Caught in a lie during an interview??? Tell us about it

[DrPain]

A friend of mine told me a story today about how he got caught in a lie during an interview at WSU. Turns out the interviewers daughter attended the same university and was president of the club the interviewee claimed membership. When the interviewer asked if he knew his daughter, he was done for. Talk about bad luck.

BUSTED!!!

Tell us your story or one you have heard.

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[rugirlie]

Thats actually pretty funny.... poor bastard....

ok this is not really a lie but on my AMCAs I had put how I was inducted into PBK based on gpa and proficiency in a foreign language. My interviewer pointed this out and then asked why I had not put that I was fluent in another language on my AMCAs as well. I had to tell them that PBK at my school defined proficiency as 2 years of a language that you did well in.. and that I wasn't actually fluent. Not that exciting of a story....

 

[waterlily]

I forgot if I heard this story on SDN or from a med student that I met, so don't mind me if you already heard this somewhere on this forum 😛

The interviewer asked a guy what his fav music was and I guess the guy thought he'd sound better by saying classical. The interviewer asked him his fav composer and he happened to name a composer that the interviewer really liked.
"What's you fav piece by him?"
"all of them"
"Name one"
"........."

rejected

 

[DrPain]

I forgot if I heard this story on SDN or from a med student that I met, so don't mind me if you already heard this somewhere on this forum 😛

The interviewer asked a guy what his fav music was and I guess the guy thought he'd sound better by saying classical. The interviewer asked him his fav composer and he happened to name a composer that the interviewer really liked.
"What's you fav piece by him?"
"all of them"
"Name one"
"........."

rejected

Lol. That is rough. A word to the wise. Make certain your "story" is airtight.

 

[surgeonguy22]

A friend of mine told me a story today about how he got caught in a lie during an interview at WSU. Turns out the interviewers daughter attended the same university and was president of the club the interviewee claimed membership. When the interviewer asked if he knew his daughter, he was done for. Talk about bad luck.

BUSTED!!!

Tell us your story or one you have heard.

"No, I don't think I know your daughter, what does she look like?"

Some people need to stay calm and get themselves out of a lie. If the interviewer asks if you know his daughter, ask for another interviewer due to external bias....

 

[masterMood]

Or don't lie at all.

 

[SitraAchra]

actually the don't lie at all thread is here

 

[TheMightyAngus]

I interviewed for a job and they asked me my hobbies. I told him various sports, running, surfing, etc. Out of nowhere, the interviewer told me that his son was addicted to skateboarding and asked me how to do a kickflip. I ended drawing the outline of a deck on a piece of paper and situating my feet to show him what to do, all in my suit. It turned out this was a challenge he gave everyone he interviewed. If you didnt skate, he'd start pimping you for something else, cooking banana flambe, how to tie a fly for fly-fishing, how to play the bagpipes, any skill that was unusual. If you couldnt answer one of the challenges, you were outta there!

 

[surgeonguy22]

Lying is fine as long as you are able to cover your tracks. Some people are much better liars than others. Some get very nervous the second they are questioned further and haven't adequately prepared. My advice was the best.

 

[DrBowtie]

For the most part if you are a member of a club, you know the presidents name. Your advice was POOR.

 

[DrPain]

For the most part if you are a member of a club, you know the presidents name. Your advice was POOR.

Thanks Brett. Very Perceptive. The guy was busted.

 

[Law2Doc]

Lying is fine as long as you are able to cover your tracks. Some people are much better liars than others. Some get very nervous the second they are questioned further and haven't adequately prepared. My advice was the best.

