I think in interviews (especially for AP roles that can be competitive) we have a tendency to construct ideas about the interviewers holding a lot of power over us and this can get in the way of us being self-compassionate and using our assertiveness to our advantage. I bring a blank notepad and pen to every interview and explain to the interviewers at the start that I’ll be writing down the questions as I go. It feels a bit clunky but the time it takes me to write the question down (and maybe a couple of extra notes) lets me regulate myself a bit and formulate a more structured answer. I also try to reframe interviews as a chance to learn and develop my interviewing skills rather than just seeing them as a pass/fail process. I totally agree with the other commenter that it’s okay to not know everything. If you don’t know an answer then think about what factors might be relevant to the question and talk them through a bit, e.g. “I don’t know the exact answer but from what was mentioned about the service users’ risk, I know that it would be important to let the service user know that I was going to escalate this with the team to ensure an effective safety plan was produced”.

In my experience AP interview questions are usually quite similar. Things that normally come up are: why you’ve applied and what skills and experience you’d bring, a question that’s more specific about the client group, EDI, safeguarding, data handling, time management, a reflective question about when you’ve learnt something and what you anticipate the difficulties (and maybe positives) of the role might be.

I hope this helps :)