Achieving Job Interview Success as a DNP Graduate
Getting through your DNP takes a lot of commitment and graduating is cause for celebration. Afterward, however, you’ll face a different kind of challenge: making the next steps in your career successful. Whether you’re staying in academia or stepping out into the wider world, this will, first and foremost, require you to get through a job interview. Most recent graduates coming to this will be a bit out of practice. There may be lots of job openings available, but it’s not unusual to feel a bit daunted about your prospects when going after those you want. This article is designed to help you build up your confidence, perfect your pitch, and make a success of it.
Do your research
When you apply for a job, the hiring company wants to know that you’re not just generally looking for employment but have a specific interest in its activities and vision. At a senior level, successful candidates often also cite their interest in working alongside particular individuals whose work they are familiar with and admire. Doing your research enables you to reflect on how you align with the organization’s values and think about how to pitch yourself as a candidate in relation to those values. Furthermore, at a very basic level, it shows that you have made an effort and that you care about the opportunity on offer.
When it comes to researching a healthcare institution, it helps to go beyond websites and press releases. Reach out through your networks and see if you know anybody who already works there or has done so in the past. If you have some inside knowledge of how the organization operates, you can describe your own working practices in a way that neatly fits that model. This will help interviewers picture the way you will fit in there, and it will give them confidence that you can hit the ground running. Inside knowledge also helps when it comes to striking the right tone so that interviewers believe you will fit the organization’s image but also connect with its internal culture.
Prepare your own questions
Job interviews are supposed to be a two-way process, and this becomes more and more important as you move up the ranks in terms of what you’re applying for. As you do your research, you should be looking out for gaps in the information you collect, where it would be useful to know more, and identifying areas where you think the organization might not be doing things as well as it could, so you can pose questions which also allow you to make suggestions or at least to hint that you have the insight needed to explore an issue and find solutions.
Presenting your questions isn’t just about getting information (though you do need to confirm that you will be happy to work for the interviewing organization). It’s primarily about demonstrating that you’ve done your research and that you have an in-depth understanding of what the role requires. If the questions you receive are routine and don’t offer much room for elaboration, as is the case in some interviews, then this is the area in which you can really distinguish yourself. It’s an opportunity to show your intelligence and the kind of curiosity required to thrive in roles that require lateral thinking.
Review your accomplishments
When you’ve been focusing hard on your research topic and recent studies, it’s easy for other things you’ve achieved to slip from your mind. Before you go to the interview, you should go back over it all to refresh yourself, with a special focus on those areas that seem most relevant to the particular role you’re after. Don’t limit yourself to talking about your highest-level qualifications. Sometimes voluntary work that you’ve done, or specialties you explored early on in your career, can be the key to persuading an organization that you’re the best fit for the role. If you know who your interviewers are going to be, see if you can find information on their career histories and see if you have anything in common.
When you’re at the interview, you don’t just need to establish yourself as a good candidate. You need to be a memorable one. Nothing is as memorable as a good story that gets across something about your personality. Think about how you can present your accomplishments in this way, with stories attached. This also helps to root your accomplishments in the real world, illustrating the breadth of your experience and observational ability. It helps interviewers to imagine you in a working context, making it easier for them to imagine the way you would handle the available role.
Prepare for behavioral interview questions
Your new employers won’t just want to know what you’ve achieved. They will want to know who you are, and what you’re capable of doing as a person. In particular, considering the type of role you will be applying for at this stage, they will want to see the qualities that make a good leader. They will also need to know that you can work as part of a team, following instructions or keeping what you do in accordance with organizational policy. Be ready to share examples of challenges you’ve faced in these contexts and how you responded to them.
As well as answering questions, you will send signals about your behavioral qualities through your presentation and body language in the interview itself. When interviewing for a position of authority, it’s a good idea to wear dark-colored (but not black) clothes. Bear in mind that most employers and candidates will be at the older end of the scale, so don’t worry about trying to make yourself look youthful, even if that’s a standard part of your routine. It’s more important to look smart. Studies have shown that taking your hair back off your forehead will make people assume you’re more intelligent. Equally important is a level, direct gaze. Try to keep your posture relaxed and use the active listening skills you’ve learned as a nurse to connect with the interviewers.
