Psychiatry interview tips

[ArlingtonMedical]

Hi, I will begin my psych interviews for residency soon. Can anyone give tips, advice, or links online for preparation for the interviews? Greatly appreciated!

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[OldPsychDoc]

1) Be yourself--assuming that 'yourself' is a good person who is engaging, pleasant, and conscientious. (If not, you can try to fake it, but that usually just looks awkward.)
2) Try to show that you know something about the place you're interviewing, and that you've thought about how you might fit in there, and how their program is consistent with your life goals.
3) Ask reasonable questions.
4) Be nice. Smile a lot.
5) Don't hit on the residents, fellow interviewees, or attendings.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

if there's a good webpage up with info on the individual peopel who're interviewing you, read it. Don't fake interest in what we do, but be aware of it.

Same for the program in general. "I read that you focus on X in your didactics" is much better than "what about your didactics?"

 

[Roxas]

1) Be yourself--assuming that 'yourself' is a good person who is engaging, pleasant, and conscientious. (If not, you can try to fake it, but that usually just looks awkward.)
2) Try to show that you know something about the place you're interviewing, and that you've thought about how you might fit in there, and how their program is consistent with your life goals.
3) Ask reasonable questions.
4) Be nice. Smile a lot.
5) Don't hit on the residents, fellow interviewees, or attendings.

I didn't think this would be a problem. Particularly at something as stressful as an interview....

 

[OldPsychDoc]

I didn't think this would be a problem. Particularly at something as stressful as an interview....

Seen examples of all three...

 

[Crayola227]

I didn't think this would be a problem. Particularly at something as stressful as an interview....

I actually did face this conundrum, at the dinner the night before.

There's plenty of single residents and students not getting any play.

Anyway, there was clearly some mutual attraction which I "wisely" passed up. I put that in quotes because I didn't match there, so opportunity cost, I guess. If I had matched there, that could be awkward.

Lose-lose scenario.

 

[EarlyCareerAcademicPsych]

1) Be yourself--assuming that 'yourself' is a good person who is engaging, pleasant, and conscientious. (If not, you can try to fake it, but that usually just looks awkward.)
2) Try to show that you know something about the place you're interviewing, and that you've thought about how you might fit in there, and how their program is consistent with your life goals.
3) Ask reasonable questions.
4) Be nice. Smile a lot.
5) Don't hit on the residents, fellow interviewees, or attendings.

Agree with all of this (#1-5). Also, some friendly additions:
6) Take a moment to respond to any questions in the interview. Actually consider what is being asked.
7) Conversely, listen to the answers to your questions.
8) Try to remember that the faculty and staff at residency programs - we are people, too. Just trying to do a job to figure out if it is a good fit between the applicants and the program. That's our goal.

I bring these up because I have interviewed some applicants over the years who are so worked up to be doing the interview that they have a hard time staying in it. This applies to being worked up with a positive valence (exited, enthusiastic, stoked) and worked up with a negative valence (anxious, nervous).

 

[NontradCA]

Here's a great educational video on how to conduct yourself during an interview.

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

1) Be yourself--assuming that 'yourself' is a good person who is engaging, pleasant, and conscientious. (If not, you can try to fake it, but that usually just looks awkward.)
2) Try to show that you know something about the place you're interviewing, and that you've thought about how you might fit in there, and how their program is consistent with your life goals.
3) Ask reasonable questions.
4) Be nice. Smile a lot.
5) Don't hit on the residents, fellow interviewees, or attendings.

I second this advice. Not bad dating advice either, IMHO. One additional thing I would add is NEVER lie or embellish upon your qualities.

I know people who stated things like: speaks Spanish, enjoys drawing. The former had more than one of his interviews last season completely in Spanish — thank goodness he wasn’t lying. The latter was literally asked to create some art during one of his interviews.

Fortunately for me, most are okay with you just being a friendly, genuine, and hard-working fellow who is capable of learning and will play nicely with others. Of note, I was warned about drinking during the pre-interview dinner. If you can be an adult about it, I say to go for it. Both current residents and interviewees loosen up just a little bit and this facilitated excellent discussions. There were a few instances where someone made it obvious they were self-righteously going to pass on it, and it came off awkwardly sometimes. If you don’t drink, then by all means don’t worry as there was never any pressure to do so. However, if you’re like me and you can enjoy a beer or even two responsibly, I say to take the opportunity to relax and meet what could be your potential future colleagues. Leave the third for next year when you’re meeting incoming med students (;

 

[valid username]

I second this advice. Not bad dating advice either, IMHO. One additional thing I would add is NEVER lie or embellish upon your qualities.

