most bizarre interview moment?

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CodeBlu said:
So I'm at a top 20 school interviewing, and my interviewer gets hung up on my research experience...

Turns out he LOVES research and does a lot of it...

Right... in the middle of my interview he hands me his macbook and says here's this journal article about COPD... is this study clinically relevant and what is the clinical impact...
:eek::laugh::scared::eek:

I said "This is one of those shows where there's a camera crew... and someone is going to pop out and say gotcha?"

He laughs and says no... you have 3 minutes...

So I FREAK out and read it... then he asks me statistics questions and clinical relevance stuff...

3 weeks later... Accepted :love:
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Is this an abbreviated version of the story you posted earlier in this thread, or did this happen to you twice? Congrats on the acceptance though!
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My very first interview was an elderly retired physician. The omg, shutthefrontdoor moment came when I went to the secretary to double-check the spelling of his name. It turned out he was my doctor when I was a baby. Pretty bizarre coincidence, but heartwarming. :)
 
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Somewhere in the middle of the interview my elderly physician interviewer asks me a version of 'Where do you think healthcare is going in few years from now?'.

Me: start telling him my opinion in depth and go on to tell him that I support a particular healthcare plan...
I: He interupts me and says very passionately: I am absolutely against this plan...
Me: (why did I just say this:slap: :eek:) Um, why?
I: Thoroughly explains his view (bashing Canada and USA health care along the way) in the next 15 min.
Me: I see where you are coming from, but I still believe this plan can potentially be successful...
I: Looks down at his paper, shakes head, and scribbles something.
Me: Terrified :scared:, but keeping my cool on the outside...

The most bizarre part was that for the rest of the interview (the whole interview lasted over an hour) every time I answered a question, he would stare me in the eyes for a few seconds (during an awkward silence), then write down some notes while shaking his head. This happened at least ten times!!! I couldn't tell whether he is shaking his head because he likes my answers or he hates them. Nonetheless, I kept smiling the entire interview and just being myself (although I was terrified on the inside).


Result: Accepted!! :confused:
 
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docbrill said:
Somewhere in the middle of the interview my elderly physician interviewer asks me a version of 'Where do you think healthcare is going in few years from now?'.

Me: start telling him my opinion in depth and go on to tell him that I support a particular healthcare plan...
I: He interupts me and says very pationatelly: I am absolutely against this plan...
Me (why did I just say this:slap: :eek:) Um, why?
I: Thoroughly explains his view (bashing Canada and USA health care along the way) in the next 15 min.
Me: I see where you are coming from, but I still believe this plan can potentially be successful...
I: Looks down at his paper, shakes head, and scribbles something.
Me: Terrified :scared:, but keeping my cool on the outside...

The most bizarre part was that for the rest of the interview (the whole interview lasted over an hour) every time I answered a question, he would stare me in the eyes for a few seconds (during an awkward silence), then write down some notes while shaking his head. This happened at least ten times!!! I couldn't tell whether he is shaking his head because he likes my answers or he hates them. Nonetheless, I kept smiling the entire interview and just being myself (although I was terrified on the inside).


Result: Accepted!! :confused:
Click to expand...

Awesome, congrats! I think your interviewer was doing that to test your cool, and see how you would react.
 
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docbrill said:
Somewhere in the middle of the interview my elderly physician interviewer asks me a version of 'Where do you think healthcare is going in few years from now?'.

Me: start telling him my opinion in depth and go on to tell him that I support a particular healthcare plan...
I: He interupts me and says very passionately: I am absolutely against this plan...
Me (why did I just say this:slap: :eek:) Um, why?
I: Thoroughly explains his view (bashing Canada and USA health care along the way) in the next 15 min.
Me: I see where you are coming from, but I still believe this plan can potentially be successful...
I: Looks down at his paper, shakes head, and scribbles something.
Me: Terrified :scared:, but keeping my cool on the outside...

The most bizarre part was that for the rest of the interview (the whole interview lasted over an hour) every time I answered a question, he would stare me in the eyes for a few seconds (during an awkward silence), then write down some notes while shaking his head. This happened at least ten times!!! I couldn't tell whether he is shaking his head because he likes my answers or he hates them. Nonetheless, I kept smiling the entire interview and just being myself (although I was terrified on the inside).


