Questions to Ask in an SLP Interview
For speech-language pathologists interviewing at a school district, hospital, skilled nursing facility, private practice or contract company, whether you are looking for a clinical fellowship or changing jobs with years behind you. The questions follow the order the decision usually takes: the caseload, how your time is counted, the room and the tools, supervision and support, pay and contract terms, and a few to close on. Each has a note on what a good or a worrying answer sounds like, and many say which setting the question belongs to.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Caseload
How many students or patients would be on my caseload, and what was the highest it reached last year?
Why ask it
Ask for today's number and the peak together, because a school caseload tends to grow through the year as referrals qualify and a facility's swings with its census. A good answer is a figure the interviewer knows without looking it up. If all you hear is that it varies, ask what the last SLP in the seat was carrying when they left.
Is there a caseload cap or a workload model here, and what happens when an SLP goes over it?
Why ask it
Whether any limit exists, and who sets it, depends on the state, the district or the employer, so ask how it works in this one. The second half is the real test: listen for what was done the last time someone went over, such as a part-time hire, an assistant or students moved to a colleague. A cap that has never triggered anything is only a number.
What ages and types of disorder make up most of this caseload?
Why ask it
A little of everything can mean real variety or that nobody has counted. Ask for a rough split: how many on the caseload are speech sound, language, fluency, AAC, cognition or swallowing. If a large share sits outside your training, say so now and ask who you could consult, which is far better than discovering it in week three.
What did last week actually look like for the SLP in this position?
Why ask it
A real week has the canceled sessions, the surprise evaluation and the meeting that ran long, and a typical one has none of them. Listen for where the reports got written and whether lunch appears anywhere in the telling. If the seat has been empty, ask whose week absorbed the work, since that person knows what the job really holds.
How many buildings or sites would I cover, and is the travel between them inside my paid day?
Why ask it
Every extra site costs drive time, a second set of materials and another staff room where you are the visitor. Get the names of the sites, the days at each and where the driving sits on the schedule. Travel squeezed out of lunch or planning time is unpaid work, and mileage is the follow-up: who pays it and at what rate.
How are sessions delivered here: one to one, in groups, inside the classroom or by teletherapy?
Why ask it
Ask how large the groups run and who decides the format. Groups chosen because the children's goals fit together are a clinical decision, and groups of five because the schedule has no other room are a caseload problem. In a medical setting the same question is how much group or concurrent treatment is expected.
How many evaluations and re-evaluations come due in a typical month, and where do they fit in the schedule?
Why ask it
Testing, scoring and writing the report take hours per child, and that time is rarely inside the caseload number. The answer you want is that evaluation time is blocked or that sessions are lightened in heavy months. If evaluations simply happen on top, the caseload figure you were given understates the job.
Are there written criteria here for qualifying and dismissing students, and do teams follow them?
Why ask it
A school question, and often the reason a caseload only ever grows. The rules come from the state and the district, so ask to read this district's, and then ask when an SLP last dismissed a student who had met their goals without a fight. Where every referral qualifies and nobody is exited, treat the number you were quoted as a floor.
Is anything on the caseload I would inherit already overdue: evaluations, plan reviews or sessions owed?
Why ask it
A seat that sat empty for a term can come with a backlog, and the overdue work lands on whoever fills it. A straight employer will tell you the count and offer help clearing it. Hearing that the files are a bit of a mess, with no plan behind it, means your first months are cleanup with a full caseload on top.
Would I be treating swallowing and feeding, and how does a patient get an instrumental study here?
Why ask it
This is for hospital, rehab and skilled nursing jobs, and for schools with medically complex students. The useful details are where the study is done, who orders it and how long the wait usually runs. If you would be the only clinician making swallowing calls and have had little practice at it, ask what training and backup come before you carry that alone.
Is there a waiting list of clients, or would I be building the caseload from nothing?
Why ask it
One for private practices and new programs. An empty book means slow months, which matters a great deal when pay is per visit. Ask who does the marketing and the intake calls, and what the newest clinician's schedule looked like three months after starting.
Time and targets
When do the SLPs here write their notes and reports: in blocked time, between sessions or at home?
