Mock PA School Interview With Taylor Hill

I'm going to start the video now and it would tell me a little bit more about yourself and why you'd like to be a PA so a little bit about myself I've now been working in health care for about six years almost six years I recruited up to over 10,000 hours of paid healthcare experience I'm pretty well-rounded I've worked in I worked as a phlebotomist for three years two of those years I was a lobotomy preceptor where I was training new hires following that I started working as a medical assistant for a most for a fellowship-trained mo surgeon in surgical dermatology so I you know was with her I was assisting with you know a lot of surgical assisting Mo's map preparation wound care all sorts of hands-on procedures and then from there I transitioned to working in orthopedic surgery so I've been working as a lead medical assistant for an earth edik surgeon for the past eight months now so I've gained quite a bit of experience in all of that experience I've picked up quite a bit learned a lot about a lot about myself I've learned that you know patient care is probably one of the best things that I've experienced I love working with the public I love helping you know I love basically being involved in the help in the care of patients and you know kind of seeing their reward and satisfaction at the end of you know their treatment I let's see it pretty much snow balled to me becoming a PA to wanting to become a PA from all of my experience in healthcare I've shadowed you know plenty of doctors and nurse practitioners physician assistants and picked and choose kind of the qualities of each of their lines of work that have really you know fit and matched with my personality and it was during the two years of being a surgical a medical assistant for at the at the dermatology practice that I worked very closely and intimately with a PA Lucy who was kind of my mentor so I worked you know almost as her shadow for two years I got to learn her roles and responsibilities or capabilities PA how she works with the physician and you know pretty much got to see him amazing qualities as her of her profession as a PA you know she's very family-oriented she has plenty of time to spend with her kids her husband you know she makes a great salary her patients love her and she gets you know perform surgeries and assess patients so here I am today you know interested in becoming a physician assistant as you know the end result of my six years of experience in the healthcare field awesome you know you did a really nice job on that um I think you the the way you explained your experience and how it's evolved I especially love that you put in leadership roles in in each of your positions actually which was great um you emphasized some really nice points in terms of what you liked about the work that you do that's not something that people always remember to include in their answers and that's a really strong point particularly you emphasize working with the public which is a great aspect to bring up because really I think keeping the patient central to all of the reasons that you'd like to become a PA is really important during these interviews and then discussing that you worked closely with the PA that she was a your mentor it's a really nice thing to show that for two years you've worked very closely with the PA and you know what their responsibilities are you understand the job reiterating I think what you like about her role and how she was able to balance their personal and professional responsibilities were awesome um the only thing I can think maybe that you might want to emphasize more is your personal background okay there wasn't a whole lot of information about you outside of your work and what you'd like to do as a PA that's not a terrible thing but it's so you know you could give them a couple more in more details on um where you come from and what your background is just in order to submit yourself in their mind ISM you know give them some details to hang on to you yeah that was interesting question that you asked because that was kind of two questions that I've prepared for mixed into one yeah you know tell me a little bit about yourself but you're like tell me a little bit about yourself and why you want to be a PA yeah so we're over shot and didn't do that about myself but I mean I can do that briefly if you like it's up to you breakfast assure yeah so I just from 28 I currently live in Hollywood California which I've been here for about six months now it's pretty you know interesting living in the big city before that I lived in Santa Barbara for the past almost seven years living and working in Santa Barbara and then before that where I'm from is up in Chico in Northern California where you know my parents my sisters still live she goes a very small town has a you know called a Chico State you know famous for being a party school so some people know about Chico State but anyways Chico's really small really friendly very nature you know lots of trees so I'm a pretty avid outdoor adventurer I like to go backpacking and camping and you know kind of risk my life on the weekend sometimes with my friends so you know I've done all sorts of crazy excursions but yeah that's you know pretty much that and then you know I've been with my girlfriend for three years it's going amazing and you know I just look forward to kind of the next step of both of our lives hopefully in you getting into PA school and you know kind of moving on with my career great yeah that's nice I like I think I like that touch of humor in there too risking your life it's nice man um I'm glad that you touched on when you said you live in Hollywood I was like man I bet that's an interesting experience and you immediately were like it's a little bit great you know it's good to craziness I imagine you see a lot of interesting things there so that's very good yeah and I hadn't you're from Chico I think we had talked about that because my husband's from Fresno and he has it so yeah I'm glad you reminded me cool I think you didn't really nicely so I know I I kind of phrase that question like that to throw candidates for a loop because usually they have practice and memorize their answers a little bit so but you did well you did nicely with both so good job um tell me if you would what