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Avoiding cliches during an interview?
Wait, did you want help avoiding cliches during an interview? Or for us to list a bunch of topics to avoid cliched answers to?
Here's some cliche advice: just be yourself
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Topics...topics...topics...
Well, don't use the "I work too hard" excuse for the biggest weakness question.
Don't broadly exclaim that your drive for medicine is for the "greater good of mankind". If it is, explain it in detail why.
When asked questions such as; What certain attributes would you contribute to our school?, What, in your own words, makes you stand out as a candidate?, and, my favorite, given one person, dead or alive, who would you like to have lunch with?
If the answer to any of these questions stimulates your gag reflex, it's probably not a great idea to use it. I had a colleague who decided the best possible answer to the latest question was "Jesus, he was the greatest healer". Guess who's rejection came priority mail?
Don't say you want to do medicine to help people. It's boring, overused and evidently not true. Many premeds shadowing me had this answer and after I call BS and told them to give me a real answer it's usually not to help people.
that's a slippery slope because most other answers are completely self-serving and while that's an obvious reality to medicine, it's not a particularly comfortable thing to discuss with someone who can determine your future lol.
Hey dreamadream,
Maybe this post here will help. Here's another link to my Medium blog with some pointers that will hopefully help you avoid cliches. 😉 Best of luck.
Well my point is to teach them to come up with an answer that doesn't totally sound like BS but stays true to why you chose medicine just phrased in a way that doesn't come off totally self-serving
My suggestion is to avoid saying things you think we want to hear, and say what's really in your heart.
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Many people have had some sort of experience with a doctor, in particularly my brother was in the nicu for several months before being released. I know some doctors are against promises, but this one doctor in particular said that my brother would be home in no time a happy and healthy baby and it is something I will never forget. When I would get that "who's your hero" question as a kid, I would always say Dr.___. So I couldn't wait to become that person. Was that good?
And no I do not want to work pediatrics or ob, so I hope they don't ask me this.
D
deleted393595
Most useful advice: Don't be yourself
This depends on what "yourself" is truly like, doesn't it? If you're a normal, hardworking, thoughtful person who would be a good doctor, then be yourself. If you are a collection of red flags, then don't be yourself. Or better yet, just don't apply to medical school and find a field that would better suit your personality.
... because everyone is "normal" 😛
Be myself - I am an approval-seeking love addict, workaholic perfectionist, entitled person with a God complex.
I also realize that while those are the character defects that I possess, I do not have to let them define who I am.
While I have those defects, I do not want to be that version of myself. They are NOT my personality.
Yet when the those tendencies show up, I have to acknowledge and accept them, control what I can control, and move on.
To me, be myself doesn't mean letting go, doesn't mean being "normal", but it is learning to be self-aware and maybe better myself in the process.
Be myself - I am an approval-seeking love addict, workaholic perfectionist, entitled person with a God complex.
I also realize that while those are the character defects that I possess, I do not have to let them define who I am.
While I have those defects, I do not want to be that version of myself. They are NOT my personality.
Yet when the those tendencies show up, I have to acknowledge and accept them, control what I can control, and move on.
To me, be myself doesn't mean letting go, doesn't mean being "normal", but it is learning to be self-aware and maybe better myself in the process.
Yeah, everybody has flaws, but I don't think "being yourself" over the course of a 30 minute conversation in a professional context means letting all of those flaws hang out. It just means, you know, act like you normally do in polite company. A "normal" person should be able to pull that off very easily without accidentally revealing they have a God complex.
It's not a God "complex" if I am God...