I know people who stated things like: speaks Spanish, enjoys drawing. The former had more than one of his interviews last season completely in Spanish — thank goodness he wasn’t lying. The latter was literally asked to create some art during one of his interviews.

OMG...I put good on mi espanol because there were only four categories and I am definitely better than fair. Why don't they have intermediate? I could do my interview in soanish but, just like the category stated, i make some errors. I am prepared to do part of my interview in spanish, but the whole day? Wow!

On the other hand if someone breaks out a pottery wheel I'm going to be loving that!

One question: my mspe was done terribly. They completely left off the fact that i was a supervisor of a large region in public health. But worse, I feel like they exaggerated a different job. Namely, they turned developing science experiments and helped science chair with curriculum updates into designed curriculum for college science. That's not the same. I helped. I am very disappointed about my mspe. I just hope the programs will look at my cv and conntact my references. Is there any hope of,that?

 

[DisorderedDoc417]

OMG...I put good on mi espanol because there were only four categories and I am definitely better than fair. Why don't they have intermediate? I could do my interview in soanish but, just like the category stated, i make some errors. I am prepared to do part of my interview in spanish, but the whole day? Wow!

On the other hand if someone breaks out a pottery wheel I'm going to be loving that!

One question: my mspe was done terribly. They completely left off the fact that i was a supervisor of a large region in public health. But worse, I feel like they exaggerated a different job. Namely, they turned developing science experiments and helped science chair with curriculum updates into designed curriculum for college science. That's not the same. I helped. I am very disappointed about my mspe. I just hope the programs will look at my cv and conntact my references. Is there any hope of,that?

It was just one interview and not the whole day. This isnt to say you’ll definitely have a situation like this, anecdotal stories shouldn’t be taken as fact. I would alleviate your worry by assuring you that no one is out to get you — when I say lying I mean to say.... if all you know is “Me llamo blah”, don’t put: “fluent in espanol”. Just be as honest as possible and don’t worry, I don’t think anyone will fault you.

Psych folks are some of the best to interview with and no matter how large or small or how prestigious or plain the interview setting was, people just generally want to get to know about you.

I think as a general rule though, for the fibbers out there, if you intentionally misrepresent yourself (and are caught in the act), you deserve the squirming session. Just don’t do it.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

OMG...I put good on mi espanol because there were only four categories and I am definitely better than fair. Why don't they have intermediate? I could do my interview in soanish but, just like the category stated, i make some errors. I am prepared to do part of my interview in spanish, but the whole day? Wow!

On the other hand if someone breaks out a pottery wheel I'm going to be loving that!

One question: my mspe was done terribly. They completely left off the fact that i was a supervisor of a large region in public health. But worse, I feel like they exaggerated a different job. Namely, they turned developing science experiments and helped science chair with curriculum updates into designed curriculum for college science. That's not the same. I helped. I am very disappointed about my mspe. I just hope the programs will look at my cv and conntact my references. Is there any hope of,that?

We don't have time or inclination to run down every detail in the MPSE or CV, believe me.
I wouldn't worry about the MPSE issue you raise--if it did come up, I'd answer just as you did here--"Well, the Dean that interviewed me for that kind of got the wrong idea about what I did with the science department...but let me tell you about what I'm really proud of doing--"

 

[valid username]

You're the best, OldPsychDoc!

 

[PsychApplicant18]

1) Be yourself--assuming that 'yourself' is a good person who is engaging, pleasant, and conscientious. (If not, you can try to fake it, but that usually just looks awkward.)
2) Try to show that you know something about the place you're interviewing, and that you've thought about how you might fit in there, and how their program is consistent with your life goals.
3) Ask reasonable questions.
4) Be nice. Smile a lot.
5) Don't hit on the residents, fellow interviewees, or attendings.

Thanks for your help!
What are your thoughts about glancing at a sheet of paper for the questions to ask? In case I'm nervous, I wouldn't want to forget questions.

 

[valid username]

Put reminder questions on your phone. Check them when you go to the bathroom.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Thanks for your help!
What are your thoughts about glancing at a sheet of paper for the questions to ask? In case I'm nervous, I wouldn't want to forget questions.

Some applicants carry a notebook with their questions and make a show of writing down the answers...it's kind of overkill.
If by the time you've had 3-4 interviews in a day, you've still forgotten a question (and I'd argue that if you forgot to ask it, you were either wrapped up in conversations about more interesting things--which is good--or it just wasn't that important to you anyway), you can always email for the answers (which gives you an excuse to make that follow-up email).
But really, none of this matters...