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Due to a few people recently asking me to give some advice on the whole interview process. I have decided to just start a thread rather than PM each of you personally (@Kick_Rocks_ , @asdf123g , @DetectiveAlonzo )
If you have read anything that I have posted in the past you will know that brevity is not a strong point of mine. So what we have here is a comprehensive write up of some of the stuff I learned on the interview trail, as well as some of the resources that I have used. There are certainly people here on SDN with dramatically more experience interviewing than me (some people in the double digits), use their wisdom.
To nail the interview you need to:
A) Completely be yourself, this is arguably the most important factor for your interview. This sounds so easy and cliche, but seriously dont let the stress of the day change who you are and how you normally interact with people. Be fun, relaxed, and confident - yet do not be arrogant. You want to show maturity and appreciation for your opportunity and just be completely normal. In my interviews the people who refrained from talking about medicine (unless specifically asked) and thus had other interests and other important things in life, have had the most luck and the most fun. The people who could relate to other people’s interests - movies, hobbies, dancing, outdoor activities, whatever... those people are accepted with ease. Heck just off the top of my head, some things I talked about to various interviewees and students on my interviews: fishing, Idaho, mountain biking, racquetball, Bill Murray, youtube videos, our spouse's/GFs, music, cats, grocery stores, favorite candies... crap like that. Be yourself.
B) Have a really good concise answer to “why this school” and “why DO?” I made sure that above all other questions and preparations, that I had those two nailed down. If you like a certain part of the school's curriculum, say that. If you like that they have certain clinical options in their first two years, make sure they know it. If you are interested in some research currently being done there, memorize a couple of the researchers names and some of their work and mention it in your interview. Heck if you just like the area or some prospects about how the area would be good for you or your family or whatever, those are some great reasons too. Stuff like that just helps the conversation flow and really I think makes you an applicant to take seriously because you have a real interest in the school and have done your homework. I ran into people on interviews who literally had no idea why A) They were applying to that school. B) Were applying to osteopathic medical schools. Or C) Had no clue why they were applying to medical school at all.
Secondly "why DO" is ridiculously important. Back up your claims with specific examples while working, shadowing, whatever. It does not have to be terribly detailed and intense, but just show that you maturely made this decision and have a couple specific reasons or experiences to back up why you feel called to the field. The people who get rejected basically memorize the wikipedia page on osteopathic medicine. BUT in that process do NOT say anything bad about MDs or PhDs... First off, you have to have the maturity to know that all professions have an important role not only in in our society, but also for medical school education. Secondly, you never know what the person interviewing you is (a DO, a PhD, an MD). If you bash MD or PhDs, you might as well autoreject yourself. You will be working with MDs, PhD, and other DOs throughout the rest of your career - its about teamwork.Your job is to say “why DO” in a positive sense; you absolutely can answer that question without having to say why other pathways are worse.
C) Really give them a sense of who you are... For instance at the end of one of my interviews the interviewer offered the standard, "is there anything else you would like me to know about you?" And at first I thought about just saying something like “nahhh, thats it, thank you for your time, blah blah”... But I decided the heck with it. I told her how I am a first generation college student. How I barely even graduated high school, let alone went to college and am now trying to become a doctor. I told her that because of this hill that I have climbed (with no pressure or guidance by my parents - basically just going blind) that I have gained a lot of introspection into just how blessed I am to have this opportunity that is before me. It sort of just blurted out of me and I had no clue how my interviewer would take it. But its like, it never came up anywhere else on my application, you know? I felt compelled to let her to know it for whatever reason. My interviewer responded by saying that she too was a first generation student and that she truly appreciated me telling her and that it definitely helps my cause and helps paint a picture of who I am, in the context of the rest of my application. It worked for me, I got the acceptance to the school 5 days later.
This is the time to really let them know who you are and what you are about. There will be no other place. If they dont like what they hear, then screw em, that school is not for you, if they cant appreciate who you are then its not a good fit or its not meant to be.
