The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[That's not a growth]

I'm just as surprised as you! Then again, the place I work isn't very standardised so there's probably a lot of blind spots I have. I'll try not to bring that up during the interview.

Very short description of the interview, essentially saying they will: discuss my experience, have some technical related questions, behaviour questions and personal questions. The job description has about 9 bullet points of what they're expecting, which I mostly answered in my application but will write up some examples so they're fresh in my head. I've also found the following links and am going write an answer for each one, so again, it's fresh in my head.

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/blog/50-com ... questions/
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-adv ... -questions
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-a ... -questions

Just need to think of a reason why I'm leaving my current place that doesn't make me rant...

[Errkal]

"they are all banana splits and I want the strawberry float out" should convay the point

[That's not a growth]

if the interview is going badly and I reach the point I don't care I'm well saying that.

[Tomous]

You should think about writing that up in a little more detail and submitting it to The Guardian or something. That's a really essential part of our hospitals being privatised under our noses, and being worse off for it. People should be told about it.

I could do, but the powers that be will just dress it up as lies and misinformation. The BBC were at the hospital the other week doing a spot on A&E. The bullshit the management spun about it being more efficient than ever would almost be hilarious if it weren't so depressing.

I'm just plodding along buddy, doing my upmost to make patients comfortable whilst keeping my head down.

Maybe, but it gets the story out there and could encourage more investigative work by journalist. You should be able to be anonymous etc. so it should be traceable etc.

Having been one of the more vocal members in the past I'm not prepared to take the risk. I've managed to get myself below the radar and that's where I'm staying. I just wanted to share with you folks a glimpse of where the NHS is headed from an employee angle

God forbid the surgeons or consultants take a pay cut. I wonder what your average surgeon earns? 250k?

Take a pay cut?! Consultants and surgeons probably earn on average a little into six figures and frankly they should be paid more in my opinion, considering the expertise, training and hard work required, not to mention the importance of the job they do.

It's middle management wastage we need to be cutting in the NHS not the salaries of doctors.

[Rocsteady]

Plus if we cut their wages more are just going to go into the private sector/abroad as has happened elsewhere. We need to fund it better, not make random cuts.

[Moggy]

Starting a race to the bottom is never a good idea.

[That's not a growth]

God I'm exhausted. Had my interview before which was less than an hour but I must have been more worried that I realised. Think it went ok, might find out pretty soon going by what they said.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

God I'm exhausted. Had my interview before which was less than an hour but I must have been more worried that I realised. Think it went ok, might find out pretty soon going by what they said.

Sorry, I meant to reply to your last post but have been so caught up lately.

Can you remember any questions they asked?

I've got an interview myself on Wednesday. Feels like a bit of a long shot but I'm really hoping to land it, even though it will just mean heading deeper in to the organisation I have grown to despise.

[Gemini73]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but as it's work related...

Anyway, we all have work colleagues and on occasion some of those work colleagues become friends both in and outside of the work place. Today I was asked to go and see one such person on the ward she works on as she had some news. Unfortunately that news was breast cancer.

Took me a moment to process what I was being told, but as the realisation that this lovely, sweet, incredibly funny, Pink Floyd fan who would always bring the ward and the porters sweets and chocolate back from her hols, who was always up for a good bit of banter, has this terrible disease hit home it took all my strength to hold it together. Not for my sake of course, I just didn't want to embarrass her in front of everyone.

So we chatted. I asked after her children and her husband, she told me what the "game plan" might be after further results the next couple of days, her obvious anxieties, fears etc. I just listened. At the end she said "Joe, do you realise that you've been shuffling those ward menus for the last ten minutes? I think they're well shuffled my dear!" We both laughed at that. Like the last ten minute conversation never took place.

It's not fair. It's not strawberry floating fair.

[Rocsteady]

God I'm exhausted. Had my interview before which was less than an hour but I must have been more worried that I realised. Think it went ok, might find out pretty soon going by what they said.

Sorry, I meant to reply to your last post but have been so caught up lately.

Can you remember any questions they asked?

I've got an interview myself on Wednesday. Feels like a bit of a long shot but I'm really hoping to land it, even though it will just mean heading deeper in to the organisation I have grown to despise.

Why do you really want it if you hate the company? More money/ better job title?

[jawafour]

...It's not fair. It's not strawberry floating fair.

Sorry to hear this, Gemini. Life really can be astoundingly cruel and unfair and it can be horrible when situations such as this prove it.

[Gemini73]

...It's not fair. It's not strawberry floating fair.

Sorry to hear this, Gemini. Life really can be astoundingly cruel and unfair and it can be horrible when situations such as this prove it.

Thanks mate. I'm more angry than sad, (of course I'm also sad), but Kerry, (or Kerrance as I like to call her), is an incredibly strong woman and there's also no question that she'll have the absolute support of everyone she works with, however while I've experienced this at work before with work colleagues I respected she is an actual friend both in and out of work, and a dear one at that, so it has hit me quite hard.

I told the wife when I came in from work this evening, (they knew each other briefly through the PTA and other ventures), and she gave me a much needed hug followed by a stern instruction - "Continue as normal, don't discuss her cancer unless she brings it up. Kerry knows she will have your undivided support, but she needs to be in control".

