The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast - How to optimally prepare for interviews as an Aspiring Psychologist

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

Show Notes for The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast Episode: 10Thank you for listening to the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. Interview season is upon us in the world of Psychology. It can cause a whole host of anxieties and stresses all of its own. Here’s my advice for how to optimally prepare and to shine your brightest at any upcoming interviews.  The Highlights: Welcome:  (00.28)The Anxiety: (02:33):Manifesting! (03:23):Old School: 05:18):Loved it: (06:14):References: (08:58):Check that application: Marianne (10:49)Taking a moment: (12:11):Using Supervision: (13:22):Alternative Handbook: (14:13):Give it a google: (15:53):Trust Values: (17:03):Jingle Guy (18:54):Dieko (19:23):Jingle Guy (20:26): (Singing).Pandemic interviews (21:06):Preparing for a home based interview: (22:11):Draft in help: (23.16)Preparing your environment: (24:37):Feeling like a millionaire: (26:31):More Prep: (27:16):Drinking but not too much! (28:07):Take control: (29:13):Mock interviews & Crickets: (30:12):Summary (32.12):FREE compassionate support Q&A sessions announcement: (32:51):Jingle Guy (34:03): (Singing).Links: To register for the upcoming free 5-day challenge: www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/aspireTo check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0To check out The Grief collective Book: https://amzn.to/3pmbz5tTo check out The Our Tricky Brain Kit: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/tricky-brainConnect on Socials: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dr-marianne-trent-psychology Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodThinkingPsychologicalServices Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmariannetrent/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodThinkingPs1 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drmariannetrent?lang=enYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GoodThinkingPsychologicalServices  Like, Comment, Subscribe & get involved:If you enjoy the podcast, please do subscribe and rate and review episodes. If you'd like to learn how to record and submit your own audio testimonial to be included in future shows head to: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/podcast and click the blue request info button at the top of the page.

Hi there, it's Marianne here. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to quickly let you know about something exciting that's happening right now. If you've ever wondered how to create income that works for you, rather than constantly trading your time for money, then you'll love the Race to Recurring Revenue Challenge with my business mentor, Lisa Johnson. This challenge is designed to help you build sustainable income streams. And whether you're an aspiring psychologist, a mental health professional, or in a completely different field, the principles can work for you.

There are also wonderful prizes to be won directly by Lisa herself. And if you join the challenge by my link, you can be in with a chance of winning a one-to-one hours coaching with me, Dr. Marianne Trent. Do you want to know more? Of course you do. Head to my link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent, or check out my social media channels, or send me a quick DM and I'll get you all the details. Right, let's get on with today's episode.

If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. episode. with Dr. Marianne Durant Hi, welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist podcast. Thank you for listening. So if you are listening to this podcast, then it's probably quite likely that you are aware that certainly for clinical psychologists, application season at the time that I'm recording, which is January 2022, is in, you know, in part of its cycle, part of its lifespan. So people are currently awaiting to find out if they are going to be offered interviews for the clinical doctorate. And I

would love some insider info about the life cycles, the application cycles of your particular discipline. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, well, ours isn't, you know, September until spring, then let me know, because it's obviously important that I'm providing content that feels useful for you, whatever discipline of psychology you are in. So if you have a different time span, let me know. And I can make sure that I'm putting stuff in my diary, you know, planning content that's going to be useful for you at the time that you need it, because I don't want this to be just for aspiring clinical psychologists. I want this to be useful for you, whatever your particular niche goal is in psychology. And if you are

awaiting the news about whether you are being invited for selection tests or um for um for interviews themselves then you know all my heart goes out to you it is tricky um and by the time this goes live which is probably going to be February or March um you know that that time will be all the more closer and you might well be getting probably not letters these days. Will it be probably be interviews being communicated to you via email? the waiting, hoping, the wishing. Yeah, you know, and reflecting on every word you've written in your form and thinking, you know, is it good enough? Is it going to be okay? And even, you know, the experiences that you have in the days, weeks and months, even after you have clicked submit on that form, you're thinking, oh, this would have been submit on that form you're thinking oh this would have been