Prepare to discuss your research
This is the easy part. If it’s not long since you presented your research at the end of your course, you’ll be primed for such discussions. Just remember that, depending on the nature of the place you’re applying to, you may need to use clearer language and simplify it a little. You may also want to adjust it to better fit the role. This could mean focusing less on the subject of the research and more on methodology, for instance—or less on methodology per se and more on the specific patient group you studied. You may need to clarify what you hoped to achieve and why it was important or discuss how it can be put to practical use. In the interview itself, look out for opportunities to expand this discussion such that you can talk about your interest in contributing to the development of the nursing profession more widely.
As well as talking about your own research, it’s useful to be able to reference other people’s, situating it in a wider context. This illustrates that you’re well-read and also that you didn’t study just for the sake of getting a qualification, but also have an interest in the practical application of knowledge. Try to establish connections, in this way, between your research and the role you’re after.
Show your enthusiasm
When attending an interview, it is important to be professional, but some people take this too far. If you come across as stiff and unemotional, the interviewers won’t know what to make of you, and won’t be able to tell whether you have a genuine interest in the role or if you’re just going through the motions for the sake of a paycheck, with no real inclination to commit. It’s alright to show some emotion. As a nurse, you need to demonstrate that you can form a human connection. Let them know that you’re excited about the prospect of getting the job and that you would bring some real passion to it.
Think about what you would want to do with the role if you got it and be generous in talking about your ideas—after all, it doesn’t really matter if somebody else ends up using them. Showing that you have plenty to say beyond what you’re specifically asked makes a good impression as it establishes that you really know what you’re doing and are not having to strain for answers. If you do then get a difficult question, it will be easier for you to go off-topic, giving a short answer and then returning to something you were talking about earlier.
Reflect on your education
When you’re asked about your qualifications, don’t just list them. It’s worth going into the details of what your studies have involved, especially where that gives you the opportunity to talk about matters relevant to the role. A dnp nursing education from Wilkes University prepares students with a variety of talking points for their careers. The accredited course explores how to conduct policy analysis from different perspectives, develops an understanding of financial and regulatory issues, and focuses on equity and ethics within nursing. You’ll be able to reference this not just in response to education-focused questions, but also more widely, as you explain how you would approach certain tasks and how you would respond in certain situations.
Alongside the content, the context of your education can also be worth referencing. If you took classes and attended tutorials online, you can talk about how that strengthened your IT skills. You can discuss the institution where you undertook your clinical hours and talk about what you learned through observation while participating in that process. You can also discuss your interactions with tutors and fellow students because this will help to establish the way you are able to function within teams and hierarchies.
Trust yourself
Reaching the DNP level shows you have spent a long time in work or training, and are committed to reaching the upper levels of what’s possible in your career. It’s time to stop thinking in terms of “fake it till you make it” and realize that you have, in fact, made it already. Even if there are similarly qualified candidates going for the role you want, trust that you are an impressive candidate yourself. That’s a good bedrock on which to build a confident approach to your interview. To have got this far, you have needed to impress a lot of people, so it’s time for you to show some faith in yourself.
When you recognize your own value as a candidate, it’s much easier to approach an interview as an equal negotiation. Is the organization you applied to really good enough for you? Will it give you the opportunity to pursue the things that matter to you and make real use of your talents? This is a chance to find out. When you value yourself, other people will see that and realize that they would be lucky to get to work with you. When you trust yourself, you’ll find it much easier to answer questions in a relaxed, assured way which demonstrates your expertise and natural authority.
Conclusion
Getting back into the job market after time spent in academia can be a challenge, but it’s one that your nursing skills and recent studies should have you well-equipped to overcome. Look at it as a process, and don’t pin all your hopes on your first interview. If you don’t get it, it will be useful practice, and there will be more. With this in mind, go over what happened afterward while it’s still fresh in your mind, and take notes. They will become a useful resource if you find that you have more to prepare for, and soon you’ll be in a position to get down to work in a satisfying new role.
