Chapter 13: Preplacement Interviews and Sample Interview Questions

Field Mentors are encouraged to set up preplacement meeting/interview with our students to discuss learning opportunities, student goals, experience, your expectations and opportunities on site. The following are a list of question you might consider using when meeting a new placement student for a preplacement meeting or interview.

1. Tell me about yourself
2. What interests you about this field?
3. What previous experiences do you have that will help you prepare for a field placement within the field of ABA?
4. What are your strengths and areas for improvement?
5. What educational opportunities are you seeking in this field placement?
6. Tell me a bit about the supports and services our agency provides and what would you like to learn more about?
7. When you work with learners, what are some things that you look for in your first few meetings with them? If you don’t have experience working with learners, describe what you would do.
8. How do you build rapport and pair with learners?
9. You are experiencing difficulty establishing rapport and pairing with a learner. What do you do?
10. Your Field Mentor provides you with feedback that you don’t understand. How would you address this?
11. What is your experience with challenging behaviour?
12. You are working with a Field Mentor whose learner begins engaging in challenging behaviour. What do you do?
13. Tell me about a time that you were working as a group and an issue presented. What steps did you take to resolve the issue?
14. What do you hope to gain from your placement experience?
15. Is there any conflict of interests that you foresee working with our agency for placement? If so, please explain.

Additional questions for Field Placement 2 students:

1. What skills did you feel that you excelled at during your 1st field placement?
2. What skills do you wish to enhance from your 1st placement as you enter your 2nd field placement?
3. What are your career goals post-graduation?