Interview Questions

Student Name: Jon Mendicelli

Date: April 30, 2019
Desired Position: Physical Therapist Assistant
Organization White House Medical Unit

Instructions:
● Provide your best response to a minimum of ten of the following interview questions.
● Students should follow the STAR method when providing their best possible response.
○ Situation: Present a situation or challenge you recently faced.
○ Task: Describe the task/goal you were trying to achieve in that situation.
○ Action: Describe the action you took to attempt to resolve the situation (who, what, where,
why, or how)
○ Result: Describe the result/outcome of the situation and what you learned from the
experience.
● Complete the following assignment.

Interview Question Best Possible Response

Describe your career interests, goals,
and qualifications for this position.
Why are you interested in working for
our organization?
How has your education and training
prepared you for this position?
During my time in the military I experienced many chronic pain
conditions due to overuse and the development of muscular
imbalances. Attempting to heal myself on my own is what led me
to my personal and career interests of learning more about proper
body mechanics and rehabilitation of the physical body. As a
licensed PTA, I want to continue providing a public service to my
country by providing rehab services to the President of our United
States and his staff.
Although I very much enjoy my current job in the hospital setting, I
believe working for the White House will provide a greater sense
of purpose for me by reuniting me with the military population
that I love and respect.
Although my passion for rehabilitation existed when I was in the
military, the limits of my job prevented me from exploring the
profession from an academic side. By separating from the military,
I was able to attend school and receive a license to assist in the
rehab of people. Having both the military exposure and the
academic knowledge of rehab, I will be able to relate to my
patient population better than a candidate with only one of those
achievements.
Describe a situation in which you have
attempted to overcome a work-related
weakness?
What do you like most about your
current job or a previous job?
What would you change?
Tell me about a time you worked within At my current job we had a particularly complex and time-
a team or group to accomplish a task or consuming patient. Because of her multiple comorbidities,
goal.
What expectations do you have for
your place of employment? For your
supervisor?
Describe a situation in which you had to In my previous job I had a coworker who was behind on their
solve a problem for a coworker?
When I first started my current job, I was struggling to remember
a specific step in one of my tasks. After being reprimanded a
couple times by my supervisor, I asked them for some help. I
explained that while I was comfortable with most of the task, I just
couldn’t remember this one thing. To help my understanding, the
supervisor put the task into a greater context of the treatment we
were providing. Asking for help allowed my supervisor to educate
me on an area that I was lacking performance. This new context
resulted in me not forgetting the step anymore.
In my current job, every member of the care team works together
to provide patient-centered care. When one colleague is bogged
down the others pick up the slack. Developing this selfless type of
work community is critical to a highly efficient workplace, and is
the responsibility of every member.
coupled with her arriving late for treatment, every member of our
rehab team had to work together to provide a quality treatment
within a shortened amount of time. We accomplished this by
developing a quick outline of the patient’s treatment and all of our
responsibilities throughout said treatment. Using concise
communication and focusing on my specific task, knowing that my
coworkers would complete their tasks, we were able to effectively
treat the patient with the short timeframe.
In the past I have had supervisors who are only concerned with
the bottom line, or pleasing their superiors. I feel this often leads
to a toxic work environment and worse quality production from
the team. With the goal of achieving a peaceful and productive
work environment, I expect clear expectations from my
supervisors regarding how they will measure my success, and I
expect my supervisors to hold themselves accountable for their
actions and not deflect fault onto their subordinates.
work. Unless they got all of it done by the close of business, they
would be coming into work on their weekend day off to finish up.
Because I was already done with my work, I was able to help them
complete all of their work by close of business, and as a result my

What would your current (or previous)
supervisor tell me about you?
What motivates you to do your best?
coworker got to spend their off days with family, relaxing.
My current supervisor would tell you that I am selfless and
committed to our patients. Because of our tight time-restraints
from upper management, we are often faced with the decision to
either stay later (off-clock) to finish everything, or leave on time
and forego doing something that would enhance the patient’s
treatment. I will often stay a little later if it ensures the patient’s
treatment will not be prolonged.
Working in the military, I had many bosses, all with differing
leadership styles. I found that the ones I wanted to work hardest
for were the ones that gave recognition for good work, but also
held me fairly accountable for poor work. This, in turn, taught me
to show appreciation towards my leaders when they enhanced my
learning and to also hold them accountable for times when they
made mistakes. This type of relationship is what motivates me to
do my best.