Why ask it
A planning period on paper may not survive the week, which is why the question asks when and not whether. Evenings and Sunday afternoons, said with a laugh, is still an answer. Where time really is blocked, find out who is allowed to book over it.
What days and hours would I work, and is there a weekend, holiday or summer rotation?
Why ask it
In hospitals and skilled nursing the answer is often a weekend and holiday rotation, and the follow-ups are how many a year and whether they pay differently. In a school it is the number of contract days and whether summer services are optional and paid extra. Get the pattern the current SLPs work, which is not always the one in the posting.
Which meetings would I be expected to attend, and do they fall inside contract hours?
Why ask it
In a school that means eligibility and plan meetings, and in a facility it means care conferences, rounds and family meetings. Count them: where every student has a yearly plan meeting, a caseload of sixty is at least sixty meetings. Those held before the first bell or after the last are hours the salary may not cover, and you want to know whether they are paid, traded for time or simply expected.
What productivity target would I be held to, and exactly what counts toward it?
Why ask it
Mostly a question for hospitals, skilled nursing and outpatient clinics. Get the figure and its definition together: whether documentation, screenings, team meetings, family training and walking between units count, or only billable minutes with a patient. A high percentage with a narrow definition leaves the rest to be done off the clock.
When someone misses the productivity number for a week, who talks to them and what is said?
Why ask it
You are asking for the tone of that conversation. A manager who looks at the census and the cancellations first is treating the number as information. One who goes straight to the individual, or who describes clocking out to finish notes as the normal fix, is describing a job to think hard about.
Who has the final say on how often I see someone and when they are discharged?
Why ask it
Frequency, minutes and discharge ought to trace back to the treating clinician's own findings. In a facility the pressure can run toward adding minutes or keeping a patient on, and in a school toward keeping minutes low because the caseload is full. Ask for the last time an SLP pushed back and what came of it.
When testing or a meeting takes my day, what happens to the sessions I miss?
Why ask it
Some employers expect every missed session made up, some only those the therapist caused, and some have no written rule. Which it is depends on local policy, so ask for theirs. Make-ups with no spare slots in the schedule turn every evaluation into a debt.
Do SLPs here bill Medicaid or insurance themselves, and what does that add to each note?
Why ask it
In some schools the SLP logs every session a second time for a public insurance claim, and in some practices the clinician chases authorizations too. Ask to see what one billing entry involves and roughly how long it takes. A billing office that handles it is worth real hours in your week.
Which duties outside speech do SLPs here get pulled into?
Why ask it
Bus and lunch duty, covering a class when no substitute comes, screening every kindergartner, running intervention groups. None is unreasonable alone. The useful follow-up is whether therapy is canceled for them, because that shows where speech services rank in the building.
How long does an evaluation report take to write in your system, and is there a shared template?
Why ask it
A template with the standing language already in place saves hours across a year, and a blank page for every report does the opposite. Put this to a working SLP if you can, since an administrator may never have written one. Where each clinician has built a private template, ask whether the last person's would be handed to you.
Room and tools
Where would I see students or patients, and could I look at the room before I leave today?
Why ask it
SLPs do end up in converted closets, on stages and in the corner of a cafeteria, which is why seeing the room beats hearing about it. Check for a door that closes, a table at the right height and somewhere to lock test kits and files. Shared space is workable when the sharing runs on a timetable and not first come, first served, and after a video interview a photo does the job.
Which standardized tests do you own, and are they current editions with enough record forms?
Why ask it
Name the two or three you rely on most and ask whether they are on the shelf. An out-of-date edition or a kit with no forms left means borrowing, waiting on a purchase order or buying your own. An interviewer who offers to find out is fine, and a shrug is not.
Is there a yearly budget for materials, and how does an SLP actually spend it?
Why ask it
The figure matters less than the route to it: a card, a catalog, or a purchase order that takes most of the year. Ask what the last SLP bought. Where the true answer is that clinicians pay from their own pocket, you should hear it before you accept and not after you have started.
Which IEP or documentation software do you use, and who trains a new SLP on it?
Why ask it
The system decides how long every note, plan and progress report takes, and they differ a great deal. Being handed a login and a manual is the weak answer, and an hour beside a working SLP in the first week is the strong one. If you have used the same system before, say so: it is a small point in your favor.
