Interview invites don't warn you. Some programs give you two weeks' notice.

So start prepping the day after you submit. Not when the email lands. That's part one of this interview prep series, and it's the mistake I watch people make every single cycle.

On mock interviews: schedule one two to three weeks out from your actual interview. Early enough that you can fix what's broken, late enough that the practice is still fresh. Doing a mock the night before just makes you nervous.

We also cover the two formats you'll run into. Traditional interviews, where you sit with faculty or a panel and talk about yourself. And MMIs, where you rotate through short scenario stations. They test completely different things, and prepping for one does not prepare you for the other.

The goal isn't a memorized script. It's being comfortable enough that you sound like a person.

What I cover:

• When to start prepping and why it's earlier than you think
• Timing your mock interview for maximum benefit
• Traditional interviews versus MMIs
• The question types you'll see in each format
• Practicing out loud instead of in your head
• Building confidence without sounding rehearsed

Resources:

PA School Interview Guide: https://www.thepaplatform.com/physician-assistant-school-interview-guide

Mock Interview: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/mock-interview

PA School Interview Course: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pa-school-interview-course

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Mentioned in this episode:

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It's the best time of the year.

Interview season.

In today's episode, we are sharing part one of a webinar on interview prep with lots of Q and A and tips and tricks to make the most of your time preparing before interview day.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

I am Savannah Perry, your host and thank you for joining me on today's episode where we get to talk about one of my favorite things, which is interview prep.

I love interviews.

I know that they can be a little stressful, but I just think they are actually pretty fun and a great way to meet your classmates and your colleagues.

So.

So they shouldn't be too scary.

But in today's episode you can also watch this on YouTube if you prefer.

It is from a webinar that we did previously and we go through lots of different techniques talking about the things you need to know going into interview day just to feel prepared, feel a little bit more confident and ways to practice and how you should be thinking about practicing what you should be doing to make sure you're ready.

So we'll get into all of that.

If you've been here for a while, you know that at the PA platform we offer mock interviews, which is one on one prep with a pre PA coach who is a practicing PA to go through questions, see how you do, talk through some feedback and make sure that you are good to go on interview day.

You can use the code Future PA for a discount on those services.

And and I will tell you, especially if you need an evening time or a weekend, I would book ahead, look at the schedule, see what works for you because those times do go very, very quickly.

And I recommend ideally waiting until you have an interview invite and then trying to do your mock interview about two to three weeks beforehand.

So that's kind of where we're at.

With mock interviews and we would love to help you.

All of our coaches are fantastic, but we'll get into the tips and tricks and all of this information will be in the episode description as well.

Thanks for listening.

But once you submit your application, it is time to start preparing for interviews.

That is your next step.

We don't get to chill, we don't get to wait, we don't get to hang out.

So the interview invite comes, we start preparing.

Because you never know when you're going to get an invite.

You don't know how much heads up you're going to get.

And you want to be prepared so that you don't feel as nervous.

You will feel nervous regardless, but at least having some preparation will make you feel a little bit better.

So it looks like, okay, we've got some people who have interviews.

I already have three interviews this cycle.

Well, go you, Sydney.

And that's crazy.

If you have received interview invites, let.

Us know if they are virtual or.

In person or if you have both.

I've seen both.

I've seen some schools still doing virtual, some schools doing in person.

Schools did not ever do virtual interviews.

And so I think that's kind of a good thing.

It gives you a little bit more flexibility with timing and being able to, you know, plan around that.

But it's also a little bit of a disadvantage if you don't get to go visit the program and really get that feel.

But from talking to people who have done virtual interviews, many people feel like they still.

Still are able to connect with the faculty and kind of.

Kind of feel good about it, good about the school.

So let's see what we got.

We have some interview invites coming up very soon.

Some virtual zoom.

Mmi.

Okay.

In person.

Virtual Two in person.

One virtual in person.

Okay, so good mix.

Yeah, this is great.

Nice.

