Getting prepared for your physician assistant job interview can be difficult if you don’t know what to expect or have never done it before. There are plenty of challenging questions that will be asked, and we have come up with the definitive guide to ensure that you are prepared to answer any physician assistant interview questions.
With a projected 37% occupation growth over the next decade, physician assistants are one of the fastest growing occupations, according to the BLS. There are several things you can do to ensure that you are ready for your physician assistant job interview questions. One of the reasons that many physician assistants fail to advance to the next round of interviews is because they aren’t prepared. One of the most common interview mistakes to avoid is not researching the employer.
One of the most common questions that hiring managers and healthcare recruiters will ask is a test to see how much you know about the company or facility itself. These questions are typically used to gauge how interested you really are in the position, and your desire to work there.
One common question you might be faced with is what in particular led to your interest in applying for that particular position. There are plenty of opportunities for physician assistants to consider, and providing a solid answer as to why you decided to apply to that particular position is a great way to set yourself apart from candidates who are applying to any physician assistant job posting.
In addition, you should be prepared to answer questions related to the hospital or healthcare facility itself. Plenty of hospitals and healthcare facilities have their own unique qualities that you could mention in the answer, which could shine highly on the amount of preparation you put in before the interview.
Some things you could potentially mention are a recent expansion, upgrade, or rankings for a particular program that you’re interested in. Many hospitals will publish their rankings for various programs or specialties online, or there are additional resources you can use that publish annual reports - so the information to use this in an answer is readily available.
Another great talking point to use is your desire to work in a team environment. So much of healthcare and hospitals need to function as a unit to provide the best care available, and you can draw together pieces of information you obtain that highlight how that particular hospital or healthcare facility functions as a team.
Doing your research on the employer and healthcare facility is critical, as it can truly separate you from other candidates or eliminate you from consideration.
One thing many physician assistants don’t consider doing before they attend the interview is to review their application. In many cases, applications are submitted weeks ahead of actually receiving an interview, and the information on the application or answers might have changed.
In addition, you might have come up with an answer that you feel is more appropriate or more in line with what the healthcare or hospital might be looking for. One of the most common things that an interviewer or healthcare recruiter will do is bring up questions related to your application answers.
This is also another opportunity for you to be prepared to correct any mistakes that you noticed. In addition, it is a good time to have prepare some things you’d like to mention in the interview that you would like to bring attention to from your application.
In many cases, healthcare recruiters and hiring managers only review an application to ensure that it was completed and required things were filled out. From there, they look at the cover letter and resume. If you put something on the application that you’d like to bring attention to, feel free to mention the specific points in the physician assistant job interview.
After reviewing your application in preparation for your physician assistant job interview questions, the next thing to review is your resume. If you crafted your resume using our Resume Guides, than you should have formatted your resume to reflect your interest in physician assistant jobs. If you didn’t, then you should go back and review our guide to ensure that your resume is ready to answer several physician assistant job interview questions.
As many hiring managers and healthcare recruiters ask that you bring a resume in to your interview, you can always use our resume guide to ensure that you avoid any mistakes that would disqualify you from further consideration for the position, and update it to reflect current changes.
If the hiring manager or healthcare recruiter didn’t review the application as we mentioned above, than one of the first things they will see is the resume. This means that you want to have a resume that accurately reflects your experience, and your personality match for the applicant they are looking for.
When reviewing your resume, you should ensure that you are prepared to answer physician assistant job interview questions directly related to your resume. Healthcare recruiters and hiring managers will likely point out important points on your resume that could be useful as a physician assistant.
In contrast, knowing the weaknesses of your resume will allow you to be ready to answer questions directly related to concerns of those weaknesses.
After reviewing both your application and resume, you should also consider reviewing your cover letter if you decided to send it in with your application and resume. Cover letters are a great way of adding additional detail in regards to certain points on your resume, or elaborating about your passion for the position itself.
If you want to ensure that you covered all the basics on your cover letter, or find ways to improve upon it, glance at our definitive Cover Letter Guides.
Reviewing your cover letter is a great way of remembering what specific things you mentioned in regards to your reasoning for applying for the position. As there are several different types of cover letters, you can also recant how you found out about the position itself.
The final thing you need to consider when preparing for your physician assistant job interview questions is that you need to remain calm and project confidence. One of the biggest determining factors when going into an interview is how calm you are, and how confident you are.
When you are calm, you’re able to recall useful information to use in the interview, answer positively, and sail through the interview with a breeze.
