Preparing for a US Interview

My name is Brad, and this is Ryan. We are the quality improvement nurses here at PassportUSA, and we're going to spend some time, talking with you guys today, about interviews and interview prep.

Yeah. So one of the first, really stages to that big jump into your career here in the US is your interview process with, any of the facilities you may be interested, in joining. And so what we like to do is just, connect with you through an interview prep process, a lot of the time, to hel, you prepare for that interview process and ensure that you have a good idea nd, you know, kind of understanding of what that would look like. But, you know, what that does come, some nervousness and some questions that can, you know, maybe, you know, not catch off guard, but, you know, it's good to be prepared to know how to handle these interviews. And so, just a couple of things we wanted to review.

You know, so my first question for you, Brad, you know, is in your experience, what do you recommend is the best way to prepare for your interviews?

Great question, Ryan.

When you have an interview lined up, you wanna make sure that you're putting yourself in the best light in preparing for an interview.

The first thing that you wanna do is make sure that you're on time or be early to that interview. You wanna make sure that you are dressed professionally, and find a quiet spot that's away from distraction where you can have a conversation. These interviews will be on a video interview, with your facility that you're interviewing.

You also wanna make sure that you're testing your technology and that you have good Internet connection.

These are some first steps into adjusting to start your interview.

Now, Ryan, what would make a good impression right off the start when you start interviewing?

So it's always good to, you know, be personable in the interview. It's definitely, nerve wracking, right, meeting someone for the first time, but also the interview itself. I don't think I've ever sat through an interview in my lifetime where I haven't been nervous. And so, it helps to be personable.

Right? Connecting with the interviewer, letting them get to know you a little bit, as as you are completing that interview. Right? So they're not only interviewing you, and an idea of can you complete the the skills that are required for the job, right, the job requirements, the profession, but also as a person joining their team, right, they're evaluating, are you going to mix well with their culture, you know, how their team operates, but also, you know, letting them get to know you as a person is a good way to sort of make those connections there.

You know, sharing your background experiences. Right? That helps them, you know, the interviewer understand where you've come from. You know, what has led you to this point?

What makes you so interested and eager to, you know, take more practice to the United States and join their team?

And then finally, you know, treating that interview as a discussion, not just as, an interview where they're asking all the questions, but also, you know, have some dialogue, you know, get to know your interviewer as well.

Is this a team that you're gonna be comfortable joining? Is this a a facility that you're gonna feel comfortable, starting your your new adventure to the US, joining them? And so, you know, maybe you've had some some experiences in the interview process. I just wanted to say if you have any, feedback or or things that you can reflect on, from your experience interviewing pot potentially, feel free to post those in the chat as well. I know Erica mentioned, you know, dropping questions and things, but, you kind of in regards to how do you best prepare, what are things that work for you, feel free to share with all your colleagues.

And so, Brad, another question I have that that often comes up is, you know, what are types of questions that our candidate should expect to be asked?

Absolutely. So you we can kinda categorize these in three different areas of questions. You have what are called behavioral based simulation questions, resume clarification questions, and skill related questions. To kinda highlight on each of those, behavioral based questions oftentimes involve a scenario where they're asking about a situation and how you would react in that situation. One of these one an example of one of these could be, tell me a time that you worked together as a team, and how did you function? With a question like that, what we're looking for is your ability to critically think and share your experiences.

So what we often recommend is taking a clinical situation that you've been a part of and applying it to the question that is asked. What that does is show your nursing process and that critical thinking, going forward, and it helps them build kind of a little understanding of your experiences.

You can oftentimes, take behavioral based interview questions and look at that through the search engine. You're gonna find thousands of examples of those out there. I often recommend reviewing those prior to an interview as well. Our resume clarification questions, those are based off of your resume.

What is your previous experience? How long have you worked there, and what did you do? Be able to talk fully about your experiences and what you've done, be able to get in detail about that. And then lastly, the you're going to see skills related question.

A lot of these are based on the type of unit that you'll be interviewing for. They may be general. You know, what are your experiences with electronic medical records? What are your experiences with different kinds of medical technology?

Be able to speak through your experiences and and what you have experienced and what you have not experienced.

That way they can tailor, your position and the ability, you know, what they need to onboard, you know, with that opportunity.

So, Ryan, you know, when answering these type of questions, how best to elaborate one's answers?

