10
Tough Interview Questions
Well, I attended California State University,
Northridge and earned my bachelors of science degree in kinesiology 2004, as
well as my California teaching credential in physical education in 2006. I
taught middle school physical education for eight years at San Fernando Middle
School where I worked with a team that focused on raising the health and fitness
levels of the students. For example, when I arrived at that school, only 23% of
the students were passing the FitnessGram assessment, which is a national
fitness assessment that measures health and fitness of youngsters. Together
with a team of teachers within the physical education department, developed a
strength and conditioning program for our students that we implemented on a
daily basis. The result was 65% of our students passing the FitnessGram
assessment in the first two years. From there, I went to San Fernando High
School to work as the athletic trainer for their athletic teams. When I arrived
at San Fernando High School, I was brought in to help reduce the number of
injuries occurring in their student-athletes. When I arrived there were
injuries occurring in 52% of their student-athletes. To decrease that number, I
developed and implemented strength and conditioning programs for each team
aimed at reducing and preventing injuries. The result was a decrease in
injuries from 52% to 19% in the first year alone.
I think your organization should hire me
because I’m the best person for the job. I feel that I am the best person for
the job for several reasons. Your organization is looking for an athletic
trainer that can join the Injury Prevention Team, as well as help educate your
patients about injury treatment and prevention. I believe that my experience in
education where I was able to increase the number of students passing the
FitnessGram assessment shows my ability to teach and implement strength and
conditioning programs. Further, my background working as an athletic trainer in
high school where I was able to develop and implement programs and decrease the
number of injuries speaks to my abilities to fit in with the Injury Prevention
Team. Additionally, I am passionate
about what my profession and will work to be nothing short of the best at what
I do.
My focus here is to be the best athletic
trainer you have here at Select Medical, within three years. Keeping in mind
that I am part of a team, I want to be the best teammate on the Injury
Prevention Team. I want to create a program here that can be considered first
class when it comes to injury treatment and prevention, as well as educating
our patients. Additionally, I would like to expand the program’s reach to
include all forms of rehabilitation, including physical, occupational, and
recreational therapy. To prepare myself I am continuing to develop
professionally by staying updated and proficient in all the current research
data and treatment techniques.
My education has played a key role in
preparing me for my career. Earning my bachelors of science in kinesiology has
educated me in the key elements of how to treat and prevent injuries,
developing strength and condition programs, and the necessary steps to
implement those programs. This was solidified during my last college semester
while I was doing my internship hours for athletic training, working with and
learning from professionals in the field. Additionally, while earning my
teaching credential, I was able to learn and hone my pedagogical skills. This
is where I learned how to develop lessons, ideas, or concepts and clearly
convey those to students. Those skills were further developed while I was doing
my student-teaching hours during the last semester of earning my credential. I
was able to work with veteran teachers that were able to mentor me and help me
develop and polish my teaching skills. I feel the combination of my athletic
training and my teaching background uniquely prepares me for this job.
Yes, I am absolutely a team player. I feel as
though in each phase of my education and career I have been a team player and
my background illustrates that. While I was teaching middle school physical
education, I had to work with a team of teachers to achieve the goal of raising
our fitness test scores. As the department chair, I had to consider the
feelings, ideas, and opinions of all the teachers in the department and work
with them to come to a consensus. We were able to that and significantly raise
the test scores. While working as an athletic trainer in a high school setting,
I had to work with various coaches, student-athletes, and parents to help treat
and prevent various injuries and decide the best course of action for the
student-athlete. This approach helped significantly reduce the injuries
sustained to student-athletes. I’m a firm believer that the strength of the
team is increased when everyone is on the same page and transparency is
paramount.
When working with a team, I believe there are
going to be differences of opinions and sometimes a little bit of conflict
within the team. When I was working in middle school and the physical education
department was given the task of raising fitness scores for the students, we
had to develop a plan of action that would help us achieve our goal. There were
some teachers that believed we should spend half of the time educating the
students through writing and discussion and the other half through physical
training. The other half of teacher believed we could simultaneously educate
them while physically training them. It was a bit contentious, as each side
believed their approach was most effective. As the chair of the department, it
was up to me to help the department come to a consensus. My first step was to
remind everybody of what our ultimate goal was, which was to raise scores. My
second step was to have the department take a realistic look at our resources
and the time frame we were working with. We only had about four months to
achieve this goal, which is not a lot of time when you’re talking about
developing and implementing a system with so many students. I suggested that,
given the limited amount of time, we could use our shortened days, which was
every Tuesday, as our writing/discussion days, and use the other days to
physically train them. After looking at our limited time frame, we all agreed
we needed to dedicate more time to training the students. However, so as not to
diminish or brush off the teachers that felt writing and discussion played an
integral role, we managed to keep some time for that, which left everyone
feeling as though their thoughts were validated. In the end, we increased
scores from 23% to 65%.
My greatest weakness is planning and
organization. In the past I have put myself into tough situations because I was
not organized and ended up having to scramble to get things done. This is
something I have been working and will continue to work on going forward. To
help me plan and stay organized, I have a planner that I use on my phone where
I input reminders to alert me of daily tasks, appointments, deadlines, and any
other tasks I have planned for a particular day. I also have desktop calendar
that I write many of the same reminders on so if I’m not looking at my phone
I’ll see it on my desk. So far, this has helped me tremendously and I feel more
organized and efficient in my time usage and my daily tasks.
I believe they would say that I am a leader
that is willing to take initiative and get a team of individuals to reach a
common goal. I believe that whether it’s as a teacher or an athletic trainer,
my bosses would say that I get positive results and that I am always willing to
put in the hard work required to get those results. I believe that my current
boss Mr. Jeremy Lawrence would tell you that I am dependable and energetic with
the ability to work well with others from various backgrounds, interests, and
personalities. I believe Mr. Harrington would tell you of my ability to teach concepts
relating to strength and conditioning while educating individuals how they can
effectively implement these concepts. Further, Mr. Harrington can discuss my
ability to work individually and personalize any strength and conditioning
plans to fit that individual’s unique needs. In fact, I have letters of
recommendation from both of these individuals that will tell you exactly that.
I believe a successful manager should display
vision of where he or she wants to take their team and organization, as well as
the ability to lead that team to achieve that goal. The manager should always
be able to clearly convey their vision of what is expected and also have the
vision to put their subordinates in a position to succeed. A good manager also
leads and motivates their team by empowering their team and giving them the
ability to take ownership of their contributions that way everybody feels
needed and creates buy-in from all team members. When I think of a true leader
I think of my father and how he worked with his subordinates when he was a
supervisor. He always conveyed his expectations of his team, made sure they had
the resources to complete the job, and afforded the trust that they would get
the job done without him hovering over their shoulders, which sometimes implies
distrust. Because of his approach, he was one of the most well liked bosses and
his crews were routinely got the best results.
Although I am very happy with where I’m at in
my life bother personally and professionally, oe aspect of my life I would
change and focused on in my career would have been to slow down a bit. Allow me
to clarify what I mean. When I began my career, I was so focused on getting on
to the next task, that I don’t think I took enough time to enjoy each stop,
with my teaching, internships, or my athletic training. I feel as though maybe
I missed opportunities to enjoy the people I worked with and the opportunity to
learn from those individuals as much as possible. Going forward, I want to
focus on enjoying the people I work with and learn from them because I feel as
though this is what a true leader should do and this will allow me to evolve
into the leader and professional that I strive to be.
