interview questions

[sapience8x]

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what are some of the most common pathology interview questions that you have encountered? (besides why path?) Also what are some of the weirdest and most difficult? do they ask current issues in health care and ethical questions like for med school interviews (please say no)?

 

[yaah]

Have answers to all of these:

1) Tell me about yourself
2) Why pathology
3) What are you looking for in a residency program
4) What can you bring to the program
5) Why OUR program
6) What do you want to do with your career

Those are standard questions but it's amazing how many people haven't thought of them and what answers they would give. I didn't get any controversial or weird questions that I can remember. They just want to get to know you and make sure you're not too weird.

 

[sapience8x]

do you remember the advice for med school interviews- not to tell them that you've decided on a specialty? does that hold for path? i would think they would like to know that you've thought about it becuase that measn that you've had some expereince with the field to know a ittle about each subspecialty

 

[mlw03]

i never subscribed to the whole don't tell them what specialty you want for my med school interviews, and i'd think that matters even less for residency. if you know you wanna focus on GU pathology or something like that, what harm is there in saying that? i would think there's a bigger risk in hiding the truth and the interviewer being able to tell (unless you're a really good liar, in which case, wanna teach me your skillz?) than in just telling the truth.

thanks yaah for the warning for those particular questions, although you're right that they're obviously things people should have good answers to. i'll keep it in mind for myself for next year.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Wasn't there a list of 30 questions commonly asked by path residency programs? Where was that link? I'm sure it's buried somewhere in the SDN path archives.

 

[yaah]

Wasn't there a list of 30 questions commonly asked by path residency programs? Where was that link? I'm sure it's buried somewhere in the SDN path archives.

Actually, I think that was "30 questions you should ask path programs." But nevertheless:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=228750

In regards to talking about your career plans, it is not necessary to KNOW what you want to do. But I would say it is necessary to have at least thought about it, and be able to discuss areas you are interested in learning more about at the very least. I didn't know what I wanted to do - I answered that question by saying I had thought a lot about it and wanted to see more of pathology before deciding, but so far I preferred academic type of jobs (i.e. subspecialty) because of all the things that entails. And I talked about areas of pathology that had interested me so far.

 

[sapience8x]

Thanks! That was really helpful.

 

[anencephalic]

Dude, you rawk. Thanks for the info.