STUDENTS PERCEPTION ABOUT THE ROLE OF INTERVIEW DURING M.PHIL AND PH.D. ADMISSION AT A PUBLIC SECTOR UNIVERSITY OF LAHORE, PUNJAB-PAKISTAN

Purpose of the Study: Focusing on the importance of the research interview, the researchers planned current qualitative research to explore students’ perceptions about the role of an interview conducted during the selection of M.Phil and Ph.D. admission in one of the public sector University of Lahore, Punjab-Pakistan. Methodology: The researchers adopted qualitative research leading to interpretivism paradigm. This study adopted a phenomenology research design. The researchers selected five M.Phil and five Ph.D. scholars were selected by using purposive technique. The researchers administered a self-constructed interview protocol to collect the data from the respondents. After signing a formal consent letter from participants, the researchers recorded interviews from the respondents in voice recorders and transcribed the interviews word by word. The researchers used thematic analysis approach to analyze the data. Main Findings: The results declared that the majority of the students agreed that personality has a better effect during the interview; slight sensation of nervousness before the interview; disturbed bodily condition before interview panel; friendly, cooperative, and supportive behaviour of interview panel; comfortable environment; enriched institute with qualified foreign faculty; fully confident after the interview for admission; asking of relevant questions and they get admission in to enhance their qualification for getting good-paying job and knowledge. Applications of this study: The results of the current research are applicable in public and private sector universities of Punjab, including district Lahore in which experiential and dynamic teachers are the members of the selection panel. They were aware of students perceptions while conducting interviews and familiar with their exact situations that happened in the committee rooms, as the students/applicant are the real observe of their teachers. Novelty/Originality of this study: This is the innovative and foremost research structured in Pakistani public sector educational institutions in which the authors highlighted the actual situations that happened between the interviewer and the interviewee during M.Phil and Ph.D admission. The authors have also contributed to the existing body of knowledge. The findings of the research have opened the horizon for future researchers to explore the dimension of the interviews focusing on the quantitative and mix-method design on a large sample of the participants.

Diversity in NHS clinical leadership: Is better talent management the route to gender balance?

MethodologyThrough interviews with seven senior female clinical leaders, insights were gained regarding the importance of and need for gender diversity in leadership. These interviews looked at the skills, access and opportunities required to ensure that gender diversity exists and is successful in senior clinical leadership positions.ConclusionGender diversity in leadership can be enhanced through the combination of several measures; Increased mentorship, talent management, training and network opportunities, improvements to advertising, interview panel diversity and succession planning.

Challenges in Recruitment and Selection Process: An Empirical Study

Today’s knowledge economy very much depends on the value created by the human resource of an organisation. In such a highly competitive environment, organisations have started to pay much attention to the recruitment and selection process, as employees form their main asset. However, the critical factors involved in the employee selection process is not well studied. Previous studies on the recruitment and selection process have been performed mainly to study the performance of the employees and the criteria attracting the right talent leading to employee retention and organizational efficiency. The distinction of this paper is that it studies the existing recruitment and selection process adopted by tertiary and dual education sectors in both urban and regional areas within Australia. The purpose of this research is to conduct an empirical study to identify the critical aspects of the employee selection process that can influence the decision based on different perspectives of the participants such as, hiring members, successful applicants as well as unsuccessful applicants. Various factors such as feedback provision, interview panel participation and preparations, relevance of interview questions, duration and bias were analysed and their correlations were studied to gain insights in providing suitable recommendations for enhancing the process.

Presentations in Interviews

It is increasingly common at consultant interviews to be asked to make a presentation. Presentations enable others to observe a variety of skills deemed necessary to be an effective consultant, including: • Clear communications skills • Teaching skills • Ability to confer potentially complex information in a clear and succinct way • Ability to engage, influence and persuade • Ability to organize your thoughts and to develop: • rapport • a cohesive argument • conclusions • Your ability to inspire others • Ability to remain calm and relaxed in a stressful situation It is important from the outset to understand that it is these attributes that are being examined, not the panel’s burning desire to increase their knowledge in your chosen subject. Consequently, the enabling question you need to ask yourself is not ‘What content would be interesting?’ but ‘How can I demonstrate the above attributes most successfully through the presentation I have been asked to give?’ This latter question should direct the content, style and approach you take. Presentations at consultant interview can take a variety of formats: • PowerPoint presentation to a larger audience prior to the interview • PowerPoint presentation to the interview panel immediately before the interview • Presentation without visual aids to the interview panel immediately before the interview • Rarely interviewees are given a short period of time (e.g. 30 minutes) to prepare a presentation, usually to the interview committee only, immediately prior to their interview The format does not alter the primary purpose—which is to assess those ‘consultant attributes or qualities’ that we mention above in the Introduction—but will affect how you go about your preparation and delivery. Topics are not always easy to predict but will often relate to something that is currently troubling the consultant body or Trust, i.e. is topical and relevant. Examples include: • With cuts to training numbers how would you ensure this department meets the EWTD requirements? • What will be the effects of the government White Paper on this service? • How can service x work more effectively across primary and secondary care?