So it's definitely, one of those things where details, you know, matter and can certainly help, the interviewer picture your your past experience, whether it is a skills related question. Like you said before, if they're asking you about specific skills that are required for that position, whether it's, you know, you know, you know, intubation or ventilators in the critical care setting, whether it is specific, OR equipment or procedures that they complete or, you know, chest tubes or EKG interpretation on a telemetry unit. Right?

You're gonna want to be able to maybe elaborate and provide maybe examples of times when you have encountered those Oh, we lost.

Oh, oh, you've popped up.

But also when you're talking through, you know, those behavior based questions. Right? Having maybe some examples. Right? Answering those questions with your own real life, you know, situations that you've encountered helps them to really understand how you're likely going to respond in a similar situation in the future. So really being able to elaborate on on real life examples helps to, dive in and and give them an idea of, again, like you said, the foundation that you would be coming in with and where they can focus that orientation once you arrive and start in that position.

Brad or Ryan, can I just interject really quick? Yeah. Do you could you guys give an example of that? Like, you in your experience, maybe what you would say, like, I had this experience doing x y z maybe? Because you both have you both have a lot of experience working in hospitals. Right? I don't think we really introduced you with your experience that you have, but I know you guys have examples.

Yeah. For sure. So, I mean, if you wanted to maybe dive in, the more complicated questions, like, like Brad said before, are those behavior based questions where he talked about, being able to, you know, talk about working as a team. The second biggest one that often is asked, and I can think of numerous times where, it has occurred, you know, in the health care setting is conflict.

Right? Conflict arises. Right? Where people, there's always going to be conflict on on every different level in different ways, right, professional or clinical.

And that could occur with patients, their family members, or colleagues, doctors, nurses, and any other assistive, professionals. So, essentially, what often would be asked during that interview is, you know, tell me about a time, Brad, when you experienced conflict in the workplace.

Is there a specific example that you can think of, and how did you manage that conflict and resolve that situation?

And and so what what you would expect with an answer, you know, answering this question is, you know, Ryan, you know, I had a conflict with one of my coworkers. We didn't agree on the way we were going to manage care for a patient.

So what I did is I pulled that coworker aside and said, hey. This is the reasoning I believe that we should do things the way I think they are. I gave them the opportunity to explain why they chose to do it the way that they thought. Now if we're able to come to a compromise for the betterment of the patient, that would be great.

If not then I would wanna escalate that to maybe let's say the charge nurse and they have a charge nurse intervene at that time to help resolve that conflict. At the end of the day, you know, in that situation, what we want best is what is best for the patient at the end. And if we're unable to do that amongst us, we wanna escalate that to somebody higher so that they can facilitate a, appropriate result.

Yeah. So, I mean, that's it.

Yeah. That's a really good example, Brad and Ryan. And I know I put you on the spot a little bit there. And, actually, Mina, just chatted in here a question, and she said that is very informative.

How do you recommend handling behavioral questions when you don't have a specific example to share, which is a a common scenario? You get put on the spot, and you're like, I don't know what to say.

Absolutely. So we always have the ability, you know, once you have an interview set up to spend some time with one of the members of the clinical team and do an interview prep session.

We thoroughly enjoy doing those and helping, you know, kind of coach and, you know, practice interviewing. Interviewing is hard. Right? The other thing that you can do on your own is, as I said, just search behavior-based interview questions in, like, a Google or Yahoo search engine. You're going to find thousands of examples. A lot of times, they'll give you the rationale on what the interviewer is looking for as well. So you can kinda prepare in that sense.

And I would I would always say never never, be afraid to lean on a strong hypothesis. So if you can't come up with a real-life situation, which, you know, that's the hardest part of interviews, is, like, thinking on the spot. Right? You can prepare all day with the most common interview questions, and there's always gonna be that one that comes out of nowhere that you you're like, okay.

That's the one question I didn't rehearse or or prepare for, which interviewers love. Right? They love being able to see the genuine, true person they're interviewing, not someone who knows what questions are gonna be asked and just has a reciced answer ready. And so a hypothetical or a situation that you know or have seen has happened before, or you could just present a a known conflict, and walk them through the steps that you would take.

