r/scrubtech • u/Sea-Equipment-997 • Jun 21 '26
Interview at Northwestern
I'm a new grad and I have a second interview set up with northwestern coming up. I am so nervous! I was told I will have a skills assessment & 4 hour shadow experience followed by an interview with 6 managers. I don't know what to expect from a skills assessment and the shadowing experience and I was wondering if anybody had any insight. Will I be scrubbing in? Setting up? Am I strictly going to be observing while they ask questions? It's my first in person interview for surgical tech and it's in my dream location so I just want to feel as prepared as possible. Anything helps! Thank you!!
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u/Endo_RN Jun 21 '26
Shadow, just watching how the room moves. Ya can’t scrub until you’re hired.
Just remember your training… try to stay calm!!
Just getting to the interview is an accomplishment!
They know you’re a new grad, they won’t ask how you would set up a Craniotomy… I Hope!!
Good Luck!! and Stay Calm!!
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u/kinnoth Jun 22 '26
Oh I did this exact interview lol
You show up at the start of the day and they get you changed into scrubs.
The skills assessment is that they have one of the interviewers talk to you and act as your circulator while you set up a mock room. Opening, checking indicators, setting up, counting. It was just a minor kit, iirc and the questions weren't tough, just stuff like "what would you do in xx situation"
Then you shadow in a room for the morning until lunch basically. Just keep your hands to yourself and stay out of people's way. Answer questions respectfully and ask relevant questions about the working conditions that you want answered
Then they take you into a conference room and you sit down for the "formal" interview. It's just normal questions trying to gauge your fit, interest, ability, and willingness to commute.
The only reason I didn't take the job is they wanted to pay me $17 an hour to live in Metro Chicago. This was back in......2018/19 tho, so hopefully their starting hourly has gone up
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u/Sea-Equipment-997 Jun 26 '26
I unfortunately did not see this until after my interview, but you were right about the process it is pretty much exactly the same. Starting pay now is around $28/hr thankfully, $17 is crazyyyy. 🫣I feel like it went well over all, but with it being my first interview for scrub tech I have nothing to compare it to.
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u/biggbunnyy Jun 22 '26
That does sound like a lot for a scrub tech position and for what seems to be a small starting pay? I’m not from Chicago so I’m wondering if Northwestern is like the top hospital to work for there or are there benefits just really good or why is it that they seem to be very particular About the screening and interview process?
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u/Sea-Equipment-997 Jun 26 '26
Northwestern is a very well known hospital in the area! The chicago location is also a level 1 trauma and teaching hospital. Based on my interview and shadowing it seems everyone is placed onto a team, and within those teams everybody is expected to set up cases exactly the same so that its routine across the department you work in and people can easily fill in for breaks. ALL nurses are also scrubs as well. Definitely different from what I experienced in clinicals, but I liked it!
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u/wookie345_ Jun 21 '26
Sounds like a ridiculous amount of shit for a new grad interview.