Who handles AAC here: a specialist, a lending library, or would it fall to me?
Why ask it
Device trials, funding paperwork and staff training take hours beyond the therapy itself. A team or a named specialist you can call is the good answer. If it is all yours and you have little AAC experience, ask how many current users there are and what training the employer would pay for.
How do you assess and treat someone whose home language I do not speak?
Why ask it
Find out what is on hand: interpreters who are trained and booked in advance, bilingual clinicians to consult, or tests in other languages. Leaning on a relative or whoever is free at the front desk is the weak answer. You also learn how often this comes up on the caseload.
Support
Have you supported a clinical fellow before, and who exactly would my mentor be?
Why ask it
You want a name, not an assurance that someone will be found. Ask how many fellows that person has mentored and whether you can meet or call them before you decide. An employer new to fellows can still be a good one, but then press harder on how the required observations will be scheduled.
How often would my mentor watch me work, and is that time protected on both our schedules?
Why ask it
The fellowship sets its own minimums for observation and feedback, so read the current requirements from your certifying body and state board and ask how this employer meets them. Hours that exist only if the mentor finds a gap in a full caseload tend to slip. A mentor in another building or another city needs a stated plan for visits.
Does the person who would mentor me meet the current requirements to supervise a fellow, and who checks that?
Why ask it
Who may supervise is set by the certifying body and the state, and the rules change, so verify the named person yourself as well as asking. An employer who has done this before will answer in one sentence. Learning midway that your hours cannot be counted is the costliest surprise a fellowship can hold.
What happens to my fellowship if my mentor leaves or the assignment ends partway through?
Why ask it
Staff move on, and contracts with districts or facilities get canceled. A good answer names a second qualified SLP and says how the completed portion would be signed off. If nobody has thought about it, ask for the backup plan in writing before you accept.
Would I start with the full caseload on day one, or build up to it?
Why ask it
Even a few weeks of ramp lets a new clinician learn the documentation system and the building before the numbers peak. Schools often cannot offer one, since the students are already there, so ask what is lightened instead: fewer evaluations at first, or an experienced SLP sharing the load.
When I am stuck on a case and I am the only SLP in the building, who do I call?
Why ask it
Being the sole member of your profession on site is common in this field, which makes this the mentoring question for experienced clinicians too. Look for a lead SLP, a team that meets to talk through cases or a named colleague who knows the area. No answer at all means your clinical growth would be self-funded and done at night.
Would I supervise SLPAs or graduate students, and is that counted in my workload?
Why ask it
What an assistant may do and how much oversight is required differ by state, so ask how it is set up here. The worrying version is an assistant's students added to your caseload on paper while the supervision time appears nowhere. If you are a fellow, check whether you are allowed to supervise at all.
Who would I report to, and is the person who evaluates my work an SLP?
Why ask it
A principal or a rehab director from another discipline can be a fine manager and still not know what good speech therapy looks like. Ask what the evaluation rests on: observation, paperwork compliance, productivity or outcomes. Then ask where clinical feedback would come from if your evaluator cannot give it.
How do the teachers, nurses or physicians here work with the SLP?
Why ask it
Ask for a recent example, such as a teacher who carried a strategy into the classroom or a nursing team that followed a diet recommendation. Staff who treat the SLP as a partner make carryover possible. Where the examples are thin, you would be doing the educating as well as the therapy.
Do you pay for continuing education, and are there paid days to attend it?
Why ask it
Get the amount, whether it rolls over and whether a conference day costs you leave. Licenses and certifications generally have to be kept up with continuing hours, and the board and the certifying body set how many, which makes the employer's share worth knowing. In-house training is worth something only when it is in your area of practice.
Is there a lead SLP role or a specialty caseload I could grow into here?
Why ask it
Mostly for experienced clinicians, though a fellow who asks it signals a plan to stay. The convincing answer is a person who has done it: the SLP who now runs the AAC team, or the one who took over the feeding referrals. If every SLP has the same job in year ten as in year one, the growth on offer is the pay step alone.
Pay and contract
How is this position paid: salary, hourly or per visit, and which of my hours are paid?
