Medical Assistant Internship Interview Questions and Answers

An interview for the Medical Assistant Internship is a great chance to emphasize your appropriateness for ‘on the job’ training program. In addition, the program is also an opportunity for you to judge if, there is a good match between the nature of your internship, learning objectives and of course, your future career goals. So, get ready to build confidence for your internship hunt by predicting the possible interview questions that will be asked.

Different categories of Internship Interview questions you should expect:

1. Questions to test your capability

In this category, the candidate will be asked ‘aptitude’ based questions for which he/she should offer definite examples of activities that portrays his/her competency level in the past. By and large, internship candidates will be short of “professional” work experiences. Hence, the interview questions will mainly spotlight the crucial competencies (or behaviors) that are needed for that specific position. Contemplate your previous experiences and give correct instances. Then, map your answers with the help the questions that are configured below:

• Can you illustrate an exact situation where you got fully occupied ?
• Specify a specific action or stepladder that you took courageously ?
• Can you sketch out the major outcomes and upshots of your proceedings ?
• If so, what happened then ?
• What did you achieve from that ?
• What did you learn from that experience ?

Look forward to such interview questions that are asked to find out your key competencies that are mandatory for your medical assistant internship position.

2. Inventiveness questions

• Can you give me one ‘case in point’ where you have completed more than the required amount of work in an assignment ?
• Illustrate a point in time where you had to triumph over a major obstruction ?
• Can you tell me about an instance where you enhanced a traditional approach and applied that approach to do some activity ?

If such initiative questions are asked,  portray your capability as hands-on (or practical). Then, explain how you will apply your competency in taking inventive actions, to win over the impediments, create innovative ideas, take advantage of available opportunities and to perform more than expected. If you don’t have any prior job experience to bring into play, mention about a course you took in the past, any college or school activities or any of your sports and/or extracurricular partaking to give as examples. On the other hand, ensure that your examples are evidently connected to your proficiencies.

3. Methodical or logical questions

• Can you tell me a situation where you had to do investigate and examine the outcomes of an intricate project ?
• What kind of information did you collect to select your medical assistant training school ?
• How did you evaluate and analyze the gathered information ?
• Explain about a hard-hitting educational decision that you made ?
• How did you accomplish the decision ?
• Can you illustrate one example where your preliminary approach got unsuccessful and you entered a situation where you had to seek something unique to achieve your desired result ?

If such “problem solving” questions are asked, strive hard to display your capability to collect the appropriate information and recognize the issues. Explain how you prepared the information, evaluated the information from various resources, weighed up the various options and finally acknowledged the most suitable strategy after carefully assessing the resources (and limitations) into consideration.

4. Questions on scheduling and systematizing

• Can you tell me about a juncture where you had a lot of  lesson load ?
• If so, how did you manage your time ?
• Can you explain how you balanced your school related work with other additional (extra curricular ) activities ?
• What are your goals for this year ?
• What steps have you taken to make sure that you are on the right career pathway ?

If such planning questions are asked, demonstrate your abilities to plan in advance, decide your priorities, set up schedules and deal with time limits, etc. Explain how you have successfully dealt with rivaling priorities, how you multi-tasked and accomplished the obligatory results.

5. Questions to test your ability to discover new ideas and apply them

For the most part, your (medical assistant) internship interview questions will test out your ability to gain knowledge of new things rapidly and at the same time, enthusiastically.

• Can you give me an example where you have gained knowledge about a complex assignment in a very short period of time ?
• Can you explain me about a hard situation where you felt frenzied in an assignment or a project ?
• If so, how did you handle such hectic situation ?
• Can you tell me about a latest criticism that you got from any of your instructor or supervisor ?
• How did you improve your knowledge with the help of that feedback ?

If such questions are asked, answer them in such a way that they recognize your innate capacity to incorporate and apply the newfangled information (or skill) in a well-timed way. Don’t forget to point out your sophisticated interest in erudition, ingenuity and pioneering skill in gaining new ideas. Explain the interviewer about the efforts that you make for your self-enhancement.

6. Questions to know whether you are a team player

• Can you tell me a situation where you had to interact with other students in your class to attain a specific goal ?
• Can you give me one instance where you have expanded your teamwork level for a person who was being tough to handle ?
• Can you explain about a group assignment of which you are proud for the most part ?
• What was your role in the success of that group project ?

If such “team player” questions are asked, explain how you worked efficiently as a part of a group or team to attain a goal. Explain about your mind-set to value the requirements, the needs of other associates of the team and how you gave a helpful contribution to your team. You can also mention about your college group projects, group sports activities and group volunteering (or community) activities that you might have participated in the past.

7. Questions about your work principles

An employer will also like to test out your work values and principles at the time of your internship interview. You can expect the following questions such as:

• Can you tell me about a specific coursework that made you struggle with utmost problems ?
• If so, what methods did you apply wisely to handle those problems ?
• As an apprentice, how will you describe the word ‘good performance’ ? Can you give me one good instance where you have performed amazingly good ?

8. Motivational questions

• Why do you want to intern for our company ?
• How do you think that your internship program might help you attain your career objectives ?

For such questions that test out your self-motivation, answer with a lot of confidence and let the interviewer know that you are a self driven person with ‘full of life’.

Standard MA Internship Interview Questions to Expect

In general, the internship interview questions will be asked after considering the knowledge requirements of a candidate for that particular position. If truth to be told, the questions will be asked after examining your resume. This is because your resume will provide the interviewer with a clear picture of your academic qualifications, related course works, training and whatsoever previous job experiences you possess. On the other hand, these knowledge requirements will show a discrepancy and it completely depends on the employer and the kind of internship about which  you are fascinated.

There are two ‘very important’ questions that may be asked in your interview:

1. Who do you think will supervise your medical assistant internship program ?
2. How many supervisors do you think will administer the program ?

Your answers to these two questions will help the employer prioritize your internship requirements. So, you should always have a good knowledge to answer these questions. Try to collect the necessary details about your internship program in order to understand the ‘amount of supervision’ and the ‘amount of knowledge’ that you will receive in your apprenticeship.

‘General questions’ that you may come across in your interview:

• Tell me about specific activities and/or courses that assisted you in preparing for this position ?
• What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses ?
• Can you tell me about your medical assistant practicum sessions ?
• What aspects did you consider when you chose your medical assistance training program ?
• Did you do any thesis in your college ?
• If so, can I know the topic and the subject of your thesis ?
• Why did you choose a specific kind of extracurricular activity ?
• What are your technical and computer skills regarding Medical Assisting ?
• What are the most suitable work schedule for you ?
• Are you open to work for extra hours if needed ?

Keep in mind that you should plan and prepare for your medical assistant internship interview as you would do for your actual job interview. Therefore, you must get ready for your interview with great awareness. Dwell on the questions that you wish to ask the interviewer so as to find out if, a particular internship program is a right choice for you. By this way, you can make it a successful internship interview.

Conclusion:

You must be completely knowledgeable and well versed about an organization (to which you wish to intern) to answer all the above category of questions. You can also explore several ‘free of cost’ internet resources that help you do a background exploration on a specific company. Remember that your internship interview is the ultimate stair to reach your career goal. For this reason, put your maximum effort for preparing appropriately for your interview. You are definitely on your trail to victory. Also, you should feel free to ask questions to the interviewer,  to become  completely satisfied to set your first step to this medical assistant job field.