SDN Interview Here!

[Rumed2016]

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Hey everybody!
Like all of you, I am just as eager to get into medical school and preparing as much as possible. In my opinion, the hardest part of this rigorous journey is the interview. I have a while till I get to the interview stage, but I would like to start a thread here to not just help me, but help others. I am going to post an interview question, once a day, and I'd like to here answers from everybody. This will help all of us brainstorm answers for ourselves. Don't worry about satisfying everyone else's answers, but give an answer that defines what you would actually say. I don't want to start debates here, since everyone has a right to there opinions and there are no right or wrong answers. But yes, if people would like to give a few pointers as to how to improve the way an answer is said, that's great! This will give us a chance to improve our communication skills and boost our confidence and knowledge about the interview. I don't want any statistics here about which questions are asked the most, just answers, constructive answers (no silly answers please!!). If the question regards a health, social, political issue, then please provide an article of some sort with evidence to validate your opinion on the matter. This thread is to help us see other perspectives and form our own statements regarding the question. I really hope people participate! Thank you and good luck! 👍

 

[cwrig14]

yeah.....no

 

[Rumed2016]

What do you see as the biggest challenge you will face as a physician? 😎

 

[sliceofbread136]

What do you see as the biggest challenge you will face as a physician? 😎

Telling patients family that they have died/telling a patient they will die soon.

 

[Rumed2016]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But what if they asked a leading question: So how would you handle this challenge?

 

[VisionaryTics]

What do you see as the biggest challenge you will face as a physician? 😎

Finding interesting tie/shirt/sock combinations every day along with a matching pen.

 

[1289]

at the blind interviews: so tell me about yourself.

 

[MicroSteph]

at the blind interviews: so tell me about yourself.

This is exactly the question I want!

What I'm scared of are the ethics/hypothetical questions. Difficult to answer without potentially offending someone!

 

[seahawks2013]

i think for ethics questions it is not so much the side you choose but how you explain yourself and the decision making process

 

[TealC]

at the blind interviews: so tell me about yourself.

I wonder if anyone has used that as an opportunity to put their dating profile out there. That would be very entertaining to hear.

 

[centraldogma]

Sorry, OP. I doubt you're going to get anything but troll responses.

The interview is something a lot of people underestimate. For practice, I would record myself answering generic questions or questions from the secondaries.

What have you done/plan to do for interview prep?

 

[qwerty2012]

I am all ears.

 

[Rumed2016]

Like I've said, if you don't have any answer, please I request, don't post any replies because there are people here who actually want to participate, and unrelated answers just take up visual space. Thanks to those who are involving themselves in this thread. I normally ask my parents and friends to ask me questions from the interview feedback section of this website, and I'll answer them on the spot. But please, I encourage everyone to answer here, it'll be good practice for all of us. And there are some questions that we probably can answer, but we just need a lead to it that others might mention on here. So go for it, and please no troll replies on here, we all want to maintain our dignity as pre-med students, do not tarnish that reputation.Thank you.

Once again, today's (7/19/2012) question: What is the biggest challenge you will face as a physician and how will you face it?

 

[ShenanigansMD]

The plethora of available insurance plans will complicate everything. I plan on staying on top of my health insurance game; not sure if that's a good way to deal with it.

 

[music2doc]

What do you see as the biggest challenge you will face as a physician? 😎

Finding a pair of scrubs that perfectly match both my red Ferrari and my forest green Master Cardiology every day. Also, finding a new trophy wife every other week. Eventually, LA's gonna run outa hotties....

I will face it by moving to a new state with hotter ladies than SoCal and surrounding myself with red/green color-blind friends.

 

[music2doc]

i think for ethics questions it is not so much the side you choose but how you explain yourself and the decision making process

This...mostly. But keep in mind that if you say something that strikes the interview like this: you're not getting in no matter how well you "explain your decision-making process."

 

[Caesar]

What I'm scared of are the ethics/hypothetical questions

This is terrifying to me.

