residency interviews

[tussy]

Hey Everyone! I just finished my first residency interview -- I'm applying for general surgery in the Canadian match. The interview was less painful than I had imagined. They asked me all the typical questions that I had prepared for, and a few I didn't . I got the "what do you do if you suspect that the staff surgeon is drunk" also they asked what I would do if the staff surgeon left the hospital and left me to close the abdomen and I then accidently sewed through the bowel with the suture.

Overall, the interview was a fairly benign experience. Anyone else want to share interview questions they got asked? I still have another 10 interviews or so to go.

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[SW-Adrian]

I just finished all my interviews for internal medicine in the US. All of them were relatively benign. Half of them were asking about how their friends in my institution were doing. But some of the other questions I got were:

Why do you want to come to XYZ city?
Why choose this particular program?
What are you looking for in a residency program?
What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?


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Adrian Zai
Scutwork.com

 

[kimberlicox]

I've been pleasantly suprised with my interview experience; I'm actually enjoying it! The questions I've been asked:

"Why here?"
"Why surgery?"
"Why Australia (for medical school)?"
"What are the branches of the celiac plexus?"
"What's in Ringers?"
"What do you do to relieve stress?"
"What do you like to do in your free time?"
"What would you close a midline lap with?"
"Why did it take you 4 1/2 years to get your undergrad degree?"
"How do you feel about being in your late 30s when you are done with residency?"
"Tell me about your research."
"You are called to the ER by the resident with a 72 yo man with free air under his diaphragm. What are you thinking as you head down to see the patient?"
"What was it like seeing the Olympic torch?"
"What areas of surgery are you interested in?"
"What do you want to be doing in 10 years?"


Blah blah blah. The interviews were mostly fairly benign, spending lots of time talking about Australia and some of the other "outside of the box" adventures I've had. I really enjoy the places that have you come for 2 days - you can get a wonderful sense of how the team interacts with each other, especially outside of the hospital.

I wasn't once asked about having a family and/or being female in surgery (despite all the books saying I would be).

 

[tussy]

Hey Everyone. Hey Kimberly and Adrian, glad to hear your interviews are going well. I just got back in town after finishing a few more surgery interviews. I'm flying out to the west coast tomorrow. Here's a few more questions I've been asked.

- What other programs are you applying to?
- What are the strenghts and weaknesses of those programs.
- What accomplishments aside from academics are you most proud of?
- Explain your thesis to me
- What is General Surgery? (this one was difficult to answer).
- What will you do if you don't match to general surgery?
- Where do you see yourself in 10 years
- what are your research interests
- Do you want to do a fellowship/in what?
- What do you see are the advantages to our program?
- What leadership roles have you had.
- What do you have to bring to our program.

Thats a few more that I can think of right off. I'll add more once I return from out west (I have 4 interviews out there). Please everyone else keep adding their questions too.

Good luck all, and happy travels.

 

[kimberlicox]

Best of luck to you Tussy. A few more questions I've also been asked...

"What will you do if you don't get a spot this year?"
"Where will you be in 10 years?"
"Do you have any plans for a fellowship?"
"Do you like dogs or cats better?"
"Where else have you been?"
"What did you think of program X?"

I'm sure I'll have more next week, as I head out tonight for another round!

 

[zb]

Hi -

Here some more gen surg questions I've been asked:

-How do you feel about research, what are your plans for research during residency
-How do you plan on integrating family with being in surgery
-How does your husband feel about you going into surgery
-What areas are you interested in
-Who is your role model and why
-What are you looking for in a residency program
-Why are you interested in our program

That's all I can think of for now ...

-zb

 

[tussy]

Here's some more surgery interview questions I was asked:

- If you were in a terrible accident next week and your left arm was amputated what would you do?
- name a situation in which your ethics were compromised and how did you deal with it
- name a situation in which you demonstrated how you can handle stress
- talk about your most interested surgical patient (they followed this by asking lots of detailed questions about the case, CT results, etc.)
- what what do you do if you don't agree with a decision that the attending has made in the OR.
- Do you plan to have children -- yup, got asked this several times grrrrr 8-(
- How much call do you think surgery residents should do.
- do you feel residents should leave at noon post-call?
- what was the biggest mistake you've ever made in patient care
- what specialty did you eliminate first as something you knew you didn' want to do. Second? Third? And why.
- If you had an hour to spend in the bookstore and could take any 3 magazines off the shelf to read, which would you choose.


That's all I can think of now. I hope that gets you all thinking. Good luck on the rest of your interviews everyone.