you think will make you an ideal candidate for PA school um let's see so I would say that my personal qualities make me a great candidate for PA school and you know for being coming a PA I am a fairly empathetic person I can you know put myself in other people's shoes almost a little too well so when you know the patients come in they tell me what their issues are you know because I do a lot of patient intake for you know my past medical jobs and you know I really I really feel for them and I really want you know the best care that they can give and luckily it worked for two you know incredible surgeons who are you know both actually renowned for their abilities so I would say that you know it's my my compassion my empathy my my passion for medicine science my all my other passion for patient care you know I've been in patient care for six years and I couldn't really imagine working in a different field and you know other personal qualities I'm a pretty logical person I'm very good at you know complex problem solving which I think would really would have would apply nicely to you know the didactic and clinical portions of the PE program you know I'm interested in science as you can see I actually worked in a genetics research level at UCSB so you know I kind of have the I believe the intellects that it would require for your program you know because of its rigorous because of its rigorous and you know difficult nature but really it really does come down to just the fact that I am very passionate about about patient care and you know that and just kind of the the endless learning that I would have as a physician assistant know being able to switch from specialty to specialty which I've kind of done already in my you know experience as a medical assistant in phlebotomist so I mean the PA profession has really kind of drawn me to it because of how well it meshes with my personality type I think that's great um everything that you mentioned I think is really good so I won't I won't waste your time talking about all of the the things that you did well because I think if you've gotten feedback on that already you're probably in good shape unless you want me to I'm happy to do it if you anyone there's new improved because I'm not gonna lie so as long as they're flowing together well then that's great yeah no you're doing really well yeah it's not great the only thing I would add to this is um discussing your personal personal qualities is really nice and I I do want to actually touch on what I think you did that was I was standing in this part was um you mentioned that you may almost even be too empathetic with patients I think that's a really beautiful thing to say actually and it shows a lot about you you might be prepared to get a follow-up question for how you handle that if you get so emotionally invested in patients um I'm not gonna follow up with it but you might just be prepared with that um the other thing I think that you might want to address a little bit is your academic ability you you touched on it but not very much so um since we're talking about PA school you might just mention that a little bit more and how your experience in the medical field will tie into helping you as a PA student and then there was one other thing oh you might also mention something about working in a group how you feel about working in a team so that you can support in your suit your and your fellow students that kind of thing supporting me those are just things that I usually think are are nice to mention for for a question that involves PA school as well as being a PA mm-hm make sense yeah definitely okay great okay you ready for the 60 seconds timed questions yes all right do you think well they will they like you have 60 seconds to answer this question yeah I'm confused re what in a real PA school interview well okay yeah I mean it did time to time length berries but yeah you could definitely get some some time questions so I want to give you some practice with that okay I'm sorry I was confused about about how you were phrasing it no so you're gonna I'll ask a question I'll start the time as soon as you start talking and then I'll hold my hand up like that if you get close to the time length but feel free to wrap your answer up you don't have to just shut yourself down okay all right you ready um okay we'll talk about can you tell me about one of your weaknesses yeah in preparing for this interview I realized that thinking back one of my weaknesses is learning to rely on someone you know I find that whenever I'm you know in a team-based setting and I'm you know working with a new teammate where I haven't quite seen or they haven't proven their abilities yet to where I can trust them what happens is I actually kind of pick up their slack and add their work to my workload instead of asking for them to help but things that I've done to kind of counteract this is you know in my preceptor ships where I'm training new staff is that I'm you know constantly in Crete bettering training protocols and you know making things more efficient for them to be able to get up to speed quicker but then of course once somebody's up to speed it's you know kind of an exponential growth as far as teamwork goes and you know you can work almost as a mirror image with somebody who's on the same page as you mm-hmm awesome that was a really really strong answer I was concerned at first because learning to rely on others as a bra statement might be a problem like a red select a profession but the way you narrowed it down to people that you're not used to working with newer newer employees I guess people you maybe haven't experienced working with you don't know their style that's a great that's a great way of putting that because it's a very specific situation that will have an endpoint probably and I think that you explained it really well in terms of especially bringing in how you've dealt with it in the past in your leadership roles it just reminds us you have had leadership roles you've had experience you are aware of doing this and you've taken steps to correct it and it's not even hypothetical it's that you've actually done it so a very very good response cool thank you it was a great time like Stewie did you did that worked out well tell me about what your least favorite class in college was and why oh