I need interview questions to ask applicants

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confettiflyer

confettiflyer

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See title.

The adcom gods have entrusted me to interview some nervous applicants. Oh boy. Aside from the typical why pharmacy/future of pharmacy that will probably be asked by faculty, what would YOU ask incoming students?

(WVU specifically looking forward to your response...)
 
Don't you know my school is not accredited? Why are you taking such a gamble?
 
LOL you got one of the interview spots? I'll be in cali during that time =) you should be like "what can you contribute to Jeff" or is that too generic?
 
You look like you are in it for the money, convince me otherwise....

If pharmacists made minimum wage and went to school for 12 years would you still do it?

Do you plan on selling out to the big chains and eventually working part-time and destroying the profession?
 
my favorite questions were what magazines do I subscribe to and what was the last book I read - not favorite book, last book. I admitted to a trashy romance novel I read one freezing sunday afternoon.
 
I just did my first interview last weekend. USC's is pretty well structured. They give you a sheet with questions. You can leave the suggested list if you want, but for me, doing my first, I pretty much stuck with it. It seemed to work rather well. You might also check interview feedback to see what some of the other pharmacy schools are asking. There should be sample questions from this years interviews already.

What do you expect the profession of pharmacy to give you in return.

(money, prestige, lifestyle, etc.)

positive/negative aspects of pharmacy.


Those are some of the ones we ask.
 
njac said:
my favorite questions were what magazines do I subscribe to and what was the last book I read - not favorite book, last book. I admitted to a trashy romance novel I read one freezing sunday afternoon.
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Nice!!! I was reading "The Starter Wife" on interview day. I carried it with me to my interview, and talked about it with my interviewer.

It will rot out your brain (according to a coworker of mine), but it's really funny.

To get back to the thread's topic...I would ask, "What's one oddball experience you've had?" or "What's your most embarrassing moment?" I figure they'll ask the pharmacy questions anyway. One weird question that would be interesting to ask is, "If you could kill someone without ever being found out, who would it be?" I was at a mixer once, and we were paired up with other people and told to ask them any questions we wanted. Someone asked his partner that question.
 
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How about the questions you SHOULDN'T ask? :laugh:

I would tend to ask more "behavioral" sorts of questions like the following:

1. Which do you value more in your coworkers, loyalty or honesty and why?

2. In what instance(s) does the patient NOT come first?

3. How do you deal with an impaired colleague after you notice the narc counts are off?

4. What stories are you gonna tell your classmates at your 20 year reunion?
 
njac said:
my favorite questions were what magazines do I subscribe to and what was the last book I read - not favorite book, last book. I admitted to a trashy romance novel I read one freezing sunday afternoon.
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You'd gain admission to my school! You'd hit the top of the list if you could name at least five euphemisms for male/female sex organs!:laugh:
 
JeremyE30 said:
Do you plan on selling out to the big chains and eventually working part-time and destroying the profession?
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My answer would be "No, douchebag. Did you?"
 
I've conducted several (non-pharm) interviews and one of the most useful set of questions I've found is:

1- What's one of your strong points?

2- On the flip side, what's something you feel you could improve on?

The questions do 2 things for me. First, it shows whether or not they've come prepared. If they sit there and stumble for a while before finally giving up and saying, "Sorry, can't think of anything," the interview concludes pretty shortly after that (and yes I can tell the difference between unprepared and nervous... I'm very sympathetic towards nervous interviewees). The second thing it does is weed out the stupid ones. Granted, this might not be as big of an issue for pharm school, but in interviewing where I work, it's a HUGE deal. And trust me... you'll know the stupid answers when you get them. (ie- what can you work on? "Oh well I've always had a hard time getting out of bed and into work on time, so I guess I need to work on that." - yes this was a real response).
 
I like the book questions...those always caught me off guard for some reason. I'll try to not duplicate the questions the faculty will ask, so most of my questions will be "somewhat" offbeat.
 
why did you pick pharmacy over med school?

or create an situation like; a good patient of yours is calling your pharmacy wanting to know why you filled a prescription of birth control for their 16 year old daughter and you didn't tell him or ask him if its okay, he is irate. How do you handle that situation?
 
I think it's interesting that the school don't make up questions to give to students to ask. I'm in the interview panel too and they have specific questions that we have to ask the interviewees to make sure that everybody gets a "fair" chance. I think the whole interviewing process is such a waste and it's just to demonstrate how well you BS.

