Top veterinary recruiters share 24 interview questions to help you assess veterinary technician candidates' skills, fit, and experience.
During an interview, it can be hard to know what to ask to get a good sense of the candidate and how they'll fit into the team, especially when it comes to recruiting veterinary technicians who can have wide ranges of experiences and expertise. Inversely, interviewing can be a daunting task, especially for veterinary technicians who may be at a turning point in their career or had tough experiences in the past. To give you a starting point, we teamed up with some of the best recruiters in vet med to walk through their veterinary technician interview questions.
Essential Veterinary Technician Interview Questions
These questions are pretty standard for any interview. With them, you should be able to uncover if, at a base level, expectations are aligned for this role.
| Question | Suggested by |
|---|
| What interested you in this position? | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
| What do you feel will make you an excellent fit for this role? | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
| What are you looking for in your new position? What is most important in your job hunt? | Katie, Rarebreed |
| What do you feel like you're missing in your current position? | CareVet |
Motivator Veterinary Technician Interview Questions
These questions dig deeper into what motivates and energizes the candidate. With them, you should be able to answer: do these motivations match our culture? Will this person be able to thrive here?
| Question | Suggested by |
|---|
| What energizes you to do your best work? | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
| What would your ideal schedule look like? | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
| Tell me about something you're passionate about. It can be unrelated to this position or field. | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
| Tell me about the best supervisor you ever had. What made that person so successful in their position? | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
| What are some of your passions in the field? | Katie, Rarebreed |
| What are the top three things that you feel you excel at in the clinic? | Katie, Rarebreed |
| What are your key motivators? What drives you to do your best work and be the best veterinary professional you can be? | Katie, Rarebreed |
Growth Veterinary Technician Interview Questions
These questions help uncover the candidate's career goals and aspirations. With them, you should be able to answer: will this person be able to grow and gain a sense of achievement in our practice?
| Question | Suggested by |
|---|
| How can the company or clinic support you in your career growth? | Katie, Rarebreed |
| What tasks or procedures would you like to work on and become more comfortable with? | Katie, Rarebreed |
| How can the team mentor and support you in an upcoming role? What would an ideal mentorship situation look like? | Katie, Rarebreed |
| What are your future career goals? Where do you see yourself going in your career? | Katie, Rarebreed |
| How important is continuing education? | CareVet |
| What does mentorship look like to you? | CareVet |
| Do you have any special interests or anything you'd like to learn more about? | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
Challenge Veterinary Technician Interview Questions
These questions dig into how the candidate handles conflict and problems. With them, you should be able to answer: how does this person handle conflict and hardship, and does that align with how we handle it in our practice?
| Question | Suggested by |
|---|
| What do you anticipate being the most difficult part of this position, or what have you found most challenging in your previous experience? | Sarah, Western Veterinary Partners |
| Tell me about a difficult situation and how you overcame it. Was the situation resolved? | Katie, Rarebreed |
Position-Specific Veterinary Technician Interview Questions
These questions are catered specifically to the veterinary technician position. With them, you'll get a better sense of why this position and whether this candidate is up for the job.
| Question | Suggested by |
|---|
| What do you feel like you can contribute to this position that someone else might not be able to? | Blue Pearl |
| What do you love most about working in the veterinary industry? | Blue Pearl |
| What do you value in an employer? | Blue Pearl |
| What do you like most about your current position? What would you change? | Blue Pearl |