gosh I would say that my least favorite class of course is something that didn't really involve science or medicine or biology and I would say that it was my history class back my freshman year of college you know history wasn't always interesting to me but you know once I became interested in in science you know biology anatomy physiology all that everything else kinda lost a lot more of my focus so the history class when I finally picked up into sciences was really kind of you know grind nails on the chalkboard for what I wanted to learn it was just not something I was interested in that and the professor was not as enthusiastic as I would like in a class and I'm not that interested in in the first place makes sense so I think the answer was great up until the part with the professor you probably want to leave that out just because they this question and most questions that are asking you about your least favorite this or that really do you approach a situation positively or negatively so you really did a nice job of focusing that on yourself and why you gave good reasons for why it wasn't as riveting I guess as some of the other things that or the other courses you were taking those all those only perfect sense I'm sure you're right about the professor I'm totally right I had professors like that too but it's probably best not to mention it and just stick with that stick with not you and how you handle it yeah pretty much stay away from negatives right I would say so yeah nice nice job though those that was a good answer good I'm sorry good I said that's good I haven't heard that question yet you're doing really well even if you've rehearsed these responses it doesn't sound right versus adopt so yeah my responses are completely like freeform right now that's the way it should be in my opinion okay there's a push right now to change the title from physician assistant to physician associate what are your thoughts on that um well I do believe that it is something that you know would make a lot of people happier and content with their jobs there are a lot of other things about the PA profession that I think could use change but what I have learned in my personal experience is that the word assistant actually does occasionally lead a patient to kind of undermining the role of a PA both you know their their abilities their training and their you know their role in the healthcare field the word associates so similar but it doesn't quite have that same stigma so I would say that it's a harmless transition from assistant to associate you know I don't really understand why there is opposition to it other than you know certain other professions feeling threatened by somewhat of an upgrade of a title but other than that I think that it's it would be it'd be cool it would definitely be a great change for the profession okay mm so I think that's good it's a it's a good start um I was a little thrown in the beginning because you said you thought that there were other things to be more focused on but then you right into but you think it's a great idea it's a little disparate to me um it's not in a bad way just still a little jarring I guess instead on the other hand though I think you make a good case for why it's a good change to make you might want to show a little more understanding of the opposite point of view maybe destabilizing the profession people already aren't quite certain what a physician assistant is so if you change the professions name are you gonna be you know upsetting that even more those kind of things to know a little more understanding of that and then I think it's fine if you choose a side in my opinion I know some people will advise you not to but I think you're probably safe unless the school you're interviewing with has a specific standpoint on it okay so then either so basically kind of take the other person's point the other Offutt the opposition's point of view and then maybe maybe be in different um no I think you know being different if you wanted to it I have people answer that question by saying um you know they're really more invested in the work that they're doing they're not that interested in what they're called so you could what I believe yeah I think you could you could phrase it that way and be doing as long as you show good understanding of the issue and and why people who are concerned with it are concerned with it okay I think it's nice to kind of come both sides yeah yeah yeah good you okay last time dancer I actually was so caught up in what you're saying I have no idea what the time length of your answer was on that one but it seems sure okay tell me one thing about you that I won't find anywhere in your application I'm glad you asked because it is something kind of cool about where I work right now so the orthopedic surgeon that I work for he's kind of a high profile version where he you know he treats VIPs you know celebrities politicians athletes you know pretty much anybody you'd see unavailable Super Bowl game or NBA championship people like that and I actually kind of I'm on call so I can get a call at like 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning with you know from my doctor they'll say hey you know we got to go see Prince so-and-so out at so-and-so hotel and you know I pack up my bags get my scrubs on and get out there and you know we'll do an assessment and you know from there depending on what he needs I will then you know kind of need to assemble medical teams or technicians you know ultrasound Tech's whoever it may be that you know we kind of do concierge you know facilitative care so he's an orthopedic surgeon but he also works almost like an internist nice that's that's a really good response to that question because it's super interesting very different hardly anyone is going to answer in that way so nice it's a good that's a good response to that I also thought it was cool that you said I'm glad you asked because no one has ever said that to me so that's you know it is a very unique doctor and the clients that we see kind of an everyday thing and it's not really appropriate anywhere else in my application to include that information so ya know it's really neat that's very cool those kind of answers that are really specific to you unique to you I think they're great to include when you can because it's