Question about Residency Interviews

[Cadet133]

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I have an upcomming residency interview and I was just wondering is it strictly the interviewer asking questions and you answering them? Can I Ask the interviewer questions during the interview process specifically during my answers?

 

[22031 Alum]

I have an upcomming residency interview and I was just wondering is it strictly the interviewer asking questions and you answering them? Can I Ask the interviewer questions during the interview process specifically during my answers?

Remember interviewing for medical School?? Most interviews will be conversational, but let the interviewer lead. There will usually be a point at which they ask if you have Questions. Other times, your questions might naturally come up in the flow of Conversation.

Don't try to awkwardly Transition from the topic at hand to what YOU want to ask about. It will be obvious.

Sorry about the random capitalized words. My phone must think it's the 1700s.

 

[Raryn]

I have an upcomming residency interview and I was just wondering is it strictly the interviewer asking questions and you answering them? Can I Ask the interviewer questions during the interview process specifically during my answers?

Lol. You will be sick and tired of the opportunity to ask questions by the end of even your first interview day. I've had interviewers who ask me just one (or zero...) questions, and then follow up with "Do you have any questions about the program?" Depending on your field, you might interview with anywhere from 2 to 7+ people on a typical interview day. Before your first interview, sit down and make a list of questions you're going to ask, b/c every single one of them will want you to ask them questions, and you really don't want to be left sitting there drawing a blank.

 

[Crayola227]

google online for questions to ask any program and any program in your specialty, and questions related to what your career goals and how the program can help you with that

I think the NRMP has a list even

be sure to have a list of questions that you use, use that list to research the program beforehand to help you with asnwering the questions in my last post for the interview, to be sure you look like you have done your homework on the program (don't ask dumb questions that are easily found on the website), and to be sure that you then have questions left over that make you look smart and interested when everyone asks you that dumb dreaded question "what questions do you have for the program" over and over again

if they start the interview with that, you can weave in details about yourself saying, "Well, it's important to me to be ___ kind of doctor because ___, what opportunities for ____ training is there here?"

you can ask the same question to more than one person that day if it's intelligent and makes sense to get more than one view if you start coming up short on questions

I think there are threads on SDN where people ask residents/attendings what questions to ask, because the irony is as an MS4 you don't really know what is important for residency training

you don't know what you don't know

ask your specialty advisor/docs in your chosen field what sorts of things matter and what they wished they had known about residency training in picking a program that they didn't appreciate when they were going through the process, I had some surprising things come up

on the interview trail I even asked the residents and attending at the programs what they wished they had know and what they thought was important for an MS4 to consider that they wouldn't have thought of when they were in my shoes (they won't be as real with you as the above suggested group, but you will learn certain things about the program you wouldn't have known otherwise)

from another thread

yes you can ask questions but that is secondary, do what they want and you will get plenty of chances to ask questions, you can jot questions down if you have to and email later even

most important is being liked interview day, you can always find an opportunity to ask questions

like above poster, as long as you're not pushy and you don't ask dumb questions, asking thoughtful questions shows interest and is a good thing
always have some good questions handy so you don't look like a boob