Testing prospective hires

[ScubaV]

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So for academia, faculty interviewees are usually tested by having them give some sort of presentation and/or slide session for the residents and faculty. I've heard of private practice jobs that give a slide test to prospective hires. Either asking them to sit with someone and discuss the cases that come up or giving them a handful of trays, a couple hours, and saying tell us what you think.

Does anyone have any experience with this on either side of the table? How common is it? Do you think it's a worthwhile method of evaluating people?

 

[pathslides]

So for academia, faculty interviewees are usually tested by having them give some sort of presentation and/or slide session for the residents and faculty. I've heard of private practice jobs that give a slide test to prospective hires. Either asking them to sit with someone and discuss the cases that come up or giving them a handful of trays, a couple hours, and saying tell us what you think.

Does anyone have any experience with this on either side of the table? How common is it? Do you think it's a worthwhile method of evaluating people?

When I went through the job hunt, I had a private practice give me a test. I didn't care much about it since it seemed like a horrible practice to work at. In fact most of the cases they gave me were cases they sent out for consult which was a d-bag move. At my current job during the interview I joined everyone at consensus conference and just gave my thoughts on all the cases, much more laid back and fun. I had interviews at academic places where you just give a presentation, and I just used the same presentation I gave during a grand rounds. It does seem pretty stressful if you like the place to have to take an actual slide exam since it basically makes or breaks you.

 

[octopusprime]

Had it both ways when I was applying; most didn't have a slide test, a few did. One was 2 hours to look through about 40 cases, some softball stuff, some more difficult (eg. angioimmunoblastic lymphoma), but the point on the harder cases was less "do you know this" and more "what's your differential & how would you work it up"...at one point we just discussed basic criteria for breast cancer tumor grading.
Didn't necessarily seem like a "red flag"--it was a small PP group and they wanted to at least know you were capable of thinking critically on the hot seat.

 

[coroner]

Places I've worked never had a slide test. But, during the job hunt I did interview at a place that had one. They said it was to see "where I'm at" and s.o.p. for everyone who has been hired there. Nothing really difficult. It was more about making sure you're competent than tripping you up or seeing if you're an all star. As far as how common, for pp, this is not the norm for the most places i.e. < 50%. This is based on interviews I've been on and from speaking with colleagues. Different people have different thoughts on them though. Here's some posts from awhile back...

 

[yaah]

I don't like the concept of "slide tests" (like giving the applicant a box of 20 slides and a sheet of paper and sending them off for an hour). But I also don't have a problem with people showing cases to see what the applicant thinks about them, and seeing how they think and such. Hiring someone for a private group is long-term investment which requires respect on both sides. If you treat applicants like crap, it's probably not a great job.