gonna ground your application in the interviewers Minds just a little bit more link link them directly to you and who you are which i think is always okay ready to transition into straight and untimed answers I'm gonna take a drink - do they allow water bottles during the interview tell me what you think is going to be your biggest challenge in PA school gosh I would say that my biggest challenge would likely be just you know dealing with the you know the into the rigorous the rigorous didactic and clinical portions of the of the program it's definitely a very serious program you know it's a bit stressed almost anywhere you read about PA school is that it's no it's two years of a pretty hardcore regimen of Education so I do know that you know for my training not training but my education ECS be you know very top-notch school with a very rigorous you know curriculum that I would likely be very well prepared for for what's to come in the PA program maybe that and during clinicals you know dealing with you know patients blood you know patients actually losing their lives or you know really kind of going through the first experiences of the real world of medicine as a provider I'd say those those two things are probably the hardest for me how do you feel you would adjust to seeing a patient lose their lives well I have actually witnessed a patient die before he you know but it was very very gentle and you know it kind of just you know died on the straight in front of us almost as if he was asleep so that was you know definitely a shock when I learned that he had passed in this setting you know I'm imagining somewhat of like an emergency room situation which I've actually done a lot of shadowing in haven't seen anyone die yet but I would say that it would definitely be an adjustment something that I would have to kind of reconcile with afterwards but you know it's it is also something that I'm completely aware of I'll be experiencing in my in my work so I would you know be affected by it at first but I would definitely be able to overcome that and realize that you know it's a learning experience each time that something like that happens mm-hmm I think that's a really nice nice response I love how you um you came back from talking about the rigor of the program you you were automatically able to say you know you went through a very rigorous undergraduate program so I think that is a nice way of saying you know you feel prepared for that I can't think of anything anything to add to that really I think he did well the only thing I I mean I I wanted to kind of give you an opportunity to practice the I you opened the door a little bit for the losing patients lives a question to be asked so I wanted to go ahead and kind of follow up you thought about that but overall great job what I did a little tip that I learned from Alba PA from the admissions board he said anytime that there is kind of a follow-up question it's typically a good thing unless they're asking for clarification you know it's he says that it's kind of like it opens a door to a conversation and you want to try and drag that conversation out as much as you can because it really shows you as a person and kind of gives you that dialogue that you would otherwise get to to display you so would you say that after your follow-up question I would say like do you find that you have any students who you know struggle with that aspect of the of your program and then okay I can ask a question after they asked me a question I think it'd be great yeah go ahead awesome read their response you know if they seem engaged with with your question then yeah I'd go without it yes as much as you can if they seem put off by it then you know pull back but if it seems awesome to me I think that's a great tip he gave you what would you do if a patient refused to be seen by you because you were a PA and not the physician I mean I've seen this countless times kind of goes with the profession you just simply say oh you know I'm I completely understand you know let me see what I can do to have the physician come in if the physician is not able to then of course we'd be happy to reschedule you so that you can come back and you know get it the evaluation that you that you need and you know for future reference we can always you know clarify that your your visits will be with the physician and not with PA and you know just very nonchalant well I mean it's just such a common to current I've seen it so many times it's just okay no problem you know justjust you the doctor you're not gonna that I'm not gonna get offended yeah nice I think that's great um you could I think your emphasis on rescheduling for the patient in even following up and saying for future reference we'll make sure to note that you see you know the physician I think that's an awesome approach you might throw the word respect for the patient's wishes you know talk about that I think patients always you know it's ultimately their choice you could throw those those words in there pacifically but i think you did a great job yeah you some people talk about you know maybe gently educating the patient um on your qualifications I think it's up to you you could if you were it comes from my experience just the majority of patients who asked to see the doctor you're pretty much not going to talk about of it mm-hmm perfect sense and the way you explained that to me the UM you spoke with confidence and such I guess um authority you knew what you were saying with you answered that question so to me your experience came through very well on that list yeah nice job um can you tell me what patient population you least like working with hmm that's a great question patient population I would say that there's not really a specific population that I dislike working with I would say that there's more of a type of patient that I would dislike working with and of course that's going to be you know the uncooperative disgruntled you know upset patient but you know my one of my strengths about me as a person in me in the medical field is that I'm likely able to kind of diffuse those types of patients I can somehow I can get them to back to kind of a fresh start and you know sympathize with them and kind of clean up all the mess that was going on the reason why they're upset and then kind of then facilitate