I’ve worked in multiple specialties as a medical assistant and have amassed over 2,000 hours of clinical hours overall. Today, I will be giving my insight into what I found employers look for during the interview, on your first day/during working interviews, and in the long term. I’ve thrown all the strategies and mindsets I used to ensure that I received great letters of recommendation and consistently strong feedback from my coworkers and the physicians I worked with. After reading this, you too can excel in your job and have an advantage over many others who may not know these tricks!
If you read my article about becoming a medical assistant or getting your first clinical position, then you are probably wondering “how do I keep my job now” or “how do I do this well so they give me a good letter of reccomendation and I don’t get fired”. You aren’t alone! I wondered these exact things when I first got hired.
I’ve worked as a medical assistant part time and during my summers through college since I was 17 and in my experience, I’ve learned there’s a few things that employers look for during your interview, during your first few days of work, and over the long-term.
During your interview/pre-hire
Before you get hired, they’ll likely be trying to figure out why you’re here and why it is important they should hire you. For me, it came down to these things from an interviewer’s point of view:
-Are you certified (CCMA, CNA, CMA, CPT, PCT, etc.)
-How long have you worked in positions like this
-What specialties have you worked in and did you learn any skill/charting/instrument use that their office uses
-What kind of timeline are you wanting to work (summer, part time during school, full-time, during school breaks, etc.)
-Who do you know in the company/did anyone already inside refer you
If I ever had to leave a voicemail or message for these offices or the hiring manager, I made sure to hit every single point listed above so they knew exactly what they were dealing with and that I already knew some of the skills they wanted. You really want them to hang up the phone and feel like you’ve already answered all their main questions and have no doubt you are interested.
During this time, it is really helpful to state whether you have a long term interest in one day becoming a physician/whatever professional you’ll be working under and/or their specialty. From the mind of an employer, would you rather hire the guy who just wants a job to have a job, or do you want to hire the guy who wants to be in your field one day? I would feel like the guy with an interest in the field will enjoy the work more to begin with and likely work harder to learn and perform well in return for a potential letter of recommendation down the line. You shouldn’t lie on this, but if you have a real interest, you should let it be known as it can only help.
Another thing I found helps is to state that you want to go to a professional school for X program (MD, DPT, PA, etc). It adds credibility that you have high aspirations and are an achiever. It also will let the employer know that you are working there to learn the craft, earn a letter of recommendation, and you have a long-term career interest in taking care of patients.
During the interview, you wan’t to get the above points across if you haven’t already. A quick interview tip: don’t wait for them to ask questions that lead to these answers. Just work them into your responses and do so early on in the interview so it doesn’t feel rushed at the end or like you are word-vomiting on them as you walk out.
Just treat it as a conversation with a friend as that really helps ease the tension and nervousness. It’s not life or death, it’s just a job and at the end of the day, the interviewer is a person too who enjoys a fun and easygoing conversation just like anyone else. Let them know you are in school and any leadership or clinical experiences you’ve had inside and outside of school.
If they ask “why this clinic in particular” have a pre-prepared reason beside “it’s close to school/home” or “it’s a clinical job”. For example, I wanted to work at a clinic that was designed to be low cost and primarily for uninsured patients. When they asked why I wanted to work there, I explained how I’d had family and friends who were uninsured and had gone through a lot of medical issues and worsening of their conditions due to inability to afford treatment. As a result, I wanted to do what I could with my clinical abilities and certifications to help others in the same position. You get the idea.
During the first few days of work
Some offices can be extra critical of new-hires. They want to know whether you have the skills to do the work and whether you’ll fit into the office culture well. I’ve seen it where a new hire is let go because the staff didn’t feel like the person was learning quickly enough, not taking enough initiative, or they didn’t like the person.
