Admitting you dont read many books at an interview

[uclaussr]

Is this something that will hurt me? I chose to be honest about this and told my interviewer that i dont really have the time to read books right now. Is this going to negatively impact me or might they actually be surprised that i didnt decide to sound super smart and come up with a list of random books like im sure a lot of premeds do?

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[Astarael]

Honesty is always the best policy. I think for most interviewers, asking the last thing that you read is more of a conversational thing than an actually substantive question.

 

[hiyaman]

lol would it look embarrassing if you said harry potter books 1-7 instead of like pride and prejudice?

 

[HAV000]

Is this something that will hurt me? I chose to be honest about this and told my interviewer that i dont really have the time to read books right now. Is this going to negatively impact me or might they actually be surprised that i didnt decide to sound super smart and come up with a list of random books like im sure a lot of premeds do?

So you did it already, or are you just considering hypothetically? You just have to feel your way through it, like how the interviewer receives your response. If you can't think of a book, you must read something, right? Newspaper, blog, etc. I think any of that would work

 

[235009]

what was the question exactly? if it was "have you read any good books lately?" and you answered "i don't have time to read" then you just came off as one-dimensional and uninteresting. I'm not much of a reader myself so i'm not judging you for that but i find it hard to believe that you couldn't come up with ONE book you've read in your life that you either read on your own or that was assigned to you in a class.

Obviously it's too late to do anything about this interview and who knows you might get accepted anyway but in the future you (or whoever is reading this) should know that "i don't read" is not a valid answer even if it is true.

 

[uclaussr]

No, the question was not "name the most recent book you read" it was "what do you like to read" i said im not much of a reader but i do read the news, just dont have time to read books right now.

 

[NOsquid]

Be prepared next time, that is a gimme interview question. You'll be jumping through ******* hoops like this for a long time.

It's good that you want to be honest. Definitely be honest with your patients and with people who care about you. But don't be a sucker. Beat these clowns at their own silly game.

 

[startswithb]

what was the question exactly? if it was "have you read any good books lately?" and you answered "i don't have time to read" then you just came off as one-dimensional and uninteresting. I'm not much of a reader myself so i'm not judging you for that but i find it hard to believe that you couldn't come up with ONE book you've read in your life that you either read on your own or that was assigned to you in a class.

Obviously it's too late to do anything about this interview and who knows you might get accepted anyway but in the future you (or whoever is reading this) should know that "i don't read" is not a valid answer even if it is true.

This.

This is such a basic question that saying "not much" just makes you a poor conversationalist. In other words, the answer is less important than simply being able to come across as an engaging and interesting person.

 

[startswithb]

lol would it look embarrassing if you said harry potter books 1-7 instead of like pride and prejudice?

Funny, I said Pride and Prejudice and my interviewer said, "no Harry Potter?!"

 

[235009]

No, the question was not "name the most recent book you read" it was "what do you like to read" i said im not much of a reader but i do read the news, just dont have time to read books right now.

This is a good example of an instance when you shouldn't volunteer anything that may be perceived negatively ...that applies to any interview, be it med school or a job.

For example in advertising they don't tell you all the things the product doesn't do but try to sell you on all the things the product does do. A good way to answer this question would be to talk about how you like to read the news...maybe name a few places you get your news (you should probably not name one source that is TOO one-sided but if you say you read both MSNBC and Fox News then you can spin that as a positive)... then you can start talking about a recent (non-controversial) news event (or talk about a controversial news event without taking a side right off the bat in case the interviewer doesn't agree with you) to keep the conversation going and subtly steer it to a topic you are more comfortable with.

 

[235009]

In other words, the answer is less important than simply being able to come across as an engaging and interesting person.

Major 👍

this is the rule for almost every single med school interview

 

[ReptarBar]

if you say no, it seems pretty awkward to not offer a follow-up. in your shoes, i would have said something like "no, but i read the economist and esquire often blah blah (roommate subscribes to them and i read them when pooping).