Job Applications

This chapter deals with the application process. By the end, you should have a thorough understanding of: • The regulations that apply • How to apply • Critical considerations when applying • How to improve your chances of being short-listed • Key pitfalls to avoid All appointments to the role of consultant are governed by specific regulations at both a health service level and an employment law level. All potential employers must adhere to the rules and regulations existing under British law that relate to equality, diversity and discrimination. Additionally, NHS Trusts, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and other healthcare bodies employing clinical staff need to adhere to certain regulations that are healthcare specific, e.g. advertising widely and having a Royal College Representative on the interview panel. However, although many still comply with the spirit of the regulations, Foundation Trusts are not required to follow the same rules and this is increasingly apparent as the number of Trusts holding Foundation status increases. Often, their divergence includes dispensing with the Royal College Representative, atypical patterns of advertising and even not specifying a particular CCT. This is a trend that we believe will only increase as Trusts grapple with workforce redesign as a solution to increasing austerity. As the chapter unfolds, we will endeavour to raise critical considerations that need addressing regardless of whether it is a Foundation or non-Foundation Trust you are applying to. However, regardless of whether a Trust is currently Foundation or non-Foundation, it is likely that all Trusts will become Foundation Trusts over the next few years. Wherever feasible, we will include specific pointers on how to improve your application’s chances of success, i.e. getting you short-listed for the job you really want. . . . When can you apply? . . . It is a legal requirement to be on the GMC Specialist Register before taking up a consultant appointment. However, you are eligible to apply for a consultant post when the interview date is within 6 months of the expected date of your CCT (or recognized equivalent if outside the UK).

Specialty-Specific Interviews

This chapter is designed to provide a brief insight into the differences between specialties and how they approach the interview process. It should be read in conjunction with Chapters 4 and 6. The specialties covered are: • Anaesthesia • Emergency medicine • Medicine • Psychiatry • Obstetrics and gynaecology • Paediatrics and neonatal specialities • Pathology and laboratory-based specialities • Radiology • Surgery Each of these sections has been written by a guest author from within that specialty. Across the board, they are all experienced, senior clinicians with many years’ experience in interviewing for consultants. However, it is also important to remember that they are individuals and each individual has their own unique way of thinking too. We have done comparatively little editing and given relatively free rein to those individuals in deciding what’s important. Each was provided with the broad section titles for some consistency. The content is very much their own and we have left it largely untouched so that you may get a feeling for style, psychology and focus, accepting that they are also unique too. As a consequence, although the section structure is consistent, you will find a considerable variation in what authors have chosen to focus on. In each specialty, we have provided a perspective on the likely psychology of the individuals you may come across. This is written by us, not the guest authors, who we can’t expect to have sufficient understanding of psychological difference. However, what we have written must never be taken as gospel. There is no substitute for being a good detective and finding out exactly who is on your panel and exactly how they are wired as individuals. Dr Helga Becker, Consultant Anaesthetist, Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In terms of number of consultants, anaesthetics is often the single largest department in a Trust and so the interview panel will not be particularly representative of the department as a whole. Besides the usual suspects like Chief Executive and Medical Director, the panel will probably have the Clinical Director and maybe another consultant from the department.

Pre-Interview Visit

The pre-interview visit is one of the most important parts of your interview preparation. Done properly you will: • Learn of all the issues and concerns of your future colleagues and Trust • Have a high chance of predicting the types of questions likely to be asked at interview • Recognise what is important to key individuals on your interview panel, allowing you to phrase your answers appropriately in the interview itself • Discover the behaviour and psychology of panel members, allowing you to build strong rapport and better tailor the language of your interview answers • Form a clear idea of whether the job you have applied for, the hospital, the people and the area are right for you so that you can make an informed decision before proceeding to interview Although this is your opportunity to ask questions and discover more about the department, its members and the Trust, you must remember that the people you will meet will also want to ask questions about you. You need to be prepared for this and carefully consider how you wish to position yourself for the interview. As individuals, we form impressions of other people very quickly and although the interview process is meant to be completely detached from the pre-interview visits, the impression you make will carry through into the interview itself. . . . Why are pre-interview visits important? . . . At a very simple level, if you do not go and visit a job before the interview itself, it is highly unlikely you will get the job. A consultant job is still very much seen as a job for life and the panel will want to appoint someone who is genuinely interested in their post and their Trust, evidenced by taking the trouble to visit and have a thorough look around. The two key reasons for doing a pre-interview visit, besides deciding on whether this is the right job, location and Trust for you, are to position yourself as the candidate of choice and to learn as much as possible to help you be successful in the interview.

Processing Pronouns without Antecedents: Evidence from Event-related Brain Potentials

Pronouns that do not have explicit antecedents typically cause processing problems. We investigate a specific example in which this may not be the case, as in “At the interview, they asked really difficult questions,” where the plural pronoun they has no explicit antecedent, yet is intuitively easy to process. Some unspecified but constrained set of individuals (the interview panel or the company) can be inferred as the referent, but it is not crucial to determine specifically which entities are being referred to. We propose that this contrasts with the processing of singular pronouns (he or she), for which it is necessary to determine a specific referent. We used event-related brain potentials to investigate how readers process the pronoun (they vs. he/she) in these cases. Sentences were placed in a context that either did or did not contain an explicit antecedent for the pronoun. There were two key findings. Firstly, when there was no explicit antecedent, a larger fronto-central positivity was observed 750 msec after pronoun onset for he/she than they, possibly reflecting the additional difficulty involved in establishing a referent for he/she than for they when no explicit referent is available. Secondly, there was a larger N400-like deflection evoked by he/she than they, regardless of whether there was an explicit antecedent for the pronoun. We suggest that this is due to the singular pronouns bringing about a greater integration effort than the plural pronoun. This observation adds to a growing body of research revealing fundamental differences in the way these pronouns are handled by the language processor.