Very few people are as good at lying as they'd like to think they are. There are always "tells". The repurcussions of lying in the application process are significant -- It's simply not worth it. And it's very rare that someone coming right out of college is a particularly convincing liar - they nearly always come off as too nervous, deceptive, sketchy, or shady; usually the really convincing inveterate (pathological) liars are those older folks who have honed their "skills" over many years -- and they likely wouldn't just try to gear up and lie in the interview, they lie everywhere, always.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

Lying is fine as long as you are able to cover your tracks. Some people are much better liars than others. Some get very nervous the second they are questioned further and haven't adequately prepared. My advice was the best.

huh???? 😱 lying is never right! don't promote this, and someday it will all catch up to you

 

[Psycho Doctor]

Very few people are as good at lying as they'd like to think they are. There are always "tells". The repurcussions of lying in the application process are significant -- It's simply not worth it. And it's very rare that someone coming right out of college is a particularly convincing liar - they nearly always come off as too nervous, deceptive, sketchy, or shady; usually the really convincing inveterate (pathological) liars are those older folks who have honed their "skills" over many years -- and they likely wouldn't just try to gear up and lie in the interview, they lie everywhere, always.

pathologic liars actually believe their lies so it's easier for them to sound convincing; they don't appear nervous or unsure of themselves

 

[ernieraisin]

a friend of mine told me that some girl who was interviewing at mt sinai had written on her AMCAS that she was fluent in french. and guess what? her interviewer started off their interview in french and she could not converse. needless to say, she was not accepted...

 

[bwells46]

a friend of mine told me that some girl who was interviewing at mt sinai had written on her AMCAS that she was fluent in french. and guess what? her interviewer started off their interview in french and she could not converse. needless to say, she was not accepted...

That happened to a friend of mine at Temple. He wrote that he could speak spanish and the interviewer started asking him questions in spanish. Luckily, he was telling the truth and could easily talk with the guy. He got accepted about three weeks later.

 

[Law2Doc]

a friend of mine told me that some girl who was interviewing at mt sinai had written on her AMCAS that she was fluent in french. and guess what? her interviewer started off their interview in french and she could not converse. needless to say, she was not accepted...

I've heard of this happening as well (not only with med schools but also with law firm job interviews where individuals list foreign languages in their "special skills" section of their resume.) I wouldn't be surprised if interviewers who are multi-lingual are sometimes selected to interview those who purport to speak the interviewer's language.

 

[gujuDoc]

Or don't lie at all.

Seriously. I'm with Hermit on this one. That is pretty pathetic if a person needs to lie on their AMCAS, Secondaries, or in general to get into med school.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

I've heard of this happening as well (not only with med schools but also with law firm job interviews where individuals list foreign languages in their "special skills" section of their resume.) I wouldn't be surprised if interviewers who are multi-lingual are sometimes selected to interview those who purport to speak the interviewer's language.

i'm sure that's true and with good reason.

 

[gujuDoc]

Lying is fine as long as you are able to cover your tracks. Some people are much better liars than others. Some get very nervous the second they are questioned further and haven't adequately prepared. My advice was the best.

This is absolutely WRONG!!!!!!!!! WHY???????

A. It is unethical and immoral for someone who is going to be in a profession that requires such a high code of moral and ethics.

B. If it is worth losing an acceptance to med school or getting expelled, go ahead and do it, but last I checked, I would prefer to keep an acceptance and or seat in med school.

C. Do you really have no conscience??? I have to wonder.

In another thread about this issue, posted by IT, someone told a story of a guy who went to Baylor and was in 3rd year when he was bragging about lies from his application days. Guess what??? He got expelled.

Another friend told me he knew someone that lied about some chem award and was bragging about it at an AMSA meeting. Guess what?? Someone ratted him out and he was asked to prove that he was given the award. When he couldn't prove it, his acceptance was revoked, and the other schools were notified by the dean of his lie. He lost all possible acceptance seats and couldn't apply.

Once, along time ago, I read on these forums about a girl that was blacklisted from med school due to lies about her volunteer hours.

So I wouldn't risk your whole life and future over one stupid tiny thing, that you feel you need to do to impress an adcom.

 

[NRankin]

This is absolutely WRONG!!!!!!!!! WHY???????

A. It is unethical and immoral for someone who is going to be in a profession that requires such a high code of moral and ethics.

B. If it is worth losing an acceptance to med school or getting expelled, go ahead and do it, but last I checked, I would prefer to keep an acceptance and or seat in med school.

