interview help

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

hi


So I feel that now is the time to really try to improve interviewing skills.


I am horrible. Absolute. I don’t know what to do.


I have thought about taking a public speaking type of class, or something like that. I don’t know any doctors (other than one who will do it once, but only after i improve a great deal)


A stressful environment would be great. I already know Judy and will have her do phone stuff, but I know it won’t be the same.


Does anyone have any suggestions? any internet classes/resources??


This is my weakest spot, and with two years gone by and only one interview each year, I have hardly gotten any practice.

2

Hi,


I recommend Toastmasters. If you Goggle Toastmasters, you’ll want to pull up the International Toastmasters site. You should be able to search for clubs near you. This may help you with your speaking skills, and clubs usually have experienced speakers who might be willing to work with you specifically on interviewing. I learned a lot from the club I had been involved with and what I learned will help me with any interviews I have.


-Beth

3

I think interviewing is just another one of the many skills you’re going to learn as you go through the process of becoming a doctor. So look at it as another interesting challenge in the voyage.


Do you have a good feel for what might be weak spots in your interviewing skills? Identifying these will really help in creating a plan of attack as to how to overcome them. For me, how I feel after the interview is directly related to how well I was prepared prior to the interview. In other words, it’s not so much whether the interviewer(s) are easy-going or confrontational, but more about my ability to provide coherent, cogent responses to their questions through anticipating what and how things might be asked and preparing prior to arriving on campus.


Does your school have a sort of program for practice interviews? Most colleges, through their career planning services, will offer practice interviews for candidates for both jobs and advanced degree programs. My school actually goes further than this and the department chairperson, along with other department faculty, will do mock interviews with students applying to medical school. Perhaps there is something similar at your school. It may be that the pre-medical program at your school keeps in contact with its alumni who may be willing to sit down and coach you as well. Talk to other students, faculty, and the department chair to see what might be available to you. (In fact, the pre-med advisor didn’t even tell me about the mock interviews with the department, rather the dept. chair did.)


I’d also strongly recommend, in case you haven’t done this already, to visit the Student Doctor site prior to your interview. This link brings you to the interview feedback area of studentdoctor.net categorized by each individual medical school, where people who’ve attended interviews at any given medical school post their experiences, including format, samples of questions asked, etc. I found it to be an excellent preparatory resource.


Above all, go in with confidence–forget about the cockiness, though! This confidence will show in both your speaking and how you hold yourself physically. You already know they should pick you, now it’s just abput letting them know the same!

4

Hi


My husband actually recommended Toastmasters too! I looked up some local clubs last night.


My problem is “self-esteem, confidence, and can’t relax”


I am confident in real life, but not around highly educated people, which poses a problem. Despite all of my accomplishments, I am very afraid of doctors…this is getting better since I now work for one and do some shadowing in my off time. I was raised in a very blue-collar rural community with very little socialization due to geographical area. So my shyness is overwhelming.


I learned something yesterday that amcas takes your Freshman, Sophomore, and junior years, and calculates them (weighted of course) and that some schools put your numbers into a database to weed out people. Unfortunately for me, my freshman and sophomore years were 14 years ago, and due to many things, my GPA was average. My junior year was 4.0 but it only raised my “overall gpa” that these colleges look at to 3.4…it makes sense why I only get interviewed in my home state school. The most ridiculous thing is that my senior year consists of over 3 years of education, 3.7 gpa.


I was hoping to get more interviewing experience during two rounds of applications but I was not invited to more than one each year.


This round I hoping for more due to the addition of DO schools, who tend to be more forgiving on GPA and may possibly consider me.


Last thing I heard, my school does not do anything for interviews, but I will ask again. Maybe they decided to include it. It is a very large state school, but mediocre in my opinion, at least for undergraduate and support stuff.


I hope Toastmasters will help. Thanks

5

Interviewing is a skill like anything else. If you practice, you will get better at it. I think that Toastmasters could be a good idea to improve your overall polish and performance skills, but it won’t give you the practice you need at answering questions that put you on the spot, so to speak. I would suggest that you practice interviewing as much as possible. Buy a book of mock interview questions, or go to SDN and read the interview feedback pages for the schools where you want to apply. (This is a great service if you haven’t seen it yet; you can read the actual questions that people got asked by those schools in previous years.) Make a list of say, fifty questions for each school. Then go through each question, and think about how you would answer it. Don’t write out an answer, but think about what you would say if someone asked you that question. When you are done with this exercise, start asking other people to ask you random questions from the list. Maybe do it the first time with someone friendly, like your husband. Then try to find someone who will be harsh with you and give you a hard time. I found that my med student friends were incredibly mean, WAY meaner than any real interviewer EVER was. They were just ripping me a new one up one side and down the other. But it made the actual interview experience a lot less traumatic. Best of luck to you.

6

Hi there,


Sit in front of a mirror and ask someone to ask you questions. Watch yourself as you answer them. This exercise works best if you do not know the questions ahead of time.


Do you have mannerisms that are annoying and unprofessional, such as crossing arms and crossing legs at the knee?


Do you have poor eye contact? Do you generally look unfriendly?


Do you have nervous tics that are annoying?


You can greatly improve the way you come across by just looking at yourself.


Natalie

7
  • misscompassion Said:
hi

So I feel that now is the time to really try to improve interviewing skills.

I am horrible. Absolute. I don't know what to do.

I have thought about taking a public speaking type of class, or something like that. I don't know any doctors (other than one who will do it once, but only after i improve a great deal)

A stressful environment would be great. I already know Judy and will have her do phone stuff, but I know it won't be the same.

Does anyone have any suggestions? any internet classes/resources??