Now for some more specifics:
If you need any more practice or an idea of possible questions (to basically plan for the worst) you can use this website:http://schools.studentdoctor.net/?view=osteopathic
You go to the interview feedback page which is about halfway down the page by clicking the “view results” tab under the interview pie graph. There (down the page some) you will find specific questions asked by interviewees at that institution. It also does not hurt to look through a few other school’s questions just to compile a list of stuff you could run in to. I did not necessarily practice or memorize any questions, but I did make a word document and copied all of the questions I thought would maybe trip me up. Then a couple days before my interview I spent a couple of hours going through them and typing a quick answer, just to basically get the "interview juices" flowing...
Some of the questions such as "what are three ethical dilemmas in medicine and what is your stance on one of them" actually take some thought, so planning ahead can just help you be quicker and more prepared for the interview... But again, and I must stress this, do not practice or plan so much that you are like a robot. Prepare enough that you will feel confident in various scenarios that can come up, but not so much that you stress yourself out. The idea is to have a couple bullet points to always be able to fall back on to help get you through tough situations.
I also looked up @Goro 's interview thread thing, it has some solid and concise material that helped get me ready.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/goros-guide-to-do-school-interviews.1097042/
Overall most of my interviews were super relaxed and conversational, but some people said they were grilled hard - we believe that was an intentional stress interview. So best to be prepared for the worst and be happy when its not that bad. At every interview the “why DO” and “why this school” questions came up. Also at every interview I received at least one ethical situation – some were easier than others, so again, do your practice to get a core to fall back on.
Otherwise just remember: if you receive an interview, you are good enough to be a doctor. Really sit on that for a minute. You are in the smallest percentage of people in the world that are fortunate enough to have that opportunity. At the point of being interviewed, all people sitting next to you that day will be equal - MCAT scores are erased, GPA is erased, what undergrad you went to is erased - its all about who you are. Maybe you wont get into that school, and if you dont, it will only be because of fit not because you arent good enough. At the point of the interview it is just about who you are as a person. So have fun, smile, be kind to everyone there (including admin, janitors, everyone), and you will definitely get in. It worked for me at least haha.
Give me a shout if you need any more specific questions answered. Anyone else who has some good advice to share with anyone, please feel free to add to the thread, the idea is helping people. Good luck everyone!
If you have read anything that I have posted in the past you will know that brevity is not a strong point of mine. So what we have here is a comprehensive write up of some of the stuff I learned on the interview trail, as well as some of the resources that I have used. There are certainly people here on SDN with dramatically more experience interviewing than me (some people in the double digits), use their wisdom.
To nail the interview you need to:
A) Completely be yourself, this is arguably the most important factor for your interview. This sounds so easy and cliche, but seriously dont let the stress of the day change who you are and how you normally interact with people. Be fun, relaxed, and confident - yet do not be arrogant. You want to show maturity and appreciation for your opportunity and just be completely normal. In my interviews the people who refrained from talking about medicine (unless specifically asked) and thus had other interests and other important things in life, have had the most luck and the most fun. The people who could relate to other people’s interests - movies, hobbies, dancing, outdoor activities, whatever... those people are accepted with ease. Heck just off the top of my head, some things I talked about to various interviewees and students on my interviews: fishing, Idaho, mountain biking, racquetball, Bill Murray, youtube videos, our spouse's/GFs, music, cats, grocery stores, favorite candies... crap like that. Be yourself.
B) Have a really good concise answer to “why this school” and “why DO?” I made sure that above all other questions and preparations, that I had those two nailed down. If you like a certain part of the school's curriculum, say that. If you like that they have certain clinical options in their first two years, make sure they know it. If you are interested in some research currently being done there, memorize a couple of the researchers names and some of their work and mention it in your interview. Heck if you just like the area or some prospects about how the area would be good for you or your family or whatever, those are some great reasons too. Stuff like that just helps the conversation flow and really I think makes you an applicant to take seriously because you have a real interest in the school and have done your homework. I ran into people on interviews who literally had no idea why A) They were applying to that school. B) Were applying to osteopathic medical schools. Or C) Had no clue why they were applying to medical school at all.
