Occupational Therapy Interviews

Due to the specific attributes required for a career in occupational therapy, universities look to source the best-suited candidates for their courses. The interview process will therefore be shaped towards discovering who possess the required attributes to thrive on their course.

With interaction being integral to your success in your studies and future employment, it is a distinct possibility that your interview will be as part of a group. The content of the interview is likely to follow similar lines to that of an individual interview, however there will be the opportunity to interact with other candidates. This gives the interviewer an opportunity to see how well you can participate as part of a team. As such, it is important to ensure that you display interest and awareness, even when you are not speaking yourself. Your success in a group interview will therefore be determined, in part, by your ability to contribute, whilst listening to the opinions of others, all the while maintaining the enthusiasm and respect which are pivotal to the functioning of a good team.

Occasionally, a group interview will involve participating in a group task. Again, this serves to test candidates’ abilities to work as part of a team. This will likely relate to occupational therapy without going into too much depth. As mentioned, the purpose of this is to see how people work as a team, and could be something as straight-forward as identifying the qualities of an occupational therapist, and delivering a group presentation on your thoughts. This requires leadership, diplomacy, and the ability to prioritise with everyone’s thoughts and feelings considered. Even if someone immediately takes charge, ensure that your voice is heard and that you contribute ideas.

Format of interviews

Not all occupational therapy interviews are in a group format however. Rather, you may be invited to attend an individual interview, which follows a traditional format. After asking you questions about your personality, interests and accomplishments, the interview will typically take a more specialised turn. This will involve the interviewer seeking evidence of your understanding of occupational therapy, through questions about the traits you believe occupational therapists need to possess and how your skill-set matches these, where occupational therapists work, what relevant work experience you have undertaken, how you can prioritise and balance workloads, and what ethical considerations an occupational therapist may need to make (you should be able to offer insight into both sides of an argument). By preparing answers for these questions and deciding on events in your work experience or studies which has raised your awareness of the profession, you can convey a natural zest for occupational therapy, which suggests that you are well-suited to the course. You may also be asked about issues surrounding occupational therapy which are in the media, therefore keeping an eye out for, and developing opinions on news stories is a good way to prepare yourself.

As well as an interview, you are likely to need to take a numeracy test, or complete a short written task. These won’t be of an overly advanced standard, however help to judge suitability to more administrative tasks.

Being well-researched into typical questions and preparing relevant answers is important, but don’t discount the value of communication and confidence, which should shine through in your answers.