Interview Advice!

[KCgophervet]

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Hello everyone! My one and only interview (at U of MN) is scheduled for tomorrow and I was hoping to get some last minute advice from anyone who's already interviewed. Really just general advice or tips would be fantastic.

Also, I become very nervous under pressure and even when doing practice interviews with myself I find I tend to say "um" and "like" a lot. Any advice to counter that? How bad does that look to the interviewers?

Again - general advice or tips that you'd wish someone had told you or that you already know, pretty much anything will be greatly appreciated!

THANKS 🙂

 

[economic]

Hmm.. to avoid the "um" and "like"
- Practice talking in the mirror without using these words.
- Be very aware of what you are saying while you talk.
- Talk slowly! You might be talking faster than you think. Try to slow it down and take a deep breath before you talk.

Other tips for behavior:
-Do not fidget! Do not mess with your hair, your necklace, or your clothing either. I noticed I was doing this, and at one point all of my interviewers were just staring at my hands as I tapped them on the table. Oops! Also, you may be tempted to move around a lot if you are in a swivel chair or to tap your feet - avoid it! It is distracting.
-Sit up straight.

My final tips for talking:
-Try to have a point or some kind of positive conclusion to everything you say. "So, in conclusion, I learned X from this experience" , use terms like first, second, third.. Establish an easy-to-follow setup for your explanations. This will help prevent you from rambling on...
-Remember your interviewers introductions (are they professors or administration or practicing vets?) so that you can ask insightful questions at the end of the interview.

Anyways, those are mainly just things I wish I did better in my interviewers.

There are many other threads that go into this exact topic. Here are some examples:
Interview questions from previous years - http://studentdoctor.net/schools/?view=veterinary
Questions to ask at the end of interview - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=977792
How to dress for interviews - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=694720
People giving some interesting insight after their interviews - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=787423 and - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=607285

Good luck!

 

[LetItSnow]

Hello everyone! My one and only interview (at U of MN) is scheduled for tomorrow and I was hoping to get some last minute advice from anyone who's already interviewed. Really just general advice or tips would be fantastic.

Also, I become very nervous under pressure and even when doing practice interviews with myself I find I tend to say "um" and "like" a lot. Any advice to counter that? How bad does that look to the interviewers?

Again - general advice or tips that you'd wish someone had told you or that you already know, pretty much anything will be greatly appreciated!

THANKS 🙂

Here's random thoughts because toxicology is really dull at the moment:

1) Don't be afraid of a little dead space. Obviously you don't want to sit there staring at the wall, but when they ask you a question, take a few seconds to think through your answer, take a deep breath, and then go. Don't rush in and stumble around.

2) You will be asked questions that mostly will follow along the lines of "tell me about a time when <....>". They really mean it - they want a specific example that demonstrates your response to whatever situation they are asking about. Make sure your example fits the answer.

3) It's far better to have a minor incident/situation/conversation in your background if they fit the question very well than it is to try and awkwardly make some major thing fit the question. The point isn't to give them 'major' examples; the point is to answer the question. For example, I used as an example a trivial thing that happened where I had to apologize to my son. But it fit the question very well.

4) Smile! Greet them! Be friendly! Treat it like a conversation, not a grueling interview.

5) Sit comfortably, but straight.

6) Don't be afraid to take notes if it helps you. I jotted down a few words about each question to help organize my thoughts - it only takes a few seconds, gives you a chance to breath, and keeps your hands busy.

7) Obviously, avoid it if you can, but don't worry too much about saying "um" or "uh". Everyone does. Even them. While doing it constantly would be noticeable, they aren't evaluating you on how "smoothly" you talk.

G'luck! I'm doing tours over noon tomorrow. Perhaps see you there. 🙂

 

[Abnerrs]

Here's random thoughts because toxicology is really dull at the moment:

1) Don't be afraid of a little dead space. Obviously you don't want to sit there staring at the wall, but when they ask you a question, take a few seconds to think through your answer, take a deep breath, and then go. Don't rush in and stumble around.

2) You will be asked questions that mostly will follow along the lines of "tell me about a time when <....>". They really mean it - they want a specific example that demonstrates your response to whatever situation they are asking about. Make sure your example fits the answer.

3) It's far better to have a minor incident/situation/conversation in your background if they fit the question very well than it is to try and awkwardly make some major thing fit the question. The point isn't to give them 'major' examples; the point is to answer the question. For example, I used as an example a trivial thing that happened where I had to apologize to my son. But it fit the question very well.

4) Smile! Greet them! Be friendly! Treat it like a conversation, not a grueling interview.