C. Do you really have no conscience??? I have to wonder.

In another thread about this issue, posted by IT, someone told a story of a guy who went to Baylor and was in 3rd year when he was bragging about lies from his application days. Guess what??? He got expelled.

Another friend told me he knew someone that lied about some chem award and was bragging about it at an AMSA meeting. Guess what?? Someone ratted him out and he was asked to prove that he was given the award. When he couldn't prove it, his acceptance was revoked, and the other schools were notified by the dean of his lie. He lost all possible acceptance seats and couldn't apply.

Once, along time ago, I read on these forums about a girl that was blacklisted from med school due to lies about her volunteer hours.

So I wouldn't risk your whole life and future over one stupid tiny thing, that you feel you need to do to impress an adcom.

Thank you. These people needed to hear that. Moral of the story: DON'T LIE!!!

 

[BlinkyCat]

i'm sure that's true and with good reason.

I hope adcoms don't misconstrue stupidity with dishonesty. I can see myself get so nervous that I forget all my ability to converse in a foreign language. Especially if your "fluency" was determined by one of those cute little language tests administered by your school. I aced all those tests and still I have trouble reading chinese menues.

 

[Noway]

Do you know why there are a million repetitive topics on this board? Because everytime someone makes a topic somewhat interesting/contraversial (Like this one), people go crazy. The OP just wanted stories, not the moral beliefs of all the righteous SDNers. Just relax and try to be entertained. If you dont like it, dont read it! 🙄

 

[hardy]

Do you know why there are a million repetitive topics on this board? Because everytime someone makes a topic somewhat interesting/contraversial (Like this one), people go crazy. The OP just wanted stories, not the moral beliefs of all the righteous SDNers. Just relax and try to be entertained. If you dont like it, dont read it! 🙄

Hi, my name is Hardy. You must be new here. Welcome to SDN

 

[Noway]

i have been lurking around for a while, its just really annoying, thats all

 

[hardy]

i have been lurking around for a while, its just really annoying, thats all

I know, I was just playing with you 😉 As I said in another thread, controversial topics seem to recur on a 2-4 week cycle on SDN. I don't think there is anything we can do about that.

 

[gujuDoc]

i have been lurking around for a while, its just really annoying, thats all

And perhaps there is a reason for people posting about the morality issue. If you reread my post above, you'll see that in the old thread on this there were quite a few stories of how simple lies could cost you your WHOLE ENTIRE CAREER AND FUTURE!!!!!!!! I think it is real pathetic if anyone needs to lie on their AMCAS, Secondary, or in an interview, because sooner or later IT WILL BACKFIRE.


Simple matter really!!!

Oh and I'm not selfrighteous. But this is one of few things I really really feel strongly about not just because of its immorality and unethical nature, but because the evidence I showed above, is just few of many cases in which people have lost everything they ever worked for as a result of lies on an app.

Anyhow, I gave my stories, and stories is what you wanted to hear is it not???? Or is it that you only want to hear how people actually could get away with cheating??? Cuz I hate to break it to you, it will catch up with you somewhere down the line.

 

[bwells46]

And perhaps there is a reason for people posting about the morality issue. If you reread my post above, you'll see that in the old thread on this there were quite a few stories of how simple lies could cost you your WHOLE ENTIRE CAREER AND FUTURE!!!!!!!! I think it is real pathetic if anyone needs to lie on their AMCAS, Secondary, or in an interview, because sooner or later IT WILL BACKFIRE.

Yeah, I just hope med schools don't realize I'm a ******* after I told them I was smart.

 

[hardy]

Anyhow, I gave my stories, and stories is what you wanted to hear is it not???? Or is it that you only want to hear how people actually could get away with cheating??? Cuz I hate to break it to you, it will catch up with you somewhere down the line.

It might, it might not. If it does not backfire then we will never know about it. For all we know there could be thousands of docs out there who lied on their application!

Of course, lying is still a bad idea.

