Long response to "why medicine" during interview?

[custard]

I am wondering how long most people's response typically is to "why medicine?" during an interview. I have my first one in two weeks and I've trying saying this response to myself (in the shower haha) but its really long and convoluted so far.

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[etf]

mine is about 3-4 minutes. just touch on a few key points, and illustrate with examples.

 

[MassTransport]

Mine was about thirty seconds.

 

[Dr_Dan_the_man]

i dont think you should bore them with a 10 minute story... but i also think they would be surprised if your answer was 30 seconds long!

More important than length is the quality of your answer... focus more on articulating your answer without sounding like you are reciting one of your essays and you should be good to go

 

[MassTransport]

I dunno, I didn't get an odd vibe from them.

Here's my philosophy. You're not defending yourself. This is why I'm interested in medicine. If you're unconvinced, ask me more about it. If you're convinced, then that's that, isn't it? This isn't a question where you can set yourself apart, if that's your goal.

I agree in principle with Dan. If you need some time to explain yourself, I think it's okay, as long as you sound sincere.

 

[ufgrad00]

i dont think you should bore them with a 10 minute story... but i also think they would be surprised if your answer was 30 seconds long!

More important than length is the quality of your answer... focus more on articulating your answer without sounding like you are reciting one of your essays and you should be good to go

Yeah, mine is around 30 seconds to a minute as well. But mine is pretty much the truth about why I want to pursue this profession without philosophical excess. I have some interviews coming up, and I plan on just explaining why I am choosing medicine based on my experiences and keeping it conversational instead of a speech.

But I believe Dan is right. The quality of your reason and articulation of your convictions as well as the thought behind your reasons for choosing this career are more important than sounding lengthy. From what I can gather on this forum, the worst an can do applicant is mumble something that's not articulated or thought out, and the next worse thing to do is give a generic philosophical speech like "Medicine is a noble profession and I want to help people." another line is "I am fascinated with the Human body ...."

 

[wutwinb]

my response was probably more than 2-3 minutes as well. i had bullet points in my head that i wanted to mention. also, i would add in other comments throughout the interview (like when i would describe clinical experiences or shadowing), i.e. "that's another reason why i want to go into medicine because blah blah blah.

just practice it in front of friends/family or in front of the mirror, and you will be fine.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

I dont understand why they ask why medicine, Isnt that basically what your Personal Statement was for. My personal statement pretty much sums up the events that led to my decision to become a MD, should we just hit the main points even if its explained in our PS?

 

[drizzt3117]

Mine is pretty long (5-6 min) but as a non-trad it's kind of expected, I suppose. Between that and "tell me about yourself" the interview is pretty much done, haha.

 

[Nataliemay24]

the problem with long answers is that you might get cut off by the interviewer, and then you'll never get a chance to get back to the rest of your answer. that happened to me with another question. actually, with a lot of them...my interviewer often seemed to think of a new question based on the three words i had just said. he would jump in and then i never got a chance to finish my answer. so my advice is to make sure the most important parts of your answer fit into the first few seconds, THEN go back and elaborate if the interviewer lets you. You want to say: My reasons are A, B, and C. The reason/example for A is...the reason/example for B is...the reason/example for C is... instead of "My reasons are A, and here is the reason/example, and B, and here is the reason/example, and C, and here is the reason/example. That second way means you might not ever get to C. (or B. or the reason/example for A...)

 

[wjustice]

I had an interview yesterday. It was pretty open-ended, so I thought I would launch into my three point response to why medicine, but within thirty-seconds I could see my interviewer starting to get bored. So I tried to shift the focus onto some of my more unique experiences, and that got his interest a lot more than my somewhat general reasons for liking medicine. I think that if they've offered you an interview, they probably assume that you have a convincing motivation to practice medicine, and want to know what makes you stand out and what makes you a good fit for their school.

