Mortuary Assistant Interview Preparation Guide
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Mortuary Assistant based Frequently Asked Questions by expert members with experience as Mortuary Assistant. These questions and answers will help you strengthen your technical skills, prepare for the new job test and quickly revise the concepts

54 Mortuary Assistant Questions and Answers:

1 :: Explain me what are your career goals?

Helping others with their loss and moving forward and helping people with honouring their missed loved ones.

2 :: Can you explain how do you handle stressful situations?

I remain composed, even if i do not feel composed, I deal with the situation in a cool calm and collected manner.

3 :: Explain most glorious career moment to date?

I'm lucky enough to have had several! Being a part of a BBC documentary series called The Death Detectives was a lot of fun but working in the temporary mortuary set up for the 7th July London Bombings was also very rewarding.

4 :: Tell me do you have any advice for those wanting to get into the funeral business?

Networking is a great tool. Knowing people at a removal service in a larger area is a good thing since they have contact with the majority of the funeral homes. Also, I did my apprenticeship at an embalming service and learned invaluable skills. As an embalmer you are much more marketable.

5 :: Tell me what does your working day look like?

I now spend my days in a beautiful Grade II Listed Building on the grounds of St Bart's Hospital, surrounded by over 5000 anatomical specimens (the oldest of which is from 1756). I conserve the 'pots' by cleaning them and topping them up, and I also arrange them and catalogue them. I'm helping to design a new public website and working on some very interesting Public Engagement projects to really bring Pathology to life (excuse the pun…) I have a unique seminar series coming up which includes a lecture on the death of Marilyn Monroe, a vampire evening (complete with ingestible blood) which is also to coincide with National Pathology Year's blood month (November) and a talk from Joanna Ebenstein of the blog 'Morbid Anatomy' who is coming all the way from New York.

6 :: what kind of person would make a good mortician?

It's funny. I was a waiter for many years in my younger days. I always say, if you can be a successful waiter, you can be a successful funeral director. They are similar in many ways. They both wait on families and provide what should be excellent customer service. The only difference is that one puts a pizza in the oven and the other puts a body in the oven.

7 :: Please tell us how long would you expect to work for us if hired?

I would like to make a career out of it. Until retirement.

8 :: Tell me would you be embalmed yourself? Or would you want to be cremated?

I'm ok with being embalmed and buried. I'm also ok with being cremated. I will let my family choose the method which best suits them at the time.

9 :: Where do you see yourself in 5 years as Mortuary Assistant?

I wish to learn more about the funeral services business and hope to become licensed. I feel I belong in this industry and wish this to be my place, my career until I retire.

10 :: Tell me what exactly happens to the eyes during an embalming? Do you glue the lips of the dead person together?

The eyes usually start to flatten after death. Think of an old grape. They do, however, remain with the decedent. We don't remove them. You can use what is called an eye cap to put over the flattened eyeball to recreate the natural curvature of the eye. You can also inject tissue builder directly into the eyeball and fill it up. And sometimes, the embalming fluid will fill the eye to normal size.

Yes, the eyes and lips are glued together.