Result: Accepted!! :confused:
Click to expand...

Holy Mackerel! Which school was this? Congrats BTW.
 
BurntFlower said:
Awesome, congrats! I think your interviewer was doing that to test your cool, and see how you would react.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I think you may be right, but still he was the most bizarre person I have ever interacted with.


mipp0 said:
Holy Mackerel! Which school was this? Congrats BTW.
Click to expand...

Thanks and I rather not disclose the school for now, maybe in a few months :D
 
Interviewer: Ethical question about form of punishment
Me: Well, my parents used to punish me the same way, and it worked.
Interviewer: Hahaha really???
Me: Yup. And unless there are circumstances x y or z I don't have an issue with it.
Interviewer: So you wouldn't call CPS in this situation?
Me: Of course not.

Result: Accepted.
 
BluegrassDancin said:
Interviewer: Ethical question about form of punishment
Me: Well, my parents used to punish me the same way, and it worked.
Interviewer: Hahaha really???
Me: Yup. And unless there are circumstances x y or z I don't have an issue with it.
Interviewer: So you wouldn't call CPS in this situation?
Me: Of course not.

Result: Accepted.
Click to expand...

Was he talking about waterboarding? :)
 
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1st interview of season, and Im already on edge.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions?
me: How do students do on the STEPs here?
Interviewer: idk, but we get about the average I think.... then she breaks off into 10 min why she doesn't support standardized exams and how she thinks they are bs
Interviewer: any other questions
me: (in my head) @#%$
 
I guess this one wasn't bizarre as much as it was just bad...

So for my faculty interview at [undisclosed school] I had an awful experience. The interviewer spent half an hour talking about his research and didn't let me get a word in. Halfway through he paused to answer his phone for 5 minutes, then just went back to talking at me. After that he sent me back to the admissions office (the interview was supposed to be an hour long...). I spent the next half an hour sitting there stunned (also eating a muffin).

Sometime later in the day (i think it was during the tour) one of the M2s asked me how my interview went, and I responded: *sigh,* "I guess it was okay, it was a little short..."

Shouldn't have said anything...

At the end of the day, the dean of admissions pulled me aside, brought me into her office, sat me down alone, and told me "so i heard your interview didn't go well"

:scared:

I'm wondering where she heard this from! From the student? Unlikely. Interviewer himself? Probably. Anyway I think I just gibbered for a few moments and then excused myself.

:(
 
I: So tell me about your research on blahblah on mice.
Me: (Look of horror) Uh..... I haven't done any work like that.

Turns out he had the wrong file up, but I was horrified that somehow I had accidently lied on my application.

Also I don't remember how or why but for some reason I think Harry Potter came up in the interview as well. Most of it is a foggy haze.
 
Get this.

Right off the bat, he says: "What worries me about your application is ________"
So, while not being defensive, I try to tell him why I feel that this should not be a major problem.
20 mins in....he starts falling asleep (eyes start closing, sudden head jerks to try to maintain some level of alertness.)
Me: wtf am I supposed to do?! So I talk a bit louder (almost asked if we wanted a refill on his coffee.)

Left the interview not feeling great at all.

But Accepted! Whoda Thunk?
 
JHU 2010 said:
I guess this one wasn't bizarre as much as it was just bad...

So for my faculty interview at [undisclosed school] I had an awful experience. The interviewer spent half an hour talking about his research and didn't let me get a word in. Halfway through he paused to answer his phone for 5 minutes, then just went back to talking at me. After that he sent me back to the admissions office (the interview was supposed to be an hour long...). I spent the next half an hour sitting there stunned (also eating a muffin).

Sometime later in the day (i think it was during the tour) one of the M2s asked me how my interview went, and I responded: *sigh,* "I guess it was okay, it was a little short..."

Shouldn't have said anything...

At the end of the day, the dean of admissions pulled me aside, brought me into her office, sat me down alone, and told me "so i heard your interview didn't go well"

:scared:

I'm wondering where she heard this from! From the student? Unlikely. Interviewer himself? Probably. Anyway I think I just gibbered for a few moments and then excused myself.

