Most Difficult Interview Question

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DMDDDSHopeful

DMDDDSHopeful

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Please share your experiences with fellow SDNers the most difficult interview question you have faced. If you do not have one, maybe share which question you perceive as most difficult.
 
"Tell me about yourself." I never know where to start or which "self." My academic self? My personal self? My "why I want to be a dentist" self? Lol
 
"If you could re-elect a past president for the next 4 years, who would it be and why?" I played it safe and said JFK. He died too soon due to his assassination. I would have liked to see what he could have done during a time of post-war peace and scientific innovation.
 
FrenchyM.D/D.O said:
One of my questions was, " Please tell me about the current political situation in Syria and how you feel about it. "
I literally looked at her like, are you serious right now?!!! Just reject me now!! lol
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A friend of a friend had been studying for his MCAT for like 3 months, and he hadn't had any contact with the outside world. Come interview season, he had no idea about the current events haha
 
How would you show empathy towards a patient?
 
It's easy enough to give a reasonable answer, but I always thought questions about what you would do if you saw your best friend cheating are hard. I just don't understand the point of it I guess. The obvious right answer in theory is to report them but we all know not everyone would do that to their best friend, so I guess I just don't know what interviewers are looking for in that question. Because no one wants to incriminate themselves and say they would let it slide since it's their best friend, but the whole "it would be hard, but I would have to report them" thing sounds so generic and fake.
 
Any question from Midwestern Illinois LOL. Nah the questions weren't bad they just really made you think critically.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using SDN mobile
 
Some tough questions in here.
 
Incis0r said:
"You're likely to get into your university's dental school.....can you assure me that you will attend our school over theirs if we choose you?"
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How did you respond to that one? lol
 
workofshart said:
How did you respond to that one? lol
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I interpreted the question to be a "Why ______ school?" kind of program.
So I explained what drove me to apply to their program, what excited me about their program, and why I could genuinely see myself there.

My interviewer was nodding in agreement and smiling, so I suspect that my answer was acceptable.
 
Incis0r said:
I interpreted the question to be a "Why ______ school?" kind of program.
So I explained what drove me to apply to their program, what excited me about their program, and why I could genuinely see myself there.

My interviewer was nodding in agreement and smiling, so I suspect that my answer was acceptable.
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Ahh that's good... if nothing else it should have made you confident about your chances of getting accepted somewhere Dec. 1st lol
 
I had a student interviewer ask something along the lines of, "It's proven that the ability to learn decreases as we age. Do you really feel like you can handle the rigor of the dental school curriculum?" I'm 39. I guess that was his round-a-bout way of asking how someone SO OLD can hang in there with these young kids for four years. Same interviewer then turned around and said, "I'm not trying to be an a** hole or anything... but you seem like a strong personality. How do you think you would handle a situation where you disagree with someone in a position of authority?"

At another interview the faculty member just started off by saying, "Tell me the three things about yourself that you want me to know. Just get it out of the way. Then you don't have to spend the whole interview trying to work them into the conversation." It really caught me off guard because I tried not to go into any interview with an "agenda" of my own - I just wanted to go with the flow and not be flustered. And then this totally flustered me!
 
como said:
I had a student interviewer ask something along the lines of, "It's proven that the ability to learn decreases as we age. Do you really feel like you can handle the rigor of the dental school curriculum?" I'm 39. I guess that was his round-a-bout way of asking how someone SO OLD can hang in there with these young kids for four years. Same interviewer then turned around and said, "I'm not trying to be an a** hole or anything... but you seem like a strong personality. How do you think you would handle a situation where you disagree with someone in a position of authority?"

At another interview the faculty member just started off by saying, "Tell me the three things about yourself that you want me to know. Just get it out of the way. Then you don't have to spend the whole interview trying to work them into the conversation." It really caught me off guard because I tried not to go into any interview with an "agenda" of my own - I just wanted to go with the flow and not be flustered. And then this totally flustered me!
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I kind of like this, but I understand that it can catch someone off guard. I had kind of a similar thing happen. The last question the interviewer asked me was, "What question should I have asked in order to find out something you wanted to tell me?"
 
Here's a question a friend of mine received from ECU.

"If you could be any cartoon/animated character, who would it be and why?

