Help with interview questions

Hi, micmaddinschool!

As a manager I've done plenty of interviewing and asked a few of those questions. There's no way I can tell you where you can see yourself in 5 or 10 years. Only you know what your greatest strength and biggest weakness is or what kind of supervisor you would like or dislike. What are you good at; what are you lousy at? You've had a few evaluations from your nursing instructors. What have they told you about your performance? If you've had other jobs, what did other bosses say was good and bad about your work habits? What did your parents say you were good or bad at? I recommend that you think about what you would answer to these questions over the next few weeks. Sure, you can get opinions here and make up a bunch of stuff that an interviewer might want to hear, but once you are on the job and they discover you weren't truthful you will be in a very sticky situation. Just be honest and you'll never go wrong. As far as a doctor calling you stupid--we've all faced that one. What they're looking for is someone who would indicate that they would speak back to the doctor inappropriately or rudely which would indicate the person doesn't socialize well with others or attempt to compromise and get along with others.

I post these all the time. These are the most common characteristics that employers look for in professional workers. A good interviewer will try to figure out through questioning if the person has these characteristics. They will take those questions you list and tweak them to fit the conversation they are having with you and if they are very skilled will get an answer to them without you even realizing you've been asked about them. That's why I say, be honest. Here's that list:

• Initiative - Autonomy
  
• Positive outlook
  
• Dynamism - Energy
  
• Responsibility
  
• Orientation to the client and co-workers (ability to provide customer service)
  
• Learning capacity
  
• Productivity
  
• High adaptability - Flexibility
  
• Leadership
  
• Team work
  
• Tolerance to pressure
  
• Analytic ability
  
• Professional development

Welcome to allnurses. :welcome:

RE: weakness. If you don't say something, you sound arrogant to say you have no weaknesses. The trick is to acknowledge a weakness and indicate that you are aware of it and you are working toward conquering it. What you need to understand is that most weaknesses in people's behavior or habits take years to change and correct. To think otherwise indicates arrogance and immaturity, so how to respond to the handling of any weakness you disclose is very, very important.

RE: plans for the future. Again, this is an answer you can structure to kind of fit the job. Try to make it sound doable and practical. People's plans change, however. Most people are aware of that. Again, they are interested in seeing if you are interested in furthering your education and maturity in thinking. If you are just getting your ADN then getting a BSN is the next logical step. It took me 11 years to go from ADN to BSN. Once I finally got into a university it took 3 years of almost full time classes to finish off my BSN. So, tell them that in 5 years, hopefully, you'll be finishing up your BSN and still working for them and have decided what area of nursing you want to specialize in. Unless you definitely know what area of nursing you want to be in, you really can't say what kind of nursing you'll be doing, can you?