Okay, so let's talk logistics and then we'll get into stuff.

I have kind of a rough outline of things to talk about that I think are important to go over with preparing.

But I want this to be for you guys.

Y' all took the time out of your busy schedules to be here, so I want to answer as many questions as possible.

So that's going to be our primary focus tonight, is answering your questions.

So don't be afraid to ask them.

We're going to try to get to as many as we can.

We can put them in the chat function.

There's the Q and A.

Also.

I don't know if I can mark them or show them the way I would like to.

I'll try that in a minute.

We'll see because we'll.

I'll figure out where we need to ask questions.

You'll see Michelle in the chat.

She's helping out tonight with kind of facilitating.

She'll share some links if there's anything relevant to what we're talking about to kind of point you in the right direction.

And so you can watch out for anything that she's sending.

And this will be recorded.

So you'll get an email with a replay in about 24 hours if you aren't able to save the whole time or hang out.

And then it will also go up on YouTube and eventually on the podcast.

It'll be a little while before it makes its way to the podcast because we have some really cool interviews coming up.

But it will be on YouTube for you to watch or listen to there probably within the next week or so.

So this will be our last webinar for a little while.

If you don't follow me on social media, you may not know that I am fairly pregnant.

So it'll be a little while by end of July, early August, before we jump back doing some webinars where we'll probably get into some more live mock interviews, practice talking, whatever.

Whatever you guys need at that point will be the next webinars, but it will be a little while before we get to those.

If you just need to watch stuff, we have so much stuff on YouTube, so much stuff on the podcast.

If you just Google like the PA platform, mmi, you'll find find so much stuff that can help you out.

We have the PA School interview guide, which you can get on Amazon.

And this has everything about interview types.

This is kind of where I pulled a lot of what we're talking about tonight, but types of interviews, what to do before the interview, interview questions, interview types of questions and everything that I talk about with interviews.

Kind of put all in one.

Got some mock interview guide in there and all kinds of things.

So that's on Amazon if you need something.

If you like books, I'm a book person that's there for you.

We also have our PA School interview course that you can sign up for.

And I'll probably send you guys a code for that.

I should have set that up prior to this.

But I'll get a code set up for you guys for that if it's something that you need help with the interview course.

So people ask the difference in the interview guide and the interview course.

So the guide is a book.

And so when you go through this, it's broken down by interview types and it has questions.

And then I don't give you like a scripted response, but I try to help you kind of figure out how to think through what your response should be, why they're asking this question, to formulate that the course is different because it's a lot of recorded presentations that I did, and I can explain things a little bit more and actually, like, show you examples versus having a written version.

So it expands on the guide.

And I think if you're more of, like a audio type person who likes to hear things, see things, then the course is a good option for you.

I think there's like four or five hours of videos talking about interview prep, and then there's a bunch of examples of mock interviews in there too.

So those are some of the resources we have.

And yeah, so we'll go from there.

I already see a bunch of questions in the chat, which is awesome.

I have a list here of questions that Michelle's playing in for me.

So if I'm, like, looking down, that's what I'm looking at.

And then we can jump in if you have any connection issues.

My Internet's been a little weird today, so hopefully we're good, but if you have any connection issues, use the refresh.

We find that Google Chrome works best, and there's like a little button where you can kind of like reset it if you need to.

To jump back in.

All right.

And I'll be drinking a lot of water, and I have my coat here.

To try to stay awake.

Anybody else get by one, get one free modes today or just me?

No?

Okay.

All right, so Michelle put in the chat.

Also our mock interview link.

So if you are wanting to practice with somebody one on one and need help with that, our coaches are amazing.

And you can sit down during a mock interview.

We go through questions for about 20, 30 minutes and then do feedback.

They'll be very honest with you and kind of try to point out any red flags, make sure you're on track, make sure that you are answering questions in a way that shows who you are and lets the program see kind of why you'd be a good asset for them.

So we'd love to help you do that too.

