Classic questons Flashcards
Why do you want to work at UCL GOS Institute of Child Health?
1)It would make me feel good to conduct research that will help families. I have gained the most satisfaction when conducting research that will help vulnerable populations
* I felt passionate when conducting research on behalf of the domestic abuse charity, Women’s Trust, a specialised mential health charity
2)The insitute conducts a lot of research that is interesting to me:
* Your research into mental health and substance misuse needs among women involved in public family law proceedings concerning child placement into care
* Domestic abuse and mental health of parents and children
3) Professor Helen Cross’ goal of improving the visibility of the institute and raising the profile of child health research aligns with my passion for research communication and I would be excited to work at an institution that prioritises research communication as this something I enjoy and thrive doing. Beyond my healthcare communications experience, I was awarded firsts for making a vlog about influenza and writing a press release about a diabetes cohort study
4) When I attended the Catherine Peckham Symposium last week I met some of the members of the institute and they very welcoming. We had some good conversations and I feel I would fit in well. Dr Becca Lacey,
5) I appreciate the emphasis on public engagement, include active engagement with children and families, to ensure that your work is relevant and appropriate to their needs. I enjoyed patient engagement activities when working at Clark Health Communications
6)Enjoy working in small team
Tell us about yourself
- I have always been interested in health so I chose to study biomedical science at undergraduate.
- During this time, I most enjoyed analysing a epidemiological dataset for my BSc project and the research communication assignments
- My passion for research communication drove me to work in healthcare communications for two years after university
- However, I found that I missed conducting research and then communicating it, also wanted to work for an organisation that would add to the evidence base for vulnerable groups
- To conduct the research I wanted to conduct, I needed to strengthen my quantitiative analysis skills so I Ieft my job to pursue a masters in epidemiology
- Which I thoroughly enjoyed particularly the statistical modules and projects
- Left confident that I want to pursue a career in quantitative analysis
Do you have any questions for us?
- You mentioned in the job specification that this project is ideal for an early career researcher to develop a fellowship proposal building on the novel data. Could you expand on this? Would this only be an option for applicants with a PhD? Would there be an opportunity to build a PhD proposal from the data?
- Who would I be working with on the daily?
- How would you describe the culture of the organisation?/the working culture
- What would you hope that the person in this position accomplishes in the first year?
- What is the performance review process like?
- What is your management style like?
- Could you expand on “The post holder will benefit from working within a critical mass of analysts working in Child Health Informatics and Quantitative Social Science across UCL.”?
- Why do you enjoy working at UCL GOS Institute of Child Health?
- What are the biggest challenges being faced by the institute?
- What would you anticipate being the most challenging aspects of this job?
- Are there any common characteristics of people who work here?
- What would a typical day be like?
Why do want this specific role?
- Quantitative skills
- Research will have hopefully have positive real world impact
- Like the idea of supporting teaching
Any hobbies or interests
- Not too many solidatary ones
- Link it to the job role
STAR Technique
Situation: Describe the situation and when it took place. (10%)
Task: Explain the task and what was the goal. (10%)
Action: Provide details about the action you took to attain this and the skills you used. What did you do? Why did you do this? (70%)
Result: Describe outcome, in positive terms, quantified where possible. How do you know if your actions were successful? What did you learn from the experience? (10%)
What are your weaknesses?
- Networking - going up to someone I’ve never met before. But getting better at it
- When in a group of loud personalities, I find it difficult to speak up with a conflicting idea
- Try to please everyone - I have a tendency towards trying to please everyone. I see this as a weakness as pleasing everyone is not realistic and that it will not always help me become more efficient at my job
- -> I’m learning to take people’s opinions into account but also to prioritise tasks objectively and to have a clear set of criteria in place to evaluate outcomes because otherwise it is too easy to be swayed in different directions
- Lack of creativity
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Where do you see yourself in five years?
- Excited about this role as in 5 years I’d like to be seen as an experienced researcher.
- Would like to have…
- Excited to learn and grow in this role, maximise on any training I receive and develop my ability to…
What are your strengths?
1) My quantitative analysis skills - these stood out during my undergraduate degree as the data analysis sections of my exams were where I scored the highest and I achieved a high merit for my BSc project which was a cross-sectional analysis of an epidemiological dataset. I have strengthened these skills in the past year by learning more advanced statistical methods ( multivariable regression, logistic regression, survival analysis, Poisson and Cox regression and spatial analysis). I achieved a distinction in our most advanced statistics model.
2) Communication skills -
-Presentation skills - seminar
-Build relationships with collaborators
-Write clear, concise data analysis reports
3) Ability to conduct research and learn advanced statistics independently.
-MSc project I worked mostly independently but I liaised with my supervisor where appropriate
-In my healthcare communications job, I worked independently
4) My ability to facilitate and participate in multidisciplinary collaborations - I became very experienced at this throughout my job in healthcare communications. When on projects I need to work with healthcare professionals, academics, the clients, creatives etc to deliver the brief on time. My strong communication skills allowed me to build relationships with a diverse range of collaborators.
5) Teamwork
6) Oral communication skills / presentation skills
7) Problem-solving
What challenges do you anticipate in this role?
- Independent working and getting stuck when conducting analysis and trying to figure it out looking at literature - this will be objectively challenging but I enjoy it as I am self-motivated and hard working and am experienced in it. During my Master’s project I worked largely independently and would really try and resolve it on my own before reaching out to a supervisor. I did this within reason though as there were tight deadlines.
- Postgraduate teaching - a challenge because it is new to me but a challenge I am excited about. My sister studies medicine and they have an epidemiology/research methods module so I frequently clarify concepts for her. Also at school I ran the Maths club and I enjoyed using creativity to teach mathematical concepts..
Why do you want this job?
(Should I talk about why I want to work at this institute or will that be a separate question?)
1) The duties and responsibilities are exactly what I am looking for as I most enjoy quantitative analysis and it is where I thrive. I most enjoyed the statistics modules during my Masters and this passion drove my success and I was awarded a distinction for our most advanced statistics module where I completed a multi-variable regression project and wrote a clear concise report.
2) I enjoyed linking data during my Master’s project and I would look forward to be involved in the more complicated linking in this project and evaluating the linkage accuracy. Hopefully more and more epidemiological research will involve multi-sectorial linkage so I am enthusiatic to get some experience
3) Communication opportunties to a variety of audiences - contributing to papers, presentations
4) Opportunity to work in a multi-disciplinary team
What are your career plans?
- Work in this role for the 18 months it is available
- Then I will look for PhD opportunities within institute or UCL more widely or with a collaborator
- Then hopefully a string of research posts that interest me