 

[Law2Doc]

The OP just wanted stories, not the moral beliefs of all the righteous SDNers. Just relax and try to be entertained. If you dont like it, dont read it! 🙄

There will not be many stories, because anyone who gets caught in a lie like such won't be "premed" for very long and is unlikely to still be hanging out on SDN. Besides, if a person is prone to lie in important places, what makes you think any "story" such person posts here will be true? 🙄

 

[bwells46]

It might, it might not. If it does not backfire then we will never know about it. For all we know there could be thousands of docs out there who lied on their application!

Of course, lying is still a bad idea.

True, but I think the take-home point is that you shouldn't lie on your application. Do people write up their experiences to make them sound more interesting than they really were? Sure - in fact, most job applicants embellish their resumes. The AMCAS and secondaries are kind of like job applications. I would expect someone to make their volunteering sound interesting even when it was 90% cleaning rooms and changing sheets and 10% working with patients.

However, writing about an experience by putting it in a certain light to make it interesting is very different than saying you were the President of some organization that has never even heard of you.

 

[jbm44]

I've heard of this happening as well (not only with med schools but also with law firm job interviews where individuals list foreign languages in their "special skills" section of their resume.) I wouldn't be surprised if interviewers who are multi-lingual are sometimes selected to interview those who purport to speak the interviewer's language.

This happened to me at MCW, I put I speak Japanese and I got lined up to interview with the only Japanese-speaking faculty member, he was Korean. Once he found out that I speak Japanese, he asks to do the rest of the interview in Japanese! His wife is a native of Japan and he spoke it perfectly. Luckily for me, I wasn't lying about my skills and I stepped up and nailed the interview all in soothing Japanese. I was accepted two weeks later...

Big pimping

 

[gujuDoc]

This happened to me at MCW, I put I speak Japanese and I got lined up to interview with the only Japanese-speaking faculty member, he was Korean. Once he found out that I speak Japanese, he asks to do the rest of the interview in Japanese! His wife is a native of Japan and he spoke it perfectly. Luckily for me, I wasn't lying about my skills and I stepped up and nailed the interview all in soothing Japanese. I was accepted two weeks later...

Big pimping

Are you japanese?? Or was this just a second language that you studied?? That's awesome. I think med school adcoms like it when people know a second language.

A friend of mine got accepted into UMiami and she said that they asked her about her undegrad major of spanish a lot there, and were really impressed by that and her biomed sci postbac.

She was also a nurse of 10 years. But she said that spanish background gave her a leg up in admissions, alongside her nursing background.

 

[freesolo]

wait so you guys list on amcas that you know another language?? where do you do that under activities? Maybe i missed it somewhere.

 

[NontradICUdoc]

 

[rugirlie]

wait so you guys list on amcas that you know another language?? where do you do that under activities? Maybe i missed it somewhere.

There was a specific question about this on the AMCAs... I think it might have been under background or something.

 

[gujuDoc]

wait so you guys list on amcas that you know another language?? where do you do that under activities? Maybe i missed it somewhere.

There's a place where you can check all the languages that you know. They even have all of the most popular Indian languages on there like Tamil, Malayalee, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Gujarati.

It is not in the EC section.

 

[LT2]

that's awesome! 👍

 

[jbm44]

Nice.

To Guju: I learned Japanese on a two year mormon mission in Tokyo. Japan is awesome, the people are great. That is cool your friend learned spanish just through practicing as a nurse, I really wished I knew spanish. Would have helped with most of the UC schools.

 

[gujuDoc]

Nice.

To Guju: I learned Japanese on a two year mormon mission in Tokyo. Japan is awesome, the people are great. That is cool your friend learned spanish just through practicing as a nurse, I really wished I knew spanish. Would have helped with most of the UC schools.

that's awesome. I work with a japanese guy in my research lab. He's here from Japan for a couple years before he returns. So we always have discussions about speaking and reading Japanese. Of all the East Asian countries (I.e. viet nam, korea, china, japan, etc.), I'd say that I'd love to learn Japanese the most. Of course, I'm biased because my bro and friends do okinawan style karate at a very traditional place, so I know a lot about Japanese culture through that.

Oh and I wouldn't mind learning vietnamese either cuz their music is just beautiful.