All right, so should we start with.

Let's just start with questions, because I just want to get to as many as we can, and I'm seeing a lot of the same questions coming up, and then we can go from there.

So one question.

When will you get invites?

So you've seen some of these.

Some of y' all are already getting invites.

They can come at any point in time with any timeline.

A question I've seen in our Facebook group is, what if I have something planned?

I have a trip coming up.

I.

One person was, like, getting married and had a honeymoon where they were going to be gone basically the whole month.

Of October, and they're like, will a program work with me?

Will they change my interview date?

What do I do if I get an interview during that time?

And these are all really tough situations because we don't know.

And every school is going to be different in how they respond in my belly.

And that's not very comfortable.

So if you have a conflict with an interview date, you can ask a program about potentially moving that or if they have any other options.

If you have to do that, be prepared for them to say no.

It is an unfortunate reality that there are way more qualified applicants than spots for interviews or spots in a program.

And it sounds kind of harsh to say like they don't need you, but they don't.

They have somebody else who's very similar that they can take your spot gladly.

So there's a chance that they will move it.

And some may.

They may have other options for you, but there is also a chance that they will say, too bad, so sad, see you next year, try again and not be able to move that.

So that's another place that virtual interviews can be helpful if you, you know, are traveling.

I would try to make sure that you could at least do a virtual interview if possible.

You know, take your blazer, be prepared.

But if not, be prepared to pause, possibly say no to, which is tough.

And then as far as after the interview, when will you hear back?

That's another thing that is very school dependent.

Some schools will let you know within a couple weeks.

There are a few schools that even will tell you at the interview whether you're accepted or not, which is a little crazy.

And then there are schools that wait till all of their interviews are done, so it can be months and months and months before you hear back.

So what happens at that point is when a school, let's say you're accepted, gives you that acceptance, they will give you that offer of a seat.

And then typically you're going to have two weeks to respond with accepting that and then putting a deposit down.

Deposits can range from 100 bucks to a thousand couple thousand bucks.

Have to be prepared for that also.

But you have those couple weeks where you can think about it and then make your decision.

All right, so we've talked about preparing.

As soon as you've submitted ways that you can prepare for your interviews after you submit, start looking up questions, question types, interview types, learning about that so that you feel more prepared.

Start.

Schools oftentimes will do kind of a combination of everything.

So we have our traditional interviews, which are just questions.

Why pa why should we pick you?

Why did you apply here?

Very straightforward kind of back and forth, question and answer.

We have our situation and our ethical questions.

These can be scenarios, role playing, asking you what you would do if xyz, if you hit a car in a parking lot, whatever, if you saw a nurse steal something.

We have behavioral questions which are just kind of situational, but phrased a little differently.

So things like, tell me about how you study.

Tell me about a time you were.

You were in a conflict in what you did.

So it's just phrased a little different.

And then we have our mmi, which somebody asked what that stands for.

It stands for multiple mini interviews.

This one gets a little funky.

Because a very traditional MMI is when you have stations where usually you have five to 10 stations that are five to seven minutes each, and you have a couple minutes to prepare prior to the station.

You're given the prompt, the idea of what's happening, something.

You can kind of think about it for a minute or two, and then you go into that station and do that scenario.

And these can be just questions.

They can be situational, ethical things.

They can be role playing.

They can ask you to do a task, interpret a graph, interpret an article, write an essay, all kinds of stuff.

They can be really weird.

So that's a traditional mmi.

I have found that some schools will say they do mmi, but what they really do is like stations with traditional questions.

So it's hard to know or say exactly what a school is going to do.

And that's why I say just like, prepare for everything.

And they can always change it.

You could have heard that they do XYZ and then they stop doing it that way and do it differently.

So you do want to be ready and prepared for anything they throw at you, because you never know.

There are group interviews, which can be one of a couple ways.

It can be you with multiple applicants and interviewers asking all of you questions.

You can have group in a situation where you have to do an activity together.

