Passing pre-employment physical - tips??

[FancyPants]

I have applied for a job, had the interview, and, if all goes well, I will have to take a physical exam. I have tried to figure out what will be required by asking other employees (I interned at this place). People couldn't really remember. Something about lifting a weighted shovel a few times, running up and down a couple of steps. so....


1. What is normal for a physical exam? Do you think a local occupational therapist might know if I called around?

2. Any tips? If I could figure out what I'm going to do I could at least mentally visualize it (seems to help). I think maybe drinking water and getting rest and maybe a massage (been running lately and have some cramps) might help. Any ideas?

3. Search engine words? Google is giving me nothing.

I'm okay weight to height wise and don't have any health problems but I'm not super fit. I can lift my approximately 50lb son over my head, I can do a grand total of 3 proper pushups and I can run flat out for maybe 3 mins tops (I'm doing the couch to 5k plan so flat out is not how I am training right now)

I had no problems whatsoever on the internship but I think they will be testing beyond that.

THANK YOU FOR READING!!

[MomInCalifornia]

What type of job is it?

I would think the exam would test on things that would be required of you if you got the job.

[ProtoLawyer]

Do you mean a physical (medical exam) or a fitness test (for a physically demanding job)? They are two different things.

My experience with a pre-employment physical (for a teaching job) was that the exam was super-basic. I didn't even need to get undressed (which was funny because the form the school gave us had blanks for results of genital and rectal exam...I called HR and asked exactly what the state of my rectum had to do with my ability to teach (I phrased it differently--but I did think it was invasive and irrelevant and was not interested in consenting to a pelvic exam from a stranger when (a) I had a regular doctor and (b) it was in no way related to my job) and they told me it's a boilerplate form and they don't actually do a detailed exam)...they did a blood pressure check and a health history and maybe a TB test.

Unless your prospective job is very physically demanding, I can't imagine you'd have trouble passing the physical or a fitness test...unless your job would actually require you to run long distances or at high speeds (police officer?) I'd imagine they'd be testing for pretty basic levels of fitness.

[hipmummy]

What ever you do, do not eat anything with Poppy seed for at least a week. Just in case they do a drug test. This is not a myth it was confirmed on Mythbusters recently. Almost 10,000 have either lost their jobs or have not been hired do to a false pos screen. Don't be one of them.

[FancyPants]

The test is for a wastewater operator/engineer position. I scheduled it for Monday and the HR woman said she didn't know anyone who'd failed it so it can't be that bad I guess.

Thank you for the poppy seed tip. I don't normally eat any but my husband bought bagels today and I'll avoid them just in case.

I'm just stressing because I really want the job. False positives aside I don't do any drugs and I know my driving record is clean. So really the physical test is the only thing that could trip me up.

Thanks!