Mock Interview for Zelle Cash

[Psych2025]

Hi there!,

I am getting ready for my Pre doctoral interviews at 3 VA's and one Kaiser so far for general and Geropsychology tracks. I was hoping if there are ANy psychologist out there who are willing to give me a mock interview I will gladly appreciate that!!

Sincerely,

PsyGirl. please send me a message and I will email you to set it up! my first Interview is second week of December!

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[summerbabe]

If you don't know already, the VA does performance based interviewing so all candidates will receive the same questions and be judged according to a pre-determined rubric with specific performance related criterion.

Each site gets to choose which questions they ask and their criterion but VA interviews should feel pretty similar across sites.

Broadly speaking, have lot of behavioral examples prepared related to clinical experience, teamwork, and navigating conflict ('Tell me about a time when.....and what was the eventual outcome?") as well as generic questions like 'tell me about your dissertation and your current progress".

Lots of great info here that should help you identify the types of likely questions you'll receive for a VA gero position:
https://www.va.gov/PBI/Prepare.asp
VA.gov | Veterans Affairs

Good luck!

 

[Psych2025]

@summerbabe this is incredible!

If you don't know already, the VA does performance based interviewing so all candidates will receive the same questions and be judged according to a pre-determined rubric with specific performance related criterion.

Each site gets to choose which questions they ask and their criterion but VA interviews should feel pretty similar across sites.

Broadly speaking, have lot of behavioral examples prepared related to clinical experience, teamwork, and navigating conflict ('Tell me about a time when.....and what was the eventual outcome?") as well as generic questions like 'tell me about your dissertation and your current progress".

Lots of great info here that should help you identify the types of likely questions you'll receive for a VA gero position:
https://www.va.gov/PBI/Prepare.asp
VA.gov | Veterans Affairs

Good luck!

This is incredible information! I really appreciate it! May I ask, How did you field case vignette questions?

 

[msc545]

Hi there!,

I am getting ready for my Pre doctoral interviews at 3 VA's and one Kaiser so far for general and Geropsychology tracks. I was hoping if there are ANy psychologist out there who are willing to give me a mock interview I will gladly appreciate that!!

Sincerely,

PsyGirl. please send me a message and I will email you to set it up! my first Interview is second week of December!

I will do that for you.

 

[summerbabe]

Ppl p

@summerbabe this is incredible!

This is incredible information! I really appreciate it! May I ask, How did you field case vignette questions?

Questions are gonna be pretty straight forward (what’s your theoretical orientation and describe a case where you applied this? Describe a challenging case and the barriers you encountered and the ultimate outcome).

I think it helps a ton to practice these out loud, especially if you have cohort members who are also applying.

You can gather/brainstorm some possible questions, spend some time thinking about how you’d rather/writing down bullet points and then practice with others.

A lot of VA interviews will be 5-7 questions so you’ll want to find a balance between being overly detailed or potentially too tangential and being too brief and not effectively highlighting your skills. So that takes practice, which you can totally begin right now. Good luck!

 

[cotn_psych]

One question from interviewers that you'll get a lot is "do you have any questions?". One of the things that students don't prepare enough is asking their own questions. A lot of internship interviews are for you to gather information rather than them assessing your aptitude. The interviewer will have done that already by looking at your application or hasn't looked at your application at all. Have a bank of specific questions about the site that shows your interest, and don't stop asking questions until the interviewer quite literally ends the interview and kicks you out of the office.

 

[cara susanna]

If you don't know already, the VA does performance based interviewing so all candidates will receive the same questions and be judged according to a pre-determined rubric with specific performance related criterion.

Each site gets to choose which questions they ask and their criterion but VA interviews should feel pretty similar across sites.

Broadly speaking, have lot of behavioral examples prepared related to clinical experience, teamwork, and navigating conflict ('Tell me about a time when.....and what was the eventual outcome?") as well as generic questions like 'tell me about your dissertation and your current progress".

Lots of great info here that should help you identify the types of likely questions you'll receive for a VA gero position:
https://www.va.gov/PBI/Prepare.asp
VA.gov | Veterans Affairs

Good luck!

I don't really think that psychology training programs use PBI, though. At least, the sites I've been at haven't.

 

[PsyDuck90]

I don't really think that psychology training programs use PBI, though. At least, the sites I've been at haven't.

That’s interesting. I interviewed at a lot of VAs for internship and postdoc and every one of them used PBIs (I’m currently on postdoc). In my experience, the AMCs I interviewed at were more a mix of whether they used PBIs or not.

 

[WisNeuro]

Haven't been at the VA for more than 5 years now, but we did not use PBI for trainee interviews, but did for faculty. At another site I was at, we had some PBI type things, but I always just marked satisfactory and asked the questions I wanted to anyways.

 

[summerbabe]

Interesting, my recollection of every VA trainee interview that I had was PBI (but I could be wrong). And every interview I've been the interviewer across 3 sites used PBI.

But perhaps there's more variety across programs.