How to prepare a job interview well

Do you feel again that you did not do good at your job interview? Or do you really want to get the job that you wish for? That’s great. Motivation, one of the most powerful driving force. You’ve got the first components of what’s required for the successful interview.

Have you ever seen anyone being so confident about his or her outcome after their job interview? I can guarantee that you haven’t seen many, potentially nearly zero. Let’s be honest. Job interview sucks. It makes you feel stressed, overwhelmed, anxious and so on until you walk out the door of “battle field”.

It’s even worse when you are not properly prepared for it. That’s why we are here. How you can prepare efficiently for your upcoming job interview? Let’s talk about it.

Please bear in mind one thing. I personally work in health industry. Hence, tips or advice that I am about to pour out to you now might be heavily inclined into healthcare industry, therefore I strongly advise you that you might need to filter out or adjust based upon your individual circumstances.

 

Rule No. 1 Do you know what you are going in? Better know what you are diving in for.

 

“Must know what you are applying for”? I know it sounds so vague, almost seemingly lost focus. What it means by that is you need to know what their values systems they established upon.

For example, my current employer has 5 values they pursue, which are “Respect, Teamwork, Integrity, High Performance, and Compassion“. You might think what on earth these qualities or values are anything to do with the job interview.

But think about it. What if interviewers ask you like this, “how would you contribute to the unit or department or team based upon our values? ” From  my previous many interviews, one interview panels framed a question like this, “Could you please tell us about what your contribution in your previous workplace under their values was and how you would do it here? “

Have you ever thought about in this way before? If you are currently working in any industry or have had any previous job interview, you might be more familiar these types of questions.

I believe it’s more like our human nature. If interviewers could spot someone who might seem to know what they are doing in current business, what their vision is and what they want to achieve in short  and long term, then I guarantee that the interview panels would be inclined to that interviewee who has a through understanding of their business.

Therefore, if you are applying for a job now, google the company name and search what their values are. It’s normal under “About Us” in their company website, as an introduction of their business to the public. So bear in mind, you need to know what you are going to dive in for sure. Otherwise, it’s near impossible to impress the panels during the interview “battle field”.

Rule No. 2 Can you handle conflicts?

If you are going to work for someone, you are going to have to anticipate you are going to fall in a dark “BLACK HOLE”, so called workplace occurred conflicts. It could be from any party either from colleagues or consumers.

Again let me take an example of health industry. Most common conflicts you might encounter in health industry are highly likely sourced from a patient or patient’s relatives / significant people / family or co-worker/s. Classic interview questions are always rooted from this corner. The level of intervention they anticipate from the interviewee is purely dependent on the level of responsibility / position he or she will be in.

Normally, they would ask like this (again scenarios based upon healthcare setting).

“You have 5 patients under your care.

One of them is meant to be discharged in the morning meanwhile the patient needs to be reviewed by a hospital pharmacist for review of patient’s current medications.

However, the patient is being inpatient, constantly asking when the pharmacist would come and see the patient whilst you are attending to other patients like medication round and wound dressing even though the patient was informed that it would take some time for the pharmacist to visit and review as they have a staff shortage due to sick leave.

Now you are in a single room for wound care and notice that the unsatisfied patient is entering the room and his or her jaw is tight and slightly jut forwarded.

Also, his or her lip is tightened and eyebrows are raised whilst approaching towards you with their arms crossed.

In this circumstance, what would you do?”

 

This is one of the most classic questions as it is not unusual that this occurs in the workplace. What do you think? If you have ever worked in any industry, the answer would be quite straightforward.

De-escalation strategy is what you need to bring out onto the plate.

Firstly ask the “angry” patient “Are you OK? How can I help?” and then you need to be able to demonstrate your ability to identify the issue that the patient has at the moment from the above questions.

Explain what current situation is to the patient like you are doing the wound dressing so tell him or her that you are going to action immediately after this showing that you are listening to them willing to help and support.

Once done the dressing, ask the patient to come out the room for the privacy and safety of the other patient. Then take them into another quiet and private place. But it’s not ideal to bring into a room with only one door as you might end up with putting yourself into extremely vulnerable situation by isolating yourself from other staff or environment.

In addition, you need to check the staff assist button/Duress alarm button quickly just in case of physical aggression or threat.

Offer any type of simple refreshment that you can easily access like a cup of tea or coffee or plain water. If possible, get them to sit down and clarify what the problems he or she has. Once fully identify the issue, tell them what you can do within your scope of practice.

Do not ever lie to them only just to make them feel better momentarily. It can only make things from worse to the worst. Even with these efforts and attempts to accommodate their needs showing empathy, if he or she does not show any potential to settle down or calm down, you might have to plan to call for help. Most of the times by this stage, they can normally calm them down and start to think logically.

Rule No. 3 It’s no jokes. You tell them what you are bringing in.

In the core of requirement process, there is a definite reason why interview is part of the final process of recruitment. Why? It is one unique opportunity for the employer to find out what quality, value, experience new employee can bring into their unit.

In addition, it is possible for them to make rough assumption of how they can successfully nestle into the current team without having to go through supposedly avoidable troubles.

Let’s be simple. What is your strength and what is your weakness? What are you going to bring into my team? Please, please, I’m begging you. Don’t tell them you work too hard.

You know what? Actually that is the worst answer ever, which the interview panels would have heard more than a million times from those “unsuccessful” applicants. That does not contain any valuable information for the panels to judge out of you but only gives impression of “I, actually, HAVE NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT MYSELF AND I DON’T KNOW WHO I AM”.

To begin with, you should talk about what not to answer in those types of questions. In short, you must avoid overly simplified answer of yourself e.g. “I am honest and passionate” or “I work too hard”

Let me take an example. This was my answer from one of my many interviews.

“My Weakness is that I am a people-pleaser. I tended to say “YES” a lot unnecessarily, simply because I used to have certain level of obsession of being a kind person.

I do know I do have good quality of resilience. Because I do take or buffer a lot of stress to streamline my work flow under highly pressured working environment. But you cannot work alone unless you have a solely owned business. You are meant to be working as a team. You need to share the workload and if you notice someone made a mistake, you need to correct them by providing feedback.

This process / practice is not easy for someone like me, a people-pleaser. However, with many years of clinical experience, I have tried and evolved. I have to admit that it is still not very comfortable to provide constructive feedback but I have got to do it because it is my responsibility as a supervisor and coordinator. I utilize my military background, in which I often emphasize our goals or targets to achieve.

It has to be neutral and objective feedback otherwise it wouldn’t be acknowledged as constructive feedback. Nothing is personal only our goals / target to achieve. This enables me to achieve my goal that is supervising my team and staff also to enhance our staff performance and confidence in their field.”

Do you feel you are getting more control in your interview preparation?

What do you think?

Do you think you are heading into right direction?

Are you ready for interview or you need more time to prepare a bit more?

The key point of your interview preparation is that you need to know what you have, what you can offer to them and last but not least, what they want from you. If you can answer all these questions, I can say you are well-equipped for the “battle” and you have a very high chance to win.