One of the biggest determining factors in an interview is also your confidence. The clear way to establish yourself as a leading candidate is by truly believing you are the best match for the position. When you believe you’re the best candidate in the applicant pool, you can convince the healthcare recruiter or hiring manager that you deserve the position more than someone else who is hesitant about their qualifications or fit in the position.
A great way to ensure that you project confidence is by smiling, sitting up straight with your shoulders back, and speaking clearly and efficiently. Another great way to project confidence and remain calm is to think a second or two before fully answering a question. This way, you won’t stumble over your words, or say something you wish you hadn’t which might set you backwards.
One great way to make sure that you remain calm and project confidence, is by going through mock interviews with friends, family, or peers.
One great way of making sure you are ready to answer any physician job interview questions, is to go through a mock interview with somebody close to you who can use some of the questions we have below and help you prepare.
Going through a mock interview is a great way for you to iron out some of the kinks in the interview process, figure out which questions you might get stumped on, and get an outside opinion on areas you can improve upon.
In addition, seeking help through the use of a mock interview from a friend, family member, or peer will help you get some insight as to additional answers you can provide for some of the physician assistant job interview questions.
Even with the changing job marketplace where job seekers think they can dress a little more casually for interviews, it’s best to still dress for success. In other words, make sure that you show up in professional attire to showcase that you mean business answering your physician assistant job interview questions.
Another great benefit of dressing for success for your physician assistant job interview, is you’ll feel ready to tackle any challenge or curveball question that comes your way.
One thing you need to ensure is that you have proof that you’ve been licensed as a physician assistant in your respective state. It is oftentimes a required question to answer when filling out an application and submission of your resume/cover letter, but you can separate yourself from other candidates by coming prepared with your licensure documentation.
This is a great way to ensure that all the important parties have the info to make the best decision on whether or not to advance you to the next stage. You don’t want to get left out because you accidentally leave your licensure documentation at home and forget to provide proof at a later date.
Now that we’ve covered how you can effectively prepare for a physician assistant job interview, we have also compiled some of the most common physician assistant job interview questions that you should be prepared to answer.
Those are just a few of the common physician assistant job interview questions you might be asked to answer. Now that we’ve gotten those out of the way, there are a few questions directly related to specific categories which you should also review.
There are a few questions that hiring managers and healthcare recruiters might ask you in regards to your future. These questions are designed to determine what sort of long-term planning you have considered, and what some of your career aspirations might be.
In addition, these questions are a great tool for healthcare recruiters and hiring managers to determine whether or not you will stay with a company for a long time, or if you will pick up and move roots at a moment’s notice if a better offer comes down the line.
If you don’t have much professional workforce experience and are just starting your career as a physician assistant after being a student, these questions will provide you with a great way of declaring why you decided to pick that facility or hospital to start your career.
In other words, these questions are a great way for physician assistant job seekers to highlight once again why they would like to work in that particular facility or hospital, instead of seeking work elsewhere.
Some of these are included in the common interview section as well, but can specifically be accredited to questions about your future here as well.
Many hiring managers and healthcare recruiters will use job interview questions related to your past to determine what you have done and potentially evaluate what you could bring moving forward.
If you are a student and don’t have much previous work experience, this is a great opportunity for you to use these questions as a way to detail some of your education and volunteer experience that would be useful in a physician assistant role. In addition, you can mention your passions for caring for patients and why that would be a good fit for you in a role as a physician assistant.
There are going to be plenty of potential open-ended physician assistant job interview questions you should be ready to answer at a moment’s notice. These questions are designed to see how you respond to challenging theories, examples, and offer you a little bit more time than one sentence answers.
Some of the questions that you might receive in your physician assistant job interview relate to performance-based questions. These questions help evaluate you based on what you’ve done, and what that might mean for you and the company moving forward. It’s important to remember that hospitals and healthcare companies want to hire achievers, not just do-ers.
Now that we’ve covered questions that you might receive while undergoing your physician assistant job interview, there are several questions that you should consider raising when in the interview.
Typically the hiring manager or healthcare recruiter will ask you at the end of the interview if you have any questions or additional comments you’d like to make to help highlight why you’re the best fit for the position.
Asking some of the below questions will help determine whether or not you feel you would make a good fit for the position, and also offer an opportunity for you to learn additional info about your potential future place of employment.
Now that we have covered virtually every aspect of a physician assistant job interview, you now have the definitive guide to physician assistant job interview questions. Being prepared means spending a little extra time evaluating the questions and the different types of question categories that might arise in a physician assistant job interview.
Good luck in your physician assistant job interview. It’s important to remember that an interview is a back and forth process, and you’re learning as much about the healthcare company as they are learning about you.