great on the form this would have been great and let's hope that you don't need to reflect on that in future forms but of course it can take a number of attempts and beyond to to get to you know and I was just talking to someone from the express actually a journalist to get to, you know, I was just talking to someone from the Express, actually a journalist to get to manifest what it is that we want, you know, and that's what we are trying to help you do in this podcast. We're trying to help you to manifest your dreams, you know. And my stance, you can probably Google it by the time you're listening to this, but my stance on that is that, you know, by goal setting and being quite focused and determined around what it is that you would like to achieve, it makes it a whole heap more likely that you're going to bring

that goal to fruition. You know, whether or not you want to add any crystals into the mix is entirely up to you. And people who like manifesting often do like a bit of crystal healing and all of that jazz. But, you know, by goal setting and tuning into the right podcasts ones with jingles you're gonna make it more likely for yourself that you are able to um you to achieve your dreams and achieve your goals so that's my little take on what we are that's my little mission for this podcast that this helps you know flavor the water that you swim in with um you know qualified psychology opinion um and i hope that you're finding it useful yeah so um i digress as i um uh want to do and i hope that you don't mind the fact that i digress because hopefully the stories are interesting along the way um if you don't like the fact that I digress, because hopefully the stories are interesting along the way.

If you don't like my digressing and you wish it was just pure psychology, then you might like to listen on double speed. Or, you know, maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm not your jam. I'm quoting Princess Poppy again. So when I was an aspiring clinical psychologist, I was having to wait for letters to drop through my letterbox to invite me for interview or to decline me from an interview and I remember the first time I was offered an interview for a doctorate course I sat on the stairs at my parents' house and I ripped it open and the first thing I saw was a map and I was like, oh my gosh, they don't send maps to people that they don't want to see. And so I just felt really excited from seeing that map. And, you know, I think that's a bit of a sad thing about moving to online communication because, you know, you'll know as soon as you open it you know

there's no there's no how thick the envelope is to you know about how much information you're getting because you don't know how big the email is before you open it so um yeah that's a that's a downer for modern technology um because when you got a slightly fatter envelope that felt pretty exciting so yeah fond memories of that and I still have my letters offering me I think interviews on the course that I accepted and I still definitely have my letters offering me places on both of the courses that I was offered because that is, you know, really a significant milestone in my, in my life. You know, you knowing me now, like you do, you're probably like, did you buy a perfume? Did you buy some shoes? No, I decided to go off traveling. Where did I go? I went around India with one of my friends who was also getting on to a doctorate course. And also before that, I went to Spain and Morocco.

So that's what I did. And I'm afraid a pandemic has squashed people's ability to be able to jet set as much as they did. But once I knew that I was on the doctorate, I was making plans to jack my job in and to go and enjoy, you know, this stage of my life where I knew what the next stage was going to be and when it was going to start. I do believe it started on September the 22nd. So I just had to make sure I was back in the country for then. And, you know, I did. I think I got back from India on the Friday. I had my leaving party on the Saturday. I moved on the Sunday and my doctorate started on the Monday.

So I was, you know, not leaving any time for living my life unlived. But then that said, I loved my doctorate as well. So it wasn't like it was a question of, you know, putting my life on hold. You know, I was committing myself to one locality for three years. But, you know, if you're listening to this, perhaps as a qualified psychologist or perhaps as an aspiring one or a trainee psychologist, and you're like, she loved her doctorate. What? Then I say, yeah, I did. You know, I knew it would be tricky in parts and in parts it was. I knew I'd be signing up to work and study. I knew I'd be, you know, having lots of different demands. But for me, I didn't have children at that time. And

