Top 5 Occupational Therapy Band 5 Interview questions

So, today we are looking at the top Occupational Therapy Band 5 Interview questions. As usual, if you have any queries or you would like our help understanding how you can answer these questions to the best of your ability, have a look at what we can do to help.

Top 5 Occupational Therapy Band 5 Interview questions

1- The settling in question

These will generally be the first formal question(s) that you get asked at the start of the interview. They generally take the form of:

Can you talk me through your application form and highlight some of your key experience?

Can you talk us through your current role?

Good interviewers will use these types of question to help you settle in. We understand that you will be nervous. We also understand that if we can help you get over your nerves we will see much more of the real you and what you are capable of. That is really what we really want to see. The person who will be in our teams day in … day out. Don’t be fooled though, these sorts of questions are still important to answer well and positively to demonstrate just how well you fit the job. Make sure that you take the opportunity to settle in but focus on the experiences that really are applicable to the post. If these are limited make sure that you draw parallels / transferable skills from the experiences you have gained so far.

2 – The interview case study

In its simplest form the interview case study will look something like this:

Mr Jenkins is a 72 year old man who has been admitted following a fall at home. He has sustained a fractured humerus but no other significant injuries. His daughter, who lives over 100 miles away is concerned that he is not coping. Describe your OT intervention?

This is your opportunity to demonstrate just how much you have learned over the last 2,3 or 4 years depending on your course. These types of questions are designed to see how you would perform in real life. You need to make sure you answer it that way. Don’t assume that the panel will fill in your blanks because we are all OTs and we know what we do. Your job is to convince them that you know what you are doing and can do it safely. If I was to make a call, this is probably the most common of all the Occupational Therapy Band 5 interview questions.

 

3 – Interview questions about you

These are often the sorts of questions that most people fear the most. and include the infamous:

Describe your strengths and weaknesses

It may surprise you to know that we really do want to know what you perceive your strengths and weaknesses to be. A reflective practitioner who is aware of what they are good at and where they need to develop is a real asset. We are not looking for someone who tries to disguise a strength as a weakness. For instance, the classic suggestion that weaknesses are ‘working too hard’ or being a perfectionist.

 

4- Values based interview questions

Increasingly used in NHS interviews ‘values based interview questions‘ take the form of asking you how you have responded to situations. They may take the form of:

Tell us about a time when you have had a disagreement with a peer

The focus is to explore the values that underpin and drive our behaviour. The rationale being that if an organisation can recruit staff with the right values they will strive to do the right thing regardless of their level of knowledge or what a prevalent culture is. The reasoning as to why this is important following some of the NHS scandals around care and dignity are easy to understand.

 

5 –  Occupational Therapy Band 5 interview questions that address competency

These questions are designed to explore technical aspects of your profession. They will generally relate to the specific areas that you have applied for. In practice, they tend to be more general for rotational posts than for static posts. For example:

For a rotational post

How would you evaluate the outcome of your interventions?

For static posts

How could you evaluate the effectiveness of OT in a community mental health setting?

One is not necessarily easier than the other. Both will be investigating your understandings of the use of outcome measures, but you will have much more flexibility in your answer for the first type of question. You can pull from any area of experience that you have used outcome measures by way of illustration. You will still obviously need to be able to name some, identify how they could be used in practice and understand the limitations, strengths and weaknesses of each one you discuss. However, for the latter post, you had better make sure that you are familiar with specific tools used in these sorts of services.

 

So there you have it … the most common occupational therapy band 5 interview questions. Hopefully this should give you some guidance about how to prepare for your next interview. We genuinely believe that we can make you a better interview candidate if you have any concerns.