:(
Click to expand...

Don't worry too much - I had something very similar happen at one of my faculty interviews. Later, my student interviewer asked me who my faculty interviewer was. When I told him the name of the professor, the only thing he said was "Oh, I'm so sorry." Result: accepted :) If your interviewer was really that horrible, the admissions office probably knows and will take it into account.
 
One guy:
"You're not saving lives by going into Emergency Medicine" Whhaaaaat??? :confused:
"Cancer sucks"
"I bet you're going to think I'm a bastard."

My Dumb moment. He brings up Salk. Then asks me 2 mins later who discovered the cure for polio and I shook my head. He's like "Salk". Just wanted to face palm myself in front of him - complete blackout.

At another school my interviewer was an hour and half late, hadn't seen my application until he pulled it up in front of me, and asked me 3 easy questions and said I could leave. :eek:
 
Matteo said:
Get this.

Right off the bat, he says: "What worries me about your application is ________"
So, while not being defensive, I try to tell him why I feel that this should not be a major problem.
20 mins in....he starts falling asleep (eyes start closing, sudden head jerks to try to maintain some level of alertness.)
Me: wtf am I supposed to do?! So I talk a bit louder (almost asked if we wanted a refill on his coffee.)

Left the interview not feeling great at all.

But Accepted! Whoda Thunk?
Click to expand...

Lol my interviewer was falling asleep too and I also kept talking like nothing was happening :oops:

Also Accepted :eek:
 
I walked into an office. Interviewer, flanked by two med students at a computer, says, "You can sit down. You've seen this already." Proceeds to pull up an embarrassing video of me on YouTube. Says to one of the students, "He's so weird."
 
Yalie said:
I walked into an office. Interviewer, flanked by two med students at a computer, says, "You can sit down. You've seen this already." Proceeds to pull up an embarrassing video of me on YouTube. Says to one of the students, "He's so weird."
Click to expand...
Is this for real?
 
Yalie said:
I walked into an office. Interviewer, flanked by two med students at a computer, says, "You can sit down. You've seen this already." Proceeds to pull up an embarrassing video of me on YouTube. Says to one of the students, "He's so weird."
Click to expand...

Link to embarrassing youtube video or it didn't happen!:smuggrin:
 
Yalie said:
I walked into an office. Interviewer, flanked by two med students at a computer, says, "You can sit down. You've seen this already." Proceeds to pull up an embarrassing video of me on YouTube. Says to one of the students, "He's so weird."
Click to expand...

Please please PLEASE link me! :D
 
Yalie said:
I walked into an office. Interviewer, flanked by two med students at a computer, says, "You can sit down. You've seen this already." Proceeds to pull up an embarrassing video of me on YouTube. Says to one of the students, "He's so weird."
Click to expand...

you?

[YOUTUBE]HPPj6viIBmU[/YOUTUBE]
 
So I got hit with the "so tell me about yourself" question by a physician. I ran through a short abbreviated narrative of myself (8-10 sentences), then there was a 10 second pause of silence, and he goes "Is there anything else?" and I respond well yes, I could talk all day about myself, but given our time restraints is there anything you would like me to focus on? With no facial emotion he responds with "you have time, keep talking, i'll tell you when to stop." I then restarted, giving much more detail (and he still asked for more), and talked for 20ish solid straight minutes (harder then you would think). Throat got a little dry towards the end, but i made it through. He just smiled and nodded here and there. He then asked me to tell him story about a shadowing experience from 3 years ago. Rough interview, but I handled it well. At the end of the interview he patted me on the back and said nice job. Should hear back this week. Happened at oakland.
 
Towards the end of my second interview of the day, I was asked: if you were a kitchen utensil, what kind of kitchen utensil would you be?

He was serious. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
Ebola4Breakfast said:
Towards the end of my second interview of the day, I was asked: if you were a kitchen utensil, what kind of kitchen utensil would you be?

He was serious. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...

Yeah after one too many of those, I finally looked the interviewer in the eye and said 'wtf is this?' She lolled and said that they really don't care what utensil or cookie or whatever you choose. It's more of an icebreaker to see if you can make something up on the spot, be interesting, and they sincerely hope it leads to an interesting tangent. They think these canned questions are stupid too.
 
