I have heard that interviewers ask questions on current health topics (public health, etc.)...How do you gain such knowledge? Is there some health magazine that updates you on current health news?
interview question
- Thread starter uclakid
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read jama, new england journal, ajph (am journal of public health) if you can take peer reviewed articles. And of course there's always the new york times. You guys might get asked about your opinion on universal health care coverage since the democrats are coming out with at least 2 versions of a proposal for it.
sunflower79 🙂
sunflower79 🙂
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I read Scientific American, Reason and Mental Floss (for fun) to keep updated on stuff last year. Also check out the UPenn's bioethics page.
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I agree with garnet girl... Definitely keep up on bioethics!!! One of the hardest questions at my interview was "Describe an ethical dilemma (of your choosing), argue both sides, and tell me what you'd do given the situation." Luckily, I was prepared.
To get on top of some topics I read U.S. News and Time. Also a national paper helped me with other "worldly" events. The CDC's web site (http://www.cdc.gov) has links to the MMWR= Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, which I also found helpful.
To get on top of some topics I read U.S. News and Time. Also a national paper helped me with other "worldly" events. The CDC's web site (http://www.cdc.gov) has links to the MMWR= Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, which I also found helpful.
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Stock up on every health/medicine magizine that is published, read every article and memorize, who wrote each article, the details of such, and come up with interesting anecotes from each. You never know when you'll run into an interviewer who will have published one of those articles. Then write full length reports, 20 page + are preffered, on the specificities... oh just kidding anyway 😛 Basically going with what the people above have said, although in most cases you probably won't even have to do that much reading. Just pick an area, or particular magazine/news source/journal that you like that covers some health topics and get familiar with what the health scene currently is. Also ask past interviewees for some of the questions they were asked in order to get a perspective of how to answer these types of questions. The important thing really isn't in what your answer is, it's how you answer it. Form an opinion, base it on something, and then don't change it. Trust me, they'll try to get you to change your opinion no matter what you said, just stick to your guns and stay true to yourself, and definitely don't just try and tell them what you think they want to hear.
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just go online...search for hot topics like abortion, socialized healthcare, euthanasia, mercy killings and whatnot...know the terms and arguments for both sides and you are fine....i only got one ethical question out of eight interviews
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I agree with Rock....
I just searched online about HMO's, euthanasia, abortion and genetics so I'd know the basics about them and be able to formulate my own view with the limited knowledge I gained. I was by no means an expert after doing these searches.
Interviewers know you probably aren't going to be an expert in Public Health. Most likely they will only ask you a public health question if you say you have an MPH or if you bring up a health topic yourself during the interview. Out of my 11 interviews none asked about my stance on abortion, euthanasia, on HMo's....nothing.
I did get a question about my stance on affirmative action at Northwestern which I proceeded to botch, consequently setting the tone for my whole interview. I felt I botched my whole interview there....and now I'm pulling out 60k in loans to go there...go figure.
Anyhow...if they do ask you about something you really don't know anything about then just be honest and say you really don't know too much about the topic but that you'll try to give your opinion based on your limited knowledge. Thats ok with them.
I think a lot of people have the misconception that interviews are like grill and kill sessions. All of my interviews were basically conversations. If you say you don't know too much about a topic most likely the other person will not continue to probe more into that topic and a new topic will come up in the convo.
