7 Ways to Stand Out in Your Adult Speech Pathology Job Interview
So, you’re in your final year of Speech Pathology university studies. You’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to finish off those last few assignments and exams while juggling the job hunt. Especially when there are students from many different universities looking at the same jobs you are, it can feel daunting going into a job interview with a potential employer!
We want to help you succeed in your job search so that you can find your ideal new graduate role and stand out in your adult Speech Pathology job interview. We’ve been supporting adults and adolescents in North Brisbane for over 10 years, and with that experience, we’ve gained some helpful insights into what makes a new graduate stand out in the interview stage.
If you would like to work with adults and adolescents after you graduate, potentially in a mix of in-clinic and community speech therapy sessions, this blog will help to set you up for your next interview.
7 Ways to Stand Out in Your Adult Speech Pathology Job Interview
1. Do your research
If you are particularly interested in a company, the best thing to start with is a little info-gathering. Head over to their website and see if they have any information about what they offer in terms of Speech Pathology careers. You might also want to have a look at their social media to get a sense of what their time is like and the things they are passionate about.
2. Be honest and transparent
At Speak and Swallow, we firmly believe that new graduate Speech Pathologists should not be expected to know everything. While you’ll have learned a lot on placement and at uni, you shouldn’t feel like you need to pretend like you know it all already. One of the most important things to demonstrate in your adult Speech Pathology interview is your willingness to learn, as well as honesty and transparency around your clinical knowledge. If there’s an area you didn’t get much exposure to on placement and you’d like to learn more on the job, say so! This shows integrity and honesty.
3. Share your interest areas
While you might not know exactly what you’d like to do as a Speech Pathologist when you graduate, we’re willing to bet that while on placement or during your studies you came across topics or a range of practice areas that interest you a little more than the rest.
As you get ready for your adult speech pathology job interview, take a moment to think about which range of practice areas are interesting to you – or even which client populations. Better yet, take a look at the employer’s website and see what their areas are and if there is a match up. By sharing some of your interest areas during the interview stage, you can showcase your passion for the profession and spark a conversation about the professional development and supervision opportunities that will be available to you if you choose to accept an offer from that particular employer.
4. Ask questions
It’s easy to spend so much time thinking about how you’ll respond to questions that you forget to think of a few to ask your potential employer! If you’re tossing up a couple of job opportunities, having questions up your sleeve to help you decide which role will be the best fit for you is a smart way to prepare.
For example, you might be tossing up a few private practice roles. It’s worth asking if there are KPIs, and if so, how many clients you’d be expected to see in a day. Unfortunately many new graduates fall into the trap of working long hours with back to back clients straight out of uni – it’s a fast way to burnout, and something you’ll definitely want to avoid.
5. Think about what you did well and what you learned from placement
It’s a tale as old as time – one of the most dreaded questions across job interviews – ‘tell me about a time where something didn’t go to plan…’. Since this question is likely to pop up in some form during your adult speech pathology job interview, it’s best to be prepared.
To make sure what you share is relevant to the role you’ll be interviewing for, try to think of examples from your adult speech pathology placements at university. You might have to do some serious reflection to get a few examples that you can choose from when in the interview, but it’ll be well worth it! If you’ve been using clinical reflection tools throughout your studies you might even have some reflective writing that you can look back on to jog your memory here.
Of course, do your best to be succinct when sharing these reflections – you don’t need to go into detail, just pull out the key things that you did well and a few things that you learned from that helped you to grow as a clinician.
6. Prepare some answers to common questions
This point kind of leads on from our last, but it really is something to think about as you prepare for adult speech pathology job interviews. You’ve got to go into these experiences prepared to share – you’ll likely be asked a whole range of questions from those that are more case-based to gauge your clinical knowledge through to personal and job related questions. It might help to write down some initial answers or dot points to help you prepare for the different things you’ll be asked about.
7. Follow up
Something that is often forgotten after a job interview is the follow up – particularly from those who’ve been interviewed! If you got a really good vibe from the employer that interviewed you, and you feel they’d be a great match for you upon graduation, there’s no harm in following up afterwards.
A brief email is often the best way to go about this, simply sharing your thanks for the opportunity and perhaps asking any follow up questions that you may have thought of after the fact to re-open the discussion. At the very least, this initiative will keep your name in your potential’s employer’s mind.
We hope you’ve found this blog helpful. If you’re currently tossing up if working as an adult-focused Speech Pathologist is right for you, head on over to our other blog post to find out why our team love it so much.