I remember I received my OT interview invitation only a few days after I had just completed an interview for a different program I applied to. It was also Valentine's Day and I laughed at how this was an unexpected gift to myself. As excited as I was to have this interview opportunity, I didn't start preparing for it until a week later. I had just spent a full week preparing for my previous interview and needed a break to catch up on school. I had a three weeks' notice for my OT interview, which was longer than what I've heard from previous years. I met someone who was notified just a week prior to their interview. I love to write things out in OneNote, so I had two full pages of notes, sample answers and research to prepare for my interview.
I made a list of things to do, which looked something like this:
As you can tell, I read and researched a lot to help me gain a deeper understanding of OT. Listening to OT podcasts is also a great way to learn more about OT, but I didn't find out about them until after I applied. I found that reading about others' interview experiences in blogs helped me visualize the process and made me feel calmer. I also identified a few faculty researchers whose work I'm interested in, so I could ask about them during the interview. Luckily, I was enrolled in a social determinants of population health course that term and learned about inequities in healthcare. I think this gave me persepctive on aspects that need to be improved and I tried to link it back to OT. In regards to sample interview questions, here are some that I tried to answer:
I also wrote down all my extra-curriculars, volunteer and work experience. For each, I outlined my responsibilities and OT-related qualities that I exemplified. In addition, I tried to relate how my qualities support the core values of my school's OT program. In the days leading up to my interview, I practiced my sample answers with someone and timed my responses. It was a great way to hear how my words actually sound and receive feedback. In the end, lots of self-reflection and figuring out your true intentions and passions for OT are what will help you shine. You want to set yourself apart from the crowd, so being yourself is what's most important, as cliche as it sounds. If you begin to question whether your education background is too irrelveant, like I did, don't worry. In fact, OT programs value diversity, so having a non-human kinetics background (which is the majority) would actually mean you have a different perpsective to offer.
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