5) Sit comfortably, but straight.

6) Don't be afraid to take notes if it helps you. I jotted down a few words about each question to help organize my thoughts - it only takes a few seconds, gives you a chance to breath, and keeps your hands busy.

7) Obviously, avoid it if you can, but don't worry too much about saying "um" or "uh". Everyone does. Even them. While doing it constantly would be noticeable, they aren't evaluating you on how "smoothly" you talk.

G'luck! I'm doing tours over noon tomorrow. Perhaps see you there. 🙂

🙂

You don't give tours on the 2/8-2/9 interviews? Boo!! 😳

 

[deb1123]

Here's random thoughts because toxicology is really dull at the moment:

1) Don't be afraid of a little dead space. Obviously you don't want to sit there staring at the wall, but when they ask you a question, take a few seconds to think through your answer, take a deep breath, and then go. Don't rush in and stumble around.

2) You will be asked questions that mostly will follow along the lines of "tell me about a time when <....>". They really mean it - they want a specific example that demonstrates your response to whatever situation they are asking about. Make sure your example fits the answer.

3) It's far better to have a minor incident/situation/conversation in your background if they fit the question very well than it is to try and awkwardly make some major thing fit the question. The point isn't to give them 'major' examples; the point is to answer the question. For example, I used as an example a trivial thing that happened where I had to apologize to my son. But it fit the question very well.

4) Smile! Greet them! Be friendly! Treat it like a conversation, not a grueling interview.

5) Sit comfortably, but straight.

6) Don't be afraid to take notes if it helps you. I jotted down a few words about each question to help organize my thoughts - it only takes a few seconds, gives you a chance to breath, and keeps your hands busy.

7) Obviously, avoid it if you can, but don't worry too much about saying "um" or "uh". Everyone does. Even them. While doing it constantly would be noticeable, they aren't evaluating you on how "smoothly" you talk.

G'luck! I'm doing tours over noon tomorrow. Perhaps see you there. 🙂

👍 Thanks so much! I've got my interview next Thursday, and I'm nervous/excited too!

 

[macita183]

Make sure you make eye contact with all the interview panel, not just the one that is asking the question (I'm assuming Minnesota does a panel interview).

Don't rush while answering questions. If you find yourself really nervous or unsure of how to answer a question you can always repeat the question aloud to give yourself a few seconds to get composed.

As others have said, don't fidget, sit up straight. Make sure you are wearing something that you feel comfortable in (but still look professional). I used to work as a recruiter and some candidates I interviewed were obviously very uncomfortable in their outfit to a point of distraction.

In an effort to not say "um" I did a lot of mock interviews with family and friends. I still said "um" a couple times in my interview, but as LetItSnow said as long as it's not done constantly I don't think they will hold it against you.

Good luck to you! I hope your interview goes great!

 

[CheshireNeko]

Bring water! Some people have told me this has helped them because it gives them a break from talking to think and it also helps with their drymouth caused by anxiety.

 

[dovelover]

3) It's far better to have a minor incident/situation/conversation in your background if they fit the question very well than it is to try and awkwardly make some major thing fit the question. The point isn't to give them 'major' examples; the point is to answer the question. For example, I used as an example a trivial thing that happened where I had to apologize to my son. But it fit the question very well.

That's a helpful piece of advice! I've found for some of the practice questions I've been doing all I can come up with is somewhat trivial situations. Glad to know someone thinks it's a good idea to use them. Although they do throw a bit of a wrench in that plan when they put adjectives like "major" "life changing" and "significant" in front of whatever situation they're asking for.

 

[cs5910]

Hello everyone! My one and only interview (at U of MN) is scheduled for tomorrow and I was hoping to get some last minute advice from anyone who's already interviewed. Really just general advice or tips would be fantastic.

Also, I become very nervous under pressure and even when doing practice interviews with myself I find I tend to say "um" and "like" a lot. Any advice to counter that? How bad does that look to the interviewers?

Again - general advice or tips that you'd wish someone had told you or that you already know, pretty much anything will be greatly appreciated!

THANKS 🙂

Honestly, the best advice is really to just be yourself. I know that is a very cliche piece of advice, but I've had several interviews - behavioral, traditional, non-tradition, open file, closed file - and the ONLY way to prepare for them is to think about the main questions, why vet med, tell us about yourself, and why "insert school name". The rest of the questions will be about your experiences, and you are an EXPERT on yourself. So just relax, take a deep breath before the interview and remember to SMILE. They want confidence, not rehearsed answers.

