One of the many challenges facing modern healthcare recruiters is the hiring of substandard talent. This happens because, in the current strong jobseeker’s market, recruiters find themselves competing for the best talent, of which there is simply not enough to go around. It also happens because, legally, it is actually possible for some desperate healthcare institutions to just take stated qualifications or experience at face value and strategically neglect to vet their candidates properly.
This is obviously not a situation that helps anybody out, and an important thing to note in this regard is that while it might be tempting to go for such employers because it is easier to get hired, this is the worst kind of negligence. Moreover, it’s the patients who will ultimately suffer.
So, you should avoid such employers. This does not mean though that you shouldn’t let the current job seekers market work in your favor. Health Jobs, an online healthcare job recruitment service, says that knowing your worth has never been more important, because if you’ve got the stuff, the employers will be desperate to have you.
Nevertheless, you should always be strategic in your interviews and applications. For better or for worse, healthcare in the U.S. is a business, and that means competition. If you want to get hired, you need to stand out among the competition, and one of the best ways of doing this is not to reveal certain things that will work against you. Use every trick in the book.
Preparing for the Questions
Of course, when the interview comes round, you don’t know what information the interviewer will be trying to get out of you. Some of that information will help you, and some of it will hurt you. Accordingly, you need to plan ahead of time and try to anticipate the questions. Then you need to decide how you will answer them, what information you will give, and what you will withhold.
The questions that will be asked in a healthcare jobs interview generally fall into a few categories. Some of the questions will be personal – “Why have you moved here”, “What lead you to this particular medical specialty”, and even things like “Do you like the town here and what do you like about it”.
These questions represent an employer trying to learn more about you as a person. It is precisely these questions you can answer however you like as your personal life is not something that the employer can check out later. It sounds a bit cynical and mercenary but, with such questions, you can even fib a little. Do what you can to get the job!
There are some other questions, such as those asking after experience and qualifications, which the employer can and should check. Even stretching the truth here can be very risky. Really, you should never even find yourself in the position where you feel like you need to lie about these. One of the major rules of job seeking is that you should apply for the jobs which you can do well in. This is the essence of knowing your worth. When these questions are asked, you should be proud to give the truth, the whole truth and…well, you get the idea.
Last Word
Interview and application success takes tactics, and there is nothing wrong with that. In order to care for patients and answer the noble calling that has led you this far, you need to get hired. Employers are well aware that this is how it goes, and a canny interviewee is, at the end of the day, actually pretty impressive. Get hired first – you can start saving lives after that.