MT Headed said:
Yeah after one too many of those, I finally looked the interviewer in the eye and said 'wtf is this?' She lolled and said that they really don't care what utensil or cookie or whatever you choose. It's more of an icebreaker to see if you can make something up on the spot, be interesting, and they sincerely hope it leads to an interesting tangent. They think these canned questions are stupid too.
Click to expand...

I want to be on the other side of the table, so that i can entertain myself by asking these sorts of left field questions. ;)
 
MT Headed said:
Yeah after one too many of those, I finally looked the interviewer in the eye and said 'wtf is this?' She lolled and said that they really don't care what utensil or cookie or whatever you choose. It's more of an icebreaker to see if you can make something up on the spot, be interesting, and they sincerely hope it leads to an interesting tangent. They think these canned questions are stupid too.
Click to expand...

It wasn't too bad. The guy was an interesting interviewer. He swore it was a question that his kids picked out the night before. I went with a "spork", telling him I liked that it was a multi-functional utensil (scooping or spearing!). He asked a few other odd questions. I got the feeling he wanted to see what kind of response (whether facial or verbal) I'd give him.
 
Ebola4Breakfast said:
I went with a "spork", telling him I liked that it was a multi-functional utensil (scooping or spearing!).
Click to expand...
Haha, a little off-topic, but this is my LEAST favorite utensil. You can't use the tip to scoop, and the prongs are too short to fork most things :laugh:.
 
JHU 2010 said:
I guess this one wasn't bizarre as much as it was just bad...

So for my faculty interview at [undisclosed school] I had an awful experience. The interviewer spent half an hour talking about his research and didn't let me get a word in. Halfway through he paused to answer his phone for 5 minutes, then just went back to talking at me. After that he sent me back to the admissions office (the interview was supposed to be an hour long...). I spent the next half an hour sitting there stunned (also eating a muffin).

Sometime later in the day (i think it was during the tour) one of the M2s asked me how my interview went, and I responded: *sigh,* "I guess it was okay, it was a little short..."

Shouldn't have said anything...

At the end of the day, the dean of admissions pulled me aside, brought me into her office, sat me down alone, and told me "so i heard your interview didn't go well"

:scared:

I'm wondering where she heard this from! From the student? Unlikely. Interviewer himself? Probably. Anyway I think I just gibbered for a few moments and then excused myself.

:(
Click to expand...


UPDATE: result: rejected... :(
 
Ebola4Breakfast said:
Towards the end of my second interview of the day, I was asked: if you were a kitchen utensil, what kind of kitchen utensil would you be?

He was serious. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...

I immediately thought of this:
Me: Spoon.
Interviewer: Why?
Me: Because I like to.
 
Interviewer: "Los Angeles schools are too d*** busy being bilingual to teach anything else"
Me: :confused:

I hadn't said anything about teaching or speaking Spanish, Los Angeles, education, or anything else that would have led her to that comment. It came totally out of the blue and she didn't even give me a chance to respond or anything at all. She just moved on to the next questions.

Also earlier in that interview (after me explaining why I decided to go into medicine and apply to medical school:
"So you don't want to go into medicine."
 
vandsocc91889 said:
Interviewer: "Los Angeles schools are too d*** busy being bilingual to teach anything else"
Me: :confused:

I hadn't said anything about teaching or speaking Spanish, Los Angeles, education, or anything else that would have led her to that comment. It came totally out of the blue and she didn't even give me a chance to respond or anything at all. She just moved on to the next questions.

