Unconventional interview answers

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MemeLord said:
To the example at hand, my honest answer to the bolded I guess to why no/little current service would be “After spending six years giving my time to my soldiers, my peers, and the veterans in the surrounding community, I thought I would give some time to myself and my family as I entered in to my MCAT studying and the application cycle.”

Is that the kind of answer that is looked for? I am not trying to answer a question based solely on ADCOM intent, however I don’t want to come off as arrogant or lazy or like I am making excuses.
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Frankly, you get asked about community service and you spin it like this, "I enjoyed serving the veterans and fellow soldiers (smile a bit as you remember the satisfaction you got doing this) but more recently, after I left the military, my focus had to be on my child who needs a daddy who can be there... (a little shrug, what can you do sort of gesture). " That's the sort of answer that will have them eating out of your hand.

Fellow soldiers, not my soldiers (you didn't own them).
"a daddy".... that makes it clear that your kid is little and somewhat needy (kids are needy, that's normal).
 
Goro said:
You're getting warmer, but this answer also has a little bit of defensiveness. Mentioning your military service is always good, so this answer is better that in the OP.
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“While I do still stay in touch with the soldiers in my unit to check in on their well being and to help them if they reach out to me, I am no longer able to officially be in this role due to leaving the service and have decided to direct my attention towards my family and my work so that I can better serve my daughter in her youth and better serve our patient population.”

I know that is scripted, and I wouldn’t give that kind of word for word scripting, but is that the kind of detail and response to go in to?
 
LizzyM said:
Frankly, you get asked about community service and you spin it like this, "I enjoyed serving the veterans and fellow soldiers (smile a bit as you remember the satisfaction you got doing this) but more recently, after I left the military, my focus had to be on my child who needs a daddy who can be there... (a little shrug, what can you do sort of gesture). " That's the sort of answer that will have them eating out of your hand.

Fellow soldiers, not my soldiers (you didn't own them).
"a daddy".... that makes it clear that your kid is little and somewhat needy (kids are needy, that's normal).
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MemeLord said:
“While I do still stay in touch with the soldiers in my unit to check in on their well being and to help them if they reach out to me, I am no longer able to officially be in this role due to leaving the service and have decided to direct my attention towards my family and my work so that I can better serve my daughter in her youth and better serve our patient population.”

I know that is scripted, and I wouldn’t give that kind of word for word scripting, but is that the kind of detail and response to go in to?
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That I guess is just a military lingo thing. “My soldiers” is not like an ownership but that I was in charge of certain aspects - but I see what you are saying and will attack from that angle.

This is along the lines of what I am trying to get at, but in a less formal wording. Gotcha, I can lighten up. I am a ‘lightened up’ sort of conversationalist, just used to job interviews where you are a product being sold, not a student being acquired (if that makes sense?)
 
LizzyM said:
Fellow soldiers, not my soldiers (you didn't own them).
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This is a very common military term. We say my soldiers or my Sailors. We do own them. We take ownership of them as their leaders to ensure that they are doing their work, that they are taking care of themselves, and that they have no problems that will interfere with their ability to do their job.

And their freedom to go home after work is in my hands. If I want them to stay until midnight every day and watch me do paperwork, I can. I would never do that because I take care of my Sailors, but I’ve seen bad leaders treat their Sailors like crap.
 
LizzyM said:
Frankly, you get asked about community service and you spin it like this, "I enjoyed serving the veterans and fellow soldiers (smile a bit as you remember the satisfaction you got doing this) but more recently, after I left the military, my focus had to be on my child who needs a daddy who can be there... (a little shrug, what can you do sort of gesture). " That's the sort of answer that will have them eating out of your hand.

Fellow soldiers, not my soldiers (you didn't own them).
"a daddy".... that makes it clear that your kid is little and somewhat needy (kids are needy, that's normal).
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But in general outside of this example, literally just answer the question, be genuine, don’t try to ‘spin it?’ I can definitely do that, I may just be overthinking it.
 
MemeLord said:
“While I do still stay in touch with the soldiers in my unit to check in on their well being and to help them if they reach out to me, I am no longer able to officially be in this role due to leaving the service and have decided to direct my attention towards my family and my work so that I can better serve my daughter in her youth and better serve our patient population.”

I know that is scripted, and I wouldn’t give that kind of word for word scripting, but is that the kind of detail and response to go in to?
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I have the feeling that hearing this from you will come across much better than seeing your written words!
 
