Can I be brutally honest in an interview?

[Mad Jack]

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[TheConfused]

This assumes you can even get an interview 😉

Why not? I'm maintaining a 3.5, possibility of moving to 3.6, I already have a year of research while only being a second year and there are lots of clinical opportunities over summer that I am planning to do. I'm shooting low so I'm fine with applying to the bottom 10 schools.

 

[itsogre]

If the interviewer asks me why I want to be a doctor, why can't I just say I want to make a lot of money, fulfill my ego and enjoy high social status? Do they expect us to say we want to help people or something? I figured if I just told the guy the truth, I would get bonus points for honesty.

Interviewer: Why do you want to become a doctor?

Me: Job stability in 10 years, parents will be proud, high social status and I want to be able to make enough money to live in South SF comfortably and drive a Tesla model S.

noooo not OK don't say that OP

 

[TheConfused]

50% of our class finished CS 101 with a non-pass score e.g. D/F. There was no curve. If your programs worked you passed, if they didn't you failed. Let's compare this to Bio 101 where you don't need to understand everything within a cell and focusing on what you may need to know will still get you a decent score. Same thing with organic, if you know 80% of how a certain reaction pathway undergoes Sn1 or Sn2, then you will get some credit or have some questions you can answer. In computer science, if you write a program that is 80% correct the automated grading system will not recognize it and give you a 0% for the homework/midterm/final. A lot of early comp sci classes ask for higher level thinking a lot earlier than a lot of majors and require the right answer to be given. These classes were the hardest classes I ever took in undergrad. I'm sure people find Java/Data Structures a breeze. But you really need to be a certain type of person to really flourish in the CS field.

tl;dr I know way too many people who regret not going into CS after their Biology / Chemistry degree failed to get them the job experience they wanted. I believe that the CS job market for programmers is lucrative because of the requirements to learn these complex languages within a relatively short time span is impressive. Also I feel sorry for people who take CS currently as a lot of tech companies are looking for promising potential overseas e.g. 40%+ of H1B Visas go to people with bach/masters backgrounds for comp sci jobs overseas. It's tough.

Hey man, coding isn't for everyone, I took AP Comp Sci in high school, had a good teacher but my mind just wasn't creative or logical enough to make a miracle compile. I had to ask for help on every single thing, the only way I got through that class with an A is by "getting help", and I got a 1 on that AP test.

edit: I also didn't want to spend my entire life looking at where my code went wrong, my teacher said before he started teaching he was analyzing bugs for Lockheed Martin and he was dying of boredom.

 

[LizzyM]

@TheConfused, you merely have to pull your posts from this thread and you have your personal statement ready to go. With a personal statement like that, you won't have to worry about interviews. Honesty is always the best policy and it will help you find the school that is the best fit for you.

 

[Goro]

Just in case you haven't figured it out, OP, (and I suspect that you haven't), sarcasm doesn't travel well over the electrons.

@TheConfused, you merely have to pull your posts from this thread and you have your personal statement ready to go. With a personal statement like that, you won't have to worry about interviews. Honesty is always the best policy and it will help you find the school that is the best fit for you.

 

[Hospitalized]

@TheConfused, you merely have to pull your posts from this thread and you have your personal statement ready to go. With a personal statement like that, you won't have to worry about interviews. Honesty is always the best policy and it will help you find the school that is the best fit for you.

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[LizzyM]

Sarcasm?? I am being brutally honest. I wish more applicants were brutally honest. It would make my job much easier.

 

[Goro]

Our LizzyM doesn't bring a knife to a gunfight!!
😉

Sarcasm?? I am being brutally honest. I wish more applicants were brutally honest. It would make my job much easier.

 

[KitKat30]

So you're too religious to lie but not religious enough to want to help people???

What else should I do then? I already invested too many units into biology/ochem classes that I can't switch to compsci or engineering. Pharmacy is not worth 4 years of school for ~$100k and **** job stability and research is even worse. Right now, the only thing that fits what I want is becoming a physician but because for religious reasons, I can't lie to the admissions committee that I actually want to help people.