how can we help you so yeah I couldn't say that there's a specific type of there's not a specific population that I don't like because I you know I I've seen everyone everybody's a person i I wouldn't say that I could discriminate like that mm-hmm good job I think that's a great a great response I like how you where did that and then talking about you know people who are just more difficult to deal with there there are individuals like that in every group right so um that's a perfect way of phrasing that in my mind and I I think I'm throwing in that you're good at diffusing those type of tense situations is a great approach as well so um the way that I have rerouted your questions a few times because that question is a little loaded isn't it right yet okay there's gonna be loaded questions like that mm-hmm you're supposed to go around them like that okay you're supposed to don't people don't always so it's you know it's a gauge some people will tell you so then it's up to me to kind of help them yeah okay good job on your own of doing that yeah um tell me about a time when you had to work with a supervisor that you had a disagreement or differences with oh boy well I when I was a phlebotomist I worked with I worked at a large private lab and my supervisor she was you know a little abrasive not just to me but just kinda to the staff in general but you know I mean you're gonna experience people like this in all parts of life and especially when you're working with someone who's not only your coworker but your boss you know you're just gonna you just need to be professional and with her you know I just I did my job I did everything that was asked of me I kept interactions to a minimum just to you know not instigate any issues and you know eventually at the end of it I kind of in a good way killed her with kindness kind of won her over at the end just because I never really fed into any negativity that was there great great I think that's a great approach it's not a very specific answer but I think that it's it's fine because it's sort of an ongoing situation you're really reacting to a personality trait rather than an actual specific event right to me it seems fine I think the aspect of not feeding into the negativity and really killing her with kindness is a nice it's a nice way of showing your approach to too difficult patience and it aligns well with your patient population answer as well how you are good at defusing tensions like that so makes sense wasn't specific enough oh no I don't think it's not specific enough um it's you're talking really about a personality trait so it's not something that's a that's one specific incident it's a you know something that's an ongoing situation so if you had talked about you know there was a time when your boss criticized you for something particular and you had to go back and kind of you know you could explain a situation directly like that and get into a little bit more detail in terms of how you would handle that type of conflict so if you had a situation like that you could maybe offer a little bit more detail um but your answer was okay well there was nothing wrong with it at all okay yeah first for lesser impactful questions like that one pretty much just like don't blow the answer and that's fine kidding I mean it's gonna be rare to be able to like really make a amazing stance on a question like that is that right you know it just depends I mean I've really dynamics um scenarios that they describe so yeah some people can really can really show like I had to really stand up and stand up for my patient stand up for you know something like that I had an exert well someone was um someone's physician was asking him to bill a patient for something that they hadn't actually done so wasn't dilemma so those kinds of you know those kinds of responses are actually pretty impactful yeah yeah things like that there's nothing yeah definitely you have the right approach for your response if you wanted to take it a step further you can think about maybe specific situations but okay yeah yeah all right so let's talk a little bit about the program that you're going to interview with tell me you would why you feel that programs right for you and why you're the right fit for the program um well after doing you know plenty of research on your program I've learned that your mission statement and my goals as a PA are pretty much aligned you are trying to train exceptional pas that can give back to underserved communities but you're also trying to train pas that will also give back to the Kay profession I mean since I've been involved with community service you know I've been involved with the Greeks for kids organization kind of a charity where we my friend Carl actually started it up and we you know raised thousands of dollars for Boys and Girls Club for you know small preschools around Santa Barbara County and then also I've been involved with the Greater West Hollywood soup coalition where me and my girlfriend have been you know doing dinner service so I love you know community service and it's just it's almost selfish for me because of how much I enjoyed doing it it's like you kind of take credit for giving people things I don't know it's just like I really I really enjoy it so it's kind of a guilty pleasure so giving back to the community would be would be awesome and then you know as giving back to the PA profession I would say that my long history of you know teaching and preceptorship you know when I was when I was younger I taught ballroom dancing to kids I taught yo-yo lessons believe it or not now one of my own jobs you know Saturdays I teach them yo-yo tricks and you know I was also a varsity assistant coach for the women's varsity team at my high school so I have and all of my preceptorship sat you know my previous medical jobs I just kind of have this knack for teaching enter ship so I would say that once I'm a well established physician assistant you know comfortable in my practice and my my trade that you know I could eventually start giving back either you know mentoring or assuming some sort of leadership position you know just like you know you guys are now you guys are you know teaching at a PA school which would be a pretty pretty cool experience I could definitely I always thought actually teacher so for your program there's