most bizarre interview moment?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Members do not see this ad.
DocInTraining06 said:
It was my first interview and I was nervous and this lady was not helping. She constantly looked at me like she was ticked off at me. Two things happened. First, I'm so nervous my mouth is getting really dry, then my lips. While I was answering a question my upper lip somehow got stuck to my teeth and rolled under itself. I had to lick my teeth in the middle of my answer to get it unstuck and she gave me this weird look like she thought I was trying to be suggestive.
Second, I ask her why the students at the school have historically scored lower on the Step 1 and what was the school doing to improve the scores. She replies, "Well, we try to have a diverse student population here... And minorities are bad test takers in general. So they bring down the school's average." I swear that's what she said, completely straight faced as she played with one of the three Jesus fish necklaces she was wearing. I was completely thrown off and could only reply, "hmm."
Click to expand...

Wow. What school?
 
DocInTraining06 said:
It was my first interview and I was nervous and this lady was not helping. She constantly looked at me like she was ticked off at me. Two things happened. First, I'm so nervous my mouth is getting really dry, then my lips. While I was answering a question my upper lip somehow got stuck to my teeth and rolled under itself. I had to lick my teeth in the middle of my answer to get it unstuck and she gave me this weird look like she thought I was trying to be suggestive.
Second, I ask her why the students at the school have historically scored lower on the Step 1 and what was the school doing to improve the scores. She replies, "Well, we try to have a diverse student population here... And minorities are bad test takers in general. So they bring down the school's average." I swear that's what she said, completely straight faced as she played with one of the three Jesus fish necklaces she was wearing. I was completely thrown off and could only reply, "hmm."
Click to expand...

:laugh: That's kinda funny.

(Sorry it happened to you, though!)
 
DocInTraining06 said:
It was my first interview and I was nervous and this lady was not helping. She constantly looked at me like she was ticked off at me. Two things happened. First, I'm so nervous my mouth is getting really dry, then my lips. While I was answering a question my upper lip somehow got stuck to my teeth and rolled under itself. I had to lick my teeth in the middle of my answer to get it unstuck and she gave me this weird look like she thought I was trying to be suggestive.
Second, I ask her why the students at the school have historically scored lower on the Step 1 and what was the school doing to improve the scores. She replies, "Well, we try to have a diverse student population here... And minorities are bad test takers in general. So they bring down the school's average." I swear that's what she said, completely straight faced as she played with one of the three Jesus fish necklaces she was wearing. I was completely thrown off and could only reply, "hmm."
Click to expand...

What a jerk.
 
Nothing too unusual in my Tufts interviews, except for the amazing/odd questions I was asked about people living in the stone age, but I had one amazing interview for undergrad. I had an Asian interviewer, a younger guy (I'm guessing around 30) and he was being very serious. I didn't really want to go to the school (it was a safety) so I just went along with it. Finally he asked me what do I do in my free time. I told him I do stuff with friends, and mentioned DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). All the sudden his eyes open up wide as hell and he starts asking me specifics about the game: my difficulty level, what my favorite/least favorite songs were, etc. It was pretty hilarious.
 
SB100 said:
Nothing too unusual in my Tufts interviews, except for the amazing/odd questions I was asked about people living in the stone age, but I had one amazing interview for undergrad. I had an Asian interviewer, a younger guy (I'm guessing around 30) and he was being very serious. I didn't really want to go to the school (it was a safety) so I just went along with it. Finally he asked me what do I do in my free time. I told him I do stuff with friends, and mentioned DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). All the sudden his eyes open up wide as hell and he starts asking me specifics about the game: my difficulty level, what my favorite/least favorite songs were, etc. It was pretty hilarious.
Click to expand...

Haha that is funny.

Imagine if he had it set up for you to play in his office (on ps2 or whatever). That'd be weird.
 
