Advice from Jon Hammond

I have spoken to several people about my experiences interviewing for fellowship positions this year, and during the interviewing process I made several pages of notes that I wanted to share to hopefully help the next group of student in the interviewing process. I thought some of this information might be useful for those interviewing for internships as this time as well.  There are a lot of things that I could have done better, and I learned a lot about interviewing during the process, and so I wanted to pass some of that information on.  Others may have had similar or even different experiences, so by no means are all the questions or answers going to be obtained from my experiences, but I hope they may help someone in the future. 

Before I began my application process, I focused on 15 fellowships’ that I wanted to apply to.  I figured if I applied to 15 places, that I would get phone interviews at half of those, and then hopefully have on site interviews at 3-4 places.  I was able to phone interview at 7-8 different places, but I was only extended one on site invitation; fortunately I had a good on-site visit which ultimately resulted in an offer.  After several places did not offer me an on-site interview I was able to f/u by either phone or email and ask some additional questions about my interview and some of the things they may have been looking for, and things I could have done better.  I was given some very good and candid feedback, and everyone was very glad to help me with my questions.  Some of the feedback that I received via email included the following:

“The bottom line is that we had a very competitive group of applicants and the interview team had to rate all candidates based on overall performance around areas like work experience, confidence/demeanor when communicating, portrayed level of commitment to the area for the longer-term, fellowship vs. job inclination and interest in/knowledge about (Organization here). Quite a few candidates ranked very closely together so our prioritization was driven by how each of you stacked against each other.”

Another said: “If there was one thing I would recommend to you in your future interviews it would be to show greater enthusiasm for what you are talking about.  In the fellowship selection process we are not necessarily looking for the candidate with the most experience.  Instead we are looking for people who offer great potential and a passion for the work.  I have no doubt that you have both of these characteristics. Unfortunately, you failed to convey your passion over the phone.”

Another provided this feedback: “All told, I think you gave a strong interview, especially when we engaged in an active dialog.  So, even though I will highlight some potential areas for improvement, these are generally minor. On the monologs, your answers were still good, but not quite as strong.  I think that you used the word concise in one of your previous emails, and I think that's a fair word to use.  You may want to trim the tangential details down just a bit, and focus on your actions/behavior. A couple direct sentences describing the situation that you're in is often sufficient, but if you're spending much more than about 30 seconds on the situation and haven't started talking about what you did/thought/approached/etc., you're probably going too in depth there.

In describing what you did/your actions, you should have a general understanding of what you want to convey to me.  To say it another way, why does the story that you're telling me show that you're a strong candidate?  Your response to the question of 'tell me about a time that you had to incorporate the input from many different stakeholders' may be a good illustration of this.  Your example was good one - you worked with many different departments to create and develop a product.  But, I don't know if you showed initiative involving others.  Or showed leadership incorporating and resolving conflicting expectations.  Or showed communication skills convincing a single party of a necessary outcome.  Or showed project management skills juggling a dozen different obligations.  Or show problem solving skills walking through a single complex issue that arose.  So, you answered the question - which is great - but you kind of missed an opportunity to show how great you are :)

My hunch is that you didn't get a chance to prepare as well as you'd have liked (which is understandable - I know how hectic your schedule is).  I say this because your most concise (and probably strongest) response was to my most obvious question 'tell me about a time that you had to show leadership.'  However, questions that were still standard but less slightly common didn't elicit quite as concise of a response.  For an interview like this, you should probably have a general idea of what example (around 3 minutes or so in length) you will use to a couple dozen different questions (leadership, communication, presentation, conflict resolution, ethics, teamwork, project management, managing multiple obligations, organization, etc.).  Like I said, all of these are minor, and me highlighting them here is really me being nit-picky.

The first thing that I realized is that this is a very competitive process, and getting discouraged doesn’t help.  You are competing with MHA or MBA grads from other programs all over the country, and there are a lot of good qualified people interviewing.  I also believe that it helps to be a little lucky.  Sometimes you get a person on the phone that you can more easily connect with, and sometimes you get someone that seems like they are just going through the motions.  I would definitely recommend some mock telephone, and/or mock in person interviews, as this is the best way to get feedback about how you could improve your interviewing skills over the phone.  If you sound enthusiastic and professional on the phone, then you will perform well on the telephone interviews.

I also listed about 18 different questions that I was asked during my interview process.  Many of these are pretty common questions, and there are certainly many others that could be asked, but knowing immediately how you would answer this list of questions will help start a foundation for good phone and face-to-face interviewing.

1. Tell us about yourself.
2. What attracted you to the position at (organization here)?
3. What three things would you think keep a hospital CEO up at night?
4. Do you see yourself more in an operations or a corporate role and why?
5. Describe a time when you were faced with making an ethical decision, and what was the outcome.
6. Describe a time when you were disappointed, and what did you do.
7. Describe a time when you met an obstacle and how did you overcome it.
8. What about this particular fellowship (job/internship) was attractive to you?
9. Describe an obstacle that you had to overcome.
10. Why do you want to pursue a fellowship over going straight into a job?
11. What do you think the weaknesses of this particular fellowship might be? Strengths?
12. What are the strengths and weaknesses of managers you have had in the past, and how would you describe your management style?
13. What are your three achievements you are most proud of?
14. What are your specific expectations of the fellowship (job) position?
15. What are your greatest strengths? Weaknesses?
16. Describe a time when you had prioritize your time.  What was the situation and how did you do it?
17. Describe a time when you had to resolve a conflict between co-workers.
18. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  10 years?