We have lots of PT/OTs interviewing for roles in NZ currently, some of them have kindly sent through some example questions they were asked – we love creating a platform to help each other 🙂

When you are at the interview stage with one of our partners, we will always try to send through some more information of what to expect and any previous/example interview questions.

Hospital/Rehab roles:

• Can you name a time you worked in a team and it went well?
• Can you name a time you worked in a team and it didn’t go well?
• Can you explain what you understand about the bio-psycho-social model?
• Can you name a time you managed conflict?
• Can you name a time you made a mistake and how you managed this?
• Can you name a time you use initiative?
• Would you rather work autonomously or in a team?
• What’s your experience with working with patients with chronic pain?

• Can you tell us what your motivations are for coming to New Zealand?
• What would/could frustrate you in a work environment?
• Can you tell us your experience with a difficult patient and how you handled the situation
• Tell us about your strengths and weaknesses
• Have you made any mistakes in your clinical work before? And if yes, how did you resolve it and what did you learn?
• I was also given 2 clinical case scenarios and asked about suggested assessment and treatment, frequency i would see the patient, contraindications as well as differential diagnoses

• Why do I want to live in NZ? Why am I choosing NZ over Austria / Dubai etc
• Why do I want to work for them?
• What do I know about their service?
• My employment history to date
• Scenario / behavioural questions

• For hospital they asked me priority questions / case studies (all pretty straight forward!)
• The scenario questions where a little bit more tricky – they were quite specific to neuro – they gave me a case study about a man with a spinal injury. I think they really just want you to focus on putting the patient first and making goals, linking up with other services etc
• Questions about time management and examples
• Both asked for an example of when there was a clinical issue or conflict which I tried to resolve
• Example of working with a challenging / anxious family member
• Example of collaborative working with another profession

• A couple of star type questions, interests, how an ideal day would look, what I am looking for in an employer.

MSK/Private Practise

• The interview is a lot about personality and what you would bring to the team, a big part of what they are looking for is that you are willing to learn and open to improve.
• I think the interview was a bit more informal than I was expecting, there wasn’t really any clinical questions, more about generally why I got into physio and my previous roles
• It was more of a conversational style interview – get to know you/interests

PT/OT’s are in demand NZ – if you have registration, please get in touch to arrange interviews or otherwise we would love to help you start the process 🙂