You can have a panel of interviewers asking just you questions or multiple applicants.

There's lots of ways that can be set up.

Some schools will have you do an essay or a quiz at the interview or beforehand.

So again, just be prepared for anything, anything at all.

So that's a little overview of just kind of interview types.

All right, I have some principles here, but we're going to get into questions first because.

Oh, my little spiel.

And again, I don't want to run out of time.

Okay, Michelle, I'm gonna try to pull these from the Q A and see what happens if I put them.

Let me just try something.

Can I.

Let's see what happens with this.

Can y' all see that?

Like, where does that come.

I put broadcast to the room.

So what does that do?

Can y' all see that question?

Maybe.

Okay, so Morgan says, can you describe what we should expect from a group activity and interview essay?

My interview is next week.

I don't know where y' all are seeing them or if you can that.

Then that doesn't take it away, which is what I wanted it to do.

We'll just.

Let's just try this.

Okay, so a group activity can be anything you can.

So it's on the corner of the screen.

Okay, well, maybe that's helpful to see that.

So a group activity is you typically with other applicants, working together or discussing something.

And if anybody, like, I want this to be like, a discussion.

So if anyone has experience with this and wants to chime in, in the chat, go for it.

So this could be like.

Sometimes they'll say, like, give you a scenario, and you have to talk it out.

I have a couple things in the interview guide that I talk about.

One is, like, you know, you have to choose who gets the lifeboat.

There's five people on a sinking ship, and one spend one spot on a lifeboat.

Who gets it, and you have to be the person to decide that.

And so you have to discuss it as a group, and then you may have to present it to whoever's there.

And they're going to kind of just be, like, watching you and listening to see how you collaborate, to see how you communicate with everybody else.

So I think the biggest thing is participating and kind of jumping in, being cordial to your other group members.

Like, try to know their names and refer to their names, and then try to.

I mean, you can take a leadership role.

You don't necessarily have to, especially if that's not something you feel comfortable with, but you do want to be giving your input.

And that doesn't necessarily mean you agree with everyone, but you can politely and professionally disagree with someone without getting defensive or, you know, being rude, essentially.

So that's what a lot of.

A lot of things in an interview is, looking for red flags.

Like, is this a person who is going to be a problem in our class because they like to fight with everybody, or they just disagree with everything, or are they just gonna sit there and not say anything?

And.

Yeah, so they're looking for kind of your personality in that.

So you do want to jump in and participate.

As far as an essay, this can vary also.

Sometimes it will be like just an interview question that you have to answer.

Sometimes it will be a.

They'll give you an article or something to read, and then you have to respond.

This is not expected usually to be, like, anywhere close to your personal statement or anything like that.

Like, it is a short essay.

It's going to be done at your interview.

Sometimes you're given a time limit, like 30 minutes.

I had a couple of these, and.

One of them, we had a time limit.

One of them, we.

They just basically were like, get this done before you leave.

So it's kind of a time filler that you just had to do in between activities while you were waiting on stuff.

So it can vary.

I wouldn't put a ton of weight into that.

So I said we had to present an origami project.

Yeah.

So I've heard of people where they'll, like, give you a bunch of stuff and say, build a bridge or build this, and you have to work together to make something.

So it's all about just teamwork and collaboration.

All right, let's see.

Okay, so that question did go away somehow, but okay, this is a good question.

I will put it up.

So Caitlin says, how long should your answers be?

Are there usually time limits?

So in an mmi, you are going to have a time limit.

Usually it's going to be about five minutes per question, which the majority of people do not get anywhere close to.

When we're practicing mmi, in mock interviews and I'm timing people, they rarely get to two minutes, and they feel like they have talked for so long and have, you know, they're almost out of time, but really they're not even close.

So that's another reason that practice and timing and kind of gain a feel for that is really important.

You probably are not talking as long as you think you are.

When you're giving your response to an interview question, it feels like you're talking forever because you have people looking at you and you're just sitting there, and you're the only one saying anything.

