Stoic/emotionless interviewer

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zebumeat

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Anyone have an interview with a really stoic/emotionless/bored person? It's always tough to tell how you're doing in an interview with people like that. 🙁
 
my first was with a guy who showed next to no expression. he was the dean of admissions however, so I can only assume he was a good judge of character.
 
I had a real nerdy doc down at Baylor. He lacked any form of spunk. Maybe he needed a beer to lighten up....
 
is that just their personality or are they just pretending?
 
One of my interviewers for OHSU displayed absolutely no emotions as she questioned me for a full hour, even when the questions ranged to personal/family issues. But at the very end of the interview she actually smiled in a very natural way and wished me well. So I think at least some of these "stoic" interviewers are pretenses.
 
My interviewer at NYMC was extremely emotionless while my 2 other interviewers at other schools were extremely friendly and humorous. I got into NYMC and waitlisted at the other 2 (all around the same par). Makes no sense.
 
I have had two stoic interviewers. Haven't gotten into either yet, but not giving up hope!

I think it's partly a test of your confidence. It's tough to be self-confident when the person listening to you doesn't seem to respond to anything you say.
 
My interviewer at NYMC was extremely emotionless while my 2 other interviewers at other schools were extremely friendly and humorous. I got into NYMC and waitlisted at the other 2 (all around the same par). Makes no sense.
OMG...same thing with me. One of my interviewers was SO AWESOME, and I got waitlisted. I really thought it was going to happen, but I guess you never know.
 
My interviewer at NYMC was extremely emotionless while my 2 other interviewers at other schools were extremely friendly and humorous. I got into NYMC and waitlisted at the other 2 (all around the same par). Makes no sense.

Haha, My NYMC interviewer was really emotionless too!
 
I think I was spoiled by the first three schools I interviewed at because my interviewers really could not have been friendlier. And then there was UPitt. My faculty interviewer's boredom and apathy sort of rubbed off on me because I wasn't really putting any real emotion into my answers, making them sound a little canned. I think part of it was the fact that he rarely looked at me, and it's hard to engage with someone who's busy scribbling stuff down on a piece of paper the whole time. Don't you guys hate the whole note-taking aspect of some of these interviews? I'm not giving a lecture, I'm trying to have a conversation with you here! Work with me!!
 
I had an interviewer at Iowa who didn't even nod at my answers, while the other guy (in the same room) was nodding in agreement, smiling, taking notes. It was quite the dichotomy. My faculty at Pitt wasn't just stoic, he was downright rude. It just happens sometimes, it was good to be prepared and confident enough that I didn't just break down and say, "Why don't you like me?!"
 
One of my interviewers at Tulane was sort of like that. I don't think he smiled once, he had a stone face each time I finished answering a question, he questioned how I got the MCAT score I did (like did I have to take it multiple times, take prep courses, etc.) and topped it off by insulting my undergrad school. 😡 It was kind of intimidating, but mostly it turned me off to the school.

I'm not sure why some interviewers take this approach. We may just be interviewees, but we still had to work hard and spend a lot of time and money to get to this point, and a little courtesy would be nice.
 
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