Stress interviews

[tinker_rebel]

So I just interviewed somewhere, and I'm wondering if I got a stress interview. Perhaps the person really disliked me from my application...but here goes. Bear with me, this is long and fresh in my mind. It made me even more mad that I wasted 8 hours driving to this place to be drilled into the ground.

First, my interviewer asks me, as we walk to his office: How many schools did you apply to (ok so that's decent and fair question). How many have interviewed you? Which ones (is he supposed to be asking this?) Have they accepted you or what?

Then we get to his office. He then proceeds to tear down the school, comparing it to top tiers and calling it a low tier. Asks me why I didn't just go to the University of Michigan (I live in MI). I had to remind him they didn't interview me.

The five minutes after that were o.k. But then he goes into the "Here comes the ethics part of my questions". That just sounded off sirens in my mind.

"Would you give a 16 yr old an abortion?"- I respond that if it were legal, I would have some hesitation because abortion can have an emotional toll and that is a young age to have to go through that. So I would try to inform the patient of other options and if they still wanted the abortion I would refer them elsewhere because I wouldn't feel right doing an abortion on someone that young. However, I don't want my judgement blocking their access to their choice so I would find a Dr. that would do it.

He rolls his eyes then tells me I'm the only one around to do it in a 3rd world country. I say I'd do it then. Then he tells me a patient is brought to me bleeding to death, but the parents don't want a blood transfusion for religious reasons. I say I would do it anyway. He then says I contradicted myself with the two situations. However I told him that it is different because the patient's life is not at stake with getting or not getting an abortion, whereas the patient who needs a blood transfusion will die. Also, because I stressed I would only do what is legal he got all in my face with "What, do you think law is the ethos of medicine?" I told him no, not everything that is legal is ethical, and judgement must be used, but I would not do something illegal.

Anyway this is how the whole interview went...he tried to back me into walls and get me to contradict myself, all while putting me down. My lack of research had to be explained ad nauseum. My reason for taking a year off, he argued with me that it made no sense to take a year off to get more clinical experience (I had no shadowing, no experience from a doctor's point of view before taking my year off). He then questioned my certainty to want to go into medicine.

Then socialized healthcare came up. My god. 10 minutes of circular arguing with him, with the culmination of him pointing at a politically charged sticker on his office door. Funny thing is, it was a raging liberal sticker insulting George W and I'm liberal too (I think he thought I was a conservative). He then got mad at me because I have no solution to our healthcare system as of now.
Then he asked me for a strength. I told him I'm open minded and try to treat everyone equally. He sneered at me and asked "So you're trying to tell me you have 0 prejudice? Who are you kidding?" I responded that everyone does, but I try to lay those aside and have been good at doing so (I explained some of my contact with diverse patients). Then he probes me for who would give me trouble as a patient. I responded heavy drug users. I explained my reasoning and then he asked the question that almost pushed me over the edge and is going to make me report him to the school...

"So you sound like you know a lot about this already. Do you have anyone in your personal life that does heavy drugs?"

F%%^ him. Seriously. My mom was a heavy drug user, and yes that is why I have issues with that. I almost cried right there. But I held myself together. I just responded with a simple yes. He walked me back to the lobby with the other interviewers. I was nice to him...I wanted to hit him though. I held myself together the whole time, but there is no way I'm getting into that school. 5 years ago I would have cried my eyes out. I almost refused to have my second interview at the school that day. However, I went through with it.

My second interview was amazing and the guy told me my PS was one of the best he's read. It's too bad the first interview screwed me.

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[dynx]

Guy must have been a family practice doc...they are all hard a$$es. Toughen up, sounds like you handled it fine, wouldn't bother reporting him.

 

[tinker_rebel]

Yea, I def. know some interviewers try to grill you, and that didn't bother me so much. What bothered me was just the tone it was done in, and the question about personally knowing someone who does drugs really bothered me. You don't necessarily want someone having it in their mind that you are associating with heavy drug users since, as a Dr., you do have access to rx pads.
Trust me, I sucked it up. I was proud of the way I handled it, and I know it happens. It just seems that some positive along with the negativity could have helped lol. Just everything I tried to spin in a positive light he spinned it right back negative. Even after asking me my greatest strength he followed it up with asking me to find fault in my strengths. People on this board freak about what to say as a weakness, well try to describe weakness in a trait you just said was your strength. In a corner with no way out. It was like 5 rounds of this, which consisted of

Socialized health care
Ethics
My strengths/weakness
Lack of research
A year off-why

 

[soco]

Jeez, I would've loved a real hard-core interview like that with real discussion about tough problems, back and forth debate, putting each other into difficult positions...

