For all who had bad interview questions!!

[DO1DAY]

I was just reading another topic and several people had mentioned bad interviews. I also experienced one and thought I would post a topic to compare some off the wall interview questions (maybe help us prepare for next year). I was asked questions I didn't even know were legal to ask, i.e. citizenship status, what my father does, questions about my religion, etc. Totally threw me off- any other good ones out there??!!

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[Billie]

Hi,

This wasn't difficult, just off the wall I felt. I was in an interview (at an MD school) and we were talking about medicine and general interview type stuff when all of a sudden she asked, "Who killed John F. Kennedy?" I stammered for a bit as I didn't expect this change in question and said, "Uh...Lee Harvey Oswald" Then without missing a beat she said, "Do you think he did it?" Again I say UHHHHHHH then go into the Warren report and the various beliefs of the extra gunman and the "grassy knoll" theories. I am not sure what she was getting at, maybe just to see how I handled such a sudden change to an unrelated topic.

 

[Hulio]

Hi,

Here's one I got from MCO toledo. How are you planning to pay for your education at our school? I know some people might think of this as a fair question but I was a little surprised. My answer was Loans and it seemed to have ticked the interviewer off because all of a sudden he started talking about how few out-of-state students are accepted (I am a MI redident). It kinda felt like the interviewer was hinting that my financial situation was not suitable for attending their school.

DO1DAy,
DID you get into MSUCOm off the wait-list? I was accepted there two weeks back.
Hope you got in.

 

[bhoover]

Personally, I love a good interview. I especially love it when the "interviewer" trys to make a fool out of me. By seeing this before it happens I'm able to either reverse the precess or use it to my advantage through out the interview process.

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"Only fool fight man with Brisk?!"
-Bruce Lee

 

[ana]

What animal would you like to be and why?

Sheesh!

 

[DO1DAY]

Hulio- still waiting to hear- they said probably July. I am going to reapply anyways just to cover my butt- Congrats on getting in! How exciting! It was at that interview that the questions I had were so strange- another question posed to me- "I am assuming that you had a very priviledged upbringing (based on previous questions of what my dad does NOW), how do you think you will ever relate to anyone less priviledged than yourself"? Exact wording...I felt it was inappropriate and not applicable to my med school app.

 

[Hulio]

DO1DAY
WOW, thats a hit under the belt. both my interviwers at MSUCOM were pretty easy( maybe thats why i was a little surprised when i was thrown on the wait-list). It was a relief to get off that list finally. Lorrie from the admissions office told me, when I was placed on the wait-list, that most students usually get off the wait-list in may and june. So I think you are still in pretty good shape. I think approx 30 students have got off the list till now. So I bet you must be pretty closeby now. a good friend of mine is in the top five right now. I am definately glad I do not have to go thru this whole process again.
Good luck

 

[DocGibby]

This wasn't a bad question just an interesting question.

I forget how we got to this point, but during one of my interviews we started discussing the "meaning of life." It was strange, but very interesting. I thought it was a great interview.

 

[mkh]

This is a response to Hulio regarding the interview question about how you would pay for school.
Have you considered the possibility that the interviewer was looking for an answer like the Health Service Corps (or some similar program)? Did you ever get any more info out of that interviewer about what answer they were looking for. I'll admit that, in the same situation, I would have been tempted to say that I'd been thinking about finding a local bar where I could dance for tips... Don't really think _that_ would have made a good impression however... especially if they didn't figure out that it was a joke. =)
-Kris

 

[DO1DAY]

DocGibby- Maybe an interesting interview question for you, however you were not the one sitting there when it was asked in a very demeaning manner. Interesting to me does not include making assumptions on a person and basically calling them a priss. You definitely have a different definition of interesting than I do...

 

[siulrc]

here are two questions. out the three main characters in the seinfield sitcom with which you identify the most with. and how do you play volleyball.
keep posting.

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siul

 

[Hulio]

mkh
that question was a small sample of crappy questions i had to face in that interview. i kinda had a similar interview like DO1day had where the interviwer was acting like an horse tooth jack ass. I feel that I had a fair share of interviews and my overall evaluation of the interview process is very favorable. I am grateful that that idiot of interviwer did not cost me anything because i knew i was not going to go to that school anyway. I, however, feel really sorry for DO1DAY. Keep up the hope.
The point of this thread i thought was to help future students in preparing for their interview by giving them a chance to get a sample of interview questions. I would refrain from critically analyzing other people's questions personally.

 

[lopott]

At AZCOM I was asked, "If you could be any kind of kitchen appliance what would you be?" when I asked the other people in the interview group if they had been asked a similar question they said no. I answered a spatula, but had no reason for it. I just like spatulas. By far the worst question ever (just stupid). I had 3 other interviews and nothing else was even close to that.

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[DocGibby]

DO1DAY,

What? Did you read my post correctly? I was referring to a question "I" was asked.

 

[flipper]

While I was asked the usual ethics questions: abortion, euthanasia, birth control, and the open-ended "What ethical concerns do you see facing physicians of the 21st century?" (my answer: cloning, since this tied in with discussion about my degree in molecular gentics), the most unusual/interesting(?) question was "Do you have all your fingers?"

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the interviewer asked this until later when my wife reminded me that one of my summer jobs had been in the oilfield working as a roughneck on a drilling rig!

While ethics questions have never bothered me, the fact that ALL my interviews contained multiple (at least three)ethics questions, certainly gave me pause for reflection, especially when fellow interviewees said they had no ethics questions in their interviews!

Eric J
UHS04

[This message has been edited by flipper (edited 06-13-2000).]

 

[DO1DAY]

Sorry DocGibby- I thought since the space between the response and then talk about your interview that you were referring to my interview question- my fault!! Didn't mean to jump down your throat!!!