SB100 said:
Nothing too unusual in my Tufts interviews, except for the amazing/odd questions I was asked about people living in the stone age, but I had one amazing interview for undergrad. I had an Asian interviewer, a younger guy (I'm guessing around 30) and he was being very serious. I didn't really want to go to the school (it was a safety) so I just went along with it. Finally he asked me what do I do in my free time. I told him I do stuff with friends, and mentioned DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). All the sudden his eyes open up wide as hell and he starts asking me specifics about the game: my difficulty level, what my favorite/least favorite songs were, etc. It was pretty hilarious.
Click to expand...
Very amusing. Way to be honest 😎 And thanks for bringing back one of my favorite threads!
 
No problem 🙂 I bet if he had the power to do so, he'd get a game pad in his office and have you compete against him for acceptance to the school 😛
 
I have to say that this is the best thread ever.
 
SB100 said:
No problem 🙂 I bet if he had the power to do so, he'd get a game pad in his office and have you compete against him for acceptance to the school 😛
Click to expand...

God bless people that manage to grow older without really growing up all that much. 👍
 
JlazyMD said:
I stayed at my grandmother's house prior to my UMASS interview (my top choice), and a mixup packing left me with only sneakers. After frantically searching the house over, the only thing remotely matching my dark suit was a pair of old black leather and wood Danish clogs, with a 1 1/2 inch heel.

I'm a 6'1'' guy.

Clopity clop, clopity clop.

Still havn't heard (they are notoriously slow).
Click to expand...
I look and sound like I'm bawling but I'm actually laughing my ass off.

Bump!
 
fatima wrote:
i went there for interview i was promised a spot but did not match -myfriend


Many illfamed Residency hospitals do promise IMGs and do this. Dont feel bad about yourself for this. It is not what you have done. Quite the contrary, it shows the character of the Program Director.

In about one month, we will release the residency hospitals, their rankings. The ranking would also include reviews and rankings for the PDs.

It could be helpful to you for the coming Match to sort the deceitful from the goods.

http://healthismoney.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-happens-to-you-when-you-are-drunk.html
 
My interview asked a few questions about medical stuff...but most of it was things that had nothing to do with medicine. One of the questions he asked was which two countries did I think would have the first nuclear war?
 
directdoc said:
My interview asked a few questions about medical stuff...but most of it was things that had nothing to do with medicine. One of the questions he asked was which two countries did I think would have the first nuclear war?
Click to expand...

dude, thats the kind of interview i want. sigh
 
DocInTraining06 said:
It was my first interview and I was nervous and this lady was not helping. She constantly looked at me like she was ticked off at me. Two things happened. First, I'm so nervous my mouth is getting really dry, then my lips. While I was answering a question my upper lip somehow got stuck to my teeth and rolled under itself. I had to lick my teeth in the middle of my answer to get it unstuck and she gave me this weird look like she thought I was trying to be suggestive.
Click to expand...

You just made me cry, as well as my entire family when I read it to them. You're in good company. My dog gets that all the time. We call it OTF. One Tucked Flew.
 
My one interviewer, a lawyer, brought up a news article he'd read on how doctor's ties collect bacteria.

The physician on my panel replied, "Oh, yeah, I've heard about that!"

The two of them proceeded to talk about that for a good 5 minutes while I tried to find the perfect opportunity to jump in and make myself sound witty and memorable. Couldn't think of anything to contribute, even though I'd read the article.
 
Ouch! At least you still got in (somewhere)!
 
M Sinner said:
Ouch! At least you still got in (somewhere)!
Click to expand...

Got in there, believe it or not.

I wasn't sure at the time if it was a good or bad sign.

I guess the lesson is usually you can't take a "sign" from how your interview went.
 
Interview season coming up - this needs a bump!
 
DoctorDoom said:
My interviewer was an old Marine who is a Vietnam Vet. No nonsense kind of man.

Interviewer: So what's it like to grow up poor?
Me: It sucks.
Interviewer: I bet.
Me: I don't let it limit me.
Interviewer: Good. Want a cigarette?
Me: Um, no thank you.
Interviewer: Don't be polite, you're in. Now, do you want a cigarette?
Me: If you insist.

