Many of my former classmates have been contacting me lately asking for advice to get through the next phase in internship applications: the interview. Undoubtedly, this was the most stressful part of the internship application process, but it doesn't have to be a terrifying experience!
Internship interviews are basically just really stressful job interviews. You've applied for a job as a dietetic intern (you know, the kind of job where you don't get paid). These organizations are interested in you because your application package - including your cover letter, resume, and references - were impressive! Getting an interview on its own is a huge feat, and something you should be super proud of yourself for. As I recall, one hospital I interviewed at last year said that they had received about 100 applications, and interviewed only 30. Lucky you!
The Obvious Questions
Consider how you would prepare for a job interview. You would think of some answers to the obvious questions, like "why do you want to work here", "why should we hire you", and "what are your strengths and weaknesses". Same thing goes here: the obvious questions include "why did you choose this organization to apply to", "why do you want to be a dietitian", and, similarly, "what are your strengths and weaknesses". You must, must, have an answer to these questions. If you do not know why you want to be a dietitian, or why you chose this program, you might not get too much farther in the interview!
No one likes the "strengths and weaknesses" questions, but they're inevitable. A great idea is to frame this question in a positive light - talk about your strengths as they apply to dietetic practice, but your weaknesses don't have to be a negative topic. I answered this question by explaining that I considered these as "areas for improvement or development" rather than weaknesses, and gave examples of how I would work to improve. For example, if you're not very strong in public speaking skills, you can talk about what ways you can improve your confidence speaking in front of groups. If you feel that you could improve your communication skills in general, you can talk about how you would like to gain strength in this skill by gaining more experience communicating (written, oral, etc) with diverse groups of people, and work on active listening skills.
Situation Questions
Pretty much every job and internship interview I have ever been to has asked a situation question. "Tell me about a time when you ...", "What would you do if ...", "Explain how you did..." questions are your opportunity to shine! Before going in for your interview, consider what skills are important to the organization you are interviewing for (which are often found in the brochure, the kind of skills that were important to write about in your cover letter). These skills usually include communication, interpersonal skills, leadership and/or teamwork skills, organizational/time management skills, accepting and giving feedback, and conflict management. Try to think of a few concrete examples that you can provide that demonstrate how great you are at these skills!
When you answer a situation-type question, tell it like a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. In the beginning, you explain what the issue or situation was; the middle is where you explain how you resolved it with your great skills; the end is where you explain how everything came together thanks to you. For example, in a "tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership/teamwork", you could talk about that time when you did a group project at school. "In my ___ class, we were assigned a group project where we were asked to meet X, Y and Z requirements. I took a leadership role in this project by determining the goals and clearly stating objectives of the project with the team, deciding on timelines to meet those objectives, and worked with my team to delegate responsibility. We were able to complete the project on time and everyone in the team was very satisfied with the end result".
Type of interviews
Each internship program structures their interviews a bit differently. Some are standard panel interviews like you might normally have in a job interview, where there are a few hospital people and you in a room together. Some programs use group interviews, where you and several other applicants meet together with the panel. Others use something called Multiple Mini interviews. In these interviews, there are multiple rooms with different interviewers in each. Each room has a different focus (such as a foodservice focus, clinical focus, research focus, communication/interpersonal skills focus, etc), or might have an activity (like a written portion, or watching a video and answering questions about what you observed). Internship programs like to use this type of interview because its thought that it makes the interview less stressful for the applicants - you can mess up entirely in one room, and start over fresh in the next room with a completely different interviewer. In reality, I personally found the multiple mini interviews the most stressful - mostly because I had never had them before and wasn't comfortable with the format, but also that the "starting fresh" idea didn't really work for me. I just kept dwelling on how I messed up in the last room, which then affected me in the next one!
If you're able to, find out what type of interview your organization uses. Talk to their previous interns or other students who have interviewed there, or you can ask the internship coordinator if you feel comfortable with it. The type of interview might affect how you answer questions - for example, in a group discussion, you might want to have more than one example of situations on hand so that it doesn't sound like you're just duplicating someone else's similar experience.
Breathe.
The most important thing - try not to freak out. Impossible, I know. But try. If you're scared, it will show in your interview. Be yourself, and let your personality shine! In most interviews, who you are matters a whole lot more than your resume or grades.
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