 

[tinkerbelle]

Of all the East Asian countries (I.e. viet nam, korea, china, japan, etc.), I'd say that I'd love to learn Japanese the most. Of course, I'm biased because my bro and friends do okinawan style karate at a very traditional place, so I know a lot about Japanese culture through that.

Ha. Have fun learning Japanese. I spent 5 years there and I still suck 😀 It was an awesome place to live though 🙂

 

[shiraz84]

Ha. Have fun learning Japanese. I spent 5 years there and I still suck 😀 It was an awesome place to live though 🙂

My roommate is a Japanese minor, and from what he tells me it is extremely hard to become proficient in reading, writing, and speaking it...especially reading/writing - he said that Kanji (sp?) has thousands of characters! THOUSANDS!! 😱

I speak Urdu (I think I put it down in my AMCAS, but am not sure), but unfortunately didn't get lined up with someone who did.

 

[gujuDoc]

Ha. Have fun learning Japanese. I spent 5 years there and I still suck 😀 It was an awesome place to live though 🙂

hahahaha!!!!! Someone else, I met through SDN, did medical mission trips there. It was interesting hearing her talk about it.

 

[masterMood]

note to self: become fluent in spanish and/or french to get into med school bwhua ha!

 

[MaDe in Cali]

that's awesome. I work with a japanese guy in my research lab. He's here from Japan for a couple years before he returns. So we always have discussions about speaking and reading Japanese. Of all the East Asian countries (I.e. viet nam, korea, china, japan, etc.), I'd say that I'd love to learn Japanese the most. Of course, I'm biased because my bro and friends do okinawan style karate at a very traditional place, so I know a lot about Japanese culture through that.

Oh and I wouldn't mind learning vietnamese either cuz their music is just beautiful.

You really think VN music is that beautiful? That's funny cuz I'm VN and I can't stand our pop. I listen to Chinese, K-pop and some J-pop, but don't like VN stuff. I even learned Mandarin and Korean for them! Haha. Funny! Different folks, different strokes!

 

[jbm44]

hahahaha!!!!! Someone else, I met through SDN, did medical mission trips there. It was interesting hearing her talk about it.

I think its way hard to learn any language unless you are totally submersed in it. It took a few months of get comfortable with Japanese for me

 

[hardy]

I think its way hard to learn any language unless you are totally submersed in it. It took a few months of get comfortable with Japanese for me

I spent 8 years learning French and was in France for several months. I put it on my AMCAS but if somebody would start speaking to me in French during an interview I don't think I could have a conversation, it's just too hard if you haven't spoken the language in a while. However, give me a week in France and my French is up to par again. I guess some of you would say I lied. 😀
Well, at least there is only a 1/3 chance that it will be French. I put two other languages down too and I am quite capable of having an interview in those languages at any time. 😉

 

[Will Hunting]

I spent 8 years learning French and was in France for several months. I put it on my AMCAS but if somebody would start speaking to me in French during an interview I don't think I could have a conversation, it's just too hard if you haven't spoken the language in a while. However, give me a week in France and my French is up to par again. I guess some of you would say I lied. 😀
Well, at least there is only a 1/3 chance that it will be French. I put two other languages down too and I am quite capable of having an interview in those languages at any time. 😉

French rules. You made some good arguments in the AA thread.

 

[hardy]

French rules. You made some good arguments in the AA thread.

Thanks.

I lived in a country where French was required starting in second grade. I didn't like it very much when I had to take it but afterwards I came to good terms with the language.

One day I want to learn Chinese and Arabic. I like these two languages since they are spoken by so many and their cultures are so different. Anyway, that's just something offtopic 😉

 

[angietron3000]

There was a specific question about this on the AMCAs... I think it might have been under background or something.

I almost answered yes to this question. I think they just ask what other languages you can speak, not what you're fluent in. Sure, I can speak a little french after 5 years of it in school, I can order a meal or navigate the Paris Metro but there's no way I could do my whole interview en francias!!

thank god for this forum or else I might have had one of those horrible foreign language interviews! 😱