I think that is quite sound advice.

[Drumstick]

Got a Product Owner role coming up at work soon which I'm going to be applying for. It will be the first PO role the company has ever appointed as it's looking to change its direction in terms of how it delivers IT, so no pressure.

none here have experience as a PO?

[Green Gecko]

Does that mean ownership in the sense of responsibility? Technical, Management or Sales?

If that's the case, it's good for progression. I think employers for higher paid positions really want to see people that can take responsibility and develop stuff from nothing, or see that that happens, I generally call that project ownership. But I prefer to be doing making/developing which might not be the same thing.

Anyway, hopefully the same reason a stint in business doing my own stuff could be attractive in the future. Not that I want that, but, if you can do endless tasks of a very wide variety without anyone telling you to I think that's worth something.

[Jenuall]

Got a Product Owner role coming up at work soon which I'm going to be applying for. It will be the first PO role the company has ever appointed as it's looking to change its direction in terms of how it delivers IT, so no pressure.

none here have experience as a PO?

Product Owner as in an Agile PO?

[Green Gecko]

PO as in the drink PO?

[Drumstick]

Got a Product Owner role coming up at work soon which I'm going to be applying for. It will be the first PO role the company has ever appointed as it's looking to change its direction in terms of how it delivers IT, so no pressure.

none here have experience as a PO?

Product Owner as in an Agile PO?

Yes.

@GG: Ownership in the sense of being the link between the consumer and the business, overseeing the coders and ensuring the consumer's requirements and preferences are met.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

God I'm exhausted. Had my interview before which was less than an hour but I must have been more worried that I realised. Think it went ok, might find out pretty soon going by what they said.

Sorry, I meant to reply to your last post but have been so caught up lately.

Can you remember any questions they asked?

I've got an interview myself on Wednesday. Feels like a bit of a long shot but I'm really hoping to land it, even though it will just mean heading deeper in to the organisation I have grown to despise.

Why do you really want it if you hate the company? More money/ better job title?

Yeah pretty much. Don't know if you saw my post in the Buying A House thread .

[That's not a growth]

God I'm exhausted. Had my interview before which was less than an hour but I must have been more worried that I realised. Think it went ok, might find out pretty soon going by what they said.

Sorry, I meant to reply to your last post but have been so caught up lately.

Can you remember any questions they asked?

I've got an interview myself on Wednesday. Feels like a bit of a long shot but I'm really hoping to land it, even though it will just mean heading deeper in to the organisation I have grown to despise.

Why do you really want it if you hate the company? More money/ better job title?

Yeah pretty much. Don't know if you saw my post in the Buying A House thread .

You insane bastard!

Mine was mostly going into different processes and systems I've built to streamline parts of the department, and the issues these resolved and the difficulties I faced while making the changes.

I got the list of 50 from one of the links about and made answers to all the main ones, which really helped me think of stuff in an interview way ("think of a time you had to work with a difficult person", "how would you work with conflicting priorities" were two I didn't anticipate, but weren't a million miles away from other stuff I'd been thinking of so was able to think on my feet).

I just made sure I downloaded all the specifications and pdfs about the job to my phone and kept reading them a few times a day to make sure it was as clear in my head as it could be (a lot of it was actually a lot more vague than it seemed on closer insurrection, so wanted to try about get my head around it as much as possible).

If you're going into a role in the same place I guess that should help with you knowing a bit better what the day-to-day of the role would be?

[Oblomov Boblomov]

God I'm exhausted. Had my interview before which was less than an hour but I must have been more worried that I realised. Think it went ok, might find out pretty soon going by what they said.

Sorry, I meant to reply to your last post but have been so caught up lately.

Can you remember any questions they asked?

I've got an interview myself on Wednesday. Feels like a bit of a long shot but I'm really hoping to land it, even though it will just mean heading deeper in to the organisation I have grown to despise.

Why do you really want it if you hate the company? More money/ better job title?

Yeah pretty much. Don't know if you saw my post in the Buying A House thread .

You insane bastard!

Mine was mostly going into different processes and systems I've built to streamline parts of the department, and the issues these resolved and the difficulties I faced while making the changes.

I got the list of 50 from one of the links about and made answers to all the main ones, which really helped me think of stuff in an interview way ("think of a time you had to work with a difficult person", "how would you work with conflicting priorities" were two I didn't anticipate, but weren't a million miles away from other stuff I'd been thinking of so was able to think on my feet).

I just made sure I downloaded all the specifications and pdfs about the job to my phone and kept reading them a few times a day to make sure it was as clear in my head as it could be (a lot of it was actually a lot more vague than it seemed on closer insurrection, so wanted to try about get my head around it as much as possible).

If you're going into a role in the same place I guess that should help with you knowing a bit better what the day-to-day of the role would be?

Difficult person and conflicting priorities are questions I always include when interviewing. Reliable classics .

Focusing on the job spec when considering how to answer questions is absolutely the right thing to do. It sounds like you really did your homework, so should be in with a good shout.

I know the role well as I work very closely with people already doing it (it's basically just a senior management level post — there are about 10 of them across the organisation). Will just have to see how it goes.