Right? You might say, you know, I can't think of a specific example of a patient conflict right now. However, I do know that sometimes patients get mad with or upset with the amount of time it takes for you to respond to a call. Like, here's how I would talk through and manage that conflict.

And then you can talk to them through like Brad did, the escalation techniques. If the problem isn't being resolved, who do you get involved in that situation?

But the communication strategy you use, right, tone of voice.

Yeah.

A lot of what they're looking for in the answer to these types of questions is your thought process.

How do you get to a resolution from the situation that they're asking about? So like Ryan said, you know, if you need to use a hypothetical, it's all about the thought process and how you get from point A to point B.

That's really good advice, guys. So all of us could just keep that, like, right here on our shoulders when we're actually in this scenario. That's excellent advice.

And so we wanted to wrap before we wrap things up here. I did have one last question for Brandon. And so one of the things that is always, you know, kind of important, again, making sure not only is a, are you a good candidate for, you know, good for facilities, what they're evaluating, but also making sure that, you know, a facility meets what you're looking for. Right? How do you connect your experience to really represent a facility's vision and goals?

Yeah. Absolutely. So when it comes to an interview, you need to do your homework prior to hopping on the interview.

What I would recommend is finding out as much information about the facility that you're interviewing at.

Find out if they have mission statements, values, and what they stand for as an organization, and how you can align that with what your purpose in nursing may be.

You could even use a snippet of their mission statement in your wording, and I will highlight that, hey. This candidate has read our website, and kinda knows about us. But definitely look up the facility. Look up the surrounding area. Know what you're getting yourself into.

Don't fly blindly into that. And then lastly, number one recommendation. You never wanna leave an interview without asking your own questions.

Have a list of prepared questions ready to ask them. Whether it be, you know, what is the makeup of the unit like? What are the ratios?

What do the surrounding areas have? All good questions to ask, but you never want to not ask a question. That shows that you're engaged and you want to be there, going forward.

That is such excellent advice. I always say to people, like, you should be you know, you're going for an interview, but you should be prepared to interview who's interviewing you. Right? Like, and that's exactly what you just said. And Red chatted in here, kinda similar to what you were talking about, Brad. So maybe just dig in a little bit deeper. How can we research the background of the interview?

I would say probably, I think what I could hear him saying is just how can we make sure, you know, we have the right questions to ask?

Like, what questions should be asked? You know? And I will say most candidates, if you get scheduled for an interview, you're gonna know who you're interviewing with. Your IPA or IDA is gonna tell you, you know, it's gonna be x y z facility in the city and state. So they should have that information to go off of. And then what do you recommend, Brad and Ryan?

Yeah. So a lot of the main simple questions I recommend, you know, are you gonna be working day shift or night shift? What are the weekend and holiday requirements?

What does the makeup of the unit look like? How many patients are you expected to manage as an independent nurse? What kind of resources are available on the unit, whether it be a charge nurse or, nurse educator?

Those are some pretty standard questions I would recommend.

Yeah.

And if it's okay to ask about, you know, like, the facility, maybe the community around the facility?

Is it okay to ever ask questions about? Because, you know, most of our nurses have never been to the United States, so they might have questions just about the general area as well. Is that okay to ask?

Absolutely.

Because you're talking to the people who live there. You know? At the end of the day, they're gonna have the best information when it comes to what the makeup of the surrounding area is. So those questions would be appropriate as well.

Yeah. I think that's a great segue, sort of into wrapping things up here is you always have support here, with health care. So so if you need information, you're looking to figure out where to go to gain that information, you know, facility websites are great places to start. They will always have their mission statement, their values right there, front and center, things that they are proud of.

Maybe they're joint commission certified, a magnet facility. You know, maybe they have exemplary fall rates. Right? You know, their patient safety is top-notch for them.

Right? So your supervisor, whoever you're assigned to, right, is always there to help provide, you know, any resources in in response to, you know, that interview. Right? So if you're interviewing with the candidate and you would like some information, you just don't know where to find it, reach out to your team, reach out to your clinical team here, and we'll be more than happy to help kind of, provide some background information there as well.

But, also, circling back, the interview prep opportunity is always there as well. So if you just have maybe a few minutes out of your day when you wanna connect with Brad, myself, or another member of our clinical team, we could certainly jump on a a call to make sure that you're prepared for that interview, answer any questions you may have going into it, and give you really just that extra boost of confidence.

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