Hello everyone 🙂

Now the clocks have gone forward and the days are getting lighter, I hope you are all getting a chance to enjoy the spring weather – when we’re lucky enough to get some sun!

So recently, I have been offered my dream job as a Band 5 Paediatric Staff Nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and I thought I would talk on the blog about the interview process, how I prepared and how I found the whole experience.

In year 3, you are expected to do so much – essays, exams, dissertation, placements (including your final) and job applications/interviews. I’m not going to lie it’s been pretty daunting! But when it comes to job applications and interviews, I had no idea where to start.

During our simulated practice module, our lecturers organised a mock interview day for us. So we came dressed up, personal statement in hand and it was treated like a formal interview day. We sat a drug calculations exam and were interviewed by a lecturer, a ward manager and a service user (in our case, it was two parents of a child who had experiences of hospitals). We were asked questions we may get in interview and were scored on our responses. A few days later, we were contacted and told if we got the job or not – it was all very formal! But I have to say, it was really useful and I’m glad they did it as it made my actual interview seem less scary in comparison! 🙂

Nursing interviews can vary from trust to trust. Many places (GOSH, Evelina, Chelsea & Westminster) have hundreds of jobs for newly qualified nurses, so they do “assessment centres” which I will talk about in a second! Other trusts or if you are interviewing for a specific ward, will only interview a small number of applicants, which includes a test and panel interview.

So… Assessment centres. When my sign-off mentor was going through the assessment centre process for the trust I am currently in, I was really nervous. It was just like interviewing for university all over again and I was so worried nerves would get the better of me. But on the day, it was honestly very relaxed and everyone was super friendly. At the end of the day, what you have to think is, they want it go to well for you and offer you the job, you just need to have confidence and faith in yourself 🙂

On the day, we were told to arrive for 9am but me being me, I arrived at 8:20am (doh!). But this wasn’t all bad as this gave me time to grab a coffee, have a sit down and a chat with the other applicants (there were 40 of us in total). Once 9am eventually arrived, we were taken to a room where we were registered, handed in our documents and were given a welcome talk. Following this, we did our numeracy, literacy and group exercise (again, this will vary from trust to trust).

After this, they arranged a question and answer session with members of HR, nurse educators and members of the nursing team in the trust, which was really useful as we were able to ask questions and gain information we might not have even thought about! We were then given our interview times and were able to grab some lunch.

Before I talk about the interview… I want to discuss portfolios. So, I didn’t realise until my sign-off mentor mentioned it that I would need to bring a portfolio with me to interview which needed to include evidence from practice, patient and staff feedback and any certificates/reflections from my degree. So I would highly advise putting one together throughout your degree and not last minute like I did!!

Anyway, back to the interview. So, luckily I knew one of my interviewers (the practice educator from my current ward) and the other interviewer I did not know, so it was a nice balance. I was immediately made to feel comfortable, as they were both so friendly! They asked me 5 questions (Again, this will vary from trust to trust). The first one was the general “why x hospital? Why x ward?” and the rest were clinical scenarios, safeguarding and questions about coping with stress.

I came out of the interview thinking it had gone really well, but I was told I’d have to wait a week for the outcome as they were interviewing all week as it was an assessment centre. Needless to say, it was the longest week of my life! But luckily, I was given the news I was being offered the job on my first choice ward. I was however, told I would receive a phone call to let me know the results, but I was informed by email. So, just to be mindful of that too 🙂

Overall, my biggest advice for interview would be to relax, be yourself and don’t over think it – they want you to do well, so show them how brilliant you are!

Alex 🙂 xx