healthcare leadership academy interview

what is the healthcare leadership academy (hla)

a bunch of extremely high-achieving clinical people who have assembled themselves a network with the aim of expanding and expressing leadership as a key quality for healthcare people to have. so a very cool network of inspiration people. careerists? opportunists? cv sweats? doesn’t matter just inspirational people.

wait what?

“What are you on about?” to paraphrase my father. Ah so, this is an opportunity to work with the Healthcare Leadership Academy. An organisation keen on training skills in leadership, project management and networking amongst healthcare professionals. Dr Johann Malawana, a obstetrician, previous junior doctor representative and now social entrepreneur is responsible for the organisation. Johann’s certainly heard his fair share of bullshit over the years but was he ready for mine?

hla interview

This morning had my HLA Scholar Interview. I actually barely got my application off - saved by a timezone switch to GMT. but anyway before I summarise my dialogue, this was an unbelievably tough interview and I absolutely did not sound as eloquent as when I wrote this up.

What evidence of leadership have you had before? - Led an Undergraduate Academic Medicine Society.

Yes, but how did this make you a better leader? - Recruiting a young and enthusiastic committee the summe before, placing them in positions of strength and hosting a record amount of events.

Okay, but what did you learn? - The importance of reflection and effective delegation.

What would be the one criticism you have of yourself - do not say being overly meticulous? - I can be overly conscientous.

Thats a bit like saying you are meticulous? - Well, I have a tendency to want to perform in all activities whether that be providing refreshments at a conference to organising logistics to building social media campaigns. I learnt to delegate more effectively.

the aftermath

15 minutes were over in a flash. As I walked off to Sainsbury’s in an utter daze after such a grilling, I reminded myelf that I have built a project already - live survey into student perceptions of AI and a website too. Irrespective of the outcome, I will build this project and prove that I can thrive in absence of formal networking and mentorship programmes.

I absolutely did not expect the level and depth of these follow-up questions. It seems that my lack of preparation for these types of questions could be rooted in possibly not speaking to previous applicants i.e. doing some networking and having that initiative already. Both great lessons for the future.

And we’ll wait for the outcome - very unhopeful after such a grilling.