Think back to all the time, effort and hard work you put into earning your certifications.
Now . . . take a deep breath and sit down.
Are you ready for a brutal truth about flight interviews?
Here goes: Your skill as a medic or nurse can only hurt you in a flight interview. Yep, you read that right – hurt you!
Why Skill Doesn’t Matter In A Flight Interview
Let’s be very clear. Earning a flight crew job is a step-by-step process. The flight interview is just one of the steps in the process.
The reason your medical skill doesn’t matter in a flight interview is because your skill level is reviewed long before the flight interview.
In essence, if you’re invited to interview, you already passed the skill review part of the test. Based on your resume and qualifications, assumptions about your skill level are already made.
Think about it. Would a flight program waste time and money interviewing candidates they didn’t already believe were medically qualified? Of course not.
This is the exact reason why medical qualifications will not help you during a flight interview.
But your training (or lack of) can hurt you. . .
Here’s A Scenario Based Question For You
During a flight interview, an air ambulance program manager wants to simulate the stressful environment many of her flight paramedics and nurses work in every day. How does she do it?
Easy. She sets up a panel of interviewers who intentionally ask questions beyond the known skill level of interviewees.
The idea isn’t so much to test medical knowledge as it is to see how applicants react to stress.
Again, let’s be very clear.
If every medical answer you give is completely wrong, then of course you hurt your chances for selection.
But if every medical answer you give is spot-on correct and you completely ‘wig out’ over the stress, you probably hurt your chances even more.
Do you see the real purpose of medical questions in an interview? It’s to see how well you work and play with others and react to stress. It’s not about your medical certifications.
What Does Matter In A Flight Interview
Likeability, personality and uniqueness.
Success in an interview is all about getting your interviewer to visualize you on their team.
How do you do that?
Start by being a good listener. Then look for similarities between your own experience and your interviewer’s experience. Every time you answer a question highlight the similarities between your experiences.
How To Stand Out In A Crowd
Remember that uniqueness is about how you do things.
For example, lots of professionals teach at one time or another during their careers. Teaching, in and of itself, is not unique.
What makes a teacher unique is how they teach and the unique results they achieved. How many people have you personally helped advance their EMS careers? What is it about teaching that makes you a better nurse or medic? Get the idea?
Relax and remind yourself the flight program has already deemed you worthy by inviting you to an interview. The flight interview is nothing more than your opportunity to prove the flight program made a good decision.
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Clear Skies & Tailwinds,
Fly-write
For more tips and advice on how to get a flight job, click here.
