To Emmz and Gaby
I really wish you both good luck with your interviews. Please let us know how they go!
I once had an interview with three people. When I walked in the room, two were sat in front of me, and one chair was placed about two feet behind me to the right. I took hold of the chair I was meant to sit on and said "are we playing power games with the chairs?". The guy who was going to sit behind me apologised and sat at the front. I hoped that showed them I could be assertive and confident, but not rude, as I said it in a kind of jokey way!
I'm not saying you should be as direct as this, as you are both young and will be obviously nervous.
One of the things that seemed to impress them, was that I put on my application that I felt my experience in retail and hospital pharmacy complimented each other well. They were very keen for me to expand on this, and I went into things I had done in the hospital that I had learned from retail. I talked about when I did a small presentation to a group of mental health nurses, about the facilities that were available to some of their drug abusing patients once they had left the hospital, things like that.
Remember to try to sound keen and willing to learn. Convince them that you can make decisions, take responsibility and so on. Do not be afraid to ask a couple of decent questions - they will expect it. Ask some even if you know the answer! Ask about their aseptic procedures for example, show them you understand the importance of this kind of work. Ask if you can get involved in things, like TPN, cytotoxic drug dispensing, chemotherapy, anything you can think of.
Most important try to stay calm and relaxed. Obviously you will be nervous, so keep a check on your breathing - calm yourself down with some deep breaths before you go in. Greet them with a smile and a nice firm handshake. If they ask you something you don't know the answer to, don't panic. Chances are a lot of other people also didn't know the answer. Just admit you don't know, and explain to them why you think it is so important and necessary to not to attempt to guess the answers on these matters. I have seen many nurses give patients the totally wrong advice on drugs, because they obviously didn't know the answer, so just made it up. Anything you get stuck on try to turn into a positive reply. Let them know you know where to find the answer, and how you would go about doing so. Try to turn any negatives into positives.
Go get em.............