I was single when I started the course. It was what I expected it to be. And I had made space in my life to accommodate those three years. I didn't go into it thinking it was going to be effortless. And it wasn't. So I think sometimes going into things with our eyes open can be really useful. Once again, I've wobbled off, I've digressed. so if you are waiting for your own application season to start you might well be clicking and checking whether your references have been received and if they still say no then it might just be worth checking in with your referee it's always a good idea to check in with your referee before you submit to check that, A, they're not going off on some six month secondment or maternity or paternity leave, that their contact details haven't changed gently check in with them to explore you know whether they have been able to do that for you or whether um you know whether they need some more

time or some more i don't know more something from you or maybe they just need a little a little jig maybe um the reference requesters are just sitting in you know in spam folder or something and they've not seen it um so with you gently getting in contact to probe, it might make that come to fruition that bit quicker. I, in the days of the Stone Ages, used to wait for my own little stamped address envelope to arrive that said references received. So the course would send those out

or Clearinghouse would send those out or clearinghouse would send those out um at my own cost of a stamp stamp stamped addressed envelopes we called them in the day um yeah to let me know that a my application had been received that's a happy one to receive although i knew because i'd already stalked it on royal mail um and b that references have been received and then it was like okay we are good to go let's just wait and see and hope and wish okay so a useful piece of advice here is when you and if you hopefully are called to interview it can be a really good idea to look at your own application to look what you submitted.

And any bits that make you cringe a bit, you know, maybe you're thinking, I might slightly have padded out my own expertise and knowledge in that area. It's a good chance for you to be able to try and thicken that dialogue a little bit between now and your interview date. For any of you watching The Apprentice, I do believe I've watched every single series and every single episode. I, yeah, I just love it. You know, we all know that the most cringeworthy episodes

are the interview ones where their CVs are turned over and they've got in contact with people and, you know, they've been ousted as actually having not done some of the things they've got in contact with people and, you know, they've been ousted as actually having not done some of the things they've claimed to have done or they've bigged up their part and it's just horrifying. So just try to make sure that what you've put on your form, in retrospect, in hindsight, is factually correct as possible. And I don't know of anyone who goes to the extent that Lord Sugar and his team do. But yeah, just have a look

over what you've submitted, because of course, that's what you've been invited on the basis of. Okay, so once you've had a look at what you've said, if you do feel like there's any weaknesses, any drawbacks that you feel might be your Achilles heel, then I said it's your chance to um you know to get as much experience um so that it doesn't feel like you're going into that interview with an Achilles heel um we all will have Achilles heels we might not know what they are until they answer ask us the question and then we're like oh man I have no clue um Just take a breath. Just take a pause. You can always ask for a moment as you feel like your world is imploding and there's tumbleweed and crickets. You can always ask for a little more time, you know, and you can always ask them to repeat the question again, because what we know is when we are in a, you know, excited forward slash agitated, anxious state, the top part of our brain might go offline a little bit.

So taking those breaths can be really useful and just encouraging yourself to calm down. And it's OK to ask for the question again. Okay so you might find it helpful to go through in supervision your form if that is the kind of relationship you have with your supervisor and to you know to think about any questions that crop up for them. Yeah they might already have read your form anyway but if they haven't then it might be useful if you can bear it, if you can tolerate it, to explore some of that in supervision. And your next port of call will be for whatever job you're applying for, be it, you know, an assistant psychologist post or research psychologist post or indeed one of the clinical doctorate courses or your own um you know um qualified specialty route um then you

need to be looking at the job description you know so it might be an idea to look at what the course themselves are saying about their program um if you are an aspiring clinical psychologist it might be useful for you to get yourself um a copy of the alternative handbook to look at what the other trainees on the course are saying about the course and if you are applying for an NHS job then there'll always be a person description and of course a job description so make sure that you know what they're asking for because they could ask you know about any of those things and I'm obviously in this podcast I'm not going to be giving any past examples of questions because that's not really appropriate I don't feel um and so yeah if you were tuning in hoping that that's what I was

going to do then sorry spoiler alert um that's not going to be here. I'm sure if you Googled some, some would come up. But yeah, it doesn't feel particularly fair for me to do that. And of course, with my knowledge of the two clinical doctorate interviews that I've been, it wouldn't feel particularly fair to broadcast that in case they're still using the same sort of questions just wouldn't it just wouldn't feel it wouldn't feel like it was particularly fair it'd be like giving you the exam questions before the exam so I'm sorry I'm not going to do that but I want you to do your best and to be your optimal best self and to have to scrabble in in a session like I probably did you know with those tumbleweed moments, but managing your own