that also I really like about your program I like the interdisciplinary learning model where you actually have your optometry students your PA students and your pharmacy students work together collaboratively on case studies which teaches each other the it teaches each other how to utilize each discipline to you know create a better health care plan for the patient I've heard plenty of times from pas and Shen and physicians in my shadowing experience that they wish they had very similar they wish they had that type of experience during their training where doctors come out of med school not really knowing how to utilize pas pas coming out of PA school not really knowing how to utilize you know pharmacists or other disciplines so I think that that would really give me an advantage as a as a PA to you know more to work more effectively as a healthcare team those are you know two pretty strong ones and then of course the last one is that your first attempt board certification pass rate is a hundred percent and has been ever since you started your program so you know I would be coming out of your program feeling pretty confident I'm not only in a past my boards but that I would be very well prepared for the real world of being a PA fantastic really specific nice job um great details in terms of what you know about the program that comes through really well so yeah I think that's great you could probably add a little bit more detail on how you might be a good fit with that particular program okay one way you might be able to tune that ism talked about you were talking about being a teacher that kind of thing you might you might think about I don't know if you are aware of something that that might be a currently used as a student in your program I'm not sure if there are organizations on campus things like that that you might be able to be a part of um okay that you could you could meld that in with or even you could talk about after you finish school trying to involve yourself in the program and continue as a source of support in some way so I think there's there's some opportunity there for you to show that you're willing to continue to invest yourself in the program specifically got it okay that's yeah that's a really good point and I do have examples that I can pull from I follow a few PA students through like social media and they're like currently in PA school and they're kind of giving tips and tips and advice for either pre PA or PA students so something like that I can touch on I guess yeah that's a great idea yeah good deal um all right I'm just gonna lay this out here's the worst question I asked I'm gonna just say it like that just to prep you for it and that way when you get this question if you do in your actual interview it's not gonna seem like a big of a deal it won't come as much of a smack in the face so if you're not accepted into this program what do you think the reason would be hmm I would say that most likely the reason I didn't get accepted is because you know I met most of the requirements but simply someone was just more qualified and I was you know I have not been interested in the PA profession since day one so you know if I were to have more time to prepare for pre PA you know to to apply to your program then I would be able to have more volunteer hours higher GPA and you know just overall breadth of experience shadowing other pas you know more experience in different fields of healthcare so I would say that you know I'm a pretty strong applicant but of course there may always be someone stronger good I think you answered that really well but I think you could tack on to the end of that statement but that's something that you can continue to build you know you're always building your skills and your qualifications and so you'll apply again and yeah I'll be a more strong applicant next cycle yeah good deal you didn't seem you didn't let that throw you it on that question yeah it's the first question I hate answering it because we've had this nice you know interview up till now and I feel like it's just a big buzz kill it's definitely a buzz kill it definitely kind of like weighs down on you yeah and I really want you I think it's so much better if I'm the buzz kill then they're the buzz kill so now you can envision my happy face apologizing for it and maybe it won't be so bad if you get that question in reality I'm sure they hate asking that question too they have to because I'm just a mock interview and I'm like boss worst okay shake it off right shake it off um is that a song I apologize if that's a pop song I feel like it might be anyway what it big it off I think so yeah all right so let's do one one less than two more questions if you've got time sound good how do you think the PA profession will change in the next 10 years I'm all the way that the PA profession has been trending I mean it's pretty much at an exponential growth you know not only by public awareness of the profession but also the need for PAS not not just PA but MPs you know mid levels as health care reform continues to reduce compensation for you know health care systems the PA is you know been tried and tested as you know very cost effective and a very cost effective resource so I would expect that you know pretty much no matter what the PA profession is just gonna keep booming there's a projected projection that I've read that you know from 2010 to 2020 2020 there's expected to be about a 58 percent increase in PAS in the country which of course is not going to nearly match that of the demand for providers in this already large deficit of primary care providers you know they expect there to be I believe gosh what was it I think it's like a 36% increase in demand because of the aging the aging population and and the increase in population so pretty much all around there's going to be a greater need for pas so I think as an as a profession we're going over but up awesome good job really great job you can you can add a few more details if you wanted to um all right but I don't know that you really need to I think you summarized it really well I've had some statistics in there too which is always a nice touch um I mean you could talk about maybe things like the number of schools growing as well more training or bringing up I don't know if it's necessary though I think your