My biggest advice here is to ALWAYS offer to assist and just start doing what your trainer is doing. If they’re cleaning a room after a patient leaves, ask how you can help and then just grab a lysol or a towel or anything you can do. Ask to bring a patient back on your own. Ask to chart and have the trainer watch over your shoulder. Ask to use the lab instruments or click the X-ray button. They will train you, but they 10 times out of 10 want to see you taking initiative.
My second biggest advice is to talk. Put on your social hat and try to make a good impression on your coworkers and especially the person training you. I saw over 50 people try to get a job at one of the offices I worked at over the years and after they’d gone home that day, many times, the coworkers all got together and shared their opinions on them. Wanna guess which topic came up a lot? You guessed it. “So and so didn’t talk much and is real quiet and I don’t know if they’d match the culture”.
Being quiet can project to someone that’s trying to figure out who you are that you may not take initiative, not be a team player, or maybe not care about the job or your coworkers. None of that may be true and you may be introverted, but you need to do what you can to prove otherwise at first. Ya’ll don’t have to be best buddies, but get along and tell them some about yourself and ask about them. A happy, cheery person that comes across like they want to get to know their coworkers is all your new coworkers want and you should give that early on.
Long term – What they look for
Many times, a common frustration was an employee or coworker who had to be told multiple times how to do something or just quite frankly, forgot. It’s normal to forget, but if you want to make a lasting impression on your coworkers and the physicians, I personally made it my goal to only ever have to be shown something once.
Now, I don’t and haven’t learned every single thing in one go, but the majority of the time, this was the case. My bosses and coworkers usually marked this as one of my traits in letters of recommendation or in conversation and I think it’s a powerful way to show that they can leave you be and you’ll flourish. It’s also a relief to the higher ups to know they can focus on other things instead of re-training you or checking over your work all the time.
They also really care that you treat your patients well. It doesn’t matter if its front desk, medical assisting, lab draws, xrays, or whatever you may doing, treat the patient well. For most of you, this may come across as a no brainer, but when you get challenged by a patient or a patient yells at you, it can be easy to forget. Just apologize, move on, tell your supervisor or practice manager what happened, and continue with a smile on your face.
I’ve had coworkers that fight with patients and but heads and they did NOT last long at any of the clinics. It’s a losing cause and hurts your reputation, is a bad experience for the patient even in the case they are in the wrong, and most importantly, the boss may take note when its time to write a recommendation letter or consider job cuts. Smile as much as you can and be kind in all cases, and I promise you that you can only gain from that.
One thing I want to also mention is that some physicians can be a bit finicky with questions or advice if you ask them. Some love it, especially if they work in academia or a university affiliated facility as this is likely why they took that job to begin with. However, some have short patience and may label you as annoying or prying. You’ll have to find a good mentor!
For these physicians, I’ve found that I would wait a couple weeks after I’d been hired and I had gotten to know them and showed them I work hard. They’ll appreciate you and respect you more now at this point hopefully. After this, I would usually have maybe 1 or 2 questions a day I’d ask and I’d usually ask them at lunch or when we were in slow periods. You don’t want to ask when all the rooms are filled or when you first open, or you may be hit with a short tempered reply.
For my 1-2 questions, I really wanted to make sure they weren’t obvious. Something like “what is ibuprofen” or “what does this machine do” can usually be asked to another medical assistant or some other person who worked there forever. For the physician, I usually would ask “Why did you prescribe X medication vs Y?”, “How did you learn the business side of running a practice”, or “I saw you did a different type of suture on that last patient. What made it better vs other suture types?”
I pretty much wanted the question to be something only they would be able to answer and it was coming from a perspective of trying to learn the practice or how to discern between treatments/diagnoses. It’s things they had to consider at one point and in my opinion, never really get annoyed with sharing because they like to reason out their choices.
There’s a lot you can do to get ahead AND keep your job at every stage of work. I’ve worked more than 2,000 hours in multiple offices in many specialties and these are all commonalities I found at each. I hope these help as you approach what may be your first interview, first day of work, or your thousandth day of work!