physiology enough to be able to get through it and to pull the rabbit out of the hat and get yourself that job. So those are our basic checks to make. It can be also helpful to Google the names of anyone that you know who's going to be interviewing you so that you can read any research that they might have done recently or to see what service they work in and kind of the way that the way that their service operates if you are applying for a specific trust then it can be useful to google where there's any trust values that are around for your trust. So they might be things like, you know, compassion in action, respect for everybody, you know, safety.

I don't know, it differs between trusts. But if you know a specific trust, not so much for clinical interviews because it's not the trust that are interviewing you. It's usually academic staff and clinical staff from the locality. So, you know, it might be that actually on some doctorate courses that there is a representative from the trust who's going to be employing you. But to my knowledge, I'm not familiar with that.

So if actually that is the case, let me know and I can make sure that we reflect that in future so yeah perhaps if you're going on to a pwp or an assistant psychologist or some other kind of related job you know support worker and you're going to be looking at trust values then it can be really useful to make sure that in every answer you give that you're weaving in you know a trust value as well so if they're asking something about confidentiality, then you could give, you know, your usual patter about what confidentiality is and why it's important. You could give a little case vignette about where you've used confidentiality or how you've explained it. And then you could, you know, weave in a relevant

trust value of, I don't know, respect for everyone and, you know, clinical excellence or, you know, weave in a relevant trust value of, I don't know, respect for everyone and, you know, clinical excellence or, you know, whatever the trust values are. But you need to be making sure you're giving a values based interview. So, yeah, I hope that is useful. Always look out for who is employing you and what is important to them and try and quote it back to them in interview because that's going to help you stand out. the same is true of course for for the clinical courses if they are specializing in you know cbt then it makes sense to be mentioning cbt if they are really dynamic or systemic or you know any other kind of discipline then it makes sense that you talk the talk and walk the walk okay i'm just going to take a short break um and i will be back to think with you more about um interviews um hold fire and

i'll look forward to speaking to you very soon If you're looking to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. Filled with lessons and experience that will help you get qualified. So come and take a look. It's right here in this book. It's the Clinical Psychologist Collective. My name is Diakolola Amujam. I am a recent psychology graduate from Ireland. I am also an aspiring clinical psychologist. Dr. Marion's book, The Clinical Psychologist Collective, has been so helpful to me on this journey to becoming a clinical psychologist. As I plan to continue postgraduate studies in the UK, I found it extremely useful that

this book provided in-depth information on the UK D-ClinSci application process. I enjoyed reading about the experiences of both qualified and trainee clinical psychologists. The various narratives were my favourite part of the book, as everyone's story was different and it provided amazing insights into the clinical psychology journey. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology and aspires to become a psychologist, then let this be your guide. Filled with lessons and experience that will help you get qualified.

So come and take a look. It's right here in this book. It's the Clinical psychologist collective it's january 2022 and we are most definitely still in pandemic season aren't we um and so certainly for 2020 and 2021, application and interview seasons looked a little different. They looked a bit like homeworking, didn't they? You know, quite often they took place via Zoom. Maybe they might have been shorter than would have been ideally. And it might mean that you don't see anyone who is also an aspiring psychologist during the interview process. It might just be you and the academic staff and you and the clinical staff. Whereas actually,

you know, a key part of the experience for me was sitting, you know, with however many people there were on the day in the waiting room and lunching together. So for me, oh, you know, when you do online training at home on Zoom, it's not the same, is it? Because you don't get the snacks, you don't get the lunch. And so if I was applying for a job, I would make sure that I bought myself, you know, an aspiring psychologist lunch. That's totally what I would do to make sure that I felt like, you know, yeah, I'm treating myself nicely here, but also gearing myself up to perform optimally. So in making sure it's not something that's going to make me really sluggish all afternoon, you know, and, you know, there's going to be ready for me to be able to grab it and eat it

