medschool vs job interview

[madonna]

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hey guys,

with the interview season in full swing and all the talk about getting ready and performing well at interviews i am really curios how is medscool interview different from any other interview? i realize that much more is at stake but there are only so many different questions they can ask. others are just variations on the theme.
maybe its cuz i dint have any interviews 🙁 (yet 🙂)
so please tell me what do you think the differenes are

thanx and good luck on all your interviews

 

[Apparition]

Job interview, you have to convince them of all you can do for them.
Med school interview, you have to convince them what a great person you are. They are much more open ended and take more preparation.

 

[Depakote]

I approached my job interview like a med school interview and blew them out of the water.

My job interview was a panel of 3 people and it was still lower stress than any med school interview.

*has a sweet research job for the next application cycle*

 

[zurned]

I personally think med school interviews are easier than job interviews, b/c the stuff they ask is not about your qualificaitons. All of that is on paper already. So med schools i think want to know that you're not like a nutjob behind the numbers and that you are mature and know what you're getting yourself into. It's much easier.

 

[firebird69guy]

I feel that job interviews are much easier... I can really sell myself as far as my skills go and past experience.. I feel that in med school interviews I have to talk too much about myself rather than my skills- my personality, my passion for medicine, etc.

I guess it could be that I have been in many job interviews and feel very confident with the questions (conflict resolution, diversity, flexibility, responsibility and integrity).. And you're right, med school questions are just sooo open ended, it drives me nuts!!


Anyways good luck!

 

[Law2Doc]

hey guys,

with the interview season in full swing and all the talk about getting ready and performing well at interviews i am really curios how is medscool interview different from any other interview? i realize that much more is at stake but there are only so many different questions they can ask. others are just variations on the theme.
maybe its cuz i dint have any interviews 🙁 (yet 🙂)
so please tell me what do you think the differenes are

thanx and good luck on all your interviews

The biggest difference is the ethical questions -- very few job interviews will pose ethical dillemmas to see what you would do. Med school interviews also tend to focus on whether you know what you are getting into and inquire why you want to do this -- this kind of stuff is generally taken for granted in a job interview. And since med schools see a lot more applicants than most job interviewers, the interviewer tends to be a bit more polished (but not always). In either case, if you can turn the interview from an inquisition into a conversation, you've done well.

 

[powerbooki]

The job interviews I had were tough. Answering technical questions on the board in front of a group, doing quizes(not allowed to move onto the next question unless the current question is answered), writing codes in front of people who read as I wrote, being asked to identify where improvements could be made right after the circuit was constructed on paper... Sometimes the questions were meant to be tough and they knew a new grad couldn't do it, but they just wanted to see what efforts and approaches you take. My job interviews were light on personal characters and more on technical skills. I am glad med school interviews are different.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

to me, the biggest difference is that it's so much easier to answer the where do you see yourself in 10 years question. with job interviews, the most honest response would probably be doing something totally different than whatever i'm interviewing for. 🙂

medical school interviews are probably less stress overall because multiple candidates will be accepted. with a job interview, they're normally only going to hire one person, so you have to be that one best fit person.

 

[thegenius]

hey guys,

with the interview season in full swing and all the talk about getting ready and performing well at interviews i am really curios how is medscool interview different from any other interview? i realize that much more is at stake but there are only so many different questions they can ask. others are just variations on the theme.
maybe its cuz i dint have any interviews 🙁 (yet 🙂)
so please tell me what do you think the differenes are

thanx and good luck on all your interviews

Med school interviews, in my experience, are about 100 times easier than job interviews.

I am a software engineer and I have interviewed for dozens of jobs and I have interviewed at least 50 other software engineering candidates for positions at my companies. I grill my candidates (in a nice way though) to make sure they know the material. The last thing I want is an engineer to claims to know J2EE but can't distinguish a servlet from a hole in the wall.

All of my interviews thus far have been completely non-confrontational and easy going. I was disappointed in my interview performance at Cornell and I'm still analyzing why I did not put forth my greatest interview. One doctor there questioned my motivation for going into medicine on several occasions, and it made me rethink my go to market message on the plane home. ("go to market" will be understood by people who have been working for several years in consulting or technology.)

Other than that, these interviews are really easy. If you can walk and chew gum at the same time you won't fail it. Only a very small percentage of applicants in my opinion truly impress the interviewer. For the other 95%, you will be largely graded on your entire application with a small weighting from your interview performance (maybe 10-15%.)

 

[bobito]

Medical school interviews are a joke compared to consulting or investment banking type interviews. For med school it seems like they are just trying to find out if you're socially competent, rather than asking anything terribly difficult.

 

[madonna]

so why is there such hype to "prepare". if you know yourself and why you want to go into medicine, watch the news you shall be fine, right?
well thanx for the responses. i was starting to get nervous for blowing the interview i dont even have

 

[thegenius]

so why is there such hype to "prepare". if you know yourself and why you want to go into medicine, watch the news you shall be fine, right?
well thanx for the responses. i was starting to get nervous for blowing the interview i dont even have

I have prepared for job interviews too, I prepare for all things important. Answering a question like "Why do you want to be a doctor?" is not the easiest question to answer and it takes some practice to say something cogent.

I generally practice the bullet points for each question, like the one above, I want to be a doctor because 1) i want my work to have meaning (unlike what I currently do), 2) i want more job security and 3) I want to use my software/technology background in health care. then I just extemporaneously fill in the holes when I talk to my interviewer. Rarely do I ever say the same thing twice and that is not by design. That's just the way it comes out.