Also earlier in that interview (after me explaining why I decided to go into medicine and apply to medical school:
"So you don't want to go into medicine."
Click to expand...

i had a similar situation where my interviewer started going off about how public health is rubbish! i didn't know what to say, we hadn't been talking about public health at all

EDIT: result: rejected
 
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In one of my interviews, my elderly interviewer guided me outside so he could conduct the interview in another building adjacent to the one we were in. It was a nice, two minute walk to the building. When we arrived, having already begun to casually talk about my upbringing, we found that we were locked out of the building. We went around to the back of the building, which was also locked. We went back around to the front of the building again, to see if anything had miraculously unlocked, while I tried in vain to keep the conversation light hearted...the interviewer became frustrated and began talking about miscommunication within the admissions office, and even stopped a passing student with a backpack to see if his ID Card could grant us access to the building!! It did not. So, we sat on a concrete retaining wall and continued our little conversation, until a woman appeared (jogging) carrying the key! Funny little humorous moment that definitely destressed me before the actual grilling began!
 
writingmedicine said:
In one of my interviews, my elderly interviewer guided me outside so he could conduct the interview in another building adjacent to the one we were in. It was a nice, two minute walk to the building. When we arrived, having already begun to casually talk about my upbringing, we found that we were locked out of the building. We went around to the back of the building, which was also locked. We went back around to the front of the building again, to see if anything had miraculously unlocked, while I tried in vain to keep the conversation light hearted...the interviewer became frustrated and began talking about miscommunication within the admissions office, and even stopped a passing student with a backpack to see if his ID Card could grant us access to the building!! It did not. So, we sat on a concrete retaining wall and continued our little conversation, until a woman appeared (jogging) carrying the key! Funny little humorous moment that definitely destressed me before the actual grilling began!
Click to expand...

this happened to me with a student interviewer. we walked around looking for a quiet room to settle down in, found nothing for about 15 minutes, then ended up chatting in the loud cafeteria

result: rejected
 
damn, i'm looking at my posts on here and realizing that maybe i need a new signature

"result: rejected"

...i guess i've had a few bad interviews :(
 
Awkward interview moments for a Canadian applicant:

"Are you a socialist?"
"Are you a communist?"
"Do you believe the government should control everything?"
"If you're Chinese AND Canadian, you must be a Communist!"
 
JHU 2010 said:
this happened to me with a student interviewer. we walked around looking for a quiet room to settle down in, found nothing for about 15 minutes, then ended up chatting in the loud cafeteria

result: rejected
Click to expand...

That's quite ridiculous, sorry to hear that. But not as ridiculous as this....

candav said:
Awkward interview moments for a Canadian applicant:

"Are you a socialist?"
"Are you a communist?"
"Do you believe the government should control everything?"
"If you're Chinese AND Canadian, you must be a Communist!"
Click to expand...

I don't even know what to say about this. WTH.
 
(after the usual tell-me-about-yourself's and what I did in university)

Interviewer: I want to talk about your alcohol problem!
Me: :eek:
Me: :confused:
Me: umm, excuse me???

It turns out she had the wrong application sitting in front of her, and some other person must have mentioned it in their PS or significant experiences or something!

She spent the rest of the interview really getting to know me, and when it was over I shook her hand and wished her the best of luck resolving her alcohol problem.
 
Ilvcurst said:
Well first of all it's not really appropriate to mention weight especially for a female interviewee, second - it's even more not appropriate to mention it with a smirk to an Asian student. I mean there is such a thing as cultural competency/sensitivity for a reason. I mean I was confused at first as to why he even said that. Does that mean all girls who are 80 lbs shouldn't play sports or something. But it was clearly a comment on my ethnicity, I was pretty sure about that or else I wouldn't have said anything.


And it was pretty bad 5 minutes in so I think the whole thing just blew. Oh well.....moving on to the next school. And I actually kept my cool pretty well, I was trying to move the conversation along.
Click to expand...

Nope. It's just inappropriate to mention it to any interviewee, whether male/female or Asian/white. Equality! Yay!

But mainly, bump!
 
Interviewer: Welcome to X University. Goes on for the next 5 minutes about where she went to school and did residency....so do you have any questions offhand about this city? or school?

Me: Well, what do students like to do on a typical day in X city

Interviewer: You should not worry about what students do in the city. You should be more worried about studying. You won't have time to go out so there's no reason for you to worry about what students like to do here. Goes on for the next 30 minutes lecturing me about what to do during 1st year to do well. Continues talking about her job and what she likes to do for fun.

Me: :scared: (in my head i'm :bang:for asking that question)

Interviewer: (almost 35 minutes after stepping in), well thanks for coming. You'll hear from us shortly.

Result: Waitlisted. FML.
 
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