UCL Interview Prep

Tell me about yourself - ANS · I have a background in psychology · I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology and my postgraduate degree in Health Psychology - both at UCL · Both during and after my studies I've been working as a Dispensing Assistant at a community pharmacy · My most recent professional experience has been working as a qualitative data analyst with transport · I'm hoping to pursue a career in research which is why I applied for the research assistant role Why do you want to pursue a career in research? - ANS · I like solving problems - I like having the opportunity to identify something that needs to be changed, and formulating a research question to try to solve the problem · It also gives me the chance to contribute to knowledge in a certain area or field Tell me about a time where you had to resolve conflicts - ANS · We have a colleague at the pharmacy who has been with us for around a year now · She takes more time to learn new things than other colleagues - she needs more support from the pharmacy team · This can cause tension in the team because it can be frustrating to have to explain the same thing to someone over and over · But the way I see it is that everyone learns at their own pace, and there are always going to be people who need more support and guidance · To overcome this, I guide her to learn tasks in a way that allows her to be more independent · E.g. I encourage note-taking and repeating the task over and over so it sticks in her head - this allows her to be less reliant on the pharmacy team Have you ever had to address conflicting priorities? - ANS · When I was working as a research assistant with the Cancer Communication and Screening Group at UCL, I was often working on numerous different tasks at once - e.g. data entry, peer reviews, statistical analyses, write ups · So I had to be able to prioritise my workload to make sure I didn't get overwhelmed with tasks and to make sure that things got done · I did this by looking at which tasks needed to be completed first and how much time I had to complete the tasks - allowed me to be as productive as I could in the time that I had Tell me about a time where you've had to pay attention to detail - ANS · Attention to detail is really important when you work in a pharmacy, especially when you're dispensing prescriptions · E.g. You have to make sure the prescription is valid, that you've picked the right medication, that you've got the correct quantity, correct dosage, correct instructions - it's a lot of responsibility being involved in dispensing prescriptions so you have to make sure that you've got an eye for detail to make sure that errors don't happen Why do you want this job? - ANS · I hope to pursue a career in research - which is why I applied for the current role - I feel the research assistant role would be a great opportunity to develop my research skills and gain valuable experience · I also think that my previous research experience would make me a good fit for the role What skills do you have that would make you a good fit for the job? - ANS · I'm a good communicator and I enjoy engaging with people- Working at a pharmacy means that I engage with a diverse range of people every day, which includes people of different ages, different ethnicities, people with different first languages - and I've had to be able to vary my approach to be able to communicate effectively with them - I think that has made me a good communicator · I have experience in all parts of the research process- For both my undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, instead of picking a research project that my supervisor was already working on, I decided to design and develop my own project - this meant that I was solely responsible for conducting literature reviews, designing the experiment, recruiting participants, analysing data, and doing the write up - this allowed me to experience of all aspects of the research process · I have a track record of producing high-quality work- For example, I received good feedback and good grades on my undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations- I also received good feedback from my manager at Transport For All who said that my contributions to the report were of high-quality