Answer to interview question "Tell me about yourself"

[kbg13]

I know the answer to this question seems pretty self-explanatory to most people, but I was wondering how people who had interviews answered this question?
I have an interview next week and I want to know how to answer this question professionally: how long should I talk for, what kinds of things should I include about myself, etc?? Any help would be appreciated!

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[WeAreNotRobots]

I have an interview next week and I want to know how to answer this question professionally: how long should I talk for, what kinds of things should I include about myself, etc?? Any help would be appreciated!

well...why don't you tell me a little about yourself and i will tell you if you should include it?

 

[wristbandMD]

1) Professional background. (i.e., school(s) attended, any previous careers, etc)

2) Experience in medicine (i.e., volunteering, research, shadowing, careers, etc)

3) Your strengths, what you are passionate about, brief reasoning for medicine

4) Your goals, what you hope to achieve with medicine, etc

Also: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=5074
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=434355

 

[tweek125]

i think you should watch Anger Management. hope you don't get Jack Nicholson as one of your interviewers...

 

[Cleavername]

i think you should watch Anger Management. hope you don't get Jack Nicholson as one of your interviewers...

hahaha that would suck sideways.

 

[slwhite3]

My pre-med advisor addressed this question during an interview workshop, and she said it might be a good idea NOT to mention why you want to go to medical school in the response. Frankly, the whole interview is going to be about why you want to go to medical school. Hopefully, there is a lot more to you than the dream of becoming a doctor, and you may want to talk about some personal characteristics. You could address how and where you grew up, some information about your family, your hobbies...etc.

 

[IvyHopeful20]

My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy...the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess in the insane lament. My childhood was typical...summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds...pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum...it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

 

[juliedi]

My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy...the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess in the insane lament. My childhood was typical...summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds...pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum...it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

I just watched this movie yesterday. Legit.

 

[CougarMD]

My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen-year-old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy...the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess in the insane lament. My childhood was typical...summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds...pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum...it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

It's the "meat helmets" part that always freaking gets me.

 

[JCLM]

1) Professional background. (i.e., school(s) attended, any previous careers, etc)

2) Experience in medicine (i.e., volunteering, research, shadowing, careers, etc)

3) Your strengths, what you are passionate about, brief reasoning for medicine

4) Your goals, what you hope to achieve with medicine, etc

Also: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=5074
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=434355

no offense- but not the way to go. Take slwhite3's approach and answer it like what it is supposed to be- an icebreaker question. Let the interviewer see YOU, not a copy of your stats that they already know. Hobbies, interests, basically anything that is not related to medicine and your med school app and could be interesting and set you apart from the competition. I guarantee that this will make the interviewer make note of you as a whole, rounded person, exactly one that would make a good physician. I recommend getting a tape recorder and practicing for your interviews so when you go in you sound clear, confident, and coherent-ready to get that acceptance. good luck

 

[Rollo]

no offense- but not the way to go. Take slwhite3's approach and answer it like what it is supposed to be- an icebreaker question. Let the interviewer see YOU, not a copy of your stats that they already know. Hobbies, interests, basically anything that is not related to medicine and your med school app and could be interesting and set you apart from the competition. I guarantee that this will make the interviewer make note of you as a whole, rounded person, exactly one that would make a good physician. I recommend getting a tape recorder and practicing for your interviews so when you go in you sound clear, confident, and coherent-ready to get that acceptance. good luck

Listen to this person.

Do NOT tell them things that they can find out from your application materials.

They are asking you this question to see what else is behind the applicant, what is your personality like, and how are you as an individual as a whole.

 

[Wermz]

hi my name is wermz, born and raised in this one place, went to school at this one school, i'm a pretty mellow guy and i like playing freeze tag, i'm here to get into medical school

 

[Barcu]

Listen to this person.

Do NOT tell them things that they can find out from your application materials.

They are asking you this question to see what else is behind the applicant, what is your personality like, and how are you as an individual as a whole.

I understand this, but what if the interview is closed app?

I am interviewing in a couple weeks at a school that does blind interviews, and I also heard that "tell me about yourself" is one of the most common questions.

Should you answer it different if it is close file versus open. If closed, should I maybe give more hints at my important activities?

 

[wristbandMD]

I understand this, but what if the interview is closed app?

I am interviewing in a couple weeks at a school that does blind interviews, and I also heard that "tell me about yourself" is one of the most common questions.

Should you answer it different if it is close file versus open. If closed, should I maybe give more hints at my important activities?

This is kind of what my post was referring to. Wouldn't you want to repeat some of the information in your app if the interview is blind or partial blind? Such as what I listed in my OP. (school, work experience, ECs, etc)?

 

[LizzyM]

If the application is blind or if the interviewer hasn't bothered to read it (some might have been out all night delivering a baby or something) be sure to cover the things that you'd most like to talk about because what you say in that opening statement is going to become the basis for further questions. If you want to talk about your research, mention it briefly up front. Ditto interesting leadership or teaching experience or whatever else you've got.

 

[Rollo]

If I understand the purpose of closed file interview correctly, I believe it is to evaluate the applicant's personal qualities and personality.

I would still lean on the side of telling them about myself things that aren't on the application. They don't want to see you blurt out statistics and generic pre-med activities.