You have to be careful when speaking to civilians who don't understand the "my soldiers/my sailors" lingo in the military.
Furthermore, if you were caring for "your soldiers" is that really volunteer or is it part of your work? If it is part of your responsibility as part of your job, it really isn't volunteer.

and have decided to direct my attention towards my family and my work so that I can better serve my daughter in her youth and better serve our patient population.”
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No! You are being asked about COMMUNITY SERVICE about VOLUNTEERISM and about how you use your free time. You aren't being asked about a patient population. You aren't being asked about work. Throwing that into your response comes across as a workaholic who thinks mostly about work.

I gave you a suggested way to answer the question about how you are using your free time and to phrase it in such a way that it comes across in a way that will make a point, "my daughter in her youth" is not the way to get that across. I thinkt that "my little girl needs me" or "my daughter needs her daddy" you get the point across in a way that comes across better than "my daugher in her youth" which is not the way people talk, is it?
 
LizzyM said:
Furthermore, if you were caring for "your soldiers"
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Will be careful with that in the future. Definitely make sense. There are two kinds of 'my soldiers.' There are those who were truly in my squad as my subordinates. I thought it would just come off as pompous to say "subordinates." Not sure why, that word has a negative connotation in my mind? Is that fine to say?

Then there are the other "My soldiers" from the mental health advocate role. Counseling soldiers on mental health issues, driving them to appointments, taking them to the gym if they needed a stress outlet, arranging mental health appointments, providing contact information for mental health services etc. These were both sodiers in my unit, active duty soldiers, homeless vets directed towards me, coordination with the VFW or VA...and so on. It was a role that I held within my unit, but it was not a "during duty hours" role, not a part of my job (my jobs in the army were lab tech and NCO) and I was not assigned the role I sought it out specifically to help. It would be the equivelant of like a student run free clinic - an volunteering opportunity you would only have through a particular school but you wouldn't be able to do it if you weren't with that school.

Anyway, I refer to them as "my soldiers" because with that language, to me from a military perspective, it is more personal (and just easier to say) than something like "My felllow soldiers that I helped." How would you go about that?
LizzyM said:
No! You are being asked about COMMUNITY SERVICE about VOLUNTEERISM and about how you use your free time. You aren't being asked about a patient population.
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So, my job is one in which I can work however much or however little I want (down to 8 hours a week) where the only benefit to working more is so that I can bring extra testing in house to help our patients (as our reference laboratory has a terrible turnaround time...). So, is there a difference between "Community service" and "Serving my community"?
LizzyM said:
I gave you a suggested way to answer the question about how you are using your free time and to phrase it in such a way that it comes across in a way that will make a point, "my daughter in her youth" is not the way to get that across. I thinkt that "my little girl needs me" or "my daughter needs her daddy" you get the point across in a way that comes across better than "my daugher in her youth" which is not the way people talk, is it?
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I definitely prefer your way of saying it. I typed my message at the same time/before I saw yours. And no "my daughter in her youth" isnt how people talk lol I am a lot better at formulating sentences/word usage in conversation than in the written word. Hence why I started my PS last July and needed to refine it so much, writing is not my forte.
 
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on one of the interviews i was asked what my hobbies were... i said EATING... "Like, i am REALLY good at it". I said it with absolutely serious face too. The guy was laughing so hard, he actually stopped me, and wrote it down. He said he's been interviewing people for 20 years, and never heard this before, and he wanted to remember the moment . 🙂. I did not do this on purpose, i was just very honest. So, sometimes unconventional is good 🙂
 
LizzyM said:
You have to be careful when speaking to civilians who don't understand the "my soldiers/my sailors" lingo in the military.
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Really? I feel like it’s pretty obvious. I have said it to plenty of civilians, including at med school interviews and never had anyone not know what I meant. Maybe I just got lucky.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Really? I feel like it’s pretty obvious. I have said it to plenty of civilians, including at med school interviews and never had anyone not know what I meant. Maybe I just got lucky.
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i used the word "Shamming" a lot, and for some reason people do not understand me.... is that not a word outside of the military?
 
M&L said:
i used the word "Shamming" a lot, and for some reason people do not understand me.... is that not a word outside of the military?
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Must be an Army thing. Never heard that before. Had to look it up. We call it “skating” in the Navy.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Must be an Army thing. Never heard that before. Had to look it up. We call it “skating” in the Navy.
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That's because y'all don't have the E4 Mafia. You get Petty Officer at E4. Shamming requires the wisdom of being a senior-junior enlisted (SPC).
 
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MemeLord said:
That's because y'all don't have the E4 Mafia. You get Petty Officer at E4. Shamming requires the wisdom of being a senior-junior enlisted (SPC).
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Oh, we have a mafia. I’d probably get banned if I said what it was called, but it is named after a certain ethnicity of people who happen to almost exclusively work in supply.

