I Got an Interview…. I Just Graduated….. What Do I Say?

I’ve interviewed a lot of RT candidates over the years, from new grads to greatly experienced. Here are some tips for getting approval… Well, mine, anyway.

Confidence: It’s a fine line between being confident and arrogant. I’ve had many new grads say, ‘Yes, I know how to do this and that’, when what they really meant was, ‘yes, I’ve seen that once or twice’.  Look, the interviewers know you are a new grad with no real (unsupervised) experience. We don’t expect perfection.

Honesty: You may be asked, “What were clinical rotations like for you? How did they prepare you to work here?” Don’t diss your preceptors, but if you didn’t get to roll up your sleeves and get in there and do stuff, say so. Say you got to observe a lot. Play up what you DID get to do on your own.

Did you have lazy preceptors, or preceptors that didn’t keep up with newer procedures and ideas? Think of those people, then name 5 things you learned from them. Some of us old-school folks still have a lot to offer, namely critical skills such as thinking fast on our feet.

Did you do a rotation in a very small hospital? How much freedom did you have? Were you allowed to assess and treat and tell the MD or RN what the plan is?

Sticky Situations: The Difficult MD-RN-RT: You will be asked how you would handle less-than-perfect scenarios involving staff you don’t get along with or agree with.

Some other questions: Did you ever make a clinical mistake? Or, did you ever see a preceptor make a mistake? How did you handle it?

And the hardest interview question of all: “Do you have any questions for us? Here is what I like to hear:

“Yes, I went on your website and researched and noticed you are a certified stroke center/ specialty in xyz/ rated number 1 in cardiac surgery procedures/magnet status for [insert specialty]. How does this pertain to us as RT’s ?”  That tells me you did some homework, and you are prepared for all the responsibilities of being on staff at my hospital.

The Sub-Acute trap: Some RT’s work in sub-acute or LTAC units their first year. I have nothing against these facilities, but the workload is VERY different at a critical care hospital. Here is what I ask any RT who has worked in a Sub-Acute: “How many ventilators was your workload? Do you understand you will only have 4 to 5 ventilators here? Do you know how to manage your time with a critical vent patient?”  These are not  trick questions… OK, they are. The ACTUAL question is, do you remember how to do weaning parameters, SBT’s, sedation vacations where you communicate with the RN and the MD, determine weaning and extubation readiness, and how to gently tell the family what your plan is?  Many Sub Acute RT’s have forgotten all about how to get a patient off a ventilator.    They haven’t done ABG’s, haven’t set up a BiPap, haven’t looked at an X Ray in a year. So how will you answer the question of how you kept up your critical care skills? Better yet, volunteer that information before we have to ask.

The same applies to new grads who work registry. Usually you end up on the floors only. A year goes by, and you haven’t seen a ventilator. What did you do to keep up your ventilator skills? Workshops? Conventions or Seminars? Let us know you have made the effort to stay current.

There is a saying: How you do anything is How you do everything. Bring extra resume copies. Make sure someone spell-checked and grammar-checked it for you. Get a professional -sounding E mail. Dress up, show up, clean up, NO perfume or heavy scents, big smile, and a new bag of Hershey’s mini’s work wonders.  In a sea of 50 applicants for one position, how will you stand out? In a big department, how will you fit in? How will you stand out? This is your chance to tell us YOUR BEST ATTRIBUTE.

And, be honest about your schedule and availability. School, kids, other jobs, all need to be thought out before applying for Full Time positions.

So, now you are fully prepared. Best of luck !!