 

[LikeClockWork]

the problem with long answers is that you might get cut off by the interviewer, and then you'll never get a chance to get back to the rest of your answer. that happened to me with another question. actually, with a lot of them...my interviewer often seemed to think of a new question based on the three words i had just said. he would jump in and then i never got a chance to finish my answer. so my advice is to make sure the most important parts of your answer fit into the first few seconds, THEN go back and elaborate if the interviewer lets you. You want to say: My reasons are A, B, and C. The reason/example for A is...the reason/example for B is...the reason/example for C is... instead of "My reasons are A, and here is the reason/example, and B, and here is the reason/example, and C, and here is the reason/example. That second way means you might not ever get to C. (or B. or the reason/example for A...)

This sounds like very good advice. This happened to me a few times in my interview, but it didn't cut off anything that was extremely important. I just hope interviewers know when they're cutting you off so they don't think that's all you had to say about being a doc or why you like their school.

 

[SigurRos]

Mine is about 20-30 seconds as well, and I don't really rehearse it, so it tends to come out disjointed somewhat, every time. Regardless, I think the most important part is to sound genuine. BTW i have 4 acceptances so far, so if the interviewer was surprised by the brevity of my answer, it certainly didn't show.

 

[darkelven29]

1-2 minutes to hit key points. I have examples but I only use them after I think the interviewer is going to want to know or ask.... Otherwise you should keep it short.... This kind of backfired with an interviewer asked relatively few questions. So I was waiting for her to ask more questions......

 

[fightinI]

Mine is about 20-30 seconds as well, and I don't really rehearse it, so it tends to come out disjointed somewhat, every time. Regardless, I think the most important part is to sound genuine.

I think that's perfectly fine (and apparently so do 4 schools). I interview job applicants where I work, and I HATE rehearsed answers. Its easy to tell. Sometimes the people answering the question seemed bored with their own answer, while they were answering it.

 

[Ella Shepherd]

I don't think it really needs to be long. What's most important is the content of your answer and how sincere you are.

 

[luv2sd]

I dont understand why they ask why medicine, Isnt that basically what your Personal Statement was for. My personal statement pretty much sums up the events that led to my decision to become a MD, should we just hit the main points even if its explained in our PS?

maybe they want to test your memorization skill early in the game lol

 

[Soon to be Dr E]

Just use a flashy one liner... Like: "Why not?"

 

[loh]

1 minute max for the "Why Medicine" question.

One of my interviewers gave me the "So tell me what I need to know about you" line...I think in that case it's ok to go for a few minutes.

 

[Lmack1817]

hahahahaha thats the BEST answer Ive heard EVER:

So why do you want to pursue a career in medicine?

"Why not?"

after this its gotta be

"Just Cause."

 

[speedyk]

I don't think I'd ever take over 2 minutes to answer a question. You'd either seem to be overly rehearsed, boring, and/or rambling.

 

[Ella Shepherd]

I don't think I'd ever take over 2 minutes to answer a question. You'd either seem to be overly rehearsed, boring, and/or rambling.

I agree.

 

[Gut Shot]

I don't think I'd ever take over 2 minutes to answer a question. You'd either seem to be overly rehearsed, boring, and/or rambling.

No kidding!

Look at it this way: your interviewer has an MD. Your interviewer is a physician who does medicine for a living. Your interviewer made this same fundamental decision in the past. Hence, in contrast to many questions that could be asked, your interviewer already knows the answer to this one. There is no reason to bray on for more than 30 seconds (and that's probably pushing it).

 

[TheLesPaul]

About 30 sec. Anything I say will be less eloquent and put together than my personal statement (as I am not Winston Churchill), so I just hit the high points and move on to stuff that's not covered in my application. This strategy seemed to work (acceptance-wise).

 

[VoiceofReason]

"tits and porches"

or

"chicks, money, power, and chicks."

 

[alwaysaangel]

45 minutes to an hour.

Well not really - but thats usually how it turned out.

I would start on my why medicine spiel which consisted of several important things I wanted to touch on. Usually I'd get interrupted and we'd go off on some other tangent for a while, then eventually come back and I'd get to make my other points.

But I think if I had read it aloud with no conversational interaction it would have been about 5-7 minutes long.