But besides from that, I think it would be great to ask them to tell you everything that they want to say. Cause I see a lot of people in the pre-pharmacy forum that keep saying that if they get an interview, then they will be able to explain their grades or whatever, but with standardized questions...they never get a chance to do that. So instead of asking them those generic questions, let them tell you their stories.
 
As soon as they walk in, act as if you know them from somewhere and say: Didn't I see you coming out of one of those ___-Anon meetings at my child's school?
 
loo said:
You'd gain admission to my school! You'd hit the top of the list if you could name at least five euphemisms for male/female sex organs!:laugh:
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ha! I'd be admitted as an honor student!
 
Allure said:
I think it's interesting that the school don't make up questions to give to students to ask. I'm in the interview panel too and they have specific questions that we have to ask the interviewees to make sure that everybody gets a "fair" chance. I think the whole interviewing process is such a waste and it's just to demonstrate how well you BS.

But besides from that, I think it would be great to ask them to tell you everything that they want to say. Cause I see a lot of people in the pre-pharmacy forum that keep saying that if they get an interview, then they will be able to explain their grades or whatever, but with standardized questions...they never get a chance to do that. So instead of asking them those generic questions, let them tell you their stories.
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I had several Ws and Cs etc and because of the non confrontational format of the interview I was never asked to explain my poor grades. I was able to prove myself as an intelligent charismatic young person who could answer unexpected questions in a coherent manner.

I think these different kinds of questions help the student with poor grades - instead of making excuses you're proving what you are right here, right now.
 
A good, tough conventional interview question? I'd go with:

"Let's say there is *1* seat left in this class and it is between you and 5 other competitive applicants for that last spot. Everyone in the group has the exact same GPA, exact same PCAT, and similar life/career experience. Why should I pick YOU over the other 5 people?"
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But the best thing to ask are real scientific critical thinking questions, too. The type that require a correct answer and are tough to prepare for. They can't be BSed. Such as:

"It takes the earth 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds to rotate 360 degrees. If this is so, then why are there 24 hours in a day? Why doesn't the Earth's timing system get all out of whack?"
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Then there are always the stupid riddles that would make an interview entertaining:

"A cowboy on horseback rides into Dodge City on Tuesday for some business. After he settles his business, he leaves three days later on Tuesday. How is this possible?"
-------------

Really, interviews are pointless. I got a 29.5/30 on mine because of my impeccable ability to sound like I know what I'm talking...it's all polish...that's all you need. Highest grade of anyone accepted that year. Heh. If you can't figure out the above riddles for some reason I'll give you the answers later (I know after everyone fails, they will just google it and pretend they figured it out on their own, anyway...but I digress.)
 
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I didn't have to interview. 😎
 
Situational ones, like:

what would you do if you thought that one of your patients was a victim of domestic violence?
what would you do if your dorm room was infested with mice and the school administration didn't seem to respond to the problem?

or opinion ones, to just see if the applicant knows anything about the profession of pharmacy, like:
what do you think about the fact that minors need a prescription to purchase Plan B?

Make the questions filter out 95% of the applicant pool so Jeff doesn't have that many incoming students so it doesn't need that many profs., so they can give our profs back to us.
 
What do you think about the death penalty?
Who did you vote for?
Are you for or against gay marriage?
Are you married?
Would you like to go out for a drink after the interview?
Do you have STD?
 
What do you think of our healthcare system today? Many believe we should have socialized healthcare; is healthcare a privilage or a right? How would you change our healthcare system today?
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
"It takes the earth 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds to rotate 360 degrees. If this is so, then why are there 24 hours in a day? Why doesn't the Earth's timing system get all out of whack?"
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Cuz Earth is also orbiting on top of the spin..takes additional time to be in the same position.
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Then there are always the stupid riddles that would make an interview entertaining:

"A cowboy on horseback rides into Dodge City on Tuesday for some business. After he settles his business, he leaves three days later on Tuesday. How is this possible?"
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------------

Horse's name!
 
ItsOverZyvox said:
Horse's name!
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Oh, I was thinking that the business took 4 days, and then he left 3 days later. With reading that question, that answer is also possible (since it says 3 days later after settling his business).

