The social worker question at the interview?

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

If I was asked why I want to be a doctor, and I talk about how the human body interests me and how being in a hospital made me want to help people who physically struggle, why would the interviewer then ask "why not social worker?"

-First off, I clearly mentioned that science fascinates me

-Second, social workers and doctors both work to benefit society in different ways

Excuse my language, but frankly, it's idiotic. It makes me feel as if an interviewer is reading questions off a sheet more so than actually having a discussion. I think a proper interview should have elements of both.

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[deleted407021]

Were you actually asked this in an interview, following that statement?

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

I'm actually not participating in this cycle. But I have mentors and older classmates who were asked this after talking about how research and clinical exposure helped shape their goals.

 

[phuynh94]

I don't know why this question would offend/irritate you so much. It's valid question. If the answer to you is obvious i.e. it seems like it's a scripted question, then just answer it genuinely.

 

[whatever5]

I'm a social worker, and I got asked this. I said that as a doctor, you get to be a social worker, but as a social worker you don't get to be a doctor.

 

[TallPreMed]

As an MSW you help people who physically struggle. Our hospice social workers deal with "the human body" every single day. If you said anything about wanting to "help" people as well then the question is warranted. I work with social workers in our hospice as well as ones in nursing homes and hospitals and I could never do their job. I hope your haughty attitude towards social workers came through in that interview as clearly as it is in your post.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

As an MSW you help people who physically struggle. Our hospice social workers deal with "the human body" every single day. If you said anything about wanting to "help" people as well then the question is warranted. I work with social workers in our hospice as well as ones in nursing homes and hospitals and I could never do their job. I hope your haughty attitude towards social workers came through in that interview as clearly as it is in your post.

Wishing bad upon people isn't very nice.

And more importantly, you should work on your comprehension skills. I never said anything negative towards social workers. I just said that being a social worker doesn't involve the deep applications of science that being a doctor involves. Is that rude, or is that the truth? Did I imply at all that the absence of science in a career makes it a lower job?

I request you to clearly explain how I, in any way, insulted social workers.

Finally, I hope that your lack of reading comprehension comes through in your mcat CARS section as it came across in your comment. LOL just kidding. I'm not that type 🙂

 

[Psai]

Does this look like social work school to you?

 

[jlh19]

It sounds like they were going for that common question in response to the why medicine one where we all answer because we want to help people. So they ask, "Well there are many ways to help people like being a social worker, why be a physician and not a social worker". If you get offended by this question, be prepared to be offended numerous times in your life!


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[LoveBeingHuman:)]

It sounds like they were going for that common question in response to the why medicine one where we all answer because we want to help people. So they ask, "Well there are many ways to help people like being a social worker, why be a physician and not a social worker". If you get offended by this question, be prepared to be offended numerous times in your life!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Not offended by the question itself. I don't get offended much actually. I'm just a bit upset that the interviewer isn't really giving the interviewee the respect by listening to what He or she is saying. It kind of defeats the purpose of the interviewer trying to get to know the person. There are, of course, differences between the physician career and other social work careers. And if the interviewee has already explained the role of science in their decision to be a doctor, then the question of "why not social worker", seems to indicate the interviewer not listening.

 

[Yleio381]

Not offended by the question itself. I don't get offended much actually. I'm just a bit upset that the interviewer isn't really giving the interviewee the respect by listening to what He or she is saying. It kind of defeats the purpose of the interviewer trying to get to know the person. There are, of course, differences between the physician career and other social work careers. And if the interviewee has already explained the role of science in their decision to be a doctor, then the question of "why not social worker", seems to indicate the interviewer not listening.

It's also possible that the interviewer was listening but that your answer wasn't as clear as you thought it was.

In addition, liking science does not preclude someone from going into social work, so saying that you liked science earlier in the interview would not actually answer the question "why not social work?"