answer was nice and strong so yeah alright last question tell me about one time that you surprised yourselves oh gosh well I definitely surprised myself last summer I was up against quite a few crazy crazy transitions so last summer my girlfriend graduated from UCSB and was moving back to her parents house we'd been together for two years so I you know didn't really want to do a long-distance at that point so my lease ended up right my lease ended right around the same time so I decided to move to LA to be closer to her and with that entailed was me quitting my job being home becoming homeless finding a new job finding a new house and at the same time I was enrolled online an online class and also an online human development class so in that I was crashing on my friend's couch I applied for the first you know the first job I actually applied for is my current job now I was contacted 30 minutes later I had an interview 12 hours later I got hired right on the spot at that point I was still homeless so then I was commuting to Beverly Hills from North Hollywood which was not a fun Drive my third day work I got in a almost nearly fatal car accident I did a head-on collision total of both cars so then I am now homeless I have a brand-new job I don't have a car and I was also enrolled in school I had to rent a car I had to start you know basically picking up my responsibilities of the lead medical assistant at my new job while you know juggling this complete swirl of responsibilities having to find a new house so then I found a new apartment and moved in and you know just in the span of like two weeks I came out on top I have an amazing job work for a very well-known surgeon the very high high quality of patient care that has opened up quite a few crazy experiences so far I've landed with an amazing apartment which is only about a 15-minute drive for my work I got an a-plus in my anatomy class and I got an A in my human development class so in the midst of chaos I was still able to you know get everything done that needed to be done and you know Here I am today you know in that during the whole time I was also working on my PA school application - so I definitely surprised myself with that I didn't just drop drop everything after all that nice and that's why I got that first philosophical essay from you I'm guessing was going through all of it that's so yeah that was right when that happened I can't believe that about that car accident I'm so glad you're okay were you hurt I was yeah pretty much unscathed other than like the airbag kind of burned me a little bit but the other guy he had a very small fracture in his hand so I mean it he saw the pictures of the cars we are both extremely lucky so that you know even when I went to work that day like right after that my cuz it was you know it was my brand-new job I was like I can't just not go on my thirty my second or third day so that's amazing I'm wow I'm so glad that you're okay yeah thank you that's crazy and that's a lot to go through and come out in such a good in such a good position so I'm glad it worked out so well and it's good that you were able to kind of keep the faith and keep going with it I think it's great mm-hmm yeah and then um the whole time you're telling me that I was like this is making so much sense in terms of that first essay that I have yeah yep I think you did a great job I think you overall throughout the entire interview your good strong communicator you don't seem nervous you you are you come across as very confident and very qualified I think you have really done a great job well thank you very much that's huge so yeah I mean I luckily do have a lot of real world experience to pull from so I think that's kind of where a lot of my freeform answers came from but also I've been preparing I've been this is a packet of 20 20 pages of dense answers so even though I haven't formulated them into you know conversation I guess it just came out right now so I'm it's only gonna get better but um yeah I I'm glad that you said that I did well because I wasn't actually expecting to do as well as I did just now speaking with you for the first time yeah a really nice job so how would you say I compared to others you've interviewed yeah I think um you're right at the top of the group for sure I think oh especially in terms of how poised you are and how you're I'm not sure how to put it your experience um comes across very well so it's something to do with I'm not saying this right you have a lot of background experience right and so where some people might be nervous about talking about their experience or they they may not have quite as much to back up their qualifications you do have a lot to draw from and I think more than anything it's it seems like it comes across as just a very self-assured position not cocky or and not like that you know everything but just that you know what you know that makes sense and then it's a it's a very strong position to be in so the fact that you you really don't seem nervous at all you seem you seem like you're ready to talk and you know what you want to say and you know what you're doing what you're doing and that's I think that's a really huge thing in an interview awesome yeah so I know that I typically and one thing I was hesitant about was doing the mock interview with you because you kind of already know me a little bit yeah so I'm already I'm kind of come from more comfortable with you as it is yeah but I do tend to have kind of like a serious face and I know that PA programs are kind of looking for the applicant who's you know smiley and and everything so I tried to throw in as much you know small little tidbits of humor when I can did that kind of that come across as like I'm actually kind of like person yeah I think so it was it definitely wasn't overshadowing or overpowering rest of your conversation but yeah you didn't come across as like stiff or too serious to me oh great okay that's what I want to avoid yeah no I no I don't think so and you know you did a nice job of smiling in between times so you know throw it throw that in you know when you win it defers to you and when it's appropriate you know drop and I think you're doing just time awesome and you had some good funny moments in there too about you know risking your life on the weekend and that kinda stuff so