My last interview for an OTD program was "unprofessional" and left me feeling unsure of how I did.
Let me explain. Throughout the day, current program students told us that the interview style is more of a conversation as opposed to a traditional Q&A setting so I was aware of what to expect. Additionally, I had known that the school preferred group interviews though I wasn't sure how many interviewees would be in my group.
There was a schedule conflict with our specific interviewer that pushed our group interview from 2 people for 30 minutes to 4 people for 45 minutes. I started to panic at this time, because I really had to figure out my concise yet memorable statements to general questions like "Why OT?" or "Why this school?" on the walk to the room. Upon meeting the interviewer, we were asked where we attended undergrad and our degrees - the only two things that were written down in notes.
There were 4 interview questions asked in total:
1) Why this school?
2) How do you manage stress?
3) If your group member was not participating in your project, what would you do?
4) What questions do you have for me?
Mind you, these aren't out-of-the-blue questions. However, we were placed under a time constraint between 4 people and had an interviewer that responded to every single one of our responses in-depth so 45 minutes FLEW. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the responses from everyone and the natural-flowing conversations that we had with the interviewer, but I really don't know how I did.
I felt like I was just talking about me rather than me as an OT. I won't argue that it's easier to talk about myself, but there's some doubt in how I did because I didn't get to fully showcase that I am a qualified candidate for this particular program. Before leaving, our interviewer gave us all her business card and told us to contact her whenever necessary. I took this and the fact that she didn't write any notes down as signs that we all did well. However, when my friend interviewed for the DPT program at this school in October, she received her decision the immediate week after. I had my interview the week before Black Friday and still no response (though they told me to give them three weeks so I'm probably just freaking myself out). It just doesn't sit well with me that I don't have a definite response when someone asks how I did.
Am I just freaking out and probably did fine? How do you feel about nontraditional or unprofessional interviews? Please feel free to respond with your experiences if you've had any!
Let me explain. Throughout the day, current program students told us that the interview style is more of a conversation as opposed to a traditional Q&A setting so I was aware of what to expect. Additionally, I had known that the school preferred group interviews though I wasn't sure how many interviewees would be in my group.
There was a schedule conflict with our specific interviewer that pushed our group interview from 2 people for 30 minutes to 4 people for 45 minutes. I started to panic at this time, because I really had to figure out my concise yet memorable statements to general questions like "Why OT?" or "Why this school?" on the walk to the room. Upon meeting the interviewer, we were asked where we attended undergrad and our degrees - the only two things that were written down in notes.
There were 4 interview questions asked in total:
1) Why this school?
2) How do you manage stress?
3) If your group member was not participating in your project, what would you do?
4) What questions do you have for me?
Mind you, these aren't out-of-the-blue questions. However, we were placed under a time constraint between 4 people and had an interviewer that responded to every single one of our responses in-depth so 45 minutes FLEW. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the responses from everyone and the natural-flowing conversations that we had with the interviewer, but I really don't know how I did.
I felt like I was just talking about me rather than me as an OT. I won't argue that it's easier to talk about myself, but there's some doubt in how I did because I didn't get to fully showcase that I am a qualified candidate for this particular program. Before leaving, our interviewer gave us all her business card and told us to contact her whenever necessary. I took this and the fact that she didn't write any notes down as signs that we all did well. However, when my friend interviewed for the DPT program at this school in October, she received her decision the immediate week after. I had my interview the week before Black Friday and still no response (though they told me to give them three weeks so I'm probably just freaking myself out). It just doesn't sit well with me that I don't have a definite response when someone asks how I did.
Am I just freaking out and probably did fine? How do you feel about nontraditional or unprofessional interviews? Please feel free to respond with your experiences if you've had any!
