Interview Length

[shunpo]

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Hi, I'm really surprised at how interviews last 45-60 minutes.

Especially since only three questions are asked. I've never done an interview before so I wanted to get some input on interviews.

Although three main questions are asked, is it like a back and forth of mini questions in between? Or do the interviewers ask the question and you go for a spurt of 20 minutes. Next question. 20 minutes. Next question and so forth.

Thanks

 

[Canes]

Hi, I'm really surprised at how interviews last 45-60 minutes.

Especially since only three questions are asked. I've never done an interview before so I wanted to get some input on interviews.

Although three main questions are asked, is it like a back and forth of mini questions in between? Or do the interviewers ask the question and you go for a spurt of 20 minutes. Next question. 20 minutes. Next question and so forth.

Thanks

You'd be surprised how FAST it'll go by--or deathly slow depending on if you let the moment get the best of you and say something weird. My interview lasted 55mins but it seemed very short to me. Dont expect strict Q and A session, sometimes you'll go off on tangent. We talked about football for good 10mins, I was giving her a hard time about her Oklahoma Sooners 🙂 it also depends on the person conducting the interview. Some will make you feel comfortable--whereas others will put you in a hole, thats when the interview seems like it's going deathly slow...


Dont go in EXPECTING the interview to go a certain way. Just be ready for anything and enjoy the ride.

 

[IrishRxMan]

The time limit will really depend on you and how much you have to talk about. Mine was about 20 minutes long.

 

[joh0472]

At Midwestern the interview had 3 interviewers and 3 applicants in the room at a time and the interviewers and applicants took turns asking and answering questions. They asked around 6 or 7 questions and between the 3 of us applicants we took up around 50 minutes.

 

[Dreamer57]

My past interview lasted about 25 minutes. I talk really fast and really had to make a conscious effort to speak slower so my interviewer wouldn't have a problem understanding me. I think my interviewer asked about 15 questions.

 

[pharm B]

If you look around, SDN has an interview feedback page with school-specific information. Not all interviews are an hour long and the board can consist of different types of people, depending on the school. Some schools will include a P2,etc.

 

[xtuner124]

I've had an interview where there were 2 separate 25 minute sessions. One session was with a professor and the other was with a P2. I've also had an interview that was 25 minutes total. If you can strike up some sort of conversation, the time passes by pretty fast.

 

[docss26]

I had a couple of group interviews. One with 3 students and the other with 5. The smaller the group the more questions they dish out. One of my interviews extended longer than it was supposed to and we were a little late for lunch. We were late cause we started having an interesting discussion about pharmacy. It was pretty cool. It'll vary between schools. Just make sure you have well thought responses. I doubt they would ask you to ever cut your answer short.

 

[crazybob]

You'd be surprised how FAST it'll go by--or deathly slow depending on if you let the moment get the best of you and say something weird. My interview lasted 55mins but it seemed very short to me. Dont expect strict Q and A session

One thing that I've heard from fourth year medical students who have done the interviews with applicants, is that they don't want to feel like they're the one talking for 45-60 minutes for the interview. They want to see applicants ask questions and talk about things relevant to the interview and the questions that have been asked.

If you look around, SDN has an interview feedback page with school-specific information. Not all interviews are an hour long and the board can consist of different types of people, depending on the school. Some schools will include a P2,etc.

My interviewers consisted of a pharmacist who is also a professor in the pharmacy practice department, a fourth year pharmacy students, and an actress (who was a fourth year pharmacy student). My interviews were in exam rooms in the clinical skills center with each interview focusing on one topic. But I had to answer many questions because of the topics I had to discuss.