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These are some notes I made from the recent visit to Southampton University for the DClinPsyApplication Seminar.
Feel free to add to them as I think I missed the first couple of slides! Hope you find them useful.
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Clinical Psychology - Doctoral Application Seminar
Southampton University
16/09/2009
What kind of experience do you need?
• “Assistant Psychologist” & “Research Assistant” = Good. These are generally the gold standard in terms of experience.
• Something that demonstrates experience of the NHS working environment
• Something that demonstrates psychological thinking!
If you did an assistant post, don’t just rattle off the job description. Demonstrate what you brought to the post, why you were selected etc. If there were repeated issues in your workplace or client base did you do anything about it? Demonstrate use of psychological knowledge to bring about an effect.
Did you make an impact? If you did, you’re more likely to be seen as the kind of person who can be trained to make a lasting impact within clinical psychology/research and the NHS. This doctorate costs the NHS money, and they need to be sure that you are the kind of person who will give something back during and after training.
By making a contribution, by owning your post, you do it better and you’ll make yourself stand out at interview stage.
Research Knowledge
• Discuss research design, issues etc with the work you have done. The most important thing is that you demonstrate research competence and research mindedness – don’t “hum and ha”. A lack of confidence surrounding research based questions is going to come off very badly in a partially research based doctorate.
• Think about the positives, the negatives – critical evaluation. What would you do differently if you did it again?
• If you have no postgraduate research experience, you can resort to undergraduate research but make sure you know what you are talking about.
What kind of story do you need to tell?
• An honest one – its no use making things up to later be found out. Clinical psychologists need to be reflectively honest to be good practitioners.
• You need to demonstrate that you are “ripe for training” – you don’t need experience in absolutely everything! If you had, there would be nothing left for you to learn on the doctorate.
• A confident one – but don’t exaggerate.
• A convincing one – “I will advance clinical psychology in the future”.
• An understanding of the NHS, leadership roles in particular. Clinical psychologists are in many ways the gatekeepers of the NHS, leaders in their own right. Discuss issues that you experienced during employment that have made you aware of problems within the NHS etc. Alternatively, recent NHS statements or policies may have changed – it’s a good idea to be current and up to date. If you’re not, try to turn the question back around, and sell how you are up to date on some issues, even if not the exact one asked. Its ok to not know everything.
• When you go in, it’s a good idea to have in your mind why it is you think you should be chosen! You past should demonstrate some of the qualities that are required of a clinical psychologist – strength, resilience, persistence, motivation, originality etc.
References
• Talk to your referee about what will be in them. Perhaps draft your own reference and see if they agree. Prime your referee if possible, as it needs to be clinically relevant.
• Its important your referees know something about clinical psychology. If it is a clinical psychologist, this is unlikely to be an issue, but they need to demonstrate an understanding of how you are clinically competent, as well as personal knowledge of you as a person.
• I.e. – it would be no good to have a reference from a social services manager that you had been working with for 17 years – even in such an extreme scenario, it is likely they would provide only a personal reference!
How do you need to present yourself at interview?
• Reasonably smart – as a potential gatekeeper of the NHS.
• Be focused – answer the questions succinctly. Too many candidates go off into unnecessary tangents. It is better to demonstrate understanding and experience, leaving a carrot for the interviewer to probe into further if they desired. You need to keep them awake! Don’t forget, they may have been doing this all day!
• You need to be ethically aware.
• Be clear – think before answering. Its no good spending 5 minutes in silence, but it would be better to ask for a short thinking period that to just vomit something irrelevant. They need to know that, if under pressure in front of a client, you would engage your brain and not just say something to appease them!
• Operate as if you have planned for the interview, but try not to second guess their questions. Present yourself as if you understand what is expected of you, not chaotic or too flustered.
• Academically competent, clinically aware – ultimately interviewers are looking for someone who can be trained to work in the NHS in various roles.
• Experienced but not crystallised - you are being interviewed for training.
• Energy/enthusiasm!! (but not manic….)
• Do have constructive panic about interviews, without a certain amount of stress you won’t perform your best. Besides, interviewers are looking for resilient candidates, not someone who will fall to pieces under pressure. Don’t worry too much, they expect you to be nervous. It is a long hard journey to even be eligible for interview!
• What expectations do you have of clinical psychology training? Ask questions if you have them.
Ultimately, remember this: Why not you?
And if you get an unknown….
• Does your not knowing something tell something else positive about your journey so far?
Go with the flow, there is no doubt there is moer to this than planning. Fortune and luck come into this also. Breaks can be found if you persist. It can be important to keep this in mind in the mist of what appears as initial failures, or negative feedbacks!