Secondly "why DO" is ridiculously important. Back up your claims with specific examples while working, shadowing, whatever. It does not have to be terribly detailed and intense, but just show that you maturely made this decision and have a couple specific reasons or experiences to back up why you feel called to the field. The people who get rejected basically memorize the wikipedia page on osteopathic medicine. BUT in that process do NOT say anything bad about MDs or PhDs... First off, you have to have the maturity to know that all professions have an important role not only in in our society, but also for medical school education. Secondly, you never know what the person interviewing you is (a DO, a PhD, an MD). If you bash MD or PhDs, you might as well autoreject yourself. You will be working with MDs, PhD, and other DOs throughout the rest of your career - its about teamwork.Your job is to say “why DO” in a positive sense; you absolutely can answer that question without having to say why other pathways are worse.
C) Really give them a sense of who you are... For instance at the end of one of my interviews the interviewer offered the standard, "is there anything else you would like me to know about you?" And at first I thought about just saying something like “nahhh, thats it, thank you for your time, blah blah”... But I decided the heck with it. I told her how I am a first generation college student. How I barely even graduated high school, let alone went to college and am now trying to become a doctor. I told her that because of this hill that I have climbed (with no pressure or guidance by my parents - basically just going blind) that I have gained a lot of introspection into just how blessed I am to have this opportunity that is before me. It sort of just blurted out of me and I had no clue how my interviewer would take it. But its like, it never came up anywhere else on my application, you know? I felt compelled to let her to know it for whatever reason. My interviewer responded by saying that she too was a first generation student and that she truly appreciated me telling her and that it definitely helps my cause and helps paint a picture of who I am, in the context of the rest of my application. It worked for me, I got the acceptance to the school 5 days later.
This is the time to really let them know who you are and what you are about. There will be no other place. If they dont like what they hear, then screw em, that school is not for you, if they cant appreciate who you are then its not a good fit or its not meant to be.
Now for some more specifics:
If you need any more practice or an idea of possible questions (to basically plan for the worst) you can use this website:http://schools.studentdoctor.net/?view=osteopathic
You go to the interview feedback page which is about halfway down the page by clicking the “view results” tab under the interview pie graph. There (down the page some) you will find specific questions asked by interviewees at that institution. It also does not hurt to look through a few other school’s questions just to compile a list of stuff you could run in to. I did not necessarily practice or memorize any questions, but I did make a word document and copied all of the questions I thought would maybe trip me up. Then a couple days before my interview I spent a couple of hours going through them and typing a quick answer, just to basically get the "interview juices" flowing...
Some of the questions such as "what are three ethical dilemmas in medicine and what is your stance on one of them" actually take some thought, so planning ahead can just help you be quicker and more prepared for the interview... But again, and I must stress this, do not practice or plan so much that you are like a robot. Prepare enough that you will feel confident in various scenarios that can come up, but not so much that you stress yourself out. The idea is to have a couple bullet points to always be able to fall back on to help get you through tough situations.
I also looked up @Goro 's interview thread thing, it has some solid and concise material that helped get me ready.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/goros-guide-to-do-school-interviews.1097042/
Overall most of my interviews were super relaxed and conversational, but some people said they were grilled hard - we believe that was an intentional stress interview. So best to be prepared for the worst and be happy when its not that bad. At every interview the “why DO” and “why this school” questions came up. Also at every interview I received at least one ethical situation – some were easier than others, so again, do your practice to get a core to fall back on.
Otherwise just remember: if you receive an interview, you are good enough to be a doctor. Really sit on that for a minute. You are in the smallest percentage of people in the world that are fortunate enough to have that opportunity. At the point of being interviewed, all people sitting next to you that day will be equal - MCAT scores are erased, GPA is erased, what undergrad you went to is erased - its all about who you are. Maybe you wont get into that school, and if you dont, it will only be because of fit not because you arent good enough. At the point of the interview it is just about who you are as a person. So have fun, smile, be kind to everyone there (including admin, janitors, everyone), and you will definitely get in. It worked for me at least haha.
Give me a shout if you need any more specific questions answered. Anyone else who has some good advice to share with anyone, please feel free to add to the thread, the idea is helping people. Good luck everyone!
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