Interview Questions
What are your greatest strengths?
How do you handle stress?
I consider my greatest strengths to be my strong communication skills, my drive, and my positive attitude. An example of these qualities being expressed is my AP Biology class junior year. This class was very challenging for me but I continued to push myself because I was interested in the subject and kept a positive outlook even when I didn’t get the results I worked for. I was easily able to communicate my concerns with my teacher and she was able to help me with my weak spots while I continued to put in the work outside of class.
When I feel stress, I like to face it head on and push through the assignment/game/situation to the best of my ability by staying persistent and positive. If I sense myself starting to become frustrated with my execution, believing I have not handled the situation to the best of my ability, I like to turn to one of my creative outlets to release some of this stress. For example, going for a run when I start to get stressed out from a school assignment can help me calm down and allow me to return to the assignment with a clear mind ready to give it another shot.
What do you see yourself doing in 5 years?
What makes you uncomfortable?
In 5 years, I envision myself near the end of my first year of PT school after graduating undergraduate with a degree in Exercise Science. I will be in an internship to gain more experience before I enter clinical rotations in my second year. I will be living in an apartment with possible roommates, working a separate part time job as a source of income to save for paying off student loans. 5 years out to me is only the beginning of my career so I find it very important to have a plan.
I find myself feeling uncomfortable when I am around/working with people that believe that they are superior to me. Lots of my peers in school like to gloat about their academic/athletic achievements while I like to be humble about my accomplishments. When I work with students like this I tend to become uncomfortable because I can tell by their attitude that they are looking down on me and believe that I am not up to their speed. I do not like when people like this doubt me because I know I am capable of accomplishing great things.
What do you look forward to everyday?
What is one of your favorite courses you have taken?
Everyday, I look forward to the unknown. I love living spontaneously so new experiences and challenges I didn't see coming excite me. I look forward to new conversations and laughs shared with the people I love or new interactions with people I only know by name. Variety in my life is very important to me, so I like not knowing what challenges my teacher or coach is going to throw at me next because it keeps me excited and engaged.
Since I am interested in a career in the medical field, I have always been drawn to science courses, specifically my Anatomy and Physiology class. However, there is one class in particular that I deem one of my favorite classes: AP Literature and Composition. This class is very difficult but I love diving into a piece of literature and being able to create my own open-ended interpretation of the literary devices that make the writing so complex. This class allows me to collaborate with my classmates to help each other develop a sophisticated understanding of the passages. I also really enjoy being able to connect literary themes to the real world no matter how old the writing may be.
How would you like to be challenged by a job?
What are your pet peeves?
Challenge keeps occasional mundane tasks interesting and is critical for helping yourself grow. While working in physical therapy, I would like to be challenged by new work settings, unique patient personalities, and diverse treatment cases. I want a job that pushes me to improve my weakness so I can be the best care provider possible for my patients.
My biggest pet peeve is when people are not considerate of others. I am a strong believer in you never know what is going on in someone else's life and I enjoy showing small acts of kindness to others because I know it can go a long way. When other people are blatantly rude towards others for no particular reason it is very bothersome to me because it doesn’t take a lot to be kind.
Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
An accomplishment I am most proud of is my recent commitment to continue my athletic career playing softball at the collegiate level for Ashland University. I am proud of this accomplishment because of all the dedication and perseverance it took to get to this point. Once I decided that I wanted to continue playing in college my freshman year of high school, it took years of hard work behind the scenes to get myself to this position. I have had to make numerous sacrifices such as giving up weekends with friends to go work with my dad on the field, spending summers traveling the country to play the best competition, relentlessly sending emails to coaches, and fighting mental and physical battles in moments I felt like giving up.
Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss/supervisor.
Although I have never had a boss because of my lack of work experience, I have had authority figures in my life that I may disagree with. For instance, my high school softball coach encourageges letting the coaches be the coaches and not to correct teammates because that is the coaches job. Although I mostly agree with this rule, I have had times where I felt it was not the right thing to do. For example, one day at practice I could see both my coach and my teammate growing frustrated because an adjustment was not being made after my coach had corrected her multiple times. I knew my teammate was not correcting herself because the way the coach was explaining it was confusing. As captain, I deemed it an appropriate time to ask my coach for time and brought the team into a huddle to have everyone take some deep breaths and reexplained the drill in a different way. Even though it was going against Coach’s policy, my coach was very proud of me for stepping in because after I reexplained, no one else made another mistake in the drill.