Edit: to be clear, it’s not a slur or anything.
 
MemeLord said:
How are unconventional answers to interview questions normally perceived? Not like weird or creepy answers, but answers that one might not expect from a typical premed interviewee.

Example: If asked about low non-clinical volunteering hours despite high clinical volunteering or clinical employment, would an answer along the lines of this sound:

"While I would like to help all of those that I can depending on my future career progression, my commitment is not to serve the under served but to serve patients regardless of their race, religion, or socioeconomic background."

Is an answer like that, while completely honest and not really an inappropriate answer, a risky answer to give?
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If I heard an answer like that to the above question, I would allow an awkward moment of silence, squint my eyes, and ask what?

Your answer makes no sense in the context of "non-clinical volunteering hours." It's not an unconventional answer. It sounds incredibly canned, practiced, and suck-uppy.
 
Mass Effect said:
If I heard an answer like that to the above question, I would allow an awkward moment of silence, squint my eyes, and ask what?

Your answer makes no sense in the context of "non-clinical volunteering hours." And it sounds incredibly canned, practiced, and suck-uppy to an extreme.
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I have picked that up - not a job interview, a person interview. Genuine and honest > what I think highlights a positive
 
MemeLord said:
My bad, that was just supposed to be kind of an example as opposed to a specific scenario. But like...during conversation these sorts of 'unconventional' statements would be alright? I tend to have novel opinions or mannerisms, particularly in an interview context.
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This was not unconventional. An unconventional answer would be answering that question with "yeah, I did some non-clinical stuff because it's a passion, although I know it won't help me in terms of med school and clinical acumen."

Unconventional answers can help or hurt, depending on what you say. If you answered that question with the unconventional and snotty "yeah, what about it?" it would absolutely hurt you.
 
Mass Effect said:
If I heard an answer like that to the above question, I would allow an awkward moment of silence, squint my eyes, and ask what?

Your answer makes no sense in the context of "non-clinical volunteering hours." It's not an unconventional answer. It sounds incredibly canned, practiced, and suck-uppy.
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I guess how I perceived my example was like "I haven't done much non-clinical volunteering because I wanted to direct my attention and time towards the underserved in a clinical setting" Which I guess would not really be a direct answer to the question?
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Oh, we have a mafia. I’d probably get banned if I said what it was called, but it is named after a certain ethnicity of people who happen to almost exclusively work in supply.

Edit: to be clear, it’s not a slur or anything.
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is this a good time to mention that i was in supply as well 🙂))))?
 
Mass Effect said:
This was not unconventional. An unconventional answer would be answering that question with "yeah, I did some non-clinical stuff because it's a passion, although I know it won't help me in terms of med school and clinical acumen."

Unconventional answers can help or hurt, depending on what you say. If you answered that question with the unconventional and snotty "yeah, what about it?" it would absolutely hurt you.
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And I will be sure to not approach interviews in this way. This be why I asked the question, to kind of clarify! Now that the primary is over for me, next ahead is interview prep if I am so lucky.
 
MemeLord said:
And I will be sure to not approach interviews in this way. This be why I asked the question, to kind of clarify! Now that the primary is over for me, next ahead is interview prep if I am so lucky.
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You have like a 3.9 and a 521 and you’re military. You will get plenty of interviews if you didn’t apply like a *******.
 
It was addressed on here before, but a few people made a good point. Make SURE you answer the question asked. It got me rejected at least once.
 
MemeLord said:
only 3.66 cGPA, the 3.99 is the sGPA lol And I think the school list is good. But it is still always a crap shoot.
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You'll be fine. Just don't do your gollum impression at interviews and you will do great.
 
ciestar said:
It was addressed on here before, but a few people made a good point. Make SURE you answer the question asked. It got me rejected at least once.
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I genuinely would not have thought that giving a 'politicians answer' would be grounds for rejection. Annoying, maybe, but did not think it would be to that extreme.
 
MemeLord said:
So, my job is one in which I can work however much or however little I want (down to 8 hours a week) where the only benefit to working more is so that I can bring extra testing in house to help our patients (as our reference laboratory has a terrible turnaround time...). So, is there a difference between "Community service" and "Serving my community"?
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Are you salaried or hourly? If hourly, then being able to work as much or as little of you wish and you put in extra hours, it isn't volunteerism and it isn't community service, its a paying job.
 
LizzyM said:
it isn't volunteerism and it isn't community service, its a paying job
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It is hourly and I know it isn't volunteering, I guess I thought it could be spun in such a way to highlight that by choosing to work more it is in order to benefit our patients.