But in most cases, your answer is not that long.

I would say the majority of people, when I'm practicing with them and trying to time it out, their answers are like a minute to a minute and a half at the most.

Every once in a while, I'll get somebody who can really keep going, but not usually.

So when you're practicing, I would kind of time yourself.

I don't encourage putting A time limit on your interview responses.

As long as you are adding new information that you feel is helpful or relevant to what they're asking, go for it.

Now, we don't want to ramble and we don't want to repeat ourselves.

And that takes some practice because it can feel weird to find a stopping point and get to the point where you feel like you can just kind of stop and be like, okay, I'm done talking.

And then they're just going to move on to another question.

So you have to get a feel for that too and practice that because you can get into these loops of just continuing to talk and talk and talk.

But generally, I mean, I think a couple minutes is fine if you are in a.

My only caveat to have having a time limit on your answers would be if you're in a group setting.

So if you're on a group panel, you do want to be a little more aware of how long your answers are because other people have to answer too.

And you don't want to hog all the time and take up all the time.

So I would, in those cases, you know, just be a little concise to the point if you can, versus going on and on.

There are instances in interviews where they will only ask you three questions or four questions and that's it.

And if you only give a 30 second response, they're gonna be like, okay, thank you for your time.

And then you're done.

And you haven't even been able to really expand.

But that's on you for not taking those opportunities.

A lot of interviews are only 10 to 15 minutes.

They're very short.

And so you have to be able to get a lot of information in there and just, you know, know what.

My, my best advice is to know what you want them to know before you leave the room.

And that's.

I talked about that in the interview guide.

So much like you need to know going into your interview what they need to know about you to feel confident that you're going to be a great PA student and that you're going to be a great PA so that they can hopefully accept you.

And if you're giving these superficial surface level answers, they're not going to get that this is like your one chance.

So you have to be ready to get in there and really kind of be vulnerable, be personal and lay it all out.

Okay, let me see what happens if I do this.

Okay, so that takes the question away.

Do you like questions in the chat.

Or the Q A?

I like, I can't See the chat when I'm in the Q A.

That's the only problem.

So it sounds like some situations.

Cool.

Okay.

We are going to stay on topic with interviews today and answer those we have.

So if you've missed our prior webinars, we did like a Casper walkthrough and a Casper and personal statement Q and A.

We've done a personal statement, live editing supplementals and experience details.

So if you haven't submitted yet and need some of that, those are all on YouTube to watch if you need them.

All right, so Kate says, how do I answer a question about originally being pre medicine and then switching to pa?

I am a huge proponent of just answering questions honestly and being genuine and telling your story.

It's super common to have started on a pre med track and then gone to pre PA for whatever reason.

There's lots of different reasons.

I think the biggest one is people just didn't know about the PA profession and then found it later and felt like it was a good fit for them.

So whatever your reason is, whatever your motive, whatever happened, I would be very honest about that in your interview and I think that will be understood.

I wouldn't go and just be like, oh, PA is quicker and I can still make a lot of money and seemed a lot easier for me.

Like, don't say that it needs to be about the job that you're pursuing.

But again, I think it's super, super common to make that switch and totally fine schools kind of expect that and are going to be understanding of that switch.

So be honest, be confident in why you're choosing pa.

I think it should be very clear that you're choosing this profession because it's a good fit for you and your personality and that should be something that you can demonstrate and show in the interview.

So, yeah, totally fine to switch from pre med to prep.

It happens.

It goes the other way too, and it's not a big deal at all.

All right.

I'm trying to keep these episodes a little shorter, so we'll stop there for today and pick it up with part two in a couple weeks.

Next week I have a great interview for you and thank you so much for joining me.

As always, you can find a lot of information on the PA platform and we have some really cool stuff coming.

So make sure you're following along on social media as well.

And.

And we'd love to connect with you.

If you have any questions, send them my way.

Bye.