New grad questions for employers

[JAmueller]

Please recommend the best questions you've got for new grads to ask of their potential employers during interviews (or, point me in the direction of another forum post that contains these). Thanks!

[68WEMTto65DPAC]

Pre-PA here so don't really have much to recommend, but at least let readers know what specialties/settings you're interested in so they can best help you.

[sas5814]

Its a hard one to answer because there are so many variables.

First research the org you are interviewing with. Know their mission statement and something about key players (Department Chief for your potential department, Chief of Staff, CEO). You may or may not get a chance to speak about any of these things but , if the opportunities present, having some knowledge of the organization shows you are interested and have done some research. For instance when asked if you have any questions you could say something like "I read that your mission statement says Blah. How is that implemented in this practice?" or "I read that Dr Smith has a particular interest in SUBJECT. Is that something I might be involved in?" 

Drill down some on the actual duties of the position. Get specifics about orientation and train up. This is particularly important to a new grad or someone who is wholly new to a discipline. How many patients is a typical day? How do they handle "walk ins"? Get specifics about your support and back up during your ramp up. Who will be available to answer questions? How long will you shadow before seeing your own patients and then how many how fast? How many providers are at work on a given day? Will they all be supportive if you need help or have questions or is one or 2 people primarily?" Basically you don't want to get thrown in the deep end without training and back up. Believe me it happens all too often.

Ask about opportunities for professional growth. Will I learn procedures? Will I get a chance to go to training or seminars specific to my discipline? Be eager to learn and grow. Let them know you know learning never stops.

When the time is right you will want specifics about hours including weekends, call, holidays and OT. This isn't something that should come up early in the process but, if they bring it up, then they have mentally moved on to another stage of the interview. Be polite but make sure you get SPECIFICS. Ultimately if it isn't written down and signed by everyone it doesn't exist.

Be personable and eager to learn and grow. Don't try to have a bunch of canned answers. You should have a general idea how to answer common things like "tell me about yourself" or "what are your goals in your career" but you want to sound natural and interested. Don't over prepare.

 

That is all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck!

[ventana]

1) have you hired new grad PA before

2) what is your retention rate for new grad PA at 1,3,5 years

3) what is the set up for OJT and mentoring

4) who exactly will be my mentor, have they mentored new PA before

5) talk to current PAs at the facility and see what expectation for taking work home is....

[SedRate]

Good advice and suggestions in the posts above.

I would add:

1. "Who will be my direct supervisor (is it a nurse, admin, doc, etc?) and team?" Speak with those people and ask them questions. 

2. If it's a surgical specialty, ask about that setup: "will I be working with multiple or one surgeon," "will I be expected to take PTO at the same time as the surgeon," call expectations (first call vs second call vs floor/nursing call vs OR only call vs office call) and reimbursement, duties such as OR vs clinic vs consults/rounds, etc.

3. "Why are you hiring?" (To fill vacancy, practice growth, or additional coverage needed?) Ask follow-up questions to figure out: Are they overworking their current staff and need to hire more to relieve the burden? Are they experiencing turnover and have recurrent vacancies? 

4. If they have difficulty answering your questions, that's a red flag because A., There's disconnect between the hiring personnel and actual team and there will likely be dysfunction and miscommunication about your actual job, and B., they don't have a plan or idea about your role or how to successfully onboard/retain workers which could mean dysfunction, changing duties, poor support, etc. 

Edited January 20 by SedRate