 

[KCgophervet]

Thanks for all your advice! It is all very solid and helpful - I really appreciate it. I wouldn't have even thought to bring water! I do get drymouth so thanks for thinking of that!

You are all making me feel much more comfortable about it (still nervous, but not tearing my eyes out).

I've been trying to go over the list of possible questions from their website to have some ideas already to hand, but I find it really difficult to come up with stories on the spot - even if it is about my life!

LetItSnow I will definitely be attending the tour! As will my mother... who will probably be much louder and even more excited than I am about seeing the inside view of campus 🙂

 

[wildcatj]

Thanks for all your advice! It is all very solid and helpful - I really appreciate it. I wouldn't have even thought to bring water! I do get drymouth so thanks for thinking of that!

You are all making me feel much more comfortable about it (still nervous, but not tearing my eyes out).

I've been trying to go over the list of possible questions from their website to have some ideas already to hand, but I find it really difficult to come up with stories on the spot - even if it is about my life!

LetItSnow I will definitely be attending the tour! As will my mother... who will probably be much louder and even more excited than I am about seeing the inside view of campus 🙂

You know about the interview feedback on here too right?
If not, here's the link for u of mn: http://studentdoctor.net/schools/school/umn-vet/survey/33
For my behavioral interview, I came up with some scenarios that would apply to multiple situations and mostly used those. It's hard to come up with life examples on the spot, so try to have some that you've already thought of.

 

[LetItSnow]

🙂

You don't give tours on the 2/8-2/9 interviews? Boo!! 😳

I do on 2/9. On 2/8 I'm at MVMA all day. 🙂

 

[LetItSnow]

Make sure you make eye contact with all the interview panel, not just the one that is asking the question (I'm assuming Minnesota does a panel interview).

MN does 2-person interviews, and Macita is right - balance your "non-verbal" communication between the two.

That said, I had one interviewer who was engaging, smiled, etc.... and the other who stared at her clipboard the *ENTIRE TIME*. It was really disheartening; I thought I was doing poorly. That's why I tell people not to try and 'guess' how well they're doing - there are enough unknown factors that you really can't tell. So long as *you* make effort to make eye-contact with each of them, don't let it get you off your game if one of them doesn't communicate well non-verbally.

 

[Minnerbelle]

That said, I had one interviewer who was engaging, smiled, etc.... and the other who stared at her clipboard the *ENTIRE TIME*. It was really disheartening; I thought I was doing poorly. That's why I tell people not to try and 'guess' how well they're doing - there are enough unknown factors that you really can't tell.

Supposedly sometimes they purposely play good cop bad cop.

 

[LetItSnow]

Supposedly sometimes they purposely play good cop bad cop.

Maybe. I dunno if that's something true or just something we like to think or something some universities do and some don't. I think it's probably less nefarious than that - here the interviewers are just regular staff members, teachers, etc. Some of them are real introverts. In my case, the one who wouldn't look at me turns out to be just a really, really quiet type. She wasn't playing bad cop; she was just being herself.

I suspect more often than not that's the case; they're just being normal people like everyone else.

 

[KCgophervet]

Interview, check! Thanks again for all of your advice - it really came in handy. I just had to remind myself to take it slow and not stress about silences after questions. My tour guide at the U actually mentioned that they might do a "good cop/bad cop" thing but luckily I did not experience that. Both of my interviewers were very nice and one was even an alumnus from my alma mater.

 

[kernel]

I did a mock interview through the career services people at my university yesterday. If you have access to something like this, do it! My interviewer did quite a bit of research before my appointment. She came up with great (relevant) questions, and she provided me with helpful/constructive feedback afterwards.

On the flip side, I don't think I did as well as I thought. They gave me a recording of the interview and I watched it a few hours laters and...urg... Awkward.

 

[LetItSnow]

I did a mock interview through the career services people at my university yesterday. If you have access to something like this, do it! My interviewer did quite a bit of research before my appointment. She came up with great (relevant) questions, and she provided me with helpful/constructive feedback afterwards.

On the flip side, I don't think I did as well as I thought. They gave me a recording of the interview and I watched it a few hours laters and...urg... Awkward.

I dunno... Obviously you want to spot weaknesses and improve them if you're watching a practice interview, but I am really convinced that for a real interview it's a bad idea to start trying to guess how you did. The bottom line is that you're applying your own criteria to how you did, and they are probably using a very different set of criteria.

Sure, some things are obvious. If you go bat**** crazy and throw a fit and yell at an interviewer, you can assume you did poorly. But within the realm of 'normal' .... I think all you do is make yourself crazy trying to figure out how you did.

Er. Not to take away from your main point. Practice is good. Totally agree.

