Mock questions for job interviews in occupational therapy
Occupational therapists need to have a broad education in fields like psychological, psychosocial, medical, and occupational sciences. They also need to have great social and communication skills because they work with people, especially people who are vulnerable because of illness, disability, or social problems. Mock questions for job interviews in occupational therapy
In this article, we’ll look at eight behavioral questions you can use to practice for your real interview with an occupational therapist.
What are the qualities of a good occupational therapist?
This question has many parts because a good occupational therapist isn’t just someone who knows their field well. In your answer, the interviewer will probably want you to talk about different parts of the job, such as:
- Teamwork: Employers want to know if you can work with different kinds of people in a place with a lot of them. In many ways, being able to work well with other people is just as important as having job-specific skills. You should show that you can talk to people and listen well.
- Stress and hard situations: You should not only show how you would handle, say, a difficult client from a theoretical or clinical point of view, but you should also show that you are emotionally mature and capable. Ask for help or advice when you need it is one way to do this.
- Supervision: It’s important to show potential employers that you’re not afraid of being in charge.
- Reflective practice: You should say that a good occupational therapist should always think about how they do their job. This means showing the employer that you can listen to a patient’s wants and goals and make the recovery process fit them, instead of telling the patient how to get better.
What makes you worth working with? How do you think you’ll fit into our team?
When asked, “Why should we hire you?” you should show that you love your job and can bring something new to the table. Show that you are willing to keep looking at how things are done because you think they can always be better.
Confirm that you are willing to be a mentor for fieldwork education students to show that you care about other people’s professional growth and development. Employers want to hire people who are proactive and don’t just want to do things the way they’ve always been done.
You should talk about how you improved service delivery at jobs you’ve had in the past or while you were an intern. Mention, for example, how you found standard assessments and used them during fieldwork, how you used adaptive tools during therapy, or how you brought new research or interesting online resources to the attention of clients and caregivers.
This shows that you can improve service delivery in your new job, just like you have done in the past.
What would you do if you didn’t agree with an order from a supervisor?
There are a lot of questions about conflicts at work that come up in interviews. This is because potential employers want to know how you deal with disagreements and whether or not you can work well with others.
The best way to answer the question above is to talk about a time when you had to deal with a tough situation with your supervisor or boss. This could have happened during your internship or at a job you had before.
You should explain what the problem was, but it’s more important to talk about how it was finally solved and what good thing came from avoiding or solving the conflict peacefully.
Stress that people will always have different ideas at work and that they have the right to disagree, but that conflicts can be solved best when coworkers talk to each other in an honest and respectful way.
4. How would you deal with difficult patients?
You won’t always work with people who are committed and driven to reach their goals as an occupational therapist. And you’ll sometimes have to deal with rude and unpleasant patients.
- Whether you answer this question as a hypothetical question or by talking about a past patient, you should stress the following:
- The importance of empathy: Anyone who works in health care needs to be able to understand and care for others. When dealing with difficult patients, it’s important to keep an open mind and try to understand where they’re coming from instead of taking things personally.
- Communication and building relationships: It’s important to talk to a patient often to find out what they’re going through and use this information as part of the therapy process. That is, help your client help themselves get better.
Make homework more fun. You can do a lot in therapy, but you also need to work on your goals with exercises at home. Patients often find it hard to do these things because, for example, a few instructions written on a piece of paper may be hard to understand or boring.
5. Why did you decide to become an occupational therapist?
Most people choose to be occupational therapists because they like helping people. Even if this is true for you, you will need to explain to the interviewer why you feel this way and why you chose occupational therapy in particular.
If you can talk about a real-life event that made you decide, like your grandfather having a stroke and getting better with the help of an occupational therapist, or if you or someone in your family was or is an occupational therapist, that would be the most convincing.
You could also talk about specific things about the job that interest you, like the fact that occupational therapy isn’t just about fixing people’s bodies but also their mental and emotional health. Because of this, it is one of the more well-rounded health care jobs, which is good for everyone.
6. How do you decide what a patient’s goals should be?
Setting goals for a patient is a very important part of occupational therapy. First of all, when goals are set, both the client and the therapist agree that they are both responsible for making sure the goals are met.
Setting goals also makes it easier for both the client and the therapist to keep track of how well the client is doing, which can encourage the client to keep improving. When setting goals for a client, it’s important to remember:
- The client should be involved in the process: It’s a waste of time to set goals without the patient’s help. You want to help the patient get better instead of telling them how to get better as an occupational therapist.
- Goals should be doable, and an occupational therapist should know what a patient can do and how long it will take to do it. Part of this depends on how willing the patient is to work with the therapist, if she has a support system, and how many sessions can be used to reach goals.
7. Where do you think you’ll be in five years?
Employers ask this question to see if you have clear goals and want to be an occupational therapist for real.
People who talk about the need for personal growth and development and who have goals for the next few years are probably self-motivated and good workers.
If you’re new to the field, you might not have a detailed five-year plan, but you should know where you want your career to go and what kind of environment and setting would work best for you.
Obviously, it’s important to show that your plans for the future and goals for growth fit with the job you’re interviewing for. That is, you probably won’t get a job if your current goals and plans for the future have nothing to do with the job you’re applying for.
8. How do you deal with a lot of work and stress?
When an employer asks, “How do you deal with stress?” they are obviously trying to find out if you give up easily when things get hard or if you have trouble dealing with stress. There will always be times at work when you have to work longer hours or feel more pressured to take on more clients.
A potential employer wants to know that they can count on you when things get tough. As a person-to-person occupational therapist, it’s also important to know how to deal with stress and not take it out on your clients.
Chances of getting a job in occupational therapy
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs for occupational therapists is expected to grow by 17% between 2020 and 2030. This means that your chances of getting a job will get better and better if you go to an interview. But it’s still important to have a good interview.
Even though these occupational therapy job interview questions and answers give you a general idea of what interviewers might ask, you should know that potential employers in the health sector will definitely test your social skills during the interview.
This means that they will not only listen to what you say, but also to how you say it. When you’re interviewing for a job where you’ll be working closely with people who are vulnerable, you should show empathy, sensitivity, passion, and good communication skills.
