Potential Interview Questions
Adapted from: Reile DM and Nickols JL. Survival
Strategies for Your New Career. 2006; 34-37.
During your various interviews, you will be asked
many questions. It is important that you mentally
prepare answers to some of the most common. It is unlikely that you will get many questions as hard as some of the ones listed below. The
following is a random sampling to let you know what
you might come across. Make sure that you know your CV backwards and forwards! Any question they ask you about is fair game.
If you have done an inservice on a pharmacy-related
topic and it is mentioned on your CV, review your
notes or handouts prior to interviews since it is
possible they may ask you something about it.
It is also extremely important that you be prepared to ask plenty of questions. Interviewers often make judgements about you based on the type of questions you ask. Some questions should be directed to residents, if at all. Do not attempt to ask all of these questions. Ask the most crucial questions in the limited amount of time that you may be given.
Common Interview Questions. As tempting as it might
be to memorize sample responses from interview
books, avoid this trap. Savvy interviewers will
see through “canned” answers, and you may come off looking overly slick or contrived. Answers
should sound well-thought out, but not memorized.
Interview questions typically come from such topic
areas as education, training, personal traits, pharmacy
experience, and career goals. In a new trend, called behavioral interviewing, applicants might also
be asked to discuss how they would handle a specific
work-related situation.
Questions most frequently asked in a variety of
job interviews and settings include the following:
- Tell
me about yourself.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Why are
you leaving your current position? Why did
you leave your last job? (If relevant to
your situation.)
- What attracts you to this
organization/setting/position?
- Where do you
see yourself in five to ten years?
- What do you
think makes you best qualified for the position?
- What do you think you can contribute to this
position/organization/department/staff?
- What is the salary you are looking for in this
position? (If relevant to your situation.)
- Tell me about a project that you
handled well and one in which
you were not successful.
What
did you
learn from each one?
- Do you have
any questions?
Questions asked in a pharmacy setting might include
the following:
- What do you want to get out of a residency?
- Why do you want to come here?
- Describe a clinical
intervention that you have made.
- What practice
areas are you interested in?
- How much hospital experience
have you had?
- What is one of the major issues facing
pharmacy today?
- What would your pharmacy preceptors say about you?
- What would your colleagues say
about you?
- Would relocating be a problem?
- What were your least favorite rotations and why?
- What qualities do you expect in a preceptor?
- Do you have any ideas for your major project?
- How do you handle
stress?
- Have you ever had a major conflict with
a preceptor/doctor? If so, how did you handle it?
Thought or reaction questions and behavioral interview
questions might be similar to the following:
- Here’s a scenario we would like you to
consider: You are the only pharmacist in the pharmacy.
On the phone is a nurse wanting to know dosing
for a dopamine drip for a patient who is crashing.
At the window is a doctor who is ranting and raving
about an enoxaparin order that wasn’t
approved. On the other line is a nurse calling
about a
patient with a vancomycin level of 15. In what
order do
you handle these problems?
- How would you deal
with an unmotivated student?
- If you were alone on a deserted island, what three medications would you bring with you?
- What makes you better for this position than
other candidates?
- What do you anticipate
a typical day in your career to be like?
- Choose a topic relating to clinical pharmacy,
and we’ll ask you a question about it.
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