 

[deleted407021]

I had an interview where they asked "why medicine?" twice, forcing me to awkwardly reiterate what I'd already said

 

[Tenk]

I'm a social worker, and I got asked this. I said that as a doctor, you get to be a social worker, but as a social worker you don't get to be a doctor.

/thread

 

[Goro]

It's a perfectly good question, even if you don't understand it's merit.

You should be able to articulate why you want to be a doctor, compared to ___, with any profession that aids other people filling in the blank. "Nurse" is the one most commonly used.

Not all interviews are discussions. They can be a simple "I ask you a question...you answer it".

If I was asked why I want to be a doctor, and I talk about how the human body interests me and how being in a hospital made me want to help people who physically struggle, why would the interviewer then ask "why not social worker?"

-First off, I clearly mentioned that science fascinates me

-Second, social workers and doctors both work to benefit society in different ways

Excuse my language, but frankly, it's idiotic. It makes me feel as if an interviewer is reading questions off a sheet more so than actually having a discussion. I think a proper interview should have elements of both.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

It's a perfectly good question, even if you don't understand it's merit.

You should be able to articulate why you want to be a doctor, compared to ___, with any profession that aids other people filling in the blank. "Nurse" is the one most commonly used.

Not all interviews are discussions. They can be a simple "I ask you a question...you answer it".

Understood. So is saying "because I want to spend my life in the deep applications of science that medicine has to offer" good enough?

Cause it really does answer the question...

 

[leonardoson]

As an MSW you help people who physically struggle. Our hospice social workers deal with "the human body" every single day. If you said anything about wanting to "help" people as well then the question is warranted. I work with social workers in our hospice as well as ones in nursing homes and hospitals and I could never do their job. I hope your haughty attitude towards social workers came through in that interview as clearly as it is in your post.

You wish that he doesn't get accepted into a medical school because he would rather have an abundance of knowledge about the human body instead of, "seeing" the human body?

 

[nRomaleos]

...or he/she was trying to put you on the hot-seat with an elementary level question...and you chose to see it as "idiotic" instead for it was...a question...

 

[Cheenghee Koh]

I just happen to have a MSW, and a PhD in social work. I am surprised that you said social worker's don't apply sciences? I think you may need to rethink what do we mean by "sciences"? If you mean biological sciences, then, well, I won't oppose. It is because as social workers, we deal more with people's social relations and resources, and see how we can leverage these resources to better their lives/health/mental health. However, in our work, we still need to use "sciences" if we define sciences as a systematic approach to collect data, analyze the data, interpret the data, and make decisions informed by the results. To better do my job, I even got an additional masters degree in statistics to evaluate my work/help my colleagues evaluate their work (my colleagues include MDs....). Hey, don't forget the "evidence-based practice"!

OK, back to your question. I will be making my application this year, and I totally expect that I will get asked this question a lot: why from social work to MD? I do have my story, and surprisingly, not out of my research, but from my clinical experiences. I won't say I make a switch from SW to MD, rather, I "expand" my career to include "biology" into my biopsychosocial care package I want to develop for the socially-marginalized population. I will be a social work-physician. Not a social worker, not a physician. (oh, OK, I am also a statistician/psychometrician)

No matter what, we social workers are a team member in today's inter/multi-disciplinary healthcare team. We can put some unique stuff on the table to contribute to the well-beings of our patients. So, when answering this question, don't easily put down social work as a valuable team member. Instead, try to emphasize that, when getting a MD, you will be able to do MORE than you being a MD or SW alone, hence bring benefits to both MD, SW, and your patients. =)

 

[RedPanda55]

Welps, some great responses above but I'll give my quick 2 cents.
1. This is a great question
2. Don't be ignorant about what the roles of other professions are as explained by @Cheenghee Koh. (This should be obvious as you should have done enough research to know why you want to go into medicine and not another profession)
3. Don't just say you like science and helping other people. You should be able to pull from your own personal experiences why you chose medicine specifically. Talk about those.