when I'm ready to eat it. So, oh, I can't stand fridge cold sandwiches. So I'd probably have to text my husband and say, take the sandwich out of the fridge or whatever I was eating or a salad so that it wasn't too cold. But can you take care of yourself on interview day or maybe have someone else take care of you, your catering needs to look after you because it's a really stressful process because it really matters. You know, if you are striving to be a psychologist, then you're not doing this for kicks, you know, you're doing this because it matters to you. And so, yeah, can you help get someone else on board to look after you and to, you know, to make sure that you're fed and watered in a way that really helps you to thrive. And if there isn't someone, then you can

do that for yourself, you know, and maybe by the time we are, you know, in applications, whenever it is that you're listening to this episode, that face-to-face interviews are back on the agenda, in which case I hope that they are still doing drinks, refreshments and lunch, because that is just the highlight for me. That's like a bonus, you get a free lunch and an interview. Yeah, so bring on the snacks. I'm all about the snacks and the drinks. And actually way one of the ways I chose between which clinical course to accept was because one of them had given me a choice of herbal teas at interview day and I just thought these are my people these are my people whereas I think in the other one there was just black tea or coffee and I was like I don't drink either of those so clearly wasn't the only reason but it was certainly you know on my list of pros of the course that I eventually picked you know selection of herbal teas check so if I

was having interviews at home I'd be making sure that the environment I was in was also kind of aspirational and kind of nice. So I might be lighting my favorite scented candle. I might be making sure that I was, you know, dressed properly for an interview, not just from the waist up. So I'd probably make sure that I had an outfit where I felt like a trainee psychologist you know so I'm trying that outfit on for size or I felt successful or worthwhile so of course I probably would be a little bit smarter for an interview than I would be for for you, a day on placement, for example. But I want something that helped me psychologically get on board with the fact that this was a really important interview day. This wasn't just me sitting in my slippers and in my joggers.

OK, so for me, that's how I would make sure that I was in interview mode all day. But it's a big deal, you and I took I probably wear my um probably wear my my shoes in the house um on that occasion I took my um my kids to the cinema recently and in the back of the car my eldest said to me mummy I'm looking forward to going into the cinema because it makes me feel like a millionaire and I said oh what do you mean and he said well because I wear my shoes on the carpet and I was like oh what you mean because I make you take your shoes off at home and he said yes um but when we watch um old episodes of Topsy and Tim and stuff they wear their shoes all over the sofa and like on their beds and my kids are like appalled with that like mummy why have they

got their shoes on on the sofa and I'm like I don't know I don't know um so yeah I would be breaking my own rules um on interview day or getting myself some new shoes um so New Year's Eve I dressed up as um Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and I did wear shoes in the house, but they were red ones and they'd never been worn outside. So that helped me feel that I was okay. And I probably didn't go on the carpet with them. I probably just stayed on the hard floor. So yeah, do you have your own weird little rules about shoe wearing in the house?

Whatever is okay for you is okay for you. But if you ever come around my house, please take your shoes off. So yeah, wear your shoes off so yeah wear your shoes on your carpet on the day of your interview because it will make you feel like a millionaire and that's direct from my eight-year-old who doesn't want to feel like a millionaire on the day of their interview so we need to be turning our phone off not just on silent so um i was just distracted for a moment there because my watch buzzed you know it told me to move my bum um so maybe turn that function off um and make sure that your phone's

off and if you've got a dog maybe it's a good idea to see if anyone can look after the dog for the day so that you're not having to worry about walking the dog you can still walk yourself you can still do that on breaks um but you don't want to have to be worrying about the dog barking or distracting you if you are at the front of the house then it might be a good idea to draw the curtain so that you're not distracted by the postman and it might be helpful to you know we've all got deliveries arriving all the time these days so it might be helpful to see if you've got someone else on call or put a note on your door, sending any deliveries to your, um, to your neighbor. If you've got one, need to make sure that you are adequately hydrated. Um, it can be useful to have,

