Interviewing skills...UGH

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Hi everyone!

So I graduated from nursing school in June with my ADN and passed the NCLEX in July. For the last two weeks I have been on my first RN job quest...it has been tough. I live in a VERY competitive area, Portland, OR, especially for new grad RN's with associates degrees. When it comes to interviewing I normally nail it. I'm personable and normally quick on the draw...I've had two nursing interviews so far and both went pretty poorly. I just have not been feeling confident and my answers have been like oh jeeze, what was I thinking!!

Any tips on garnering some self confidence for these interviews? I have an interview next week for a job that would be awesome! I really don't want to screw it up like I have the last two.

Please, any advice!

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Specializes in Critical Care Transport.

I would start thinking about some of the questions that were asked at your previous two interviews and prepare for similar questions. A lot of questions are behavioral based but not all (tell me about a difficult patient/physician you had to deal with) There are a ton of different threads which have good information. I recently have been to a handful of interviews as well to work in one of two different ER's. Some areas I recommend you focus on are below.

Why do you want to work in ___________?

What are you strengths/weaknesses?

Tell me about a difficult patient/physician and how you handled the situation.

Tell me about a time you worked as part of a team; what was the project and goal? what was the outcome?

Always do your research on the facility/unit before walking in the door. Know mission, values, accolades of the unit/facility.

Develop questions to ask during the interview (I usually limit it to three or four to show interest in the position)

At the end, politely and confidently ask what the next step is? That will let them know you are interested and likely results in a second interview.

Remain calm, be yourself, make a lot of eye contact, and exude confidence. Good luck!!

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This is great, thanks. I think with me it's more of a confidence issue that's cropped up. Need to work on my confidence more than anything

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Have you searched "behavioral interviews" on youtube? I wish I had known to do this long before now.

You CAN do this...big breath and believe in your abilities. Show them what YOU believe about your abilities!

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No but I will...thank you for the idea and good thoughts :-) appreciate it so much!

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Specializes in Medical/Oncology.

Hey Erin1984,

I just had my first interview and on the phone no less (I don't have the most soothing phone voice and my mouth was dry as cotton :( ). I did Ok in some questions that I prepared for, the standard ones like "tell me about yourself" and "why did you go into questions". Then I get some Qs like "Tell me a time when you...." I kind of blanked out for 10 seconds before I could string couple sentences together. I think what other people have been saying are right, should look up more behavioral questions and prepare them, just in case the interviewer asks.

I'm going to do the same for my next interview so that I don't sound like a total moron.

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