What to Know: Preparing for an Interview
- allygallop
- 46 minutes ago
- 9 min read
In hosting a dietetic intern who was nearly done their internship and beginning to apply for jobs, we spoke about ways to prepare for interviews. This article includes some of what we reviewed and weaves in my perspectives as a hiring manager.
In this article, you’ll learn more about:
Preparing for your interview: Questions to be ready for and ask of others you’re interviewing with, what to wear, and what to bring.
During the interview: Appreciating the importance of your presence and energy, plus conducting yourself when asking and answering questions.
The aftermath: Sending thank you emails and what to do if you aren’t the successful candidate.
Other What to Know articles:
Preparing for the Interview
Preparing Your Answers: Know Who You’re Interviewing With
Depending on the stage of the interview process you’re in, the questions asked of you are going to be different.
If you’re in the first round, you’re likely to only speak with the hiring manager (typically a dietitian) and possibly other dietitians on staff. They’re trying to evaluate your nutrition knowledge, the gap that they’re trying to fill within their department (e.g., a dietitian with eating disorder experience to work with those athletes or high-risk teams), and feel confident that you’re competent and capable.
In this round, questions and case studies are likely to tap into typical sport, athlete, and clinical nutrition scenarios. The job description may list specific sport assignments or you could ask the hiring manager ahead of the interview. If you know this position will work with cross-country, I would anticipate questions about screening for iron, what a low level of ferritin is, and your recommendations for iron supplements and repletion, plus specific high-iron additions when counseling an athlete (i.e., have an answer beyond red meat or dietary strategies for a plant-based athlete).
If there are additional rounds or an onsite/in-person interview, expect to meet with people beyond the dietitians. In most nutrition settings, you aren’t working all day with the dietitians—you’re working with athletes, team coaches, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, operational staff, etc. You should expect to interview with those who you will be spending the bounty of your workday with.
Yet they aren’t going to ask you the high level, textbook nutrition questions a dietitian would. They want to know how you’re going to support their athletes and them as a practitioner. For instance:
I’ve had strength coaches ask me about where I physically exist at work: Am I hiding in the nutrition office waiting for athletes to come to me? Or am I going out to practice or being present in the weight room to make myself present to the athletes and coaches?
I’ve had an athletic trainer ask me about my thoughts on testing serum vitamin D levels for their team, given the previous team dietitian was always pushing it. Why should the trainer care to support this initiative?
I’ve had a sport administrator ask me my stance on sharing body composition and weight data with coaches and what I felt best practices were.
Ask a mentor working in the field about what you might anticipate from each person.
For interview rounds beyond the hiring manager, request in advance an itinerary—then look up each of those people you will be meeting with. Where have they worked before? What successes have they had? How long have they worked in their sport? Review general job descriptions for each position. Those descriptions can help you think through their potential questions for you. How might they view the role of the dietitian and how can the dietitian help them do their job better?
For job descriptions, check out the NCAA Market. Use the Category filter for finding athletic training, strength and conditioning, coaches, and others.
Preparing Your Documents
Now that you’ve considered who you’re going to speak with and what questions they may ask you, write down what you’re going to ask them. Coming prepared with questions shows that you’re thoughtful and genuinely interested in learning more about the role and how your positions will overlap. Every interview I’ve either ran or been the applicant for, there’s one question that will always be asked of you: “what questions do you have for me?” Have something prepared and individualized for each position.
Especially for in-person interviews, I’ve brought a folder with me including questions I have specifically prepared for each person who I knew I would meet with. That folder is also a portfolio of work examples. When that athletic trainer asked me about vitamin D and if I thought it was necessary to measure, I pulled out a hard copy of the vitamin D protocol I had written for my then-current job. I had a few varied examples of my work to showcase and help provide richness for my answers. It also showed I could translate research and my “perfect answer” into an actionable workplace resource.
If it’s the first position you’re applying to as a dietitian, projects or scenarios from a dietetic internship, fueling station, or volunteer position all count.
The interview is for you to confidently and humbly showcase why you’re the best candidate for the position. Flex a bit.
Your Presentation Matters
Whether it’s a Zoom or in-person interview, dress to impress rather than dressing to blend in with the athletes or high-performance staff in their day-to-day job. As the hiring manager, I’m likely to wear my normal workplace outfit of a team sweater and joggers. Aim to out-dress me.
I’ve interviewed males in full suits and women in blouses and dress pants. I’ve also witnessed an applicant wearing a baggy sweater and lululemon tights. If you don’t have the money to buy a new outfit, find the best option in your wardrobe or borrow one. An interviewing outfit is also a fabulous financial investment.
Also ensure you’re comfortable in what you’re wearing. Can you sit and stand in it without having to adjust your top or waistline? Is your sleeveless blouse showing your bra or are straps at risk of falling? Are you planning on wearing long sleeves or a non-breathable fabric for an interview in August? Can you walk upstairs or far distances in the shoes you choose (e.g., up stairs or across concrete, a gymnasium floor, turf, and a grass field)? Always anticipate that you will be walking and being outside during your athletics interview versus sitting in an office all day as people come to you.
Leading up to the Interview: Other Considerations and Minimizing Stressors
Arrive on time. I cannot stress this enough. Do not waste your future boss’ time. Showing up late and with a boatful of excuses is memorable in a bad way. It also sets the tone that if hired, you’re willing to be late for teams or coaches.
Regarding in-person interviews:
Set multiple alarms to wake up.
Pack your interview bag or folder the night before.
Understand traffic at that time of day and know where you’re going to park. Or, plan to hop on the earlier bus or train.
Know specifically where you’re expected to meet the hiring manager and have their cell number in case something does happen.
