For student interviewers, how easy is it to spot phony candidates?

[dank204]

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If you are a student interviewer, how easy can you spot someone who is totally BSing their interview. Like if you ask them why they want to become a doctor and they give you some unbelievable answer.

How do you know who's for real and who wants to be the doctor for money and prestige?

 

[johnmendes]

A couple of my friends are interviewers, and I asked them about that. they said that the point isn't to pick out the ones "not in it for the money", because lets face it, it is one of the reasons people choose to go through medicine, but the ones they think don't have the mental maturity to do well on med school. Usually (they said), they feel a bit uncomfortable talking to people who are too idealistic. The admissions office told them to look for down to earth, pragmatic students...

 

[dank204]

That's good advice John. Thanks. Did they tell you anything else regarding what they look for or don't like? I'd be interested in knowing.

 

[rmsgolfer]

It is actually pretty easy to find people entering medicine for the wrong reasons or who are naive to the sacrifices that are to come. Asking them a simple "give me three reasons why you want to go into medicine" will give you generic answers about the joy of helping others, love of science, and the ability to make society better blah blah blah (you get the point).

As one example I like to ask the candidate to convince me (a 2nd year) why I have made the worst mistake in my life in choosing this field and why medicine would be the last thing you should want to do. The people who think medicine is all glitz and glam because thats what tv portrays and think it is an easy path to a 6 figure salary give very shallow responses and really have no clue what they are headed into.

When an applicant is presented with a "thinking" question or get a little nervous about an answer they usually default to some topic that they are comfortable with and really good interviewers (usually the prof's and docs) can hone in on those things and you can feel people out pretty quickly.

As a student I feel my main job is to feel the applicant out and see if they would fit the dynamic of the student body and work well with his/her classmates. After all most people who interview are smart enough to succeed but it's really the intangibles you are trying to assess.

 

[johnmendes]

It is actually pretty easy to find people entering medicine for the wrong reasons or who are naive to the sacrifices that are to come. Asking them a simple "give me three reasons why you want to go into medicine" will give you generic answers about the joy of helping others, love of science, and the ability to make society better blah blah blah (you get the point).

As one example I like to ask the candidate to convince me (a 2nd year) why I have made the worst mistake in my life in choosing this field and why medicine would be the last thing you should want to do. The people who think medicine is all glitz and glam because thats what tv portrays and think it is an easy path to a 6 figure salary give very shallow responses and really have no clue what they are headed into.

When an applicant is presented with a "thinking" question or get a little nervous about an answer they usually default to some topic that they are comfortable with and really good interviewers (usually the prof's and docs) can hone in on those things and you can feel people out pretty quickly.

As a student I feel my main job is to feel the applicant out and see if they would fit the dynamic of the student body and work well with his/her classmates. After all most people who interview are smart enough to succeed but it's really the intangibles you are trying to assess.

👍

Absolutely right... Be prepared to think... Read up on current healthcare topics. HMO's, healthcare reform... A question that is really popular is "socialized" healthcare. What do you think of it? The Grey's anatomy wannabe's will say that it is the only way to go, everyone should have healthcare... And I think everyone should have healthcare too. But being able to look at the disadvantages of such a practice shows that you think things through. A girl I know got asked why she wanted to be a doctor. She answered the typical "to help other people, make a difference in their lives...". And the interviewer (who was already a doctor) said "but you could have gone to nursing school, save yourself the hassle, and be doing that right now". And she had no answer for him... Be pragmatic, and honest. If you make arguments, and not just statements, you should be fine. It also helps that if you know a bit about the school you are applying to, their mission, past famous grads, curriculum... Show you wanna be there😉

 

[genswim24]

Our school may be a little different then others when it comes to student interviews. Our main job is to figure out if they will fit in well with our student body and if the person is somebody we would want to work with.

The why medicine, topics in health care, etc questions are done by our faculty. Our post interview write up doesn't have anything about these questions, though you could include them in the "other notes" section.

 

[EgotiStick]

👍

Absolutely right... Be prepared to think... Read up on current healthcare topics. HMO's, healthcare reform... A question that is really popular is "socialized" healthcare. What do you think of it? The Grey's anatomy wannabe's will say that it is the only way to go, everyone should have healthcare... And I think everyone should have healthcare too. But being able to look at the disadvantages of such a practice shows that you think things through. A girl I know got asked why she wanted to be a doctor. She answered the typical "to help other people, make a difference in their lives...". And the interviewer (who was already a doctor) said "but you could have gone to nursing school, save yourself the hassle, and be doing that right now". And she had no answer for him... Be pragmatic, and honest. If you make arguments, and not just statements, you should be fine. It also helps that if you know a bit about the school you are applying to, their mission, past famous grads, curriculum... Show you wanna be there😉

QFT.

I think enthusiasm for medical school, both generally (I want to be a doctor b/c x,y,z) and for the specific medical school (I want to go here b/c a,b,c) show through in every area of the interview. If you prepare you should be good to go, even if someone throws you a curveball.

When I interviewed, everytime I was asked about big healthcare topics like- What do you think about the healthcare reform? How does it change your outlook on medicine? How does legislation like that influence how you would practice?

I don't think its such a bad thing to make admissions about how legislation affects your long-term decision-making as long as you're realistic as opposed to being a waif bending to whatever movement/crisis is in the news at the moment.