yeah it shouldn't really be that funny but you know what I mean it was it was funny the way you said it's not funny to my mom yeah cool so the interviews over then right um yeah unless you have any other questions or anything I can help with I do have three questions just the questions because they're gonna ask do you have any questions let's see so the three questions what the number one is so I you know I'm really attracted to your program because of the interdisciplinary learning model that you have where you're you know PA and pharmacists and optometry students work together I've heard you know from providers that they wish that they had this kind of experience have you heard any feedback from any of your alumni of any one of these three programs that they feel that they have somewhat of an advantage in the field knowing how to better work with other disciplines or even the same disciplines that they worked with in their program mm-hmm that's that's a great question yeah second one is can I let me say something really quickly you might phrase that in in terms of what feedback have you gotten from alumni just see instead of leading them down the you know like how have they told you it's been helpful hmm I'm like what's what's the feedback been what kind of feedback have you that opens a little bit more for them don't probably still tell you why it's helped a little bit okay awesome that's that's really good advice the second question was I noticed that you know your first matriculating class was 27 students and if I were to get into this upcoming matriculating class it's a class size of 40 students what you know what prompted the increase in in class size you know are you trying to give back to you know are you trying to feed into the provider deficit or you know what I'm trying to I'm also still trying to formulate that question so do you think that's even a good way to get in because it's a it's a program specific question but I don't know if it's strong I'm not sure yeah I don't know either I I wouldn't tack on to tack on the are you trying to do this or that is it although that does soften a question in case they were to feel defensive about it if you don't want it to come across as sort of like a judgemental type of you know smaller class sizes are better I think so I'm not sure about that question I think maybe it resonates with you very well no I think I think it could be misinterpreted um yeah I think the other question what sets your program apart from other programs mm-hmm I think that's a good one okay I'll try and come up with one other question I was told that three is pretty much the max amount of questions that you would want to ask during that time so maybe just keep it down to two um how much the questions that you've asked me tonight are do you have a cycling amount or those like how did you get the questions that you just asked they're provided to you by the program that you work for or no I pulled them together with the PA that I work I work for basically um I did a lot of research on you know the best questions the strongest questions the most popular questions things and I just take the mix from the ones that I had culled basically so you've got a mix of some that are the most popular some that are the most challenging some that are a little off the wall I tried to just like give off a little sampling from other questions if you if he needed them yeah if you could provide me what at that list of questions that you chose from that way I can just kind of at least familiar my familiarize myself with them because I know that you definitely asked some really great questions but I know that there's still some other ones that I haven't heard yet mm-hmm you could just email me that list that'd be amazing yeah sure I don't have all of them compiled I'll email you the top yeah Oh top ones I have I have them in like a thousand different places but um the ones that I tend to rely on in interviews Ollie million good yeah definitely one final question feedback from your previous mock interviewees you know how often they're accepted in or they're doing really well actually they're all doing well yeah I mean I don't always hear back from everybody but I've heard I've heard from several and they've gotten in or gotten additional interviews but I've heard from several and they've gotten they've gotten in they've done really well I'm so proud and it makes me so excited every time I hear that's a boy look at what I'm doing right now it's because of your help with my personal statement also you edited myself yeah oh it's for this school huh yeah the marshal be Ketchum yeah awesome asleep though I kind of owe it to you so far and I honestly think that you are very well you're very knowledgeable about the whole thing so I think I'm pretty pretty happy that you got to help me with this so I really appreciate it Thank You Taylor that's so nice I really enjoyed working with you aye IRA telling my husband before we got our knock collars like this is the only plant I've ever hung up on I'm so glad I get to talk to you in person okay I have ten seconds edited it was such a fun experiment was horribly stressful and I know it was worse for you but it was it was actually really fun to be in that last minute like well you nailed it I mean it sounds perfect so gosh you're your miracle worker yeah I had good material to work with you're gonna say you sent me was good yeah well Sarah thank you so much I will definitely let you know how it goes and you know if it all goes well then you know you'll see mean PA school and yeah fingers crossed yeah I think you're gonna do really well I got a good feeling about it for you Oh perfect thank you yeah I'm sorry go ahead I just sayin have a great night thank you for your time yeah you too just so you know I'll send you this link tonight I'm gonna let it upload and tuck my kids in but you know I'll send it to you awesome no rush Thanks take care the interview oh thank you settlements right good night

Channel: The Physician Assistant Life

Views: 30,085

Rating: 4.9178081 out of 5

Keywords: PA, Physician Assistant, Interview, Mock Interview, NP, Nurse Practitioner, Pre-PA, Future PA, Questions, Analysis, Critique, Commentary, Practice

Id: LmFnogm1UkQ

Length: 59min 6sec (3546 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 12 2018