1st ever interview in behavioral health!

[Andi777]

Hi!! I am pretty excited ... just finished nursing school on Monday and had my first interview today (just a couple hours ago, actually) on the behavioral health unit at a local hospital system. That is my DREAM JOB!! Where I have wanted to work since I was 8 years old! I put applications in despite being told there were not openings.

By the way, this is the first job interview I have ever had in my life (I was self-employed previously)

I was well prepared for the interview -- I was on here for the last week reading up on good interview skills, how to prepare, etc. Also I went to the college career counseling center (which was really not very helpful -- as it was geared towards business/ technical degree jobs)

One thing: in my small community.... as students we did all of our clinical rotations at the hospitals where most of the school graduates work at once school is done. There are not a whole lot of the tough questions like "tell me about the biggest mistake you ever made" or even the traditional "what are your strengths/weaknesses"

What DEFINITELY came up:

1. Why do you want to work here?

2. Tell me about how you handle conflict (and the answer is 'approach it right away')

3. What would you do if a patient refused his medication?

4. What shift(s) do you prefer?

The many questions I had to ask were fairly well answered during the hour-long interview. I met with the hiring manager, the floor manager and one of the nurses. The nurse was a nurse that I had shadowed during my clinical experience --AND SHE REMEMBERED me!!

Anyway... I should hear in a couple weeks!! I also have an interview NEXT Friday at a state institution that may be a good fit... we'll see!!

Andi

[dianah, ASN]

Sounds like you were well-prepared and presented well! Good luck!

[Gooselady, BSN, RN]

It sounds like you have it in the bag, just for your infectious motivation and interest :) Good for you. I did psych in one form or another for 17 years. It has sure changed! No opinion about good or bad change, really. My favorite job was chemical dependency. I worked as a supervisor for a free standing chem dep hospital, so we had folks from detox through long term outpatient. The improvement in those to stayed sober was beyond satisfying.

[catlovingRN, BSN, RN]

Like the other posters said, it sounds like you were very well prepared and you got the interview after being told there were no job openings!! Unless something changes from hospitals hiring standpoint, it looks like you have a good chance of getting this in my opinion!

Would love to hear how everything turns out. Good luck!!

[Andi777]

I had another interview today -- this time at a state facility. Much more structured interview questions but the panel interviewing me were long time co-workers and obviously liked each other a lot -- good bantering and a sense of family. That really impressed me!

One tough question: "What if I told you right now that this interview wasn't go well at all. (pause pause pause.... I held my breath..) What do you say about that?"

I'm not going to tell you my response -- I just want to put that out there for folks to think about. An impressively good question -- an out-of-the-box question.

[Gooselady, BSN, RN]

Oooooh!

I'm thinking I would know myself if an interview was not going well. If I thought things were great and was told this -- I'd feel ashamed and confused. In either case, I'd sit back and ask for feedback explaining from their side what they felt was going wrong.

That IS an excellent question! And so devious but . . . revealing