If you have a unique pre-med activity listed on your application, then talk about it with details that did not make it into your application. Understand? Talk about it from a different perspective.

I thought of medical school interview as going on a date. You're both trying to figure out if the other is worthy of time-investment and commitment. The school wants to know if they can see themselves investing their time/resources into you and committing to you for the next 4 years.

What do you think will help them make this decision besides what is already in your application?

 

[Superman DO]

I had this question during my interview, and I talked about who I was as a person. I did not mention my grades or my ECs. Instead, I got personal. I told him about how and where I grew up, my family, how I got to where I am in life, my hobbies, what I really love out of life. . . .basically, I told him about ME and the stuff that was not on paper. The rest of the hour interview went from there and it became a conversation instead of just boring, nit picky things about my application.

 

[jphwki82]

Its an opportunity for you to guide where you want the interview to go. So you should high light things in an organized chronologic form, and briefly describe things you would like the interviewer(s) to know and inquire about later in the interview. There are plenty of interview books, both for applying to med school and for jobs in general, that provide good examples.

 

[Prof Chaos]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=759472

especially good answer from that thread:

Other than taking a couple minutes to detail your undergrad career, ECs, why you want to be a doctor, etc. I think the following advice is very helpful:

- How you articulate your answer to this question will tell the interviewer as much, if not even more, about you than what you actually say. And I'm not talking about using giant, weird vocabulary to show that you are "smart", I'm talking about making sure you come across as well-intentioned, mature, friendly, and able to formulate and express your thoughts logically and concisely. Be genuine. Don't sound like you wrote out and memorized a canned response before you came in.

- Stay on target. This is not the time to tell your whole life story, but only your life story as it pertains to your decision to become a doctor and why you'll be a good one. If you are the oldest of 10 kids don't just say that you are the oldest of 10 kids, but find a way to subtly show how that experience has helped you develop admirable traits.

- Don't talk to much. I imagine that most people should be able to effectively answer this question in 3 minutes tops. Since this is often the first question you will be asked, it will set the stage for the rest of the interview. If you are smart about it, you can sort of direct the interview this way. If you ramble about everything you've ever done, you'll leave no room for follow-up questions from the interviewer and then he or she will move on to their "back-up" questions just to fill time and it won't be as productive of an interview. Instead of doing that, just restrain yourself and give powerful, succinct bullet points about all your activities/events and their impact on you, but leave out most of the details. That way the interviewer will can choose what they are most interested in and say, "so tell me more about ____". THEN you can expound in greater detail. That way you spend your time talking about the things that the interviewer thinks are most likely to be of importance to gaining admissions.

 

[equios]

I take it as a general "tell me about YOU, not your application" question, regardless of if they have or have not seen your AMCAS packet. They'll see it eventually, and unless there's something in there thats a core of your being, leave it. They'll see it soon enough.

Give a series of succinct points that the interviewer can then browse through to pick out follow up questions. Think of your responses so that they are stuff that is succinct and sticks in your interviewer's mind so that they can write it down in their post-interview worksheet without thinking about it too hard.

Like someone said, your interviewer might have been up all night delivering a baby, and is now interviewing you and 4 other people with only 6 hours of sleep in the past 34 hours. You don't want to have to make him sit down and have to think hard about what to put down in those spaces, when all s/he wants to do is go to bed. Say things that are succinct, have central theme, and stick in your interviewer's mind.

 

[obgyny]

It's funny, all these "Tell me about yourself" threads are the same.. half of the sdners say, "Don't talk about you app," the other half say, "Definitely talk about your app!!!" I've been searching through similar threads to find an answer for myself... but I'm still so confused... Do we talk about our academics/ECs or not?? lol

 

[AUD]

It's funny, all these "Tell me about yourself" threads are the same.. half of the sdners say, "Don't talk about you app," the other half say, "Definitely talk about your app!!!" I've been searching through similar threads to find an answer for myself... but I'm still so confused... Do we talk about our academics/ECs or not?? lol

Talk about what you're comfortable talking about. When I felt I would have the chance to go over the academic side of my app later, I talked about snowboarding. Worked out just fine for me.

 

[obgyny]

Talk about what you're comfortable talking about. When I felt I would have the chance to go over the academic side of my app later, I talked about snowboarding. Worked out just fine for me.

I'm thinking about combining the two... talk about both ECs and other interests/hobbies as well.. just in case.

 

[WeAreNotRobots]

I'm thinking about combining the two... talk about both ECs and other interests/hobbies as well.. just in case.

uhhh, shouldn't your ec's and interests be pretty much the same? Or would I be opening another can of worms...

 

[obgyny]

uhhh, shouldn't your ec's and interests be pretty much the same? Or would I be opening another can of worms...

Well what I mean by ECs are the things I listed on my AMCAS application (hospital volunteering, research, employment, etc), and then I said I'll mention my other interests, for example, my interest in music (I play a few instruments for fun, but I'm not part of a club or anything, so I didn't list it on my application), etc. But my EC's are my interests too, obviously.

 

[ronaldo23]

is it good to try and answer this question within a time frame, like, say one minute succintly laying out the outlines for things you want to put on the table to get asked about later that interview? I feel that longer than this, no matter how substantive or interesting, an interviewer will start drifting away and think you are rambling. What ya'll think?