Question About Kevin Ahern Interview Advice

[donutzebra]

I have an interview in a few days, and I just watched Part 1 of the Kevin Ahern's Guide to Acing a Medical School Interview ().

I learned a lot and found his advice valuable, but I thought two of his advice points were a bit questionable. I was wondering if any of you could let me know your thoughts about them.

1. Dr. Ahern advises to address the interviewer however they introduce themselves. In other words, if they introduce themselves using their first names, address them with their first names.

2. If the interviewer asks you "Tell me about your family," even if you're a traditional applicant in your early 20's, Dr. Ahern advises you not to talk about your parents or siblings, but to talk about your spouse and kids (which you likely do not yet have) and say something like, "I do not have a family yet, but one day I do hope to get married and have kids blah blah blah..."

Thanks for your help!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[chillaxbro]

For 2, I remember hearing that when I was applying. Stupid advice

 

[drmantistobbogan]

#1 is spot on.

 

[theonlytycrane]

#1 - I would *always* call my interviewer by Dr. or by their title regardless of how they introduced themselves. Show respect always- this isn't buddy/buddy time.

#2 - The advice in the video by this Kevin dude is dumb AF. Interviewers aren't asking trick questions to evaluate you like he makes it seem. I mean just look at Kevin's haircut (or lack thereof) and ask yourself if you would want to present like that.

 

[kb1900]

agreed with 2 being extremely weird advice. Just say you live with XYZ or alone and visit your family when you can.

regardless I think the question was only asked at one interview my entire cycle. I'm a "straight through" med student and don't think my maturity was EVER a point of discussion, even subtly, during any of my interviews.

Yet this YouTube guy is convinced it's the number one thing

 

[AttemptingScholar]

"Tell me about your family" is an illegal question anyways, so I'm not sure there is great advice for that one. I'd probably answer it vaguely and then anonymously report the interviewer.

 

[dr_kateb]

Doesn’t this kind of go against what Goro recommends in the interview thread? What I got from that thread was that interviewers want concise answers that are short and to the point. This guy wants you to treat every question like an essay?

 

[AttemptingScholar]

I'm also a little confused about the relevance of point 1--when I'm talking to someone, I rarely refer to them by (any) name--I use "you." Should I be trying to drop their name more to try and forge a more personal psychological connection, like Silence of the Lambs? Cause that totally happened in Silence of the Lambs.

 

[Taskmaster]

This guy is a professor at Oregon State University, which doesn't even have a medical school. So yeah, not someone whose advice is to be considered credible.

 

[dr_kateb]

This guy is a professor at Oregon State University, which doesn't even have a medical school. So yeah, not someone whose advice is to be considered credible.

In my opinion premed advisors in general are useless. I honestly think schools just pick random grad students off the street and say "you're a ______ advisor now." I doubt the premed advisor I have knows what the coursework is like more than "oh you have to take Organic II next semester," let alone actually having experience and valuable input getting into medical school.

 

[SpecializedSurgeon]

Nope and nope.

Bad advice both times.

First is just silly
Second would make me think you are crazy

 

[meddymed]

1. Unless the interviewer says “you can call me *first name*” I would default to Dr. “last name.” If it’s a student interviewing you then I think first name is okay

2. If I were your interviewer and you told me you don’t have a family, I would think you were an orphan or something of that sort. It’s perfectly fine to talk about your parents and siblings. It’s not like they stop being your family when you’re an adult. I think this question is used to find out what kind of upbringing you had. If you give me the non-answer of “I don’t have a family yet” I’d dock you points for not really answering my question


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[donutzebra]

Thanks for all your advice! I'll take his advice with a grain of salt and use common sense.