Interview Fail?

[NNukibw77]

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Is it bad if the interview goes off the topic of me and becomes a conversation about a variety of things ranging from America's obsession with work to France's unemployment incentives to the shortcoming of Obama's healthcare (read: insurance) reform?

fml

 

[Zona Pellucida]

We started talking about Britney Spears in one of my interviews... so I hope not.

 

[NNukibw77]

We started talking about Britney Spears in one of my interviews... so I hope not.

Yeah we also were chatting about Tiger Woods a little bit.

I guess my question is it bad if I feel like I didn't get to say enough about my interests in both the school and the medical field. Or maybe the interviewer didn't make it a point to ask the questions because he/she was more worried about my personality?

 

[Zona Pellucida]

I know what you mean. Some of my interviews were much more interested in my personality and interests rather than how I felt about the school. I tried to throw in some info about how much I really enjoyed the school but I think some of them are tired of hearing the same things and would rather talk about some pop culture issues rather than only focus on how you feel about the school.

This only happened when I had 2 interviewers per school and usually the other one was very receptive to how I felt about the school, so I knew it would be part of my write up that was presented regardless. And I'm sure they know you would go there, considering you spent hundreds of dollars to apply and travel to the school. Wouldn't worry too much!

 

[boaz]

Sounds like a great interview to me.

 

[J ROD]

I talked about my workout routine with one interviewer and was showing off my stuff!!

 

[amt0908]

I don't think that is bad at all...if anything I think it is a good sign that the interviewer was genuinely interested in having a conversation with you. For most of your interviews the person has your file in front of them and knows about your accomplishments before you even walk in the door (unless it is a blind interview), When I interviewed at UNC I spent most of my interview time talking about my interviewers cats and places we had both traveled to and I got an acceptance letter 4 weeks later!

hopefully you will get a nice big packet in the mail from them soon!

 

[red10]

One of my interviewer's and I started talking about how his kid plays hockey and how when he came to my university to watch his son play, our fan section (aptly named the harassing illini) shouted all sorts of insulting and inappropriate things at his son. 😱

Result: Accepted

I think they just want to see if you're personable and sincere. They already know about your interest in medicine via your app. There's nothing interesting talking to 100 interviewees about why medicine (I'd think), but having actual conversations about w/e comes up would be much more interesting and indicative of a person's personality

 

[boaz]

I talked about my workout routine with one interviewer and was showing off my stuff!!

😆 Hell no!

 

[BenUstudent]

I talked about my workout routine with one interviewer and was showing off my stuff!!

I'm not surprised coming from you, J-DUB

 

[J ROD]

I'm not surprised coming from you, J-DUB

are you a fan of my work?

 

[BenUstudent]

are you a fan of my work?

humm, I can say I am familiar with it as seen in the Lounge. and will leave it that for the kiddies in this forum 😉

 

[IDoIt4Love]

i hope that's not a bad sign! in my last interview we covered the following topics:

-virginia history's relevance to the nation (this was a VA school)
-when the right time is to pierce your daughter's ears
-the funny youtube video 2 guys did about the city the school was in
-the american revolution
-where and why people take pride in their home city
-all about my interviewer's daughter

from the way i see it, if an interviewer doesn't like you they could just shoo you out the door after the minimum amount of time necessary to conduct a basic interview and spend the rest of the time in your interview slot relaxing and playing minesweeper in their office instead. so i think your interview went well🙂

 

[NNukibw77]

thanks guys. making me feel more confident about this interview (which was at my #1 school). now that i think about it, we went over the time and kept chatting despite her saying "i have to get you out of here soon" - so maybe it did go well.

 

[Dude Man Bro Man]

I wouldn't worry about it, I've had a few like that and it seemed to work well. Even if you don't talk about much directly relating to your application, your personality shows through and could leave an overall positive impression of your character.

One of the guys I interviewed kept trying valiantly to ask about application-related things but every answer I gave just started another conversation off-topic. Luckily he was the guilty party, not me. For example, asking about my fraternity experience ended up in a 10-minute discussion about movies after he made a joke about Animal House.

 

[bravofleet4]

no. i imagine it must be really boring asking the same questions all the time and you want a stimulating conversation, so you start talking subjects that interest you. it's not really what you talk about that matters but how you project yourself throughout the interview.

 

[UAAWolf]

One of my interviewers mocked me for being from Alaska and cracked some Sarah Palin jokes. He then proceeded to brag about how he went to Hopkins and how my undergrad school is likely a poor program. Wasted over half the interview on this.

This is all before I really had a chance to say anything. It's not like I spent $1000 and travelled 4000 miles right?

This kind of BS would not be acceptable anywhere but academia...such a f'in joke😡