Interviewing for neurpsych internship positions

[psychgirl77]

I will be applying for internship next year, and am curious about neuropsych sites in particular. For those of you who have interviewed for neuropsych positions, was a large portion of the interview taken up by evaluating your knowledge of neuropsych? For example, in typical internship interviews I know interviewers often provide you with an ethical dilemma and ask you how you would respond to it, to assess your ability to think on your feet and your knowledge of ethical codes etc. For neuropsych interviews are you asked to do things such as interpret test scores, or identify particular brain regions, etc.? Just wondering what other's experiences were during the interview process and if you felt prepared to answer these types of questions if/when they came up.

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[AcronymAllergy]

I will be applying for internship next year, and am curious about neuropsych sites in particular. For those of you who have interviewed for neuropsych positions, was a large portion of the interview taken up by evaluating your knowledge of neuropsych? For example, in typical internship interviews I know interviewers often provide you with an ethical dilemma and ask you how you would respond to it, to assess your ability to think on your feet and your knowledge of ethical codes etc. For neuropsych interviews are you asked to do things such as interpret test scores, or identify particular brain regions, etc.? Just wondering what other's experiences were during the interview process and if you felt prepared to answer these types of questions if/when they came up.

I actually never had anything like that (including the ethical dilemma question), either on internship or postdoc interviews. The closest I got were things like folks asking me what my favorite test was and why, how I'd handled a conflict with a peer or supervisor in the past, what my dissertation was about, and then just some questions about my prior training and future career goals.

Then again, I might've just gotten lucky.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

At one interview we were in a small group and were given a vignette and asked to select different tests for a battery and provide a rationale; it was actually fun. Another site I was given a summary sheet and asked about my impressions.

 

[PDXgeropsych]

One site provided us with a neuro report and asked us to type up summary/ conclusions, a diagnosis, and 3 recommendations in about 35ish minutes. At another site they asked me which tests I would use for a particular condition and provided demographics for the hypothetical patient. Most sites asked about neuro and therapeutic intervention since APA sites have a balance of neuro and therapy. I had the usual questions (e.g., conflict with supervisor, ethical dilemma, theoretical orientation, dissertation progress) plus neuro specific questions.

For what it is worth, I received 10 interviews and a handful were VA consortiums, most were VA hospitals, and one was a medical school.

 

[WisNeuro]

They run the gamut, I never thought they were too bad. I think the most involved question was coming up with a test battery to evaluate dementia. That was kind of a softball question though.

 

[psychgirl77]

Thank you all for your responses. It sounds like there is a lot of variability in interviews, which is to be expected. Has anyone interviewed at Canadian sites (I'm in Canada)? Just wondering if there may be differences between US and Canadian interviews.