American Red Cross Interview Questions with Answer Examples
To help you prepare for an American Red Cross job interview, here are 34 interview questions and answer examples.
American Red Cross was written by Isaiah Swanson and updated on February 28th, 2022. Learn more here.
Why do you want to work for the American Red Cross?
Like any nonprofit organization, the Red Cross wants to hire those most passionate and dedicated to its mission and vision. The interviewer wants to see that you are familiar with the work of the American Red Cross both nationally and internationally.
The first step in preparing to answer this question is to familiarize yourself with the organizations mission: The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. Next, visit the Red Crosss website to read more extensively about its values and vision, which include the commitment to disaster preparedness, providing shelter, turning compassion into action, and inspiring hope. Share with the interviewer how you personally connect to the Red Crosss mission, vision, and values and show how you have demonstrated this connection in your work history.
“As someone who has personally benefited from the services of organizations offering emergency shelter, I have a strong belief in the importance of the American Red Crosss mission to prevent and alleviate human suffering. My family lost our home to a fire when I was growing up, and we had nowhere to go. A local organization helped us procure temporary, emergency housing as well as necessary food and clothing items to help us get re-started. They also connected my parents to a program that helped us find permanent housing only one month after the fire. Because of this situation, I began to realize just how life-altering emergencies and natural disasters can be for people. I want to dedicate my life to providing support when people are at their most vulnerable and hope when they are feeling hopeless. The American Red Cross pledges that support in its mission, and I want to be part of it.”
“I really connected to the part of the Red Crosss vision about turning compassion into action. During my senior year in college, I noticed an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in my city. Although I had consistently donated to and volunteered with organizations providing housing, food, and other emergency services, I felt I wanted to do more and offer something with a measurable impact. With a few of my friends at the school newspaper, I developed a program that would give the opportunity for people experiencing homelessness to sell newspapers full of stories they had researched and written themselves. All of the proceeds from newspapers sold went to the participants, and they felt inspired and motivated by the work of writing and running the business. This experience showed me the importance of offering people resources that will support their efforts to rise above their current situation. Since that time, I have sought out opportunities that allowed me to be involved in direct action. That is what the American Red Cross offers, and that is why I want to work here.”
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Where do you recruit candidates? In addition to our careers page, we post all of our jobs on job sites such as Monster and Indeed. Indeed is where the largest percentage of our candidates comes from. We have company pages on LinkedIn, where you can find out more about the Red Cross, and we post job listings there as well. And we do a lot of targeted recruitment. For example, if were looking for phlebotomists, we might go to schools that offer medical certification, such as the University of Phoenix, with whom we have a partnership. We partner with many veterans outreach programs and diversity organizations as well. We cast the net wide.
The American Red Cross is most known for its blood drives and humanitarian support during natural disasters. But the nonprofit runs more like a corporation, says Carol Robinette, vice president of talent acquisition. “Id say were different than most nonprofits in that we have separate business divisions for the type of work that we do. And our size. Its a very big company.” The Red Cross employs more than 27,000 people — and theyre always hiring. About 6,000 jobs are filled each year, Robinette says. And a lot of those jobs go to Millennials. “Young people are important to the organization. Were more than 125 years old, but were always looking for new perspectives. Everybody here has a voice in how we can more effectively deliver our mission.”
Are there long-term career opportunities for people without a college degree? I would say for most of the jobs, the degree doesnt necessarily matter. For example, we offer a rapid promotion within biomedical services. You can come in as a collection tech, and within two to three years you can be a team leader. From there, you have a career path to a collection director or district manager. So in a five-year time frame you could be in a management role. There is no degree requirement.
Is it OK to bring up salary? Some people are afraid of the salary question. I think its important for recruiters to bring it up, and if they dont, its perfectly OK for a candidate to ask about the salary range for the position. Nobody should be negotiating salary in his or her first interview, but you need to know if the positions pay rate is something you can live with.
Do you have an internship program? We have a very robust summer internship program. Its a 10-week program either in our national headquarters in Washington, D.C., or in one of 500 field offices across the U.S. We start recruiting on college campuses and through our website in March, and the internship starts in June.