All of my interviews were like Disney movies.

 

[bbabul01]

It seems you are quite upset about this based on the length of your post. If you feel you were truly mistreated by the interview and thus will be misrepresented to the committee you should contact the school. I would suggest a polite email to the school suggesting that you felt some of the questions asked were inappropriate. Most schools told me to talk to them if interviews went wrong (however they suggested doing it while still there, but hindsight 20/20 right?).

Just make sure you tone down what you say. Be polite, professional, and SPECIFIC. Obviously your post above is great for venting here, but not for a dean. I wouldn't write the idea with the intention of "reporting" your interviewer but rather discussing how you feel that he did not fairly assess your strengths and made you uncomfortable and thus your interview wasn't the best. Good luck!

 

[bbabul01]

All of my interviews were like Disney movies.

Hilarious. Well put.

 

[chaldobruin]

Wow, I am really sorry to hear that, thats HORRIBLE!! May I ask what school it was for?

I had kind of a similar experience at Penn State for one of my interviewers. He grilled me on political questions/views, tried to trap me, put my accomplishments down, etc. He even asked where else I interviewed and all that spiel. I ended up getting rejected. I guess thats just bad luck for us... I hope you do better

 

[Ailleurs]

Can more people mention their stress interview experiences? I would like to know some of the weird questions that they ask. I once read a book that said interviewers have been known to ask, sometimes, "what would you do if i hit on you?" (mind you, it was a 40+ old person as it was mentioned in the book).

interviewers won't ask really vulgar questions will they? like for example, "you're walking down the street and some guy says nice ass. how would you respond to that?"

if i answered that, i would say that i would get annoyed but it wouldn't be well spent energy trying to get the person to take back what he or she said and try to get him to respect women more. so if i say this though, the interviewer can view this as me "giving up," and not trying hard. but if i say "i would ask the man to politely not to say such things and that it is downgrading to women." he might say, "well that's one person. would you always say this?"

ah

and tinker... i'm sorry that you had to go through that. it was great that you didn't let the guy see your weak side. i'm guessing that he knew what he was doing and it was just pure acting. he must have noticed how hard it was for you to keep your cool and the fact that you never let go of your cool, will have probably given him 10 brownie points in his books, for you so

 

[Valvool]

I had a cold, distant interviewer with laser beam eyes that seemed to sear into me whenever he looked up from the notes he was writing after each of my answers. At one point I laughed out of nervousness, and he looked at me totally stonefaced and said with no expression, "Why are you laughing?" This was the tone of the whole interview and I felt pretty bad about it for a long time afterward.

Well, I was accepted at this school and I ran into this doctor recently and he remembered me. He kidded around with me, ruffled my hair like I was his granddaughter and said, "Hey, I know the interview was tough but that's how I like to interview!"

You never know what's behind the demeanor of your interviewer. Yours sounds over-the-top but it might not be the deathknell you think it is.

 

[armybound]

this thread is almost 2 years old. you might not get responses from the previous posters.

but no, they won't ask vulgar questions.

my stress interview consisted of a guy basically never liking any answer I gave him, and the questions he asked were him asking me for justification as to why I shouldn't be a pharmacist, NP, PA, nurse, EMT, tech....
He never would accept an answer, and when he finally did, he started going on about how my wife was going to leave me because of the hard hours and blah blah blah.

Overall, I thought the guy was a dick, and if that's how the school wishes to present itself to interviewees, I'd rather not go there.

 

[dragonfly99]

OP,
you may get into the school anyway.

The ethics questions are par for the course, although it sounds like he tried to rattle your cage a little by disagreeing with some of your answers. Best to try and remain calm no matter what the interviewer says...

I think asking about the family member with drug use was inappropriate. That is the main thing I would mention if you choose to report this. Difficult situation...it may have been better to report this @the time you were there...in which case they might have given you a 3rd/additional interview if you were lucky.

I think I would do nothing now. If you get rejected from the school, would politely notify them about the inappropriate question you were asked about your family member.

p.s. You will be treated inappropriately at times as a student and resident as well, so best to learn to have a thick skin in general.