Difficult Interview Questions

[Pharm_all_day]

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For those that have already had some or all of their interviews: What were some of the more difficult questions that you've encountered?

Thanks!

 

[EML9255]

None were that difficult. Make sure you have situations from rotations, leadership roles, life etc that you can apply to the behavior based questions. Use the STAR method to answer those.

Best of luck!!

 

[inverness2012]

The hardest question I have gotten was "What did your preceptors say were your strengths and weaknesses?" I was not prepared to answer the question from the perspective of what my preceptors had told me.

 

[KidPharmD]

Always know strengths and weaknesses (take Strengths Finder if this is difficult.
I was asked "If you were a candybar, what would you be and why?" Guess that is what I get for applying to a Children's hospital... 😉

 

[GoldfishPharmD]

Name a time when you disappointed someone. Name a time when you didn't give 100%. If you could completely one drug from the market, what would it be?

 

[Kenzi11611]

Tell me about a time when you had to make decisions for a project when you didn't know what to expect (or something along those lines) or when the expectations were changed part of the way through the project.

 

[GoldfishPharmD]

Can I just say I'm so tired of situational questions? 😛

 

[KARM12]

Can I just say I'm so tired of situational questions? 😛

These tell you a lot about a person. Always make sure to answer the question...I don't know how many responses I hear that 1. don't give a specific example or 2. don't answer the question.

 

[GoldfishPharmD]

These tell you a lot about a person. Always make sure to answer the question...I don't know how many responses I hear that 1. don't give a specific example or 2. don't answer the question.

Yeah, I know that's true. We had a couple of people interview, and they didn't answer a couple of the questions. I'm still tired of them though. 😛

 

[IndustryPharmD]

There are no difficult interview questions... though if you are all tense and scared, probably every question is a difficult one. I have had a healthy amount of interviews in the last few months as I am contemplating my next steps, and I honestly don't recall any questions I would call "hard". Any interviewer worth their salt wants to understand how you think, what kind of person you are, and whether you know what you are talking about rather than get an answer to a specific question. When I ask questions myself on the other side of the table, I am not looking for any predetermined answer either - an interview is not a math class, life has very few definitive right and wrong answers. So relax, be honest and be yourself - and you will do better than fretting or giving carefully rehearsed responses.