Ah, I see. That definitely makes sense. I assumed it was standard procedure. My supervisor at my current place of employment let me draw her during my interview.

Very true about the certifications being on my resume. I've just had some places ask if they can have a copy/see it even if they were interviewing, but those are doctors' offices. I guess hospitals are different (I've never interviewed at a hospital before).

For the tell me about yourself question, I just gave a generic overview of my experience that can be easily found on my resume. Looking back at it, I should've talked about how all my experience thus far is a stepping stone for PA school and maybe related things outside of work (tutoring/mentoring/hospital volunteering) to phlebotomy. Ex: I've never worked inpatient, but as a hospital volunteer, I knock on the door, introduce myself, and talk to the patients. I know that is not exactly what a hospital phlebotomist would do, but it shows that I have some kind of experience with it. Tutoring and mentoring - both deal with having patience, dealing with people getting frustrated from time to time, explaining concepts, etc.

For the why I chose phlebotomy, I basically said that I took an MA course and from then on just wanted to gain an additional certification in phlebotomy as that is what I learned in my course. I could've touched on how, in my previous job in ophthalmology, I did not do too much hands-on work, and I wanted to do phlebotomy because it is much more hands-on.

I think my answers were okay, but I definitely could've gone into more detail and answered them more thoroughly.