Skill Demo Interview Advice + my background if you want to read extra
Hey everyone,
So, I applied for a per diem histotech position at my local hospital. I was feeling alright about this until I scheduled the interview over the phone, because they said to expect it to be 1 hour to 1 hour and a half long, and that there would be a skills demonstration.
I have no experience with a "skills demonstration" during the interview process. What should I expect? Any advice or anything I should look out for? Does someone actually sit there staring you down the entire time? 😭
When I first heard them say it, I started freaking out and almost told them never mind.
I've been working in a histology lab since 2022. For the first year, I was more of a lab assistant, accessioning and cutting frozen. After that, I really started getting into the histotech work, like using the microtome. The only issue was that I was one of the later-morning techs, and our volume was low, so most of the embedding was already done. I embedded only a handful of times at this first job.
I started a 2nd histo job about a year ago now, and have embedded more than I did at my previous job within the first couple months, and our volume is maybe 4x more than that of my previous job. I feel waaaay more confident embedding now, but I can definitely work on my speed, and my manager agrees 😅. My supervisor said I should be able to embed a whole basket (about 72 cassettes) in 30 minutes. Depending on whether the tissue is wrapped in those annoying mesh bags and papers, I can get the whole basket done within 30-40 minutes, but more towards 40 minutes.
My supervisor says my microtomy is good, but sometimes I feel like I have good and bad days cutting. Bad days, meaning I can't get my biospies to ribbon, or I have an ice full of crunchy hard tissue that feels like it takes me a day and a half to get through
moral of the story, I'm terrified of this testing part and feel inadequate