I typically plan to arrive an hour beforehand. I locate a coffee shop nearby, sip on some coffee (use that one-hour peak to your advantage!), and review some last-minute ideas, questions, or other documents you’ve brought with you.
During the Interview
Anticipate That Your Nutrition Knowledge Isn’t Enough
If I’ve advanced an applicant to the second round of an interview, they’ve passed my nutrition knowledge requirement. I think they’re competent and could work well within the nutrition and high-performance teams. But does everyone else like and want them? Your personality, aura, charisma, and ability to quickly connect with people are wildly important. Be genuine in your interactions, smile, and thank each person as you depart the room.
Be prepared for low- and high-energy spaces during your interview. Maybe you attend basketball practice or are in the weight room (high energy). Maybe you’re seated at a table in the dining hall with athletes (be appropriate and mature rather than trying to be their friend). Maybe you meet with a sport administrator (they can be super fun and/or extremely serious). Expect that for on-site interviews, the hiring manager will likely drop you off with a staff member. It's unlikely you will be joined at the hip with a dietitian all day.
Feedback from those coworkers includes how you managed different environments and personalities, how comfortable you seemed to be, and if you came off friendly or standoffish. Relax, be yourself, be ready to fly solo, and anticipate a bit of chaos.
Crafting Your Responses
When answering questions, wait to respond. The quality of your response matters and there’s no need to rush to speak. I’ll bring a notepad and jot down parts of the interviewer’s questions. This helps me slow down my thought process, remember key terms from their questions and provide them with a specific answer, and also helps me provide content for a thank you email after the fact (see more on that below)
Treat your interview responses like a conversation that is being steered by the person running the session. They have a set of questions they want to get through, often asking all applicants the same ones and comparing who answered them best. As the applicant, there’s a balance between sharing enough information to answer the question and then rambling on. Good answers can be short, so long as they answer the question. I would rather take pause before responding and include pertinent information than speak for five minutes and have lost the attention of the interviewer (or my own train of thought).
Conner Blake, MA, RD, LD, CD wrote on LinkedIn that "experience matters - but it doesn’t prove your experience fits the role." Further:
Use examples from your previous roles to tell the story as to why you're the right candidate, which might include content from that portfolio you prepared. Interviewers cannot read your mind, so be specific and compelling in your responses.
And what happens if you're asked a question that you have zero real world experience to pull from? I was once asked by a high-performance coach to share my experiences feeding teams during competition in nations lacking rigorous food safety regulations. I had never done this before, but I had read the Halson et al. (2019) article titled Nutrition for Travel: From Jet Lag to Catering. I was honest regarding my lack of experience in the area, but then gave them specifics from that paper to help inform a strategy.
The Aftermath of the Interview
Send Thank You Emails
I’m not sure why applicants stopped submitting thank you emails… but it’s something hiring managers reasonably expect. The lack of a thank you can be viewed as being rude.
Recognize that the hiring manager has advocated for your position and higher pay, worked with their boss and human resources to create and advertise a job description, sifted through multiple resumes, scheduled and conducted rounds of interviews, created interview questions that best captured their department’s need, organized with multiple staff and their schedules when creating an itinerary, and then gave up their workday to tour you around the organization (and then multiply this by however many people they’re interviewing). From start to finish, hiring a dietitian is a ton of work and the hiring manager’s assigned athletes still expect their day-to-day attention.
Honestly, the least you as the applicant can do is send a thank you email within 24 hours after every interview round. And that goes for everyone you sat down with. Email addresses are not hard to find and if they are, tell the hiring manager you were unable to find someone’s address. They’ll help you out.
Thank you emails can be succinct:
Hi [Insert Name],
Thank you again for taking the time to meet with me. I enjoyed our conversation on… [XYZ; 1-2 sentences on something you wanted to emphasize from a during-interview question OR 1-2 sentences on something you didn’t know the answer for and wanted to ensure they had the information].
Thank you,
[Insert Name].
When I run interviews, I track who sent me a thank you and I follow up with each interviewer to learn if they received one, too. The type of dietitian I want on my team is thoughtful, kind, detailed, and can show that they understand the importance of relationships. How each applicant treats my coworkers matters to me and is something I take into consideration when selecting the best candidate.
When crafting the thank you email for the hiring manager, add a note to understand the turnaround time for a decision and next steps:
When do you anticipate I will hear back on a decision?
This helps manage your stress levels and to avoid messaging them about updates. Hiring managers are collecting feedback from everyone you met with and are also conducting interviews with other candidates. Turnaround times aren’t often quick.
Unsuccessful Applicants: Collecting Feedback
You won’t always get the job. However, manage your expectations when better understanding why you didn’t.
Some organizations I’ve worked with won’t allow a hiring manager to provide feedback, since human resources doesn’t want someone saying something that can be used against them in a lawsuit. For instance, you didn’t hire a woman because you already have enough female dietitians on staff and needed a male.
In these cases, do an honest self-reflection. Where do you think you didn’t shine? Did you force through an answer you didn’t feel confident about? Did you talk the entire time and not leave space for them to converse or to ask them questions? Did you throw shade towards your current or a former employer (sports is a small world)? Were you asked scenario questions you have zero experience with and felt unable to provide any ideas for?
Unfortunately, sometimes it’s feedback from coworkers or a very influential coach who this position will be working with—they didn’t prefer your vibes or personality. You could have felt you were honest and gave intelligent answers to their questions, but it didn't matter. It may not be anything you necessarily need to fix.
Key Take Aways
The more prepared you are, the more it will show, whether it's in your questions, responses, or lowered stress levels because of your preparation. Whether you earn the position or not, interviewing is a skill and you’ll continue to strengthen it as you go.
Show that you care and are invested in the program and making it better.