 

[CaliGirl14]

You should have found out who your interviewer was, googled them, and read any articles/research/papers they might have published. Then, when you're asked "what's the last thing you've read?" mention' a' brilliant paper/research/article you read, and when the interviewer claims they wrote it, seemed surprised and play along, get brownie points and then an acceptance letter. Just kidding. 👍

 

[alwaysaangel]

You should have found out who your interviewer was, googled them, and read any articles/research/papers they might have published. Then, when you're asked "what's the last thing you've read?" mention' a' brilliant paper/research/article you read, and when the interviewer claims they wrote it, seemed surprised and play along, get brownie points and then an acceptance letter. Just kidding. 👍

Actually this is part of what you do for residency interviews. You don't really read papers but knowing what the major research projects of your likely interviewers are is considered a good idea. Its a pain in the butt!!


To answer the OPs question - whats done is done. But as others have said here, have an answer to EVERYTHING. Just say something to answer the question, even if in doing so you redirect to another topic.

 

[Frazier]

I wish I had time to read enjoyable books again. 🙁

Summer

 

[addo]

pick a book youve read in the past that youve enjoyed. be sure to have it fresh in your mind. discuss. Saying you dont read books, and on top of that that you cant even have an answer to such a gimmie question ready looks bad.

 

[uclaussr]

Interestingly LizzyM had a different answer for this.

 

[startswithb]

Interestingly LizzyM had a different answer for this.

Does she do interviews?

 

[Bayonetwork]

Does she do interviews?

1.3 years of membership and over 1000 posts...

 

[startswithb]

1.3 years of membership and over 1000 posts...

I work a desk job.

 

[Suncrusher]

What was LizzyM's answer?

I've had pretty good results being honest about the books I'm reading. Apparently my reading tastes coincide with most interviewers' haha

3 different interviews, 3 very positive responses: Guns, Germs, and Steel; The Healing of America; Safer Patients, Smarter Hospitals. But the two healthcare-related books came up organically in our conversations about different aspects of healthcare; I think it would be a bad idea to try and suck up to the interviewer by naming either of those if the question had been 'What was the last book you read?'

 

[BushidoBrown]

lol would it look embarrassing if you said harry potter books 1-7 instead of like pride and prejudice?

No, Pride and Prejudice would probably be even more embarrassing

 

[Suncrusher]

I work a desk job.

I think he meant that if you've been here that long, then he thinks you should know by now that LizzyM does admissions interviews (?)

 

[eli20]

You should have found out who your interviewer was, googled them, and read any articles/research/papers they might have published. Then, when you're asked "what's the last thing you've read?" mention' a' brilliant paper/research/article you read, and when the interviewer claims they wrote it, seemed surprised and play along, get brownie points and then an acceptance letter. Just kidding. 👍

If I'm ever interviewing someone for medical school and they tell me that they read science articles for enjoyment in their free time, I'm going to give them one of these 🙄 and one of these 👎.

 

[LizzyM]

I do interviews. I like to think I have a pretty good bull**** detector. I'd rather hear the truth (I'm not much of a reader but I like .... ) than to hear something made up based on what you think I want to hear.

 

[Longshanks]

Is this something that will hurt me? I chose to be honest about this and told my interviewer that i dont really have the time to read books right now. Is this going to negatively impact me or might they actually be surprised that i didnt decide to sound super smart and come up with a list of random books like im sure a lot of premeds do?

As long as you didn't go Sarah Palin on the interviewer and say "All of 'em" and then be unable to name one, I think you're ok.

 

[startswithb]

I do interviews. I like to think I have a pretty good bull**** detector. I'd rather hear the truth (I'm not much of a reader but I like .... ) than to hear something made up based on what you think I want to hear.

I see; I couldn't remember. I know you can be on the adcom without actually doing interviews and vice versa. I still agree with SkinMD's response. The point was not to BS anything, it was to give more than one word, stale answers such as "I don't read." I would never suggest making something up!