I got in, went, and he's still one of my friends!
Click to expand...

I know this person probably isn't reading this thread or this post anymore but I had to respond because this is the funniest post I've read in the thread so far. "Don't be polite, you're in." LOL :laugh:
 
This is the best thread, I've spent all morning reading it! Can't wait for new stories...
 
Reading this thread just brought up a memory of a weird college interview. (I love this thread by the way...)

It was for Harvard and the lady asked me what I did in my summers. I said, well I have taken enrichment courses and I also go to Arizona to visit my father.
I: Oh, when did your parents get divorced
M: When I was 4
I: Wow, how has that affected you psychologically. I just got divorced, and I worry about my children's mental health
M: Uhh, I think I turned out okay...
I: She the continued to talk about her children, divorce, and how I must have been affected in some adverse way
 
AStudent said:
Except that my interviewer was an old man who was retiring from the medical school at the end of the month, he had to be 70. So I was out in the lobby when he comes out to escort me into the interview room, he shuts the door and I let him sit down first naturally. We begin to speak and my application blah blah blah when out of nowhere the old guy farts....I'm not talking like "must have been the chair sweaking" or "my leather shoes must have rubbed against each other" one could CLEARLY tell this man had ripped. What made it even worse was the fact that the room was closed and had no A/C.

I sat smoldering in that dutch oven for over an hour and all I got was this lousy waitlist letter.
Click to expand...

I wonder if it is obvious like that what do you do? Just ignore it or say "bless you"? Or maybe "nice one" (while raising hand for high five).
 
I'm going to bump. This story happened to two of my peers (but not me, thank God) at one my interviews. They had the same interviewer, who apparently has his own method of determining if you're qualified. As recounted by one of them on interview day:

"When I walked into the room there were three tubes on the desk. I introduced myself and sat down. We discussed where I was from and how the year was going at the U of ____. Then he aked me to identify what was in the vials. I asked 'Can I sniff them?' to which he said yes, sure. So I smelled them. I got the first two right. The first was some sort of cleaner solution and the other was ethanol. I didn't know what the last one was and gave up.

"Then he showed me this toy and asked me how it worked. Never seen this thing in my life. It kind of looked like a dradel, but it was flatter and when you spun it clockwise it would spin counter-clockwise. I held it up to the light to try to see inside it and tapped it against the table. I looked like a monkey. I guessed that it had some sort of counterweight. He seemed please. I thought we were through.

"Then he started asking me about HIV. I haven't had Infectious in a couple of years, so I was going on memory, but I really didn't remember anything about it. I said 'It's a retrovirus.' That didn't appease him. He wanted to know how it replicated and invaded the cell. I BSed and said 'Well the virion inserts the RNA into the cell.' That didn't work. I finally gave up. He seemed pleased. Then we talked about my hobbies. That interview ran twenty minutes late."

When that guy told the other interviewers and me that we were freaking out. To my fortune, the school told us earlier in the day who the interviewers are, so I knew I didn't have him. One of the M2's told us he does that to see how we respond to pressure and our ability to admit when we don't know something. Still...that's pretty extreme.
 
OCallag said:
I'm going to bump. This story happened to two of my peers (but not me, thank God) at one my interviews. They had the same interviewer, who apparently has his own method of determining if you're qualified. As recounted by one of them on interview day:

"When I walked into the room there were three tubes on the desk. I introduced myself and sat down. We discussed where I was from and how the year was going at the U of ____. Then he aked me to identify what was in the vials. I asked 'Can I sniff them?' to which he said yes, sure. So I smelled them. I got the first two right. The first was some sort of cleaner solution and the other was ethanol. I didn't know what the last one was and gave up.

"Then he showed me this toy and asked me how it worked. Never seen this thing in my life. It kind of looked like a dradel, but it was flatter and when you spun it clockwise it would spin counter-clockwise. I held it up to the light to try to see inside it and tapped it against the table. I looked like a monkey. I guessed that it had some sort of counterweight. He seemed please. I thought we were through.

