Situational style interview questions

[DentalPal]

I just wanted to get some feedback from predental and dental students about what would be the best way to answer situational style interview questions. Should you try to clarify the situation with the interviewer first or should you make assumptions and state them as you answer? Does anyone have tips?

 

Thanks very much

[azila]

I just wanted to get some feedback from predental and dental students about what would be the best way to answer situational style interview questions. Should you try to clarify the situation with the interviewer first or should you make assumptions and state them as you answer? Does anyone have tips?

 

Thanks very much

 

At my school, they were looking more for your thought process and your ability to see the potential factors that influence the situation than your actual answer to the question. Rather than making assumptions, I chose to state the additional information that I was considering so the interviewer knew that I had thought of it.

For example, a typical question might be that you have a friend that doesn't take care of their child's oral health, what do you do? Points that you may have to consider here may be: can she afford dental care? are there programs in the community to help her? Does she not understand the importance? Does she not have time to take her child in? Is she too stressed/prioritizing other issues? Is there anything I can do to help make things easier, such as taking her child to the dentist for her? Etc etc. Once I have considered these factors, I try to apply logic based on the information given to me and formulate a plan of action that way. For example: the fact that your friend came to you about her child's oral health tells me that she does care about her child (rather than neglect) and is reaching out for help. Because of this, I feel that the best approach to take would be letting her know that she is being a good parent by addressing the issue (it can be a hard and embarrassing thing to do), explaining to her the gravity of the situation, and offering to help her with the barriers that she is facing, blah blah blah you get the point lol.

Just as a tip, I tried sprinkle in dentistry tidbits that I know such as what oral appearance can tell you about the whole body and community programs. Interviewers are usually faculty, community dentists, students, and other dental professionals and they like to know that you cared enough to do some research on the basics.

I hope that this helps! Just practice your critical thinking and timing. They know that you are nervous and there are usually strategies in place to help you out, like prompts that they are allowed to say if you freeze. Stand by your answers, but don't be afraid to reevaluate your answer if you missed a large glaring point and then realized it changes everything (it happens, you're stressed).

 

Good luck!

[DentalPal]

Thank you. This is very helpful!