OP interviewing is about showing you are normal. Canned responses probably won't hurt in the long run but they 100% will not help. Keep that in mind. If you can't have a 15 minute conversation about something stop posting here and go to a bar and talk to people. 🙂 That's more fun anyway.

 

[ShenanigansMD]

This is terrifying to me.

OP interviewing is about showing you are normal. Canned responses probably won't hurt in the long run but they 100% will not help. Keep that in mind. If you can't have a 15 minute conversation about something stop posting here and go to a bar and talk to people. 🙂 That's more fun anyway.

Lol, best pick-up line:

"Hey, so I'm applying to med school to be a rich doctor, would you interview me for practice?"

 

[jesse120]

at the blind interviews: so tell me about yourself.

This is a good place to start http://studentdoctor.net/2008/02/trick-question/

 

[mmmcdowe]

I recommend using the interview feedback part of this website. Many potential questions are discussed there, and I found it VERY helpful in terms of making sure that I had contemplated a variety of questions. At the same time, you don't want to come off as reading off of a script, but having a few preformed thoughts REALLY helps.

 

[boshtrich]

I know it's not the point of this thread, but SDN Interview Feedback was extremely helpful for preparing for interviews, especially the questions from past interviews. It's also school specific so you can get an idea of what type of questions they ask where you are interviewing. Most of the ethical/hypothetical questions I was asked during interviews were almost identical to one of the things posted in interview feedback so I already had some prior thought about what to say. This was by far one of the most helpful resources on SDN.

 

[boshtrich]

I recommend using the interview feedback part of this website. Many potential questions are discussed there, and I found it VERY helpful in terms of making sure that I had contemplated a variety of questions. At the same time, you don't want to come off as reading off of a script, but having a few preformed thoughts REALLY helps.

Beat me to it

 

[Rumed2016]

I am quite aware of the student-doctor interview feedback. In fact, I'm pulling random questions from there to discuss here. I just wanted to get some discussion going about certain questions, and see what other people are giving for answers. This can help all of us get involved in various topics and broaden our horizons when we go to give the answers during the interview. That's the whole point of a forum: discussion. So please, I request, AGAIN, for people to just answer the questions and we can go from there.

Question of the day 7/21/2012
How would you deal with a resident who was unethical/dangerous towards a patient?

 

[1289]

You understand that you and I, along with every other tom, dick and harry applying this cycle are not on the "same team" yet, right?

Here's a question for you:

Why would they want to show their cards (i.e. their personal thoughts/answers) to you at this stage of the game -- one that is essentially revolving solely around competition?

couldn't agree more. like it or not we are all competing.

 

[music2doc]

I am quite aware of the student-doctor interview feedback. In fact, I'm pulling random questions from there to discuss here. I just wanted to get some discussion going about certain questions, and see what other people are giving for answers. This can help all of us get involved in various topics and broaden our horizons when we go to give the answers during the interview. That's the whole point of a forum: discussion. So please, I request, AGAIN, for people to just answer the questions and we can go from there.

Question of the day 7/21/2012
How would you deal with a resident who was unethical/dangerous towards a patient?

Kill him. In cold blood. It's your only choice, really. Protect the patient at all costs.

 

[PreMedOrDead]

couldn't agree more. like it or not we are all competing.

You understand that you and I, along with every other tom, dick and harry applying this cycle are not on the "same team" yet, right? Nevertheless, each of us is on a team; however, it is a team with just one player striving to win the game...and while sabotaging other "players" is inappropriate, doing everything in your power to help/assist your competition is of limited utility at this point in time.

That said, here's a question for you:

Why would they want to show their cards (i.e. their personal thoughts/answers for interview questions) to you at this stage of the game -- one that is essentially revolving solely around competition?

Kill him. In cold blood. It's your only choice, really. Protect the patient at all costs.

