On the spot interview for the VA

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Hi! I am going to an on the spot job interview for the VA next week. I'm interviewing for a LPN position. Can anyone shed some light on the interview process? Any questions I should ask? How long is the process? I'm also 6 months pregnant. Anyone know about maternity leave? Thanks!!

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Bump.

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Not sure what you mean by "on the spot interview". You have a scheduled interview you knew about, not a surprise interview (on the spot) at a job fair or something like that. What do you mean?

The typical interview for VA uses PBI (Performance Based Interviewing) techniques; you can read about this just by Googling VA PBI. You are given a scenario, and asked "tell me about a time when...." or "when faced with a similiar situation, you...." Like that.

As for leave, you are coming in at a bad point in your pregnancy: you won't have saved up much sick leave, and I'm assuming you'd be choosing one of the Federal insurance plans (which will determine what's covered). As for time off that's unpaid, there's FMLA, but not sure how much time you'd have to put in first in order to claim it (someone here is bound to know!).

The boarding process can be quick, a matter of weeks, or can take as long as several months. Most seem to board in 2-3 months, others longer. Can't know where you'd fall on that broad range, but you can't really expect to start when you're 9 months pregnant....nor 3 weeks post-partum, so consider that.

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Specializes in PACU.

You will most likely need to accrue 12 months of work hours in order to invoke FMLA so you may very well be out of luck when it comes to maternity leave, especially any sort of paid maternity leave. I've heard it can take a long time to go through the hiring process for the VA so you may luck out that way, but others have had a short turn around. It's hard to estimate.

I would not mention pregnancy during the interview.

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You will most likely need to accrue 12 months of work hours in order to invoke FMLA so you may very well be out of luck when it comes to maternity leave, especially any sort of paid maternity leave. I've heard it can take a long time to go through the hiring process for the VA so you may luck out that way, but others have had a short turn around. It's hard to estimate.

I would not mention pregnancy during the interview.

Well....she probably won't have to mention it for it to be noticed, LOL, she's six months gone! ;)

Just thought of something else: while of course it's illegal to be denied a job due to pregnancy, you CAN have an offer rescinded if you fail to report by a specified time (or are unable to accept the offered start date). You might find yourself being offered a job that has a start date of two weeks before your due date or a week or two after. Not saying things aren't negotiable but.....maybe not as negotiable as you'd like.

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Thanks everyone who responded. The VA is having an open house and are hosting on the spot interviews for all walk in applicants. I thought it might be a good idea to interview now since I heard it takes so long to

Get hired but I guess that's not always the case 😊. Although interviewing at 6 months wasn't my plan😆 I thought I'd just give it a shot. Does anyone know how schedules run in a VA hospital? I currently work for an army/navy hospital 3 12s and would love to keep that schedule. Can I choose days/night? I'm currently working nights.

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Depends on the hospital, AND on the unit, like most places. There is no one set standard for "how VA runs wards". It's very variable!

You may be offered a choice of shifts, but more likely is you'll be told what is available to fill. And if you are in the position of being on leave for a period of time after the baby is born you might find that the shift you had originally tagged has been offered to someone else in the meantime---and they've decided to stay put.

Thanks for explaining the open house thing; see, that's a perfect example of how VA is different all over the country. My facility doesn't do them, period.

I'd definitely look into the PBI information on the VA.gov website, like I mentioned earlier. Those ARE standard features for interviews, so you can expect that. Best to be prepared!

Good luck :)

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Specializes in TCU, Post-surgical, Infection Prevention.

That is awesome! Hope it works out.

My mom was associate director where I interviewed and I still can't get in :cry:

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