This is my weakest spot, and with two years gone by and only one interview each year, I have hardly gotten any practice.

Mock interviews. Find some doc firend or co-worker, even somebody you met during your clinical volunteering. Just ask them to do a mock interview. MSAR and Kaplan have a number of example interview questions, and give that to your interviewer-doc. Then have them rip you apart. They'll be able to tell in the first 30 min where you can improve.

Practicing in front of a mirror is another good tip.

Practice a lot of those questions. You get to the point where you can see themes in answers. By backing these answers up with experiences from your application, you can sell them more and more on you.
8

Mock interviews really helped me prepare for my interview. My school had a premed committee and they assigned us to two people from the school that we didn’t know for the interviews. They could be teachers or administrators. After the interview, they gave me feedback on what I did right and what I should work on. Perhaps you could ask your advisor or a teacher if they have a colleague who would be willing to do this for you.


Also, look at studentdoctor.net for the interview feedback for the school you’re interviewing at. Many times, the questions will be similar, if not the same and you can have a prepared answer. I find that I don’t get nearly as nervous if I feel like I’m prepared. Don’t get intimidated by the person who’s interviewing you. They’re people just like you and have probably been where you are. I had one interview with a 4th year med student and the other with a doctor. The first one ended up being a fun discussion about my passion for medicine and while the second one was a little more challenging, I focused on showing my enthusiasm and knowledge about what I was getting into.


Good luck! Don’t stress too much. Just remember, an interview is just a conversation about a specific topic. If you’re prepared for the topic, it can be a lot of fun. Take the pressure off yourself and enjoy the process.


Gina

9

i have no doctor friends…i work for one who is extremely busy, no med school friends/relatives, no pre-med friends or relatives. I am the only one of my friends who have even gone to college. My school does not do mock interviews. I have “self” prepared for the questions, even wrote them out. I think standing in front of a mirror and talking about them without my notes would be helpful.


I think my problem is I do not believe the interviewers were people like me at any time in their life. This makes ‘conversation’ difficult. Worst of all, the only place that I have interviewed had 3 doctors sitting around talking to me. I find that much worse than one on one.


I am hoping that the DO interviews will be less intimidating, as I have found DO’s to be more friendly than MD’s.

10
  • misscompassion Said:
I think my problem is I do not believe the interviewers were people like me at any time in their life.



Why do you think this? And why does it matter to you? You do not need to have a chip on your shoulder about an upbringing where higher education wasn't common. And you actually don't have any idea of the backgrounds of the people interviewing you. Besides, isn't it better to think of what you have in common - an interest in medicine?

Perhaps it would help you to think about the interview as something where YOU are trying to get information as well - it is NOT entirely about them listening to, and evaluating, you. One of the purposes of the med school interview is for you to learn more about the school and the surroundings. You can do this by getting to know your interviewer better. You have posted in other threads about how the "people connection" is an important reason why you want to practice medicine. Believe it or not, you should approach your interview with that in mind.

  • Quote:
I am hoping that the DO interviews will be less intimidating, as I have found DO's to be more friendly than MD's.





aside from the stereotype - I'm just not going to go there - let me tell you that one of OldManDave's more hair-raising interviews was a good cop - bad cop routine played out at a DO school. So don't count on that.

You need to go into an interview assuming that people are friendly, that they are interested in you, that they want to get to know you better and that they want to help YOU get to know their school better. It is not supposed to be an adversarial setting. Of course it FEELS like one, because so much is riding on it, but I think one of your problems is that you're treating it like one and that is making it much worse.

Mary
11
  • Quote:
You need to go into an interview assuming that people are friendly, that they are interested in you, that they want to get to know you better and that they want to help YOU get to know their school better. It is not supposed to be an adversarial setting. Of course it FEELS like one, because so much is riding on it, but I think one of your problems is that you're treating it like one and that is making it much worse.

Mary



thanks mary for driving that point home. I do tend to get wrapped up in the negativity, especially after a couple of bad interviews. I will try to stay positive.
12
  • misscompassion Said:
i have no doctor friends...i work for one who is extremely busy, no med school friends/relatives, no pre-med friends or relatives. I am the only one of my friends who have even gone to college. My school does not do mock interviews. I have "self" prepared for the questions, even wrote them out. I think standing in front of a mirror and talking about them without my notes would be helpful.

I think my problem is I do not believe the interviewers were people like me at any time in their life. This makes 'conversation' difficult. Worst of all, the only place that I have interviewed had 3 doctors sitting around talking to me. I find that much worse than one on one.

I am hoping that the DO interviews will be less intimidating, as I have found DO's to be more friendly than MD's.





I would say, just relax and be yourself and don't worry about what your interviewers might be like. If they seem to be trying to intimidate you, don't take it personally; it's likely just a way to see how you stand up under pressure. The medical school and residency world is full of stressed out people; just think of it as another little test.

I've heard stories about horrible interviews where the student ended up practically stomping out angrily, and yet received an acceptance letter nonetheless. You just can't predict these things.

I was just reading some interview stories on studentdoctor.net about a very friendly and laid back osteopathic school in the Midwest. One of the students reported that for every answer he gave, no matter how carefully worded, one of the doctors would slam his hand down on the desk. He said he kept "getting slammed". I guess I wouldn't like this too much either, but as non-traditional students we do have a bit of life experience and perspective that will help us through these difficult moments perhaps more easily than some of the trads (not to take away from the many mature "trads" out there!).

Good luck!
13

I was given this link: http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/index.h…


It is a pretty comprehensive medical ethics website. I was asked some questions that, if I hadn’t read this site, then I would have bombed them.