 

[music2doc]

^ Nah, my answer's a perfectly valid one. I have no reason to mislead the kid. I'm already in....




/SARCASM

 

[Rumed2016]

I'm not asking for people who don't want to discuss/share answers if they don't want to. I realize it's a competition, but this would be beneficial to all of us. If someone doesn't want to answer for the sake of competition, okay, that's fine, go to another forum. But for those who wish to take part, they can. This is just to get our brains working together about interview questions. And I highly doubt that all of us will be getting interviewed the same year. There could be freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors on here, all of us applying at different years. So ONCE AGAIN, if anyone wants to answer the interview question of the day, please just ANSWER the question. If you don't agree with the purpose of this forum or have anything that is not related to the topic at hand, please don't bother posting anything. Thank you.

Question of the day (I am going to repeat the one from yesterday because we haven't had much response to that one): How would you deal with a resident who was unethical/dangerous towards a patient?

 

[MT Headed]

couldn't agree more. like it or not we are all competing.

We compete against those who do not use SDN. I think you have much to lose if you think SDN users are your competiton. Besides it isn't like schools have SDN quotas the way they have state quotas or school quotas.

 

[Rumed2016]

We compete against those who do not use SDN. I think you have much to lose if you think SDN users are your competiton. Besides it isn't like schools have SDN quotas the way they have state quotas or school quotas.

well said.

 

[hiyaman]

Wow you guys are cold blooded. You guys are competing with 45 ish thousand other people, do you really think having a nice discussion on interview answers is going to reduce your chances significantly? That's foolish if you do. Besides there's a lot of resources online that will help you with what is an appropriate response to the common questions. Such as tell me about yourself, why medicine, why us, etc etc.

 

[music2doc]

It depends on how significant we're talking about, but, sure, why not?

Thousands of pre-meds are actual members of the forum and many thousands more are lurkers - those we never think about or hear from that solely creep around.

Why do their due diligence for them and wrap it up with a nice red ribbon?

It's one thing to offer "typical questions" to expect during an interview -- it is a completely different thing to offer personal answers to those questions.

They can do their own search as to how to react to XYZ hypothetical, search through the archives to concoct their own answer to "why our school?", and explore their own intentions to answer "why medicine".

Why should John post his awesome response to "...." when thousands of other folks can just mosey on in and use his thoughts for their own benefit without providing any utility in return?

It isn't cold-blooded. Cold-blooded would be sabotaging the competition. And as you know, there is a difference between striving to intentionally hinder someone and simply letting them "do their own thing".

Once you're in a medical school class, those are your classmates -- they will being going on the journey with you and, as such, you should help each other out as much as possible in your little community of learning.

...SDN isn't exactly that, rather it is simply a huge online portal for strangers with no relationship to each other to post thoughts/opinions for others to take or leave.

Agreed. Honestly, I will go to the ends of the earth to help someone get in that I believe will make a great physician. I did while I was applying myself and I still will. There are certain individuals I know now who I believe will make incredible physicians but have one or more weaknesses that might hinder their application. I will gladly do whatever I can to help them patch up those weak points. OTOH, we have no idea who you are here on SDN. Why should we go above and beyond to make you a better candidate than the next guy when there is no evidence you would make even a slightly better physician? Who are you that you should expect others to give you their answers to interview questions? Go ask your advisor. Go speak with your physician mentors. Go converse with a trusted professor. Get a mock interview at your school's career center.

As for the questions you have presented, they are not difficult to answer. If you are struggling with them, I would go pick up a book on medical ethics or, perhaps, read an article on conflict resolution. There are plenty of completely valid ways to approach these issues and the best answer will depend on many factors -- who you are, who the other party(s) is (are), who the interviewer is, etc. With a little social sensitivity and a basic understanding of ethics and morality, you should have no problem with these sorts of questions.

 

[OREdwardsJR]

LOL, the gunners have made their appearance ITT.

I thought it was SDN against the world but apparently it is not