Discussing Research During Interviews

[Testosterone]

For those of you who have good experience on the MD only interview trail, how in depth did you answer questions like "Tell me about about your research?". I could spend half an hour explaining the background info leading to my hypothesis as well as the methods, data, and conclusion, but is that what interviewers are looking for? Would it benefit to be concise while answering this question, or talking more about general personal impressions of research? What did you guys talk about or what worked for you?

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[Doctor Strange]

- our hypothesis was...
- we test the hypothesis by...
- the hypothesis was supported/not-supported because...

Don't bore the interviewer, but at least make it look like you understand what you did. It shouldn't take more than two minutes to explain.

 

[onelastpuff23]

I once explained what the research was, but more importantly what the experience meant to me...

 

[kyamh]

I am in the process of applying now, but I have been struggling with the exact same thing. I could explain my research for an hour easy

My plan is to talk about the broad motivations behind my research - why is what I am doing relevant to the world and why is it interesting. I've had to practice this...which involved literally writing out a paragraph and then cutting down until I figured out what my main points were. Then I plan to dive into a one sentence "take home message" of my results.

Methods are only interesting to you, I think.

 

[jaywhyy]

It's easy to explain what you do to an expert in your field in 30 minutes; much more difficult to explain what you do to a non-expert in 5.