a glass of water with you in the interview. Um, but of course we do have a tendency as humans to use drinks as safety seeking behaviors and this was something that we observed in our professional personal development group at my own training is that people would tend to use having a slurp of their drink to pause for time and deflect questions so you know I would probably nowadays just try and own that a bit more and pause and take a breath and maybe even be explicit about whatever is going on for me as my internal processes um whereas in the past certainly as trainees we would pause and dominate the conversation with you know fiddling around with a bottle of water and all of that. And we made a decision that we wouldn't do that. We wouldn't bring drinks to sessions. Or if we did,

they'd stay under our chair so that we could try to stay as connected to the process as possible. So just be mindful if you are wanting to hydrate yourself all the time mid-interview. You know, it's okay to be nervous. You know matters it's a big deal um but yeah just think about how you're using your hydration um to to perhaps buy you time um and just be consciously aware of that i think and like i said you know it can be useful just to give yourself some breathing time to be able to slow down that tricky brain of ours and to be able to bring your a-game you know if our mind is racing if our thoughts are whirring a thousand miles a minute then we're not going to be able to think about what it is that we've got to do and what

we've got to answer so just give yourself a pause you know take a breath before answering the question really think about your options and it's always okay breath before answering the question. Really think about your options. And it's always OK to ask for the question again, especially if you've done a big waffle and you want to make sure you've covered it. So if you know any trainee psychologists at the moment or you know any qualified psychologists, perhaps hopefully your supervisor, they might be willing to do a mock interview with you. And that can feel like a very cringeworthy exercise indeed. And I did that with my supervisor at the time who was a forensic psychologist and I was an aspiring clinical. But it just helped me to get those crickets moments and you know all of the tumbleweed moments where I just felt like a you know pretend human let alone an aspiring trainee clinical psychologist out of the way and you know just got me some of that ability to want to laugh at myself out the

way because I did that in the relative safety of my supervision relationship so it can be really helpful to have um to have yeah to have that and just to have someone ask you questions in an interview setting and kind of be a bit more, you know, stony faced with you. Because that can be really useful to help you feel that pressure. And then when you get to the actual interview experience, it feels less alien. And perhaps if you haven't been in your post that long, or you feel like your relationship is not that great with your supervisor, then you might not want to admit that you're going for a new job. So that might not always feel

that approachable. But hopefully you might know someone who's got more experience with you than you. It might be a trainee or it might be someone who's already qualified but not your supervisor. And they might be willing to at least have a look through your application and have a look through the job description to come up with some example questions that might be useful for you to consider so i hope you found this really useful and there should be some time between when this episode goes live and when certainly the clinical application interview season comes to the fore. So if there are any specific questions you've got, then do let me know through my contact details of which you can find in the show notes and the links section. And I will,

you know, really be really happy to to help shape this and yeah thank you for listening I hope you find this useful and good luck with your interview. Being well supported during any interview season is so important I have therefore planned some compassionate question and answer support sessions for you. You are absolutely welcome to come along to all of them. Some of them, none of them. No need to book. And here are the dates for you.

Monday, the 28th of February from 7.30pm. Monday, the 21st of March, 7.30pm. Monday, the 4th of April, 7.30pm, Monday the 21st of March, 7.30pm, Monday the 4th of April, 7.30pm, and Monday the 9th of May, 7.30pm. And they will all be live streaming via my socials, which includes Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook. So you can absolutely pick your favourite platform and they'll all be available on replay as well. Hope you find it so useful and I will look forward to catching up with some of you then. Take care. your guide. With this podcast that you're set to be on your way to being qualified. It's the Aspiring Psychologist podcast with Dr. Marianne Trent. My name's Jana and I'm a trainee psychological well-being practitioner. I read the Clinical Psychologist Collective book.

I found it really interesting about all the different stories and how people got to become a clinical psychologist. It just amazed me how many different routes there are to get there and there's no perfect way to become one and this kind of filled me of confidence that no I'm not doing it wrong and put less pressure on myself. So if you're feeling a bit uneasy about becoming a clinical psychologist I definitely recommend this just to put yourself at ease and everything will be okay. But trust me, you will not put the book down once you start.