Reading materials pre-interview a

[1edyfirel]

Hi, everyone--

I'm started on the interview trail soon, and after finishing a bunch of required sub-I's, I feel like I have no idea what's going on in psych, and I'd like to educate myself before interviews start.

I'll do my own hunting around of course, but could anyone recommend any good authors, websites, texts, books, journals on current, urgent issues in psych today? Or what psych may look like w/r/t Obamacare?

Also, anyone have recs for reading on psych issues specific to California? (I'm from east coast but will be interviewing out there a ton).

Thanks so much for your suggestions!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NickNaylor]

Perhaps someone might correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think people will expect you to have the knowledge base of a full-blown psychiatrist or even a resident. That's the whole point of residency training.

You could always check out the big psych journals if you really want to read up, but this strikes me as a bit overkill and unnecessary in terms of what will be expected of you at an interview. Nothing resembling "current issues in psych" has come up during an interview for me.

 

[Dharma]

I started reading Neuroscience for the Mental Health Clinician by Steven Pliszka. Not sure what those in the know think about it but I kinda like it.

EDIT: I skimmed your original post (half paying attention earlier). I don't think you really need to be too prepped up for interviews, but I think this book may still be a worthy read (Disclaimer: only a M3 here).

 

[thoffen]

Be prepared to answer "tell me about yourself" and "why are you interested in psychiatry" instead of discussing the latest literature.

 

[1edyfirel]

Perhaps someone might correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think people will expect you to have the knowledge base of a full-blown psychiatrist or even a resident. That's the whole point of residency training.

You could always check out the big psych journals if you really want to read up, but this strikes me as a bit overkill and unnecessary in terms of what will be expected of you at an interview. Nothing resembling "current issues in psych" has come up during an interview for me.

Yeah I'm not trying to be a gunner douche-bag here--we had mock interviews at my med school and I was asked this question and I totally floundered and hence, my post here.

 

[NickNaylor]

Yeah I'm not trying to be a gunner douche-bag here--we had mock interviews at my med school and I was asked this question and I totally floundered and hence, my post here.

Sounds like a crappy mock interviewer more than anything. I'm interested in psychotherapy and have mentioned that when filling out interest forms so I often get questions about why I have that interest. I've never been grilled on actually using psychotherapy in a clinical setting, though - I don't think you're expected to know that sort of stuff at this point.

 

[SmallBird]

Sounds like a crappy mock interviewer more than anything. I'm interested in psychotherapy and have mentioned that when filling out interest forms so I often get questions about why I have that interest. I've never been grilled on actually using psychotherapy in a clinical setting, though - I don't think you're expected to know that sort of stuff at this point.

I would generally tend to agree - interestingly, in my fellowship interviews (clearly quite different) I had a lot more questions that required a some amount of knowledge in order to be able to answer. Things like "What do you think about the intersection of psychiatry and medicine?" or "How do you perceive the role of psychiatry in primary care?" came up from time to time, to my surprise.

 

[hoodwinkd]

I would generally tend to agree - interestingly, in my fellowship interviews (clearly quite different) I had a lot more questions that required a some amount of knowledge in order to be able to answer. Things like "What do you think about the intersection of psychiatry and medicine?" or "How do you perceive the role of psychiatry in primary care?" came up from time to time, to my surprise.

interestingly, i've encountered the primary care question a couple of times so far this year interviewing for residency..caught me off guard for sure

 

[Jalapeño King]

From my experience, interviewing for psychiatry residency was very relaxed. They just want to know what you're like as a person and if you'll be someone they can get along with. They will probably ask you why you chose psychiatry and why you're interested in them. Of all the interviews I went on, I can only remember one interviewer who tested some of my knowledge in psychiatry. It's really a pretty laid-back experience and nothing like interviewing for medical school. Enjoy it!

 

[notdeadyet]

If you are going to do any pre-reading, do pre-reading about the program you are going to interview at. Nothing hurts an interview more than when you try to gauge wire the applicant is interested in your program, and they obviously know very little about your place…