Why ask it
The rate means little until you know what it covers. In contract and per-visit roles, ask plainly whether documentation, meetings, travel and planning are paid or only time with a client. Divide a week's pay by every hour the job takes, and compare offers on that figure.
Are SLPs on the teacher salary schedule or one of their own, and where would my degree and experience place me?
Why ask it
A school question. Ask whether years in a hospital or clinic count toward your step, which column your degree puts you in, and whether national certification or a hard-to-fill post carries a stipend. Many districts publish the schedule, so read it beforehand and spend the question on your own placement.
Is a clinical fellow paid at a different rate, and when does it change?
Why ask it
Some employers pay fellows the same as certified staff and some pay less until the fellowship is signed off. If there is a difference, find out whether the raise is automatic on certification or waits for the next contract year. Get the date or the trigger into the offer letter.
Do you reimburse state licensure, certification dues and liability insurance?
Why ask it
These renew on their own cycles, and together they are noticeable on a first-year salary. Ask which are paid, whether upfront or by claim, and whether a school credential or a second state license for teletherapy is included. A flat no is not a warning sign, only a line in your comparison of offers.
If the district or facility ends the placement early, what happens to my pay and my job?
Why ask it
One for a contract or staffing company, where the recruiter works for the company and may never have seen the building. The terms that matter are the notice either side must give and whether you would be paid, or placed elsewhere, if the assignment stops. Being told it has never happened is not a term.
Am I paid for school breaks, holidays and days the building closes, and is any weekly minimum promised?
Why ask it
An hourly rate that looks high can shrink once a winter break, a spring break and a run of snow days go unpaid. Ask for last year's calendar and count the paid days. Salaried district staff have a mirror question: how many days the contract runs and what is paid beyond them.
What happens to my pay when a client cancels or the census drops?
Why ask it
For private practice, home health and skilled nursing, this decides whether the offer is what it appears to be. Ask what the cancellation rate has been and whether the cancellation policy pays the clinician anything. Being sent home early without pay on a quiet day is something to learn now.
Would I be an employee or an independent contractor?
Why ask it
The answer changes who handles taxes, whether benefits and liability coverage come with the job, and often who supplies materials. How each status is defined is a matter of law that varies by place, so ask how this role is classified and take the paperwork to an accountant if it is contract work. A higher contractor rate is not automatically more money.
What does the contract say about leaving before it ends, and may I take a copy home to read?
Why ask it
Look for a penalty for leaving early, a repayment clause tied to a bonus, a non-compete and a rule against taking clients with you. Whether such terms hold up depends on where you are, so have someone qualified read anything you are unsure of. Reluctance to let you read it overnight is the clearest warning on this page.
How many sick and personal days are there, and what happens to my sessions when I take one?
Why ask it
In many settings nobody covers an absent SLP, and the sessions wait. Find out whether they have to be made up afterwards, which makes a day off cost twice, and how a longer leave was handled the last time. It is also the natural moment to ask when health insurance and the other benefits begin.
Is there a sign-on bonus, relocation money or loan repayment help, and what are the strings?
Why ask it
Ask how long you must stay to keep it and what is repaid if you leave. Whether a job counts toward a public loan forgiveness program is decided by that program's rules, not by the recruiter, so check eligibility with the program itself. A large bonus on a post that has been open a long time deserves one more question about why.
Closing
How long did the last SLP in this position stay, and why did they leave?
Why ask it
Retirement after many years or a move across the country are reassuring answers. Three people in four years is a pattern, and the caseload or the supervisor is the first place to look. Ask calmly, once, and note whether the interviewer answers or changes the subject.
Could I speak with one of your current SLPs before I decide?
Why ask it
Nobody else can tell you what the caseload feels like in a heavy month or whether the mentoring really happens. An employer who is confident in the job tends to say yes at once. Bring three questions from this page, and ask what they wish they had known before they started.
Which part of this caseload do you think I am least prepared for?
Why ask it
It draws out the interviewer's doubt while you can still answer it. Agree where they are right and say how you would close the gap: a course, a mentor, a week shadowing a colleague. A new graduate who names their own limits and a plan reads as safer than one who claims to be ready for everything.
When will you decide, and if you make an offer, how long would I have to answer?