 

[hiyaman]

If I'm ever interviewing someone for medical school and they tell me that they read science articles for enjoyment in their free time, I'm going to give them one of these 🙄 and one of these 👎.

I would have trouble believing that as well lol.

 

[Frazier]

I would have trouble believing that as well lol.

I dunno. I think it is believable; some of the chemistry students I meet seem to do things like this (i.e. subscribe to/read journal articles for pleasure, buy random science textbooks to work through simply for giggles, etc...)

It always makes me: 😕

 

[HAV000]

As long as you didn't go Sarah Palin on the interviewer and say "All of 'em" and then be unable to name one, I think you're ok.

Ha! and on national television no less!

 

[Cerena]

as long as you didn't go sarah palin on the interviewer and say "all of 'em" and then be unable to name one, i think you're ok.

+1

 

[HAV000]

I dunno. I think it is believable; some of the chemistry students I meet seem to do things like this (i.e. subscribe to/read journal articles for pleasure, buy random science textbooks to work through simply for giggles, etc...)

It always makes me: 😕

Even so, they would be better off saying a cliched response like reading and re-reading mountains beyond mountains, complications, and house of god..

 

[farrago]

If I'm ever interviewing someone for medical school and they tell me that they read science articles for enjoyment in their free time, I'm going to give them one of these 🙄 and one of these 👎.

WTF? What's wrong with reading science articles for fun? I spend a large amount of time each week looking for specific stuff on PubMed and reading through various science blogs. Some people find science interesting, ya know?

I've never understood why people of your type go to medical school.

 

[eli20]

WTF? What's wrong with reading science articles for fun? I spend a large amount of time each week looking for specific stuff on PubMed and reading through various science blogs. Some people find science interesting, ya know?

I've never understood why people of your type go to medical school.

. There's not necessarily something wrong with reading the articles, but if I'm interviewing you and trying to get to know you - and all you can come back with is "I like science," then you're not really telling me much that I wouldn't have figured out by you applying to medical school. It makes you seem very one-dimensional.

As for why "People of my type" (whatever that means?) go to medical school... There's a lot more to medicine than being a science robot.

 

[aSagacious]

So, if I'm understanding the general consensus, referring to a specific book/document/etc is unimportant, so long as we can intelligently discuss our interests? (So, for example discussing tech blogs, political editorials, philosophical essays, etc would suffice?)

 

[farrago]

. There's not necessarily something wrong with reading the articles, but if I'm interviewing you and trying to get to know you - and all you can come back with is "I like science," then you're not really telling me much that I wouldn't have figured out by you applying to medical school. It makes you seem very one-dimensional.

That's not really what you wrote originally.

If you specifically ask someone what he likes to read, and he tells you that he likes to go through a pile of science articles every week, that's a perfectly legitimate answer and activity.

And if you ask someone what he spends most of his time doing, in general, and he tells you that he spends a lot of his time going through a pile of science articles every week, that's perfectly fine, too.

Now, if you ask someone what else he likes to do and he says, "Read science articles," and then you perhaps ask what music he likes to listen to and he says, "No time, must read science articles," and then you ask if maybe he likes sports, and he says "Must read more science articles, no sports!" well, yes, at that point you might have a problem.

As for why "People of my type" (whatever that means?) go to medical school... There's a lot more to medicine than being a science robot.

I think it's the other way around - a lot of it is about being a science robot, plus there's some other stuff thrown in. And I think that's totally fine (though one might quibble about what "science robot" actually means).

 

[eli20]

I think it's the other way around - a lot of it is about being a science robot, plus there's some other stuff thrown in. And I think that's totally fine (though one might quibble about what "science robot" actually means).

Might? If I got to the point where I was blatantly fishing for an applicant to let me know they did anything besides study/read about science and they still weren't giving me anything - it would definitely be a problem.

We have a fundamental difference in how we think about medicine, so we're never going to agree on this topic 🙂. I'm not sure how far you are in this process, but hopefully you won't have an interviewer like me .