Interview Advice

[LoneCoyote]

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I just found out that I got an interview at USC coming up in about 10 days. This will be my first interview and I was wondering if any of you current pharmacy students or people who have already interviewed could post some advice about interviews in general... like what types of questions to expect, how to best prepare, what types of questions to ask them, how to get a good fell for the school, etc. If people have USC specific stuff that is great too. But gerneral words of wisdom are great and hopefully this thread can be a resource for all of us interviewing this year. Thanks 🙂

 

[lyzziebeth]

Maybe I'll interview you 🙂

 

[Dloi]

Hey!
I am also scheduled for the nov. 8 interview. I was wondering if any of you pharm students out there can recommend any good pharmacy websites/magazines to read up on about current pharmacy issues/problems/current events. It would be EXTREMELY helpful.
thanks!

 

[Brill]

Here are a few off the top of my head. I'm sure others can add more:


http://www.aphanet.org/

http://www.pharmacist.com

http://www.aacp.org

http://www.uspharmacist.com/

http://www.drugtopics.com

http://www.pharmacytimes.com

http://www.drugstorenews.com

 

[badxmojo]

definetly practice.. there are going to be obvious qurestiosn like why did you choose pharmacy? where do you see yourself going? and what kkinda of expereinces and extracurricular activities have shaped you and how. You should have your responses to these questions pretty much memoriezed.. this will also helpy uorealize what points you definetly want to "sell" about yourself.. so no matter what questions they ask you can tell them about these qualities you posses.

 

[Triangulation]

Congrats AZ!!!!! That rocks!! SC rocks!! The new cafe i found at SC rocks!!! Most importantly YOU ROCK!!

At any rate, my advice is, bc this is what i always do, but it seems to be working, TAKE CONTROL OF THE INTERVIEW. You have a ton of latitude to direct the conversation. They won't stop you. When they ask you why you chose pharmacy or why SC take off with a thoughtful response with passion behind it. I know you're into policy so talk about that, they get all excited about it, bc it started there. Talk about something specific that you want to remedy.

At the same time, when the iv'er says she is involved in w.e. aspect of pharmacy have something to say about that. Don't respond to questions or ANSWERS with one-word phrases. If she tells you that she is involved in clinical, tell her why you think that's important or what you would like to add to it. Make it clear that you have patient/community benefit in mind in everything you say.

The students are hella cool, so don't sweat on that. If you guys wanna meet before the interview, maybe me and liz and BMB could try and hook up with you the day/night before.

Best of luck. You won't need it though😉

 

[Dloi]

What should we NOT do at the USC interviews? are there any common mistakes that you guys see students make? for instance, i am planning on pursuing the pharmD/phD program so should i go into detail about my research during the interview? will it count against me if it appears like i'm more interested in doing research than community pharmacy?

 

[Triangulation]

I don't think you wanna go off on the minutiae of how you set up you cre-lox system for your knock-out or how you are trying to ablate some neuron that the iv'er has never heard of. You're trying to impress them not bore them. I believe it's cool to overwhelm them with your energy and passion, but you don't want to come off as a lab rat.

If you describe something qualify it with its importance or how satisfied with it you were bc of the difficulty. Give reasons and specifics. Make it topical.

 

[lyzziebeth]

How come I didn't know BMB was interviewing? Hahaha...

 

[BMBiology]

USC's Interview Format:

(1) Meet fellow interviewees inside the pharmacy building
(2) Jim (the admissions director) then takes everyone inside a lecture hall.
(3) Jim will talk for 10 - 20 minutes then everyone gets to introduce himself/herself: name, major, college.
(4) Student interviewer comes inside the lecture hall and calls the interviewee's name (make sure you shake the interviewer's hand -- first impression is important)
(5) Student interviewer takes interviewee to the professor's office.
(6) The format of the interview is similar to talking to your professor during office hours. It is a "closed" interview since the interviewers do not know anything about the interviewee.
(7) At the end of the interview, the interviewee gets to ask questions (so be prepared!)
(8) Then the student interviewer takes the interviewee to another lecture hall where he/she writes a short summary of an article (I believe the interviewee is given 5 minutes to read the 1 paragraph article and 20 minutes to summarize it).

 

[hmtran]

At UOP, the student gets interviewed with one professor and 2 students, each separately for 15 minutes.

Is it the same at USC? Or are both the student interviewer and professor in the same room to interview the applicant?

 

[Triangulation]

Same room. About 20-30 min interview. It's closed file so they know absolutely nothing about you (no grades, no LOR) Make the most of it.

Have some thoughtful questions to ask your interviewers. That counts for a lot. Take the interview by the student seriously, bc they're input form counts as much as the faculty member's.