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The Interview
By Sadia Naeem
14 Apr 2011
Cue image of the Mastermind chair; that's as close to a voluntary interview as ever I've seen. As a third year, I frantically applied to all the standard pharmacy chains for a summer placement this year and eventually received an invite for an interview from one after countless rejections. I consider myself lucky to have even received one invitation because unbeknownst to me until I had asked, many of my friends were in the same situation, some having received no interviews at all (what happened to third years being prioritised?). However, I am notoriously known by my course mates for my nerves. Even though I thought I was as prepared as I could be, once I faced the interviewer I had an instant brain freeze.
For people like me, interviews are worse than anchovies on pizza...can you get worse than close to the worst thing in the world on close to the best thing in the world? I know that I'm capable of working under pressure, in a pharmacy or elsewhere, as I've done so before when I worked in a community pharmacy. My then boss didn't interview me before taking me on, and I believe that I proved to her and the other members of staff that I was capable of working under pressure through working there, for example when working to deadlines. Would an interview really demonstrate this adequately if the interviewee was nervous?
I know it's a part of life that I'm going to have to get used to, but being asked questions under pressure doesn't bode well for me. I genuinely believe that I let myself down in the one interview I obtained...and only because of my nerves. I was annoyed with myself because I know that confidence speaks volumes and that someone could literally talk through an interview successfully. Frankly, it's just the word "interview" that scares me. It's a strange thing; I've yet to understand how the weird neurochemistry of my brain works.
Although I know the world doesn't revolve around me, my question is this: do interviews really reflect the student's capabilities and enthusiasm accurately? If not, what other methods of assessing thousands of potential placement candidates could possibly replace the traditional interview?
Hospital Summer Placement Interview at BHR
I had an interview at BHR the other day for a summer placement. I honestly gave up all hope on getting any interviews, let alone placements. Unfortunately I didn't get the placement, there were only 3 places and I came 4th in the interview process. Why? Because of nerves. She gave me some feedback and told me that it was because I was nervous to begin with. I became more comfortable during the interview but it was the first question that I messed up on..."what can you offer us in comparison to other students that have applied?"...and I decided to answer..."why do you want this placement?"...under normal circumstances I would have been able to answer the question, but under the pressure of the interview I obviously started to answer what I wanted to answer and not what was being asked.
Maybe it would help if they asked a couple of questions that they weren't marking us on, just to calm us down and that way we would perform better?
And I agree, what happened to prioritising 3rd year students? Especially with hospital placements.
Morrisons have said that they will contact me about an interview soon, but their application form was so thorough - isn't that enough?! why must they continue to torture me!!!
Agreed
Thanks for your post Rukeya. I think the strategy you suggested would actually help alot, especially if it's along the lines of friendly banter...it would make me feel a lot more at ease anyway, rather than them delving straight into the nitty gritty.
Sorry to hear about the interview, hope all goes well with Morrisons!