Interviewing techniques....how to prepare?

[stussyhk]

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exactly how do you prepare for an interview?
i'm not talking about how to prepare for standard questions like "why do you want to become a dentist" or "what do you think of this profession", but i'm talking about totally random questions that they might bring up during the interview.

i've read some of the interview feedbacks on this thread:
http://www.studentdoctor.net/interviewdent/interview_read.asp
some of the questions are indeed quite challenging. i feel like i will have a very hard time on the interviews, and i am already at a disadvantage since english is my second language =(
hope you guys can give some helpful tips =)

 

[djeffreyt]

My school has a career center that does mock interviews with a career counselor and they were quite helpful. At our school, the counselors actually had several questions prepared...many standard and a few real weird ones you wouldn't expect, all related to health or dentistry in some way. Find out if your school has that...


A second and very good way to prepare (back when I was a teacher I used to do this to my seniors) is to get a friend...another predent would be especially good as they can tell if you are getting cliche on your answers...and generate a huge list of questions for them. Ask them to choose some of those questions, and ask them to come up with some of their own if they feel like it. Then, set up a video camera on a tripod, set up a pair of chairs, dress exactly as you would for an actual interview, and seriously interview each other. Go for about an hour each. Ask your friend to tell you if they had any comments, noticed anything weird, but during the interview, be completely in character the whole time. Then look over your own tape...look for weird nervous movements, stuttering, questions you seemed bad at answering, your ability to directly answer a question without veering off topic, etc.

Just like anything else, the more you practice interviewing, the less likely you are to stress and make mistakes on the real thing.