HELP Interview Tips

CrufflerJJ, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Feb 3, 2010

hello,
i have two important interviews coming up. i am willing to take either job if offered. i have had two phone interviews with other companies and ended up with thanks, but no thanks. can anybody tell me what are hr recruiters/nurse managers looking for in a new graduate rn. questions i am getting. what did you answer to the following questions that got you hired? any help or tips are greatly appreciated!
1. tell me about yourself.
2. tell me a weakness.
3. tell me a strength.
4. why do you want to work here?
5. tell me about a time you were faced with conflict in the workplace and how did you resolve it.

congrats on getting two (two!!!!!) interviews. many people are struggling to get a single interview.

some great webpages i reviewed when prepping for my Job Search as a new grad last year are:

https://allnurses.com/nursing-career-advice/wondering-why-you-84387.html

http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/interviews/a/phoneinterview.htm

http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/interviews/a/behavioral.htm

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/thankyouletters/a/samplethankyou.htm

pay attention to this one:

http://www.nursecareers.com/questionstoanswer.html

http://career-advice.monster.com/job-interview/following-up/a-follow-up-call-wins-the-interview/article.aspx

good luck to you on your interviews!:up: :up:

Moosey32 · Feb 8, 2010

My advice is to look at the sites posted above, and just play around on here and google stuff like "interview help" ect.

DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!!!!!! Take the time to look over multiple questions and think of answers you could use.

When I had my interview it was strictly a behavorial interview. I did not get a single "easy" answer such as my weakness, my strength, why I became a nurse, ect. It was all questions like "Tell me about a time when you went the extra mile for a patient and what was the outcome?" "Tell me about a time when you experience a demanding patient, family member, or customer, how did you handle the situation?"

^^ Those questions blow :-)

However, what they are looking for are SPECIFIC cases, they DON'T want you to generalize like "well typically I do this..." What they are looking for is that you can assess the problem, implent an action, and the outcome of the action in your answer. Lol. Pretty fancy stuff. So be sure to google up some behavorial interview questions so you can kinda get a feel for those too so that you aren't unprepared if they throw some at you!

And most important...

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ncsportsfan · Feb 10, 2010

Congrats on two interviews. I bombed my first two and didn't ge the jobs.

When you answer the questions think about how it can be relevant to the floor you are interview on? Some floors require different skills or strengths/weaknesses than others because of the patient population. For the Conflict question, think of a real conflict it doesn't have to be nursing related if you don't have one, but you don't want to make it up because its harder to tell, just think of something you face, explain why it was a conflict and how you handled.

Be prepared to answer a scenario like you have to hang blood, a doctor needs something for you and the secretary is calling, what do you do?

My weakness is that I haven't learned to trust my gut always, that sometimes I'm checking and rechecking that it might slow me down. Strength: I'm committed to doing it right and safe.

You know yourself just be honest and bring out your best. I found a job on my third interview.