"Then he started asking me about HIV. I haven't had Infectious in a couple of years, so I was going on memory, but I really didn't remember anything about it. I said 'It's a retrovirus.' That didn't appease him. He wanted to know how it replicated and invaded the cell. I BSed and said 'Well the virion inserts the RNA into the cell.' That didn't work. I finally gave up. He seemed pleased. Then we talked about my hobbies. That interview ran twenty minutes late."

When that guy told the other interviewers and me that we were freaking out. To my fortune, the school told us earlier in the day who the interviewers are, so I knew I didn't have him. One of the M2's told us he does that to see how we respond to pressure and our ability to admit when we don't know something. Still...that's pretty extreme.
Click to expand...

I think that's pretty cool - some of the other stories in this thread are far more frightening than that one. Then again, I'd probably be that dork who sees the vials and says to the interviewer, "ooh, can we do body shots? Lay down on your desk and pull up your shirt."
 
The fire alarm went off during my second question. I ended up spending an extra amount of time with my interviewees though...
 
directdoc said:
My interview asked a few questions about medical stuff...but most of it was things that had nothing to do with medicine. One of the questions he asked was which two countries did I think would have the first nuclear war?
Click to expand...

I wonder what your response was to th nuclear war question.
 
OCallag said:
I'm going to bump. This story happened to two of my peers (but not me, thank God) at one my interviews. They had the same interviewer, who apparently has his own method of determining if you're qualified. As recounted by one of them on interview day:

"When I walked into the room there were three tubes on the desk. I introduced myself and sat down. We discussed where I was from and how the year was going at the U of ____. Then he aked me to identify what was in the vials. I asked 'Can I sniff them?' to which he said yes, sure. So I smelled them. I got the first two right. The first was some sort of cleaner solution and the other was ethanol. I didn't know what the last one was and gave up.

"Then he showed me this toy and asked me how it worked. Never seen this thing in my life. It kind of looked like a dradel, but it was flatter and when you spun it clockwise it would spin counter-clockwise. I held it up to the light to try to see inside it and tapped it against the table. I looked like a monkey. I guessed that it had some sort of counterweight. He seemed please. I thought we were through.

"Then he started asking me about HIV. I haven't had Infectious in a couple of years, so I was going on memory, but I really didn't remember anything about it. I said 'It's a retrovirus.' That didn't appease him. He wanted to know how it replicated and invaded the cell. I BSed and said 'Well the virion inserts the RNA into the cell.' That didn't work. I finally gave up. He seemed pleased. Then we talked about my hobbies. That interview ran twenty minutes late."

When that guy told the other interviewers and me that we were freaking out. To my fortune, the school told us earlier in the day who the interviewers are, so I knew I didn't have him. One of the M2's told us he does that to see how we respond to pressure and our ability to admit when we don't know something. Still...that's pretty extreme.
Click to expand...

haha! i know where this is! this happened to my friend last cycle (same questions) and she pretty much said "i have no idea" to all of them. she's an m1 now.
 
OCallag said:
I'm going to bump. This story happened to two of my peers (but not me, thank God) at one my interviews. They had the same interviewer, who apparently has his own method of determining if you're qualified. As recounted by one of them on interview day:

"When I walked into the room there were three tubes on the desk. I introduced myself and sat down. We discussed where I was from and how the year was going at the U of ____. Then he aked me to identify what was in the vials. I asked 'Can I sniff them?' to which he said yes, sure. So I smelled them. I got the first two right. The first was some sort of cleaner solution and the other was ethanol. I didn't know what the last one was and gave up.

"Then he showed me this toy and asked me how it worked. Never seen this thing in my life. It kind of looked like a dradel, but it was flatter and when you spun it clockwise it would spin counter-clockwise. I held it up to the light to try to see inside it and tapped it against the table. I looked like a monkey. I guessed that it had some sort of counterweight. He seemed please. I thought we were through.

"Then he started asking me about HIV. I haven't had Infectious in a couple of years, so I was going on memory, but I really didn't remember anything about it. I said 'It's a retrovirus.' That didn't appease him. He wanted to know how it replicated and invaded the cell. I BSed and said 'Well the virion inserts the RNA into the cell.' That didn't work. I finally gave up. He seemed pleased. Then we talked about my hobbies. That interview ran twenty minutes late."

When that guy told the other interviewers and me that we were freaking out. To my fortune, the school told us earlier in the day who the interviewers are, so I knew I didn't have him. One of the M2's told us he does that to see how we respond to pressure and our ability to admit when we don't know something. Still...that's pretty extreme.
Click to expand...
Scary. Interesting, but scary.
 
At one particular school, after a particularly rousing and inspiring talk by the medical school president, I had an interview. The first question he asked me was, "If a homeless guy and Dr. ____ (pres of the med school) both walk into _________ (this med school's main teaching hospital) needing a heart transplant and you only have 1 heart, and both people are at exactly the same priority with exactly the same entry time/severity/etc., who would you give the heart to?"
 
TheLesPaul said:
At one particular school, after a particularly rousing and inspiring talk by the medical school president, I had an interview. The first question he asked me was, "If a homeless guy and Dr. ____ (pres of the med school) both walk into _________ (this med school's main teaching hospital) needing a heart transplant and you only have 1 heart, and both people are at exactly the same priority with exactly the same entry time/severity/etc., who would you give the heart to?"
Click to expand...

And you said?
 
Lol...of course I said the president. I mean...if you have nothing else to go on, that's the only logical choice. He can go on to save lives (he happened to be a cardiologist, incidentally)...maybe he could have saved the homeless guy too.
 
wow this thread is amazing. i just stayed up way too late to read it all.

bumpity bump.
 
TheLesPaul said:
At one particular school, after a particularly rousing and inspiring talk by the medical school president, I had an interview. The first question he asked me was, "If a homeless guy and Dr. ____ (pres of the med school) both walk into _________ (this med school's main teaching hospital) needing a heart transplant and you only have 1 heart, and both people are at exactly the same priority with exactly the same entry time/severity/etc., who would you give the heart to?"
Click to expand...
I think a better question would have been, If you could save a child or Dr. Prez, which one would you save?
 
TheLesPaul said:
Lol...of course I said the president. I mean...if you have nothing else to go on, that's the only logical choice. He can go on to save lives (he happened to be a cardiologist, incidentally)...maybe he could have saved the homeless guy too.
Click to expand...

How about alphabetical order? 🙂
 
TheLesPaul said:
Hmm...I think that the child would have more to offer in the long run than Dr. Prez? That's a tough one though. I did clarify to the interviewer that I was NOT a utilitarian...
Click to expand...
Exactly, i mean who would know what the child is going to become? He could become a drunk or possibly even better than the prez.
 
Did Dr. Prez have children? If so, his genes have already been passed on and there's no further need to keep him around. 😉
 
Lol...I don't think they buy reproductive success as a measure of worth in this country. But here's a question...what if it was Dr. Prez vs your mother?
 
TheLesPaul said:
Lol...I don't think they buy reproductive success as a measure of worth in this country. But here's a question...what if it was Dr. Prez vs your mother?
Click to expand...

I would look him straight in the eye and say "Sir, Dr. Prez can have the heart." Look down briefly, and come back up with a glimmer of tears in my eyes, "I will give my mother my own."
 
picklesali,

That basically gets "post of the week."

nice :clap: haha
 
Hallm_7 said:
Here's my story:

My first interview of the day went great! The guy was nice, he asked straightforward questions, and seemed interested in the whole process.

However, the second interview was completely different. He was a transplant surgeon (make of that what you will), and when I walked into his office he all but ignored me. He didn't get out of his chair to welcome me, didn't offer a handshake, and dind't even smile. He just pointed to the chair in front of him and told me to sit. He then asked the obligatory "why medicine?" question, but as soon as I started the answer he swivelled his chair around to the computer behind him and started typing on what appeared to be patient records. When I hesitated, he swivelled back around and told me to go ahead talking while he typed. I proceeded to talk to the back of his head. When I was done with a question he obviously couldn't see any facial expression relaying that fact, so there was a really long, awkward silence. After 10 seconds or so of silence he would turn that chair around, ask me another question, turn back around, and then start typing. I would then commence talking to the back of his head again. This continued for the first 5 questions or so, and took up at least 10 or 15 minutes.

After he finished typing whatever he was typing he left his computer alone and decided to face me. That's when the bizarre questions began. The first one to come was an offer to interpret what Anne Geddes was attempting to convey in the pictures of babies he had hung on his wall. After I stammered something out about innocence and complete reliance on parents he asked me about "relationship issues."

Dr.: Are you married?
Me: No
Dr.: Do you have a girlfriend?
Me: No
Dr.: Do you have a boyfriend? (I'm a male BTW)
Me: No
Dr.: Do you want a family?
Me: Yes
Dr.: Describe to me your ideal woman.
Me: Ummmmm.....uhhhhh......she needs to be funny, intelligent.....and.....uhhhhhhhh........uhhhhhhhh...........(I have no idea what else to say)
Dr.: No, no, I mean what does she look like? How tall is she? HOW BIG ARE HER BOOBS? (I kid you not!)
Me: (completely shell-shocked with a look of horror on my face at the thought of talking about bra sizes in a med school interview) Well......ummmmm.......uhhhhhh.......she.....well.........she just needs to be attractive to me............and.........well..........
Dr.: I see, just attractive to you, right? Doesn't really matter what other people think?
Me: Yeah! Exactly!

The rest of the interview was more normal than that, and after it was all over he was quite friendly and said he would recommend me to the admission committee. Obviously he was telling the truth since I'm an M2 now, but I have never been in a more awkward situation than the boob-size question. Also, come to find out, he asked the other interviewees about elicit drug use in addition to the boob question (so it wasn't just me). They didn't like that one either.
Click to expand...

I know who you had- he interviewed me back in '04 and I did just about as much um-ing. 😉
 
FurmanJon said:
picklesali,

That basically gets "post of the week."

nice :clap: haha
Click to expand...



BUMP. (uhhh, pretty much I just want everybody to read that quote 😀
hee hee hee)

And if you haven't read this thread, you should pop some popcorn, and curl up with your computer for the next few hours. You will laugh your head off.
 
I have a group interview coming up....so many, various ways to make an ass of myself! At least if it goes badly, I'll have stories to share, heh.

(bump)
 
TheLesPaul said:
At one particular school, after a particularly rousing and inspiring talk by the medical school president, I had an interview. The first question he asked me was, "If a homeless guy and Dr. ____ (pres of the med school) both walk into _________ (this med school's main teaching hospital) needing a heart transplant and you only have 1 heart, and both people are at exactly the same priority with exactly the same entry time/severity/etc., who would you give the heart to?"
Click to expand...

Obviously the only fair way to settle an ethical dilemma like this is to play "rock, paper, scissors" for the heart. If the homeless guy wins the first round, we go best 2 out of 3.
 
That is odd. It is saying there are 19 pages but at the moment when I posted this there was only 18.

Just testing to see if this post will go on the next page or the previous one.
 
gujuDoc said:
That is odd. It is saying there are 19 pages but at the moment when I posted this there was only 18.

Just testing to see if this post will go on the next page or the previous one.
Click to expand...

i see the same thing ... also testing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Most Meaningful Experiences
Replies
2
Views
700
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
pinkbowbunny
Are most secondaries good?
Replies
20
Views
3K
Pallas
Pallas
F
  • Question Question
Changing Research to Most-Meaningful?!
Replies
1
Views
480
cooper_m
C
FutureDOCTORR123456789
Do most people take gap years?
Replies
11
Views
1K
eigen
eigen
FutureDOCTORR123456789
are most accepted students just cookie cutter applicants
Replies
3
Views
5K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Top