And the answer to the one above is leap years.
 
bacillus1 said:
And the answer to the one above is leap years.
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No it's not. The question for your answer is earth takes 365 and 1/4 days to orbit the sun...how do we accomodate for the 1/4 day.
 
bacillus1 said:
Oh, I was thinking that the business took 4 days, and then he left 3 days later. With reading that question, that answer is also possible (since it says 3 days later after settling his business).
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That was exactly what I was thinking too. But I vaguely remember the riddle, and Z's answer was the one given.
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
A good, tough conventional interview question? I'd go with:

"Let's say there is *1* seat left in this class and it is between you and 5 other competitive applicants for that last spot. Everyone in the group has the exact same GPA, exact same PCAT, and similar life/career experience. Why should I pick YOU over the other 5 people?"
Click to expand...

If I was ever asked such a question, I'd hem and haw so much the interviewer would think I had turned into a donkey!:laugh:

WVUPharm2007 said:
Really, interviews are pointless. I got a 29.5/30 on mine because of my impeccable ability to sound like I know what I'm talking...it's all polish...that's all you need. Highest grade of anyone accepted that year. Heh. If you can't figure out the above riddles for some reason I'll give you the answers later (I know after everyone fails, they will just google it and pretend they figured it out on their own, anyway...but I digress.)
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How the heck did you find out your interview score?!? Even though I ended up not going there, I've always wondered what mine was.
 
medicalcpa said:
That was exactly what I was thinking too. But I vaguely remember the riddle, and Z's answer was the one given.
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Actually, you vaguely remember because name of the horse is Friday.:meanie:
 
It seems like most people here think good interview questions are the hardest ones you can think of. Well don't forget the intent is to get to know the applicant, hard questions are good for getting answers that aren't premeditated though.
 
I know pharmacy students get a lot of scenario questions during their OTC/counseling classes. why not ask a couple scenario related questions that don't involve recommending OTC or prescription drugs.

I believe pharmacy scenario questions can best determine how an applicant will potentially respond to real life pharmacy situations.

For example:

You are working at a retail pharmacy. You receive a fax from a nurse stating that the direction for a particular medication written by the doctor was changed from twice a day to once a day. Your pharmacy has 3 tablets in stock, but the new direction requires 7 tablets. You check the patient's profile and the same medication was filled and picked up 3 days ago. What would you do to make sure the patient receives his or her new medication today?

(I know this is more of a essay type question, but it can be modified for an interview question).

Also, a lot of people may say this question favors applicants with pharmacy experience. Yes, it obviously does. Even so, I strongly believe applicants who are critical thinkers, but have with little or no experience can potentially produce good answers as well.
 
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medicalcpa said:
If I was ever asked such a question, I'd hem and haw so much the interviewer would think I had turned into a donkey!:laugh:

How the heck did you find out your interview score?!? Even though I ended up not going there, I've always wondered what mine was.
Click to expand...

Ask Jen Clutter...she'll look it up for you.
 
Prepharm1214 said:
It seems like most people here think good interview questions are the hardest ones you can think of. Well don't forget the intent is to get to know the applicant, hard questions are good for getting answers that aren't premeditated though.
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I thought the entire point was to torture them?
 
I liked to ask them what they thought their personal weaknesses are. It's good to see that someone's a) humble enough to admit they have any, b) acknowledged what they are, and c) has a plan to improve on them.
 
And since it's holiday time... what is the best gift you have ever received? And what is the ebst gift you have ever given?
 
Haha, the problem with the "weakness" question is most students expect this and have a somewhat canned answer ready to go. I'm trying to make up questions that a student will have to figure out on the fly. I remember going into interviews knowing i'd probably get asked 1) weaknesses, 2) why pharmacy, and 3) the future of pharmacy/my role in that.

Trying to figure out some good ethics questions that don't really have a right or wrong answer...hmm
 
confettiflyer said:
Trying to figure out some good ethics questions that don't really have a right or wrong answer...hmm
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A doctor phones your pharmacy and asks you to identify a particular tablet a patient is taking by its markings, which you then compare against the patient's profile only to realize that your pharmacy had made an error and dispensed the higher strength of a blood pressure lowering medication to the patient- what do you say to the doctor? And what other steps do you take to remedy the situation? In today's litigious atmosphere, do you offer an apology?
 
Do you have friends?
Respond with silence and furious scribbling.
 
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