Ending interview early

[thedelicatessen]

I had an interview recently that was supposed to be half an hour long but ended 5 minutes early. Of those 25 minutes, I think half of them were of the interviewer talking about his medical school experience, and then there was kind of a silence, and then he ended the interview. What do you think that means? At the end he said that I would be a good fit for the school, but could that be code for a lack of enthusiasm?

I don't know if I'm reading too much into this or what. Any insights?

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[foofish]

I had an interview recently that was supposed to be half an hour long but ended 5 minutes early. Of those 25 minutes, I think half of them were of the interviewer talking about his medical school experience, and then there was kind of a silence, and then he ended the interview. What do you think that means? At the end he said that I would be a good fit for the school, but could that be code for a lack of enthusiasm?

I don't know if I'm reading too much into this or what. Any insights?

I don't think he would say you were a good fit for the school if he didn't really mean it (but yeah, it's very easy to second guess even the good parts of an interview after the fact!). 🙂

My school said not to freak out over a shortened interview. For many schools, the interview is just a chance to meet you and confirm that you're not totally lacking in social skills or an axe murderer. So some interviewers cut an interview short if they think right off that you're a good candidate, and don't need to talk with you further. Good luck!

 

[TPROrgoTutor]

At USF my first interview was around ten minutes. I was worried because of that but I guess the Dr. interviewing me was just busy, which is understandable. I ended up getting in, so dont worry too much about it.

 

[Dianyla]

Maybe he had to go poop. 😛

 

[Julius Erving]

I don't think he would say you were a good fit for the school if he didn't really mean it (but yeah, it's very easy to second guess even the good parts of an interview after the fact!). 🙂

My school said not to freak out over a shortened interview. For many schools, the interview is just a chance to meet you and confirm that you're not totally lacking in social skills or an axe murderer. So some interviewers cut an interview short if they think right off that you're a good candidate, and don't need to talk with you further. Good luck!

or they pegged him/her as the axe murderer and wanted to get outa dodge!

 

[somemaybedoc]

or they pegged him/her as the axe murderer and wanted to get outa dodge!

I wonder if they have a code for that. Interviewer: "I see..." Picks up phone, "Code Crimson." MCAT proctors swarm the room.

 

[Erina]

I had an interview recently that was supposed to be half an hour long but ended 5 minutes early. Of those 25 minutes, I think half of them were of the interviewer talking about his medical school experience, and then there was kind of a silence, and then he ended the interview. What do you think that means? At the end he said that I would be a good fit for the school, but could that be code for a lack of enthusiasm?

I don't know if I'm reading too much into this or what. Any insights?

at penn state, my second interviewer spent half the time talking about himself. i asked him a question along the lines of what he likes best about penn state and his response started with his search for a job after residency...so it was quite the long story. i was a little worried at first that we had wasted a lot of time but i ended up getting accepted.

i wouldn't worry too much. i noticed that if you have an interviewer who seems to like talking then it may be to your benefit to ask him or her questions that will allow a long response! and i think i heard that the person who has the highest opinion of the interview is usually the one who talked the most

 

[kdburton]

I had an interview recently that was supposed to be half an hour long but ended 5 minutes early. Of those 25 minutes, I think half of them were of the interviewer talking about his medical school experience, and then there was kind of a silence, and then he ended the interview. What do you think that means? At the end he said that I would be a good fit for the school, but could that be code for a lack of enthusiasm?

I don't know if I'm reading too much into this or what. Any insights?

I haven't interviewed for medical school yet, but I've had experience with professional job interviews... If you can ask an "interesting" question about the interviewer and they go off on a tangent about themselves it can be a good thing (as long as they're not talking about their negative experiences). People like to talk about themselves, and whether or not there was much substance to your interview they will probably remember it as being a positive experience while interviewing you and give you a good vote to the adcomm.

 

[Law2Doc]

My school said not to freak out over a shortened interview. For many schools, the interview is just a chance to meet you and confirm that you're not totally lacking in social skills or an axe murderer.

I think you can drive yourself nuts trying to read anything out of the duration of an interview. There are a ton of reasons an interviewer could be cut short and not be related to you. For instance there have been plenty of interviews where the interviewer had to take a page or return a call, that still ended up with positive results, even though that cut into the talking time. In my personal experience, though, the longer interviews tend to net better results.

However for most schools, given the number of people competing for each seat, the interview is not used simply to screen for crazies. That is an SDN myth. At many schools, the interview becomes the most important determinant after folks have reached that level, as the prior application was already used to get people to that point. Thus it is not all that uncommon for folks with decent numbers who are great in the interview get spots over people with somewhat higher numbers who aren't. There are a handful of folks on SDN each year with extraordinary stats who don't get past the interview stage, and likely are not crazy or totally lacking in social graces.

Thus the best thing to do for interviews is practice. Interview with friends, family, etc. Do mock interviewing if your school offers it. Videotape yourself doing it if possible, to try and eradicate various tics. Consider public speaking courses if shyness is an issue. Interviewing is a learnable skill.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

I had an interview recently that was supposed to be half an hour long but ended 5 minutes early. Of those 25 minutes, I think half of them were of the interviewer talking about his medical school experience, and then there was kind of a silence, and then he ended the interview. What do you think that means? At the end he said that I would be a good fit for the school, but could that be code for a lack of enthusiasm?

I don't know if I'm reading too much into this or what. Any insights?

Who the hell knows....maybe your interviewer had horrendous gas or needed to go drop the kids off at the pool.....stop stressing and if you find this difficult to do my I recommend a nice low dose of Xanax or a comparable benzo?

 

[leahmaria]

i had a similar experience with my student interviewer at mcw. i thought it went great and i really enjoyed talking with him, but it was more like a discussion, that didn't have to do with me, and it didn't last for 45 minutes...but i got in 😀

 

[RustNeverSleeps]

I had an interview recently that was supposed to be half an hour long but ended 5 minutes early. Of those 25 minutes, I think half of them were of the interviewer talking about his medical school experience, and then there was kind of a silence, and then he ended the interview. What do you think that means? At the end he said that I would be a good fit for the school, but could that be code for a lack of enthusiasm?

I don't know if I'm reading too much into this or what. Any insights?

As for the interview ending a couple of minutes early, I really don't think that's a big deal. I try to end my interviews about 5 minutes early so I can record my thoughts about the applicant and prepare for the next interview.

 

[HelenaP]

i had a similar experience with my student interviewer at mcw. i thought it went great and i really enjoyed talking with him, but it was more like a discussion, that didn't have to do with me, and it didn't last for 45 minutes...but i got in 😀

Yeah, I got in to mcw also and I thought both of my interviews were pretty quick. My faculty interviewer in particular basically just asked a couple ethical questions that were prefaced by, "Um, I guess I have to ask you this" and then he didn't seem to care that much about my answers, so I kept them really short. The whole thing was about 20 minutes, and the student one wasn't much longer. It seemed like they were happy with my application before I walked in, so they weren't looking for much beyond being able to interact like a normal person. From talking to other people there, I got the impression that the stressful mcw interviews are usually when the interviewer perceives some kind of deficit in your application and asks you to defend it.