Prepare for your VA interview with our helpful guide
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Posted By: Reginald Culpepper on January 09, 2025 So, you’ve made it through the application, the screenings, and all that paperwork to finally sit down for an interview with a recruiter. You’ve been selected out of hundreds—sometimes thousands—of candidates, and at VA, we know that’s quite an accomplishment, no matter your field. However, as you prepare for that interview, you may be worried about what kind of questions you’ll be asked, and how you can give the best answers. With that in mind, we’d like to give you a leg up on the competition and explain the kind of interview you can expect at VA. What you learn from a few minutes here with us will serve you well in your career. Performance-based interviews Let’s get this out of the way right up front: a VA interview isn’t going to be like a typical interview. While our team may ask you to tell them about yourself, or even pull out one of your least favorite interview questions, the majority of your interview is going to focus on practical experience. At VA, we use a performance-based interview (PBI) process, just like many other industries. With these kinds of questions, we’re going to ask you to describe what you’ve done in a specific but broadly applicable situation. We’ll present a scenario and ask you to tell us what you did in that instance. For example, we may ask you about explaining a difficult concept to a patient, or how you dealt with conflicting priorities from managers. We may ask you how you addressed a disagreement with a coworker, or how you stepped up and took charge of a situation. All of these questions are PBI questions. Rather than asking you to discuss a hypothetical situation, we want you to pull your answer from a particular moment in your career that best illustrates how you succeeded in that situation. And when we say “career,” that doesn’t just mean a job. If you have volunteered, worked an internship, or even just contributed to a class project, that’s experience you can leverage for your answers. Up to PAR To make the best impression in a PBI, it helps to have in-depth, complete responses that offer insight into not only your accomplishments or your shortcomings but how you achieved your successes and responded to your failures. So, let’s introduce another acronym to the mix: PAR. PAR is a device to help you remember how you want to respond to a performance-based question. It stands for:
PBI questions hinge on a storytelling component to effectively judge a response. Remember, you’re not talking about a hypothetical situation. Rather, you’re pulling from your vast wealth of experience to answer the question. However, as you answer, you may find yourself tempted to go into greater depth than is warranted as you try to explain a situation. Using the PAR acronym reminds you to focus your answer on the “problem” you encountered, the “action” you took, and the “results” you experienced. To keep with the storytelling metaphor, make sure your answer has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Don’t let your answer leave your interviewer with more questions. If you can get your answers “up to PAR,” you’re well on your way to a successful interview. Not modest, but honest When approaching your interview, your PAR responses will help you structure your answers and present your best self to your interviewer. You’ll be able to tell your story in a clear, concise way that speaks volumes about who you are as a candidate and why you’re the best person for the job. As you answer your questions, don’t be modest. This is your interview, and you’ve earned the chance to brag about your skills and accomplishments. Enjoy your moment in the limelight. But remember to be honest in your responses, too. Don’t embellish your answers, because an exaggeration in your interview will catch up to you eventually. It’s better to be honest from the start and manage expectations. Work at VA When you interview with us, tell your story and give your interviewer a clear picture of what you bring to the table.
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Reginald Culpepper
President, Fulfillment and Web Services, HBCUCONNECT Clark Atlanta University class of 1998 Member Since September 2000 |
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