Job Interview Tips for Nursing Jobs in Canada

Job Interview Tips - Your Main Goal

Your main goal during nursing job interviews should be to present yourself as a professional and confident nurse. The more comfortable the interviewer is with you the more likely you are to be successful in the interview.

Job Interview Tips for Internationally Educated Nurses

You may have to engage in a serious appraisal of your appearance and use of non-verbal behaviours. Culture is a strong determinant of communication so make sure that any message you send (and that includes non-verbal and verbal) is telling the interviewer that you are confident and ready to take up the challenge of a nursing job in Canada.

If you do not come from Canada you may not be familiar with the cultural norms and the social and professional etiquette of job interviews. It does not matter what country you come from there will be differences in communication and social etiquette and that can affect your ability to be successful in the interview if you do something that is normal for your culture but interpreted differently in the Canadian culture.

Recognizing that job interviews can make you uncomfortable the interviewer will try to make you feel comfortable and at ease during the interview. Their job is to get to know you better and to develop a first impression about you and whether you would be a good fit for their health care organization.

Job Interview Tips - You need good telephone skills!

If you have applied for nursing jobs you will most likely get your first contact by telephone. Some employers may even conduct the first interview on the telephone so if you are not comfortable with your telephone skills in the English language, you will need to develop some confidence in that area first.

Telephone skills are in fact an very important skill for a registered nurse since you will be communicating with physicians mostly over the telephone. When you are engaged in a telephone interview your English skills will be assessed.

If the telephone interview is successful you may be asked to come for a personal interview.

Job Interview Tips for Nursing Jobs in Canada

When going for job interviews here are some of the social cultural norms in Canada.

shake hands when introduced. It is common practice to shake hands as a sign of respect when introduced to someone new in Canada. If you do not know how to shake hands firmly or if you are not used to this cultural norm then you should practice. Extend your right hand and firmly grasp the other person's hand making sure that you take hold of the entire hand. Trying to do a handshake with your fingers only is considered weak.

Make eye contact - When you meet the interviewer or when that person is talking directly to you it is a sign of respect to make eye contact. Avoiding eye contact could be interpreted as a lack of integrity and sometimes leads the interviewer to think you have something to hide. Lowering your eyes and looking down can be interpreted as a sign of submissiveness. Nursing jobs in Canada require leadership and assertiveness and your future employer may interpret a lowered gaze as a lack of leadership ability.

be prepared with some questions to ask them - it is common practice at the end of an interview to allow time for you to ask questions. Try to keep your questions professional.

See these job interview questions you might like to ask.

Speak clearly and slowly - If you have an accent try to slow down your speech so that the interviewer can catch everything you say. If the interviewer finds that listening to you is tiring, you are less likely to be successful in the interview.

If you do not understand the question say so - Telling the interviewer that you did not understand indicates that you are a good listener and that you are interested in getting the message right. This tells the interviewer that if you were in a nursing situation and the communication was unclear, you would speak up and make sure you had a good understanding of what was meant. This is a very important and desirable skill for nursing jobs in Canada.

Here are some ways you can ask for clarification:

"I am not quite sure what you mean by that, can you clarify that for me?

"I am not familiar with that terminology, can you please explain what you meant by this word"?

More Job Interview Tips

Go to a list of nursing unions in Canada. You can link through to the pay scale for each province on the individual nursing union websites.

Go from this article on the job interview tips for nursing jobs in Canada to the page that lists registered nurse salaries

Of all the job interview tips that can be offered the two most important are:

be on time - the Canadian health care system is highly structured and works on a schedule. Appointments are made for a reason and it is important that you show the interviewer that you have good time management skills.

wear clothing that is conservative and business like - The Canadian health care system is quite conservative so even though you do not have to dress up in a business suit be sure that your appearance is conservative and professional. This means that your clothing should not be revealing any skin between the shoulders and the knees and should not be skin tight. Your clothing should be clean and in a good state of repair and do not wear jeans to job interviews.

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