 

[Awendela]

I agree that it's probably not constructive to try to figure out how you're doing during an interview. During one of my recent interviews, one of the members of my panel was giving me very little to work with in terms of eye contact and was checking her watch the whole time. It turned out she just had to leave a little bit early for another meeting that she was stressed about missing. As she was leaving, her whole demeanor changed, and she even told me I did a great job. So, don't let someone's behavior throw you off of your game.

If you start to panic, take a breath and a sip of that water before you continue. And if you need a minute (or you're completely lost on an experience-type question), you can always say something like, "That's a great question - can we come back to it in a minute?" It will give you a chance to come up with something to talk about, and odds are decent they'll forget to ask it again.

 

[kernel]

The bottom line is that you're applying your own criteria to how you did.

I agree that it's probably not constructive to try to figure out how you're doing during an interview.

You guys are right. I realized how silly it was to scrutinize, especially considering the fact that people aren't used to seeing themselves speak. What I DID do later was re-watch the interview with the notes and feedback my counselor gave me, which is likely what they intended for me to do.

One more question: would it be strange or frowned upon to jot down some bullet points of ideas/concepts/possible answers to questions in a notebook that I was planning to bring to the interview anyway?
It would be nice to have a short list of ideas to draw from in the event that I get stuck in an anxiety-induced rut . For instance my mock-interviewer asked me to describe an example of a new technology/procedure used in vetmed and I thought of a brilliant example that I've had hands-on experience with...right after the interview. Anyway I think having a few open-ended, succinct ideas in front of me would help me to feel more confident, even if I didn't end up using them.

 

[LetItSnow]

You guys are right. I realized how silly it was to scrutinize, especially considering the fact that people aren't used to seeing themselves speak. What I DID do later was re-watch the interview with the notes and feedback my counselor gave me, which is likely what they intended for me to do.

Totally. In a practice setting, yeah, critique away. I just meant for a 'real' interview ... be confident and trust yourself.

One more question: would it be strange or frowned upon to jot down some bullet points of ideas/concepts/possible answers to questions in a notebook that I was planning to bring to the interview anyway? For instance my mock-interviewer asked me to describe an example of a new technology/procedure used in vetmed and I thought of a brilliant example that I've had hands-on experience with...right after the interview. Anyway I think having a few open-ended, succinct ideas in front of me would help me to feel more confident, even if I didn't end up using them.

Hahaha. You always think of the BEST answers after the interview is done. 🙂

I kinda suspect that if they knew what you were doing, they'd consider it poor form to carry notes into your interview. I dunno. I've never heard one way or the other, so I'm guessing. I do know that I asked if I could *take* notes during the interview, and at least here they were perfectly ok with that.

I think it's a perfectly fair question to ask, though - you could always call the admissions director at wherever you're interviewing and be frank and ask it exactly like you just posted. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[RetroUnicorn]

Turn your phone off during your interview!

 

[Awendela]

One more question: would it be strange or frowned upon to jot down some bullet points of ideas/concepts/possible answers to questions in a notebook that I was planning to bring to the interview anyway?
It would be nice to have a short list of ideas to draw from in the event that I get stuck in an anxiety-induced rut . For instance my mock-interviewer asked me to describe an example of a new technology/procedure used in vetmed and I thought of a brilliant example that I've had hands-on experience with...right after the interview. Anyway I think having a few open-ended, succinct ideas in front of me would help me to feel more confident, even if I didn't end up using them.

I'm not sure how interviewers would feel about you bringing notes in, but I agree that it's a great idea to jot these things down. Before my interviews, I had a notebook where I had written different questions (from SDN), one on each page. Any time I had downtime, I'd write down a few more answers or re-outline some of the bigger questions. This enabled me to have it fresh in my head when I was going in for the interview, and I actually found that it was a pretty good stress-reliever - it helped to focus me (I couldn't worry because I was too busy being productive!) and make me feel more on top of things going in.

 

[equineconstant]

How do you answer the question "is this your #1 school?" or along those lines if it isn't? I obviously don't want to lie and say it's my top choice if it's not, but I wouldn't be interviewing if I didn't want to get in.

 

[cowgirla]

How do you answer the question "is this your #1 school?" or along those lines if it isn't? I obviously don't want to lie and say it's my top choice if it's not, but I wouldn't be interviewing if I didn't want to get in.

Blah blah blah, weighing all your options, you appreciate this chance to see the school, and don't feel you can make a decision until you see other schools and can compare them. you really love their school, and hope that it is the right fit for you, you've loved what you've seen, to be honest its going to be a tough decision, blah blah blah,