Why ask it
Graduating students are often in several conversations at once, and knowing the timeline lets you ask another employer to wait or to hurry. Write the dates down. Pressure to sign the same day, before you have read the contract, is a reason to slow down.
How to use these questions in an SLP interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Sort the list by setting
Nobody needs all of these. For a school, lead with the caseload number, the sites, the evaluations and the meetings. For a hospital, rehab unit or skilled nursing facility, lead with productivity, what counts toward it and who decides the minutes. For a private practice, start with how the schedule fills and what a cancellation does to pay. For a contract company, start with who employs you and which hours are paid.
If you are a clinical fellow, read the rules first
What a fellowship has to include, who may mentor and how much observation is needed are set by the body that certifies you and by the state board, and they are revised from time to time. Read the current versions yourself before the interview. The questions under Support then become a check on whether this employer knows them too, and you can hear the difference between a program and a promise.
Find out who is interviewing you
A principal or a special education director can speak to the building and the contract. A lead SLP can speak to the caseload, the tests and the mentoring. A recruiter for a staffing company knows the rate and the terms and may never have seen the site. Put each question to the person who can answer it, and ask for a second conversation when that person is not in the room.
Choose five and set your limits
Your turn to ask is often short. Pick the five whose answers could change your mind, and write down beforehand what would be too much: a caseload figure, a number of sites, a productivity percentage. A line drawn at home is easier to hold than one drawn across the table from someone friendly.
In the interview
Ask for the number, then for last year's
Caseload, group size, evaluations per month, sites and the productivity target are all numbers, and a number is harder to soften than a description. Follow each with what it was a year ago. A caseload that has climbed every year is a trend nobody will mention unless you ask.
Say why you are asking
Questions about workload can sound as if you want less of it. A short reason fixes that: 'I want to be sure every student gets their minutes, so can I ask how evaluations fit into the schedule?' That puts the question on the quality of the service, which is what the employer is hiring for.
Ask to see things
A schedule, the room, the test shelf, a blank contract and the salary schedule are all things an employer can show. Seeing replaces a good deal of talking, and the reaction to the request is informative too. Photos and a document by email do the same job after a video interview.
Leave pay until the work is clear
A rate only makes sense once you know the caseload, the paid hours and the travel. Ask the Caseload questions and the Time and targets questions first, and bring up pay when the interviewer does or when an offer is near. The exception is a contract or per-visit role, where which hours are paid is part of understanding the job at all.
After the interview
Write the answers down the same day
Record the caseload, the sites, the mentor's name, the target and the rate while you still remember the exact words. After three interviews the details blur, and the one with the friendliest panel starts to look best for reasons that have nothing to do with the job.
Compare offers line by line
Set the offers side by side on caseload, number of sites, paid hours per week, supervision, fees reimbursed and paid days in the year. Work the pay out per hour actually worked, with unpaid documentation and driving included. A lower rate with paid planning time and one building can turn out to be the better job.
Get the promises into the offer
A named mentor, a caseload limit, reimbursed license fees, a start date for benefits and a raise on certification are easy to say in an interview. Ask for each one in the offer letter or the contract. People change jobs, and a promise made by a director who has since left is hard to collect on.
Have the contract read
Clauses about leaving early, repaying a bonus or working nearby afterwards are treated differently in different places, and this page cannot tell you what holds where you live. If a term worries you, ask the employer to explain it in writing and show the document to someone qualified before you sign.
Mistakes to avoid
Judging a caseload number alone
Forty-five students in one building with few evaluations and forty-five across three buildings with a backlog are different jobs. Pair the number with the sites, the evaluations, the meetings and the make-up rule before you decide what you think of it.
Assuming supervision will sort itself out
A fellow who starts without a named, qualified mentor and a schedule of observations is carrying the risk alone. A plan that is vague at the interview tends to stay vague. Settle it before you accept.
Comparing hourly rates without the hours
A high rate paid only for time with clients can come out below a modest salary once notes, meetings, travel and unpaid breaks are counted. Do the arithmetic for a real week before you compare.
Treating the interview as a one-way test
New graduates especially can spend the whole hour trying to be chosen. You are choosing as well, and a clinician who asks informed questions about caseload and support comes across as someone who plans to do the job well and stay.