Interview Training

[standoc]

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hey guys,

Has anyone here gone through any kind of interview training? My college lets you use medical students to help you practice, but I was hoping to find some kind of organized course.

What are some other ideas people have for getting practice interviews? I looked through some old threads, which seemed to have plenty of advice on what to say for interviews, but nothing as far as i can glean on practicing.

Thanks,
Standoc

 

[SarahL]

Hi,

My supervisors, who are all med school professors, were kind enough to let me do practice interviews with them and hook me up with a few other people too.

The best suggestions I got were (in random order):

1. Wait a second before replying to a question. It makes you look like you're thinking carefullly before answering.
2. Don't repeat questions back to the interviewer.
3. Make eye contact.
4. Don't take notes the whole time.
5. Show respect for the interviewer. Let him or her be dominant. This is epecially true of student interviewers. People have been rejected because they didn't take the student interview seriously.
6. Don't be cocky.
7. Be spontaneous.
8. Don't be afraid to admit that you don't know something. After a long line of questioning, when you get to the point where you simply can't answer the question (which might not have an answer anyway), then simply state that you're not sure and that perhaps with further consideration or research you can decide upon an answer.
9. Have questions prepared, especially ones that pertain the particular school you're interviewing at.
10.And the always helpful..."be yourself."

If you don't know anyone to do practice interviews with, I would simply look people up at the local medical school or university, especially those whose work interests you, and ask them if you can meet with them briefly. I've done this for informational interviews when I wanted to learn more about a topic, like epilepsy research. Generally they're pretty nice about it. You can either make an actual mock interview for med school or learn more about how to interact with a professor in a low-key way.

Good luck!

SarahL

 

[inanna]

Hi standoc!

I was going to enlist the help of Judy Colwell because she came very highly recommended to me. She was the Assistant Director of Medical School Admissions at Stanford for 9 years and has an organized program to assist applicants all the way throught the process (or bits of it if you only want interview help.) Lucky for you, she's in Menlo Park, here's her info:

Judy Colwell
650.888.9477
[email protected]
<a href="http://www.judycolwell.com" target="_blank">www.judycolwell.com</a>

Good luck, hope this helps!

 

[inanna]

ps -- the only reasons I didn't enlist her help was because I had a really strong advising committee who held my hand through the whole process and I live in SoCal. I seriously considered it, though. 😎

 

[SMW]

Try <a href="http://essayedge.com/medical/admissions/interview.shtml" target="_blank">Essay Edge's Medical Interview site</a> for some great tips on getting organized. Good luck. 🙂

 

[standoc]

Thanks for the responses everyone...how many interviews did you all do to practice? I am not quite sure how much time to set aside for interview related practice yet; what do you guys think?

Inanna, thats great for you to have such a helpful school. I have been told by everyone that stanford's advising system is terrible. I just checked on Judy Colwell..wow $125 an hour! How much of a help did your friend find her? Is there any particular thing she does really well so I don't burn too much of her time? Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it.

-Standoc

 

[standoc]

Bump

 

[Future_Doc]

This may sound strange, but a good way to practice being interviewed is to interview other people yourself. Practice on a friend, family member or co-worker. The role reversal will not only allow you an opportunity to see what an interviewer may be looking for, it may reduce your anxiety about the whole thing. I was on a committee in college where all I did was interview students who were applying for other school positions and jobs. Then, later on in my career I had to interview many people for job positions. Finally, when it came time to sit thru medschool inteviews, I was right at home. Give it a shot!

 

[SarahL]

I have also found interviewing other people to be helpful. It helps you to figure out which questions you might be asked and why you might be asked them. Plus it reminds you that the interviewers are human, too.

I had three mock interviews before going to my first real one. One of my mock interviews was very helpful because the interviewer told me about body language that he didn't like, like waving my hands too much. (It's distracting and makes it seem like your words aren't enough, that you have to try to make up for whatever you're not saying by gesturing.) The others spent more time telling me about what they want to hear in an interview. The best combination of practice, I think, tells you about both content and body language.

Not sure that this helps you much, but I just thought I'd add my 2 cents..... 🙂

 

[Dr. L]

I had a mock interview with my pre-med advisor and with my mom. I found that talking to myself also was useful. I would write out a list of possible questions (thanks to interviewfeedback.com) and try to answer them out loud. It sounds stupid but it actually was a good way to practice and get used to talking about yourself while jogging your mind of possible topics to bring up. My pre-med advisor also taped our mock interview so I could hear if I was hesitant, dragging, voice inflection, etc...

Good luck!