Interview: OK to say not sure what field of medicine?

[afkari]

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If asked, is it OK to say that you don't feel that you have enough experience to say what field of medicine you are interested in going into during an interview?

 

[circulus vitios]

Kind of useless, but I've heard that saying you're interested in specializing might be a bad thing. I'll be going with the "politically correct" answer of family medicine, even though there's no way in hell I want to do FM.

 

[Forthegood]

If you really feel like you want to do something in particular, don't lie. That being said, it is good to mention that you have an open mind about the possibilities and are excited to see the various fields in more detail.

It is less what you say, and more how you say it.

Don't say cosmetic dermatology.

 

[zpiff]

If you really feel like you want to do something in particular, don't lie. That being said, it is good to mention that you have an open mind about the possibilities and are excited to see the various fields in more detail.

It is less what you say, and more how you say it.

Don't say cosmetic dermatology.

This is good advice. Mention a few specialties that you might be interested in but make it clear that you're open minded and are eager to learn about medicine as a whole.

 

[GH253]

substitute 'exposure' for 'experience'

i plan to say physiatry even though i'm thinking radiology

 

[Mobius1985]

Adcomms are aware that statistically 80% of med students who matriculate knowing what they want to specialize in will change their minds. So it's a worthless question. If they ask it's probably more to see how you handle the question than because they really care about the answer. I think they'd prefer not to see that you don't have a rigid mindset, and are flexible and openminded.

 

[xanthomondo]

Adcomms are aware that statistically 80% of med students who matriculate knowing what they want to specialize in will change their minds. So it's a worthless question. If they ask it's probably more to see how you handle the question than because they really care about the answer. I think they'd prefer not to see that you don't have a rigid mindset, and are flexible and openminded.

Yeah, in my interview I was asked this question. Even though the reason I got into the field was because of my own eye surgery/problems and the laundry list of eye problems in my family, I still didn't want to say I was interested in ophtho.

So when asked, I bit my tongue, and said "I'm not really sure yet what part I want to do - there's just so much that I haven't seen yet." My interviewer went from a serious face to a smile and said:

"Of course you don't know what you want to do yet, that really was an unfair question."

Honestly I would play it safe and say you really aren't sure, but you liked the fields that you've seen, but don't have enough exposure to decide your career based on it. Responding with an answer that you want to go into a less popular field might backfire if they probe why.

 

[afkari]

thanks a lot for the responses.. I remember being asked this question at two of my interviews and just wanted to make sure that I didn't hurt myself by saying I am not sure b/c I don't feel like I have enough experience to make a decision on a specific specialty/field. I just hope that they don't think I was saying that I didn't have enough clinical experience as a premed to make a decision? Or am I just over thinking it??

 

[Mobius1985]

You are over thinking it. At your stage it is highly unlikely you could have experienced enough different medical fields to make an informed decision.

 

[Kaustikos]

Yeah, in my interview I was asked this question. Even though the reason I got into the field was because of my own eye surgery/problems and the laundry list of eye problems in my family, I still didn't want to say I was interested in ophtho.

So when asked, I bit my tongue, and said "I'm not really sure yet what part I want to do - there's just so much that I haven't seen yet." My interviewer went from a serious face to a smile and said:

"Of course you don't know what you want to do yet, that really was an unfair question."

Honestly I would play it safe and say you really aren't sure, but you liked the fields that you've seen, but don't have enough exposure to decide your career based on it. Responding with an answer that you want to go into a less popular field might backfire if they probe why.

I said cardiology because of my interest in the cardiovacular system but quickly talked about my interest now could change because I haven't seen everything and i am definitely open to the possibilities, using the interviewers specialty (which I couldn't of asked for a better specialty to delve into - pathology) as an example.

As one of the med students said - picking what you want to do before even trying it is like buying a car without test driving it.

 

[halekulani]

i always said i haven't completely made up my mind b/c there's the 3rd and 4th years to finally make a well informed decision but mentioned specialties i was interested in due to X and Y experiences and so forth.

 

[fMRI]

Just be prepared that if you answer "I am really interested in XY" that you might get a follow up question that tests how familiar you are with the field XY.

Maybe just talk about the experiences you had and what you liked about each one, and then maybe square in what other fields you find interesting but lack exposure.

Good luck!