you’re at this level, you need to focus on your competencies (the areas of expertise the panel is looking for) to boost your confidence.

•Level 4: You know what the competencies are and you’re able to anticipate the panel’s questions. When you’re at this level, you must focus on providing evidence to support your claims and demonstrate why you are the right person for the training program. Once you reach this level, your confidence is half-way to full potential.

•Level 5: At this top level, you have laid the foundation for a successful panel interview. You are clear about what the competencies are, can anticipate the questions you will be asked and know how to sell yourself. When you’re at this level, you need to focus on practising your answers and self-selling techniques so your confidence can reach 100 per cent of what’s possible.

As you can see, the difference between a person at level 1 and a person at level 5 is enormous. But don’t lose heart: it is entirely possible for you to rise through the levels and learn how to successfully sell yourself to the interview panel. They key to this is confidence.

One of the common mistakes I see people make is that they start practising their answers to anticipated panel questions far too early. This is a level 5 activity, not a level 1, 2 or 3. If you haven’t laid the foundation to prepare and move through the levels, you’ll be practising the wrong answers and you won’t get high marks during your interview. It’s a bit like an iceberg: the practice questions are what you see on the surface, but there’s a whole lot of work that needs to happen underneath before the questions can be answered with confidence.

CASE STUDY

In June 2014, I worked with a young female doctor called Melissa, whose ambition was to get on to the dermatology training program. She was incredibly bright, committed and passionate, yet she had been trying for five years to get on to her program. Why was it taking her so long to get an interview?

The problem was she had been receiving well-intentioned but unhelpful feedback from her family. Although they were supportive and wanted to help Melissa with her interview preparations, her family had never been on a medical interview panel before. They had no understanding of the process or what the panellists thought at a conscious or subconscious level. They had never been involved in marking selection criteria or assessing capability. Their feedback was doing more harm than good, and Melissa’s confidence plummeted.

After just four coaching sessions with me, Melissa managed to get an interview and was so successful, she got on to the dermatology training program. Naturally, she was thrilled! She had worked incredibly hard and had followed every direction I gave her. In her first session, she cried; not because she was sad, but because she was so relieved to find out where she had been going wrong and it all made perfect sense to her.

Melissa’s story demonstrates that relying on the feedback of well-meaning family and friends can potentially hinder your chances of success. Although it’s important to have the support of your loved ones, you need to get into the mind of a panellist and understand the specific interview skills required. This book will show you how.

Interpersonal skills vs interview skills

People often think strong interpersonal skills are what’s needed for a successful interview. I have worked with doctors who have had incredibly strong interpersonal skills. But in my experience, the doctors who do not have good interpersonal skills are the ones who are able to sell themselves well during an interview. This is because they are not focused on trying to read the faces of the panellists, which would otherwise distract them from answering questions confidently.

The people I see struggle with panel interviews are the ones who are emotionally intelligent, kind and compassionate doctors. They are exceptionally good at what they do because of their interpersonal skills. They are often incredibly humble: an admirable quality, but one that causes them to struggle during interviews. It is difficult for them to switch from the role of a caring and understanding doctor to confident salesperson.

Blitzing an interview is not about having superior social skills: it’s about having the conviction that you do stand out from the crowd. It’s the ability to demonstrate this to the panel.

It’s about confidence.

CHAPTER 2

HOW TO GET CONFIDENCE

“Always be yourself and have faith in yourself.
Do not go out and look for a successful personality and try to duplicate it.”

– Bruce Lee

Confidence is vital to a successful medical interview. It guides the way you present and sell yourself, which in turn impacts the way the panel perceives you and your abilities. In other words, confidence (or a lack of it) can make or break your interview. But how do you become confident? Some people seem to be naturally confident, but for others it is hard work, no matter how skilled or intelligent they are.

They key to building your confidence is being prepared.

Learn to read the game

Imagine you are about to play a tennis match against Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Would you simply walk on to the court, cross your fingers and hope for the best? Of course not! You would be annihilated. To stand any sort of chance, you would need to do your research and understand Federer’s style of game.

It is the same with your medical interview. You need to read the panel’s game. You need to be mentally agile enough to anticipate the panel’s questions and hit back with the right answers. Otherwise, it will be game over.

You can push the odds in your favour

The odds of you getting on to your desired specialty training program are low. There are many different medical training programs and the interview can count for a different percentage of your application, depending on the program.

The good news is, 80 per cent of the young doctors I have coached have been selected for their chosen program in their first attempt after being coached by me. How did this happen? They learnt to read the game and built their confidence by focusing on the following three areas:

1.Competencies

2.Questions

3.Practice

These three areas are explained by the following Interview Readiness Model.

1.Competencies: Each speciality has a set of competencies (areas of expertise) the panel is looking for. Most are underpinned by the competencies of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons (RACS), but there will be some variation. If the competencies for your specialty are not clear, I recommend you familiarise yourself with the RACS competencies. Knowing the competencies will make you mentally agile in your interview. You will know what skills you need to sell, you will understand the mindset of the panel and you can anticipate the questions you will be asked.

•At the intersection of Competencies and Questions: You will feel agile instead of feeling as though you are being pushed around by the panel. The more you can move quickly and ahead of the panel, the more your confidence increases.

2.Questions: Not knowing what the panel will ask creates a great amount of stress. Being interview ready means anticipating the questions you will be asked, and rehearsing your responses to them. Getting feedback from a coach or mentor who understands the process well will help you craft compelling answers. You need to be able to answer a range of questions, from standard questions such as, “...