Interview can be pretty daunting. Whether you have been practicing medicine for years or are newly qualified it can be hard for anyone to feel confident when they walk in to an interview. So that is why we have compiled some of our top tips to get you your next job.
Top tips for preparing for an interview:
1. Be prepared. This is essential to your success. Research the hospital, nursing home or care centre that you are applying for. Learn about the challenges the facility faces, its reputation, its staffing levels and the area in which it caters for. Look at the latest Health Information and Quality Authority reports for Irish based facilities https://www.hiqa.ie/ Use this information to your advantage by catering your answers to suit the type of facility that you are applying for.
2. Go over your CV and think of it from the interviewers’ point of view. What are they looking for? What are the main areas that they will ask about? What are your strong and weak points?
3. Do research about the job spec for the job. Make sure you know what they are looking for and how you are best suited for the job. Focus particularly on the skills or competencies required and prepare specific examples of how you have matched these competencies in your career to date
4. You should always speak positively about a past employer. Future employers can often be put off by negativity surrounding a past work place.
5. Be prepared for a structured interview panel as this is commonly used in the healthcare sector.
6. Practice your answers in advance but avoid making your answers sound too rehearsed. Make is sound natural.
Sample Questions for Doctors
1. Why did you choose this specialty?
2. Tell us about your experience in Medicine? What are your areas of expertise and specialty? What area interests you the most and why?
3. Tell us about any leadership experience you have? How did you develop your leadership skills and when have you had to showcase them?
4. How do you create trust in your interaction with your patients?
5. What are your career goals? Is this hospital a proper fit?
6. What are your strengths and weaknesses’?
7. Can you describe a time when you believe you gave optimum care to a patient? What actions did you take to provide this type of care?
8. Can you also tell me about when you did not provide optimal care to a patient? This could be a time when you either made a mistake or would have handled a situation differently?
9. How would you go about providing patients with the best possible care?
10. How do you handle workload stress and emergency situations?
11. What are the key challenges of this (field of medicine)? What are your personal challenges?
12. Do you have references? How would your employers describe you? How would your patients describe you?
Sample Questions for Nurses
1. Why are you looking for a new job?
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
3. What kind of experience do you have that would benefit you in this kind of a facility?
4. Tell us about a time when you worked well under pressure?
5. What interests you most about this job?
6. How would your colleagues describe you?
7. Which part of this role is least attractive to you?
8. How do you handle criticism of your work?
9. Do you prefer to work alone, or as part of a team?
10. What do you do to keep current with medical findings and practices?
11. How do you handle stress on the job?
12. How would you deal with a doctor who was rude?
13. What do you find most rewarding about being a nurse?
14. How would you handle a patient, who complains about everything?
15. Do you have any questions for us?
Interviews can be extremely stressful and it really does not matter how many times you do them, they never become truly comfortable. An integral part of the matchmedics service to our candidates is a thorough, detailed and specific interview preparation call with one of our specialist medical recruitment consultants. This happens before every interview that we arrange for you with one of our clients. It’s all part of the service and, of course, it’s all offered free of charge.
So now we have helped you prepare, we just have to get you that interview now. Register with us today (click on the” register in 10 seconds” button on the left of this page) and we can start looking for the perfect job for you.
