Interviews are Upon Us
This is it! The moment we've all been waiting for! On Wednesday, my classmates and I will attend the interview(s) for our year-long clinical placements that will occupy our third and final year of the program. From what I've heard, the clinical education structure at Pitt is much different from other programs, so I'll give you a bit of background to provide a better frame of reference.
During the fall and spring semesters of years one and two, we have part-time affiliations that we attend twice per week. (The other three days we're in class). In that time, we're meant to experience both inpatient and outpatient PT. Our full-time rotations start during the summer between the first and second years, and we finish the program with a year-long clinical placement. For the year-long rotation, we can choose to spend 12 months in an outpatient or inpatient setting, or we can spend six months in each. I have decided to split my time between inpatient and outpatient so I can get the widest spectrum of experience.
I'll have three interviews on Wednesday. One will be with the inpatient team at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), one with the UPMC outpatient team, and a third with the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. I suspect that each will have a very different structure, but aside from that I'm not sure what to expect. I've never had a formal interview before. Apparently we can expect scenario-based questions, strengths, weaknesses etc.
I'd love to hear some input from any of you who are part of the interview process for your organizations, including the classic "Dos and Don'ts" that you've seen over time. While I'm not completely stressed about the interview, it does carry a heavy burden for the rest of my time in PT school. I can also see how important it is to my career path. That being said, I'd love to be as prepared as possible when Wednesday morning comes around.