Interview Techniques Thread?

[PreMedAdAG]

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Hey Guys,

I'm doing a mock interview this week and I thought it might be a good idea to bring up topics that are difficult to do research on . Maybe we can discuss them here,
aka HMOs, PPOs, third party providers
Research
info on different schools
good questions to ask schools, etc.

Let me know if this works for anyone?

I need to know more about health insurance and am not quite sure where to start. I think I'm going to buy a book called:
"Dead on Arrival: Politics of Healthcare in Twentieth Century America"

Any advice?

Christine

 

[akpete]

I like this. I want to learn more about those topics too, but don't really know where to start besides random web pages. Any advice.

 

[skiz knot]

You don't/won't need to go into that level of detail in your interviews. All you need to do is know what they are and be able to form an opinion on a topic and back it up with your reasons. Therefore, "random websites", the newspaper, yahoo news, whatever, will give you the necessary backround level to answer these questions. More power to you if you read these books, but I found them to be unnecessary. You will, however, get yourself into trouble if you start memorizing, or practicing your responses to these types of questions.

my dos pesos.

 

[LionInTheDark]

the first hundred pages or so of 'severed trust' by george lundberg basically explain how health care got to where it is today. it's all pretty interesting. i like his writing style too.

 

[medicomel]

Health Against Wealth - HMOs and the Breakdown of Medical Trust by George Andersis another really good one.

I never thought I'd get into reading about managed healthcare, but this one reads quickly.

 

[adamj61]

how about the NY times health page 👍

 

[Bendrix]

Some context: in interviews at a dozen schools in the last cycle I was asked exactly one policy question, a softball about my thoughts on drug reimportation. I think you should absolutely keep an eye on health policy news and be familiar with the main topics and controversies, but I'd argue that its more important to be very slick with your answers to "tell me about yourself", "why medicine" and "where do you want to be in 10-20 years".

One thing to note when preparing yourself for policy questions -- the point of these questions (or so I hear) is often less to reveal the particularities of your positions than to check that you've thought about relevant issues. Your goal should be to give the impression that talking about health care policy is a totally normal thing for you to be doing. If you come off very scripted, with three-point plans to address every problem, you are in danger of failing at that task -- all the more so if you flub follow-up questions to your scripted answer

 

[Caristra]

What exactly do you say to the "tell me about yourslef question?" I can answer why medicine and what I would like to be doing in 20 years. But just asking me to talk about myself is such a broad question. What exactly would they like to hear about? an autobigraphy? my college experiences? my hobbies? Has anyone found a particular approach to that question that seems to work well?

 

[Bendrix]

What exactly do you say to the "tell me about yourslef question?"

I was asked tell-me-about-yourself at about half my interviews, so it's important to figure out what you want to say. I have always taken that question to mean "how is it that you find yourself sitting in that interview chair?"

 

[Mr. Obsessive]

Nothing beats the real thing. If you have your heart set on a particular school, try to schedule at least one "real" interview before that one. My first interview was my top choice school. Looking back, it was also my worst interview. They progressively got better; primarily because I was just alot more relaxed. Mock interviews are great, but they definately aren't the real thing.

 

[lordank]

My 2 cents....Be very enthusastic about the school u are intervieing at....make it your number one choice that day....find out facts that you like and tell them this is where u will be starting in august....its simple as that...they want to see who will actually want to go that school....so u got to sell it.

Also..tell me about yourself question....have a short anecdote ready....it really helps....rather than just boring demogrpahical data... anyway good luck!