My First Post: Interview Preparation

[G2 PILOT]

Hello, I've been lurking on this forum for a few months, reading your anecdotes and learning from your experiences. I have tremendous respect for this field and my awe causes hesitation if I have the mental stamina to succeed as a paramedic. But this forum has helped me steady my insecurities so thank you for that!

I am slated for an interview at a paramedic school. My health care experience is broad and I don't know if it's "substantial" when compared to the rest of the interviewing field. I've obtained approximately 75 hours of radiology observation, worked for 3 months as a part-time Veterinarian assistant, logged approximately 50 hours as a community health fair volunteer, and have been employed as an on-call EMT for the community service patrol since November '10.

My interview is in 18 days. If I could find more experience, I would nab it! Any time in the field would be welcome. I asked an EMT-III what the interview would be like and he ran a few scenarios past me. It wasn't super daunting, but it is a different thought process (which I can handle). But please, I'm trying to gather as many resources as possible and not looking for easy "tips" but thoughts, scenarios, experiences that could help me better prepare for this interview would be helpful?

Thank you!

I'll keep you guys posted on how it turns out.

[tcripp]

While you are waiting for responses, do a search on "interview" on all forums. There is quite a bit there that will get you started. You might then be able to ask more specific questions. We're here for you and wish you well...

[PCP]

Good luck in the interview!

If possible, try and get an interview coach and have them run you through some mock interviews. As already mentioned do as much research on interviews as possible. Do some research on the company you are having the interview with, as this may help you answer some of the questions or if they give you a chance to ask your own questions, you can question them on their service.

[NYCEMS9115]

The interview might consist of scenarios. Go over your EMT book; go over the questions at the end or beginning of each chapter; the objectives. Good luck...

[BEorP]

If you've got the time, and are weird like me, write down every single possible question that they could ask you and come up with a solid answer for each. If you're unsure of common interview questions, Google it. You will likely find that you start pulling certain key life experiences or concepts into many of your answers. That is a good thing because then even if you are somehow surprised by a question, you can probably pull a coherent answer together from what you did practice. If you can practice with someone, that is great, but even if not, just going through these questions on your own and answering out loud will be helpful. Do not rehearse word for word. That isn't the point and will just make you sound fake. Focus on just getting good at answering the questions, even if this means using slightly different words each time.

And of course, for any interview always have prepared questions for them. I like to have a few ready before hand and then only ask the one or two that really seem to fit with the types of things we have been discussing during the interview. This makes it sound less scripted and more like you actually just put together a really good question on the fly (jokes on them!).

Don't forget all of the basic interview suff either... be on time, dress nice, firm handshake, eye contact, bring current resume (or other applicable paperwork), and send a thank you note of some type.

Good luck!

[G2 PILOT]

Thank you for the replies!

I have searched the forum for "interview" and got many hits back. It was one of my beginning sources of information. I have my girlfriend and another friend of mine who will run through the interview questions with me. I found quite an extensive list on google for med school applicants. I crossed out those that I didn't find pertinent to the field or don't expect the question to arise (e.g., if you were a cookie, what kind of cookie would you be?).

Going through my EMS textbook is a regular occurrence. The objectives and scenarios are very useful, but find myself constantly second guessing myself at the answer. I am hopeful that I am retaining the correct information.

Well, thanks for those that replied. I'm off to study now and will post back if there are any other questions. Also, anyone that would be interested in the 100 questions, let me know and I'll put up the link. Thanks guys!

[Just Plain Ruff]

Thank you for the replies!

I have searched the forum for "interview" and got many hits back. It was one of my beginning sources of information. I have my girlfriend and another friend of mine who will run through the interview questions with me. I found quite an extensive list on google for med school applicants. I crossed out those that I didn't find pertinent to the field or don't expect the question to arise (e.g., if you were a cookie, what kind of cookie would you be?).

Going through my EMS textbook is a regular occurrence. The objectives and scenarios are very useful, but find myself constantly second guessing myself at the answer. I am hopeful that I am retaining the correct information.

Well, thanks for those that replied. I'm off to study now and will post back if there are any other questions. Also, anyone that would be interested in the 100 questions, let me know and I'll put up the link. Thanks guys!

Chocolate chip.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

[G2 PILOT]

So had my interview; With the possibility that my interviewers peruse this site, I'd like to keep a lot of the information private (until the results have been given). But it was a standard interview, quick and efficient. I was given a scenario (tailored for an EMT-. The scenario went like this:

An elderly man and woman are in front of you while walking through the airport. There is no one else around. The woman suddenly faints and falls forward. She is unconscious and there is a pool of blood forming under her face. Upon inspection, it is discovered there is a possible fracture of the nose.

When I was answering this scenario, I carefully log-rolled the patient over (without assistance; looking back, I wish I had said I'd ask the husband to help me), I checked for pulse (none), for breath (none), and immediately initiated CPR while telling the husband to first call 911, then find an AED. My question is, should I have done something about the bleeding prior to performing CPR?

[BEorP]

So had my interview; With the possibility that my interviewers peruse this site, I'd like to keep a lot of the information private (until the results have been given). But it was a standard interview, quick and efficient. I was given a scenario (tailored for an EMT-. The scenario went like this:

An elderly man and woman are in front of you while walking through the airport. There is no one else around. The woman suddenly faints and falls forward. She is unconscious and there is a pool of blood forming under her face. Upon inspection, it is discovered there is a possible fracture of the nose.

When I was answering this scenario, I carefully log-rolled the patient over (without assistance; looking back, I wish I had said I'd ask the husband to help me), I checked for pulse (none), for breath (none), and immediately initiated CPR while telling the husband to first call 911, then find an AED. My question is, should I have done something about the bleeding prior to performing CPR?

It sounds like you did fine. Fractures are nothing to worry about when someone is in cardiac arrest in a scenario like this.

[firemedic37]

When a pt is in cardiac and respiratory arrest it is nice to notice the bleeding but it does not prevent you from starting effective CPR. Sounds like you did a very good job by telling the husband to call 911 and get an AED, this is the step most EMS providers forget when they are not on the job because they are used to being the ones responding. They eventually remember it when they go to hook the AED/cardiac monitor up and they are asked where they got it from.

When we interview prospective employees (in your case students) we have a written, skills and a face-to-face interview. This gives us the prospective employer a good understanding of their weaknesses and strengths. You don't have to score perfectly to get hired (or picked), we look for certain thins in a prospective employee to ensure they will be a good fit. Since we stopped hiring the "smart" ones we have had much less (< 10%) turnover, our one turnover in 5 years was due to a non-work injury. Before if you scored perfectly on both the written and skills you were hired, regardless of your personality. Now we hire people that will fit in with us and if they need a little help improving on their skills or knowledge then we help them out.

Sorry I got off of subject there. Just saying that you shouldn't of had to get a perfect, little mistakes are understandable, after all you want to learn more and become a paramedic. If your heart is in it and they could see that it is then you will most likely get selected.

I would like to see more Paramedic Programs require an interview before being selected for the program. In the Paramedic Program that I help with there are a lot of students taking it because "It's different" and they really have no desire to be in EMS. It seems like this should be a good program if they require an interview for it. Is there a lot of competition to get into this program?

Good luck and keep us posted.