The longer anecdote is along the lines of I knew we had two patients go in to sepsis within a one month time frame due to a large turn around time for our urine cultures so, despite my job only being to run PSAs, I decided to pursue bringing microbiology in house so that we could stop having patients with infections for so damn long. I know it is not a substitute for volunteering/community service and it is not altruism as I am getting paid, but is that not the kind of anecdote that should be said anywhere?

I don't want to work more, but I choose to so our patients can have a better experience through our laboratory testing. In the context of any interview question or secondary? I didn't have the characters for it on the primary...
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Our supply mafia could get anything! Love those guys and gals.
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a buddy of mine went into the Marines after high School and he got placed in supply. This guy was super intelligent so just out of curiosity is that where they tend to assign people with above average intelligence?
 
MemeLord said:
It is hourly and I know it isn't volunteering, I guess I thought it could be spun in such a way to highlight that by choosing to work more it is in order to benefit our patients.

The longer anecdote is along the lines of I knew we had two patients go in to sepsis within a one month time frame due to a large turn around time for our urine cultures so, despite my job only being to run PSAs, I decided to pursue bringing microbiology in house so that we could stop having patients with infections for so damn long. I know it is not a substitute for volunteering/community service and it is not altruism as I am getting paid, but is that not the kind of anecdote that should be said anywhere?

I don't want to work more, but I choose to so our patients can have a better experience through our laboratory testing. In the context of any interview question or secondary? I didn't have the characters for it on the primary...
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If a school values community service as in "volunteerism", trying to spin a paying job as service to the community might be something that the interviewer sees right through. I wouldn't chance it.
 
LizzyM said:
If a school values community service as in "volunteerism", trying to spin a paying job as service to the community might be something that the interviewer sees right through. I wouldn't chance it.
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I can see that. Probably apply the same notion to all schools not just service oriented? Is there any context you can think of where this anecdote would/could come up? Is "A particularly impactful clinical event" even a question?
 
MemeLord said:
I genuinely would not have thought that giving a 'politicians answer' would be grounds for rejection. Annoying, maybe, but did not think it would be to that extreme.
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No I was literally told I didn’t answer the questions asked lol basically, I never got to the point and babbled. Dont do this
 
MemeLord said:
I can see that. Probably apply the same notion to all schools not just service oriented? Is there any context you can think of where this anecdote would/could come up? Is "A particularly impactful clinical event" even a question?
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You aren't likely to be asked that. Someone asked me in a PM about a prompt related to "a personal accomplishment of which you are most proud" or something like that. You could say that you were proud of having successfully brought xyz testing to your institution in an effort to improve patient care in response to several unfortunate incidents that were exacerbated by delays in getting results back from outside labs.
 
LizzyM said:
You aren't likely to be asked that. Someone asked me in a PM about a prompt related to "a personal accomplishment of which you are most proud" or something like that. You could say that you were proud of having successfully brought xyz testing to your institution in an effort to improve patient care in response to several unfortunate incidents that were exacerbated by delays in getting results back from outside labs.
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Bomb digity. Thank you for the clarification and help @All
 
ExplodingUlcers said:
a buddy of mine went into the Marines after high School and he got placed in supply. This guy was super intelligent so just out of curiosity is that where they tend to assign people with above average intelligence?
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Was he super intelligent or super intelligent for a Marine? In the Navy, supply is usually filled with people who got their citizenship in boot camp or before because it doesn’t require a security clearance or a high asvab score. But I’ve met some smart supply guys. I was an undesignated seaman with a perfect asvab and then a gunner with a math degree. It happens.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Well we all volunteered, so none of us are really that smart. But the Navy is known for having really smart weirdos. Have you ever met an FC or a nuke? Come on.
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I mean, I was a 98 on the ASVAB and I only went with Medical Laboratory because the recruiter told me it would be like chemical engineering. In hindsight, I probably would have enjoyed Nuke more, but then I wouldn’t have been exposed to and sought medicine, so you win some you lose some. Even the high ASVABers are idiots at 17 lol
 
MemeLord said:
I mean, I was a 98 on the ASVAB and I only went with Medical Laboratory because the recruiter told me it would be like chemical engineering. In hindsight, I probably would have enjoyed Nuke more, but then I wouldn’t have been exposed to and sought medicine, so you win some you lose some. Even the high ASVABers are idiots at 17 lol
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No you wouldn’t have. I had a 99 and they tried to bluff me into going nuke by telling me I could only do that or undesignated seaman. So I picked undes. I showed them lