Interviews: What is humor?

[Served]

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I've been shadowing many docs from a number of different fields so far, and found one similarity: they always have a great sense of humor, and joke around (playfully) with patients. They seem so relaxed even when the situation is serious, and somehow manage to make their patients giggle.

Is this quality something they value in med school interviews? Frankly, I'm not very good at keeping my sense of humor; most of the times when I try to be humorous, I come across as either potentially offensive or just plain awkward. Is it safe to try to be humorous during med school interviews?

 

[Pacna]

If you're not confident in how it's going to be received, don't use it.

 

[chillaxbro]

Interviewer: "You know what chillaxbro, your grades are great, your MCAT is great, you have great letters of recommendations, but your resume is short. You should have been comforting women after abortions and helping blind lepers in Peru."

Rejected

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

So all physicians have a great sense of humor? Interesting...

 

[Served]

So all physicians have a great sense of humor? Interesting...

That's not what I said. I said all the ones whom I've shadowed had great sense of humor. Based on that, I think it's pretty safe to assume that many, if not most, docs have sense of humor.

 

[Ismet]

Be yourself. Don't try to force humor, especially if you're going to come off offensive or awkward. I don't think anyone I interviewed cracked any jokes. Just be happy and positive. If the interviewer cracks a joke, laugh. But be yourself.

 

[mcloaf]

Interviewer: "You know what chillaxbro, your grades are great, your MCAT is great, you have great letters of recommendations, but your resume is short. You should have been comforting women after abortions and helping blind lepers in Peru."

Rejected

Definitely missed your shot at an interview-appropriate "so a blind Peruvian leper abortion doctor..." joke. Maybe next year.

In seriousness OP just play it by ear. You'll have some younger more jovial interviewers and probably some more old school formal ones. If you're not sure, be conservative and don't joke around. Also, the way a doc interacts with their patients doesn't necessarily tell you much about how they're going to act sitting across from you in an interview.

 

[Barcu]

As everyone has said, just be yourself.

The humor that you see from physicians comes from years of patient interactions. For the most part, med students don't walk in like that.

 

[GoPelicans]

The humor that you see from physicians comes from years of patient interactions. For the most part, med students don't walk in like that.

Bingo. Doctors are trained to have fantastic interpersonal skills with their patients. The medical school interview is to make sure that all students come into medical school with a baseline level of social competence, but everything after that is training training training.

 

[Served]

Thank you everyone for great replies.

 

[Geebeejay]

Interviewer: "You know what chillaxbro, your grades are great, your MCAT is great, you have great letters of recommendations, but your resume is short. You should have been comforting women after abortions and helping blind lepers in Peru."

Rejected

same thing happened to me, except waitlisted.

You don't want to come off as the class clown, but you don't want to come off as Mr. Serious Frownyface with no personality at all. If there is an opening for a joke then sure be funny, have a sense of humor, but only if it's natural. Nothing worse than a not-funny guy trying to be a funny guy. And be careful not to say anything stupid.

 

[Geebeejay]

Bingo. Doctors are trained to have fantastic interpersonal skills with their patients. The medical school interview is to make sure that all students come into medical school with a baseline level of social competence, but everything after that is training training training.

Heh if only

 

[MVP]

in my experience a lot of the directors are more serious during the interview (even if they're really kind people). the professors or doctors who are interviewing you can be more jovial. however, this might also be because the director is often asking you standard questions when the side interviews can go on wacky tangents.

just be smart. feel out what kind of person your interviewer is. if they're not mr seriouspants, i would rather err on the side of coming off as smart and witty instead of conservative and reserved. especially if your application is vulnerable to being steroetyped as asocial (don't be the cs nerd, the cutthroat premed, or the meek asian kid)

 

[Barcu]

Bingo. Doctors are trained to have fantastic interpersonal skills with their patients. The medical school interview is to make sure that all students come into medical school with a baseline level of social competence, but everything after that is training training training.

I wouldn't say you are trained to have these skills. They do try through communication courses, but it's mostly due to years interactions and trial and error.

 

[survivordo]

Just be yourself, if you try to force something it will come out awkwardly. I think you will see the more time you interact with patients the easier it becomes to joke with/comfort them. My theory is that as you progress your brain spends less effort on the "clinical" information and then has the ability to work on the "humanistic" side of the encounter.

Survivor DO

 

[Narmerguy]

Be yourself. Don't try to force humor, especially if you're going to come off offensive or awkward. I don't think anyone I interviewed cracked any jokes. Just be happy and positive. If the interviewer cracks a joke, laugh. But be yourself.

Yeah don't force humor. Also, I think it's understandable that, in an interview setting, you may not be in full Louis CK mode. These things often come down to just reading your environment and self-awareness.

As everyone has said, just be yourself.

The humor that you see from physicians comes from years of patient interactions. For the most part, med students don't walk in like that.

This is a great point. In many cases, med students that are nontrad and have crossed over from other jobs with large amounts of "customer-interaction" can have these kinds of soft skills as well. Some people have it naturally. For others, it can be built so long as you keep an open mind and can be somewhat perceptive to how patients and others react to you.

 

[HopefulSlav]

Be confident and smile for the camera.