My friend said he left them in awe and they all told him that his answer was the single best answer they had ever received That's the thing; the difficult questions are the ones you don't see coming and that's one where I might have said something stupid.
 
DMikes said:
Tell me about the last time you told somebody you were sorry.
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I still can't fall asleep at night because of some of my BS answers to some of Minnesota's "tell me about a time" questions.

And when I say BS, I don't mean made up answers. I just didn't feel like some of my examples were good enough.
 
Last edited:
How are you different from other applicants and what can you bring to the school that others can't?

Anything I say i'm sure some other applicants have already said before.
 
I got a question about amalgam. A recent graduate of the dental school was my interviewer and he asked "if someone had a full mouth of amalgam and they said Doctor replace them all with composite" what would you do? Pretty sure he knew we wouldn't know the proper answer to that as pre dents but I was tripped. I said well uh I would definitely try to convince them that this is a great affordable and equally viable option. And he responded with "what if he says he'll never come back to you?" I was like "umm well I'd try to convince him but I would definitely try to work with him to get to a satisfaction point..." loll idk
 
nebuchadnezzar90 said:
How are you different from other applicants and what can you bring to the school that others can't?

Anything I say i'm sure some other applicants have already said before.
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I always like to bring up that I work with monkeys in a research lab and they're like little patients of my own.
 
RS2224 said:
I got a question about amalgam. A recent graduate of the dental school was my interviewer and he asked "if someone had a full mouth of amalgam and they said Doctor replace them all with composite" what would you do? Pretty sure he knew we wouldn't know the proper answer to that as pre dents but I was tripped. I said well uh I would definitely try to convince them that this is a great affordable and equally viable option. And he responded with "what if he says he'll never come back to you?" I was like "umm well I'd try to convince him but I would definitely try to work with him to get to a satisfaction point..." loll idk
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Interesting question. I only know the basics of amalgam vs composite so I probably would've said something along the lines of "assuming I was the dentist, I would explain to the patient the pros and cons to each type of material, explain what such a procedure would entail, what it would cost, and if the patient still insists on the procedure, I would refer him to a different dentist"

It's kind of a roundabout way of saying "i don't know the specifics" but it at least shows you had a thought process that involved keeping the patients interests first and foremost.
 
blablabla1 said:
Interesting question. I only know the basics of amalgam vs composite so I probably would've said something along the lines of "assuming I was the dentist, I would explain to the patient the pros and cons to each type of material, explain what such a procedure would entail, what it would cost, and if the patient still insists on the procedure, I would refer him to a different dentist"

It's kind of a roundabout way of saying "i don't know the specifics" but it at least shows you had a thought process that involved keeping the patients interests first and foremost.
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Yeah I mean in essence I feel like I said the same thing as you that I would try and convince them that what they have is a great, affordable and viable option. If they still aren't convinced then I'd just work with them to reach some sort of satisfaction point.
 
como said:
I had a student interviewer ask something along the lines of, "It's proven that the ability to learn decreases as we age. Do you really feel like you can handle the rigor of the dental school curriculum?" I'm 39. I guess that was his round-a-bout way of asking how someone SO OLD can hang in there with these young kids for four years
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I'm not a lawyer, but that smells of illegal discrimination to me. It is absolutely inappropriate for an interviewer to initiate a discussion on an applicant's age. Have you considered contacting the dean of admissions at the school or filing a complaint with ADEA?

RS2224 said:
I got a question about amalgam. A recent graduate of the dental school was my interviewer and he asked "if someone had a full mouth of amalgam and they said Doctor replace them all with composite" what would you do? Pretty sure he knew we wouldn't know the proper answer to that as pre dents but I was tripped. I said well uh I would definitely try to convince them that this is a great affordable and equally viable option. And he responded with "what if he says he'll never come back to you?" I was like "umm well I'd try to convince him but I would definitely try to work with him to get to a satisfaction point..." loll idk
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A couple possible answers (out of many) off the top of my head:
1) I would first ask the patient why they would like the amalgam to be removed. If I learn that the patient is making the request based on false information (from Dr. Oz, investigative reporting, etc.) about the safety of amalgam, then it is my professional responsibility to explain that scientific research does not corroborate their belief. This is based on the legal/ethical concept of "informed consent."
2) I would refuse to do the procedure if the patient were pregnant because research shows that patients can potentially ingest a relatively high dose of mercury during the removal of amalgam fillings, and mercury is a teratogenic neurotoxin.
3) Removal of amalgam fillings requires drilling into the tooth structure surrounding the restoration, so if the procedure is not dentally necessary, this would be in violation of the modern principle of "minimally invasive dentistry."
4) From a utilitarian perspective, it is more ethical to refuse to treat one patient than to risk losing your license to treat thousands of other patients.
 
nebuchadnezzar90 said:
How are you different from other applicants and what can you bring to the school that others can't?

Anything I say i'm sure some other applicants have already said before.
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This is such a common question that most interviewees never prepare for. It's a very difficult question.
 
The Flossopher said:
I'm not a lawyer, but that smells of illegal discrimination to me. It is absolutely inappropriate for an interviewer to initiate a discussion on an applicant's age. Have you considered contacting the dean of admissions at the school or filing a complaint with ADEA?


A couple possible answers (out of many) off the top of my head:
1) I would first ask the patient why they would like the amalgam to be removed. If I learn that the patient is making the request based on false information (from Dr. Oz, investigative reporting, etc.) about the safety of amalgam, then it is my professional responsibility to explain that scientific research does not corroborate their belief. This is based on the legal/ethical concept of "informed consent."
2) I would refuse to do the procedure if the patient were pregnant because research shows that patients can potentially ingest a relatively high dose of mercury during the removal of amalgam fillings, and mercury is a teratogenic neurotoxin.
3) Removal of amalgam fillings requires drilling into the tooth structure surrounding the restoration, so if the procedure is not dentally necessary, this would be in violation of the modern principle of "minimally invasive dentistry."
4) From a utilitarian perspective, it is more ethical to refuse to treat one patient than to risk losing your license to treat thousands of other patients.
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Yash sorry I forgot to mention he said that what if the patient just didn't like how it looked. But as a pre dent with limited info, I was hit with unfamiliarity and panicked and said well I'd definitely try to convince him that it's a great economical and viable option and if he still wasn't convinced I would definitely work with him to reach some sort of satisfaction point.
 
Viva Terlingua said:
"Your GPA sucks and your DAT isn't that great either, so why should I care about your application?"
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I would say "well, I think you know the answer to that question better than me since the school offered me an interview 😉"
 
RS2224 said:
I got a question about amalgam. A recent graduate of the dental school was my interviewer and he asked "if someone had a full mouth of amalgam and they said Doctor replace them all with composite" what would you do? Pretty sure he knew we wouldn't know the proper answer to that as pre dents but I was tripped. I said well uh I would definitely try to convince them that this is a great affordable and equally viable option. And he responded with "what if he says he'll never come back to you?" I was like "umm well I'd try to convince him but I would definitely try to work with him to get to a satisfaction point..." loll idk
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I had a similar question...I just smiled and responded with something like "Unfortunately I am not qualified to give any dental recommendations at this point in time." The interviewer chuckled a bit & we went on to discuss some of the amalgam vs composite challenges that dentists face. We'll see if that one comes back to bite me lol.
 
NonTraDentalStudent said:
I had a similar question...I just smiled and responded with something like "Unfortunately I am not qualified to give any dental recommendations at this point in time." The interviewer chuckled a bit & we went on to discuss some of the amalgam vs composite challenges that dentists face. We'll see if that one comes back to bite me lol.
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Lol yeah I don't understand why we'd be asked something like that considering we're pre dents. I actually thought this was seeing whether we're greedy/money hungry to the point we'd be like of course and just do it cause composite is obviously more costly. But I also didn't want to seem insensitive to the patients wants. Lol I tried.
 
The Flossopher said:
I'm not a lawyer, but that smells of illegal discrimination to me. It is absolutely inappropriate for an interviewer to initiate a discussion on an applicant's age. Have you considered contacting the dean of admissions at the school or filing a complaint with ADEA?
Click to expand...

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects certain applicants and employees 40 years of age and older from discrimination on the basis of age in hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation, or terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/discrimination/agedisc

Although his question wasn't warranted, I doubt there is a case to this as the University offered him an interview. They can't control someone's predisposed prejudices that comes out during an interview. He or she could, however, complain and probably have the person removed from conducting future interviews which would help future older applicants.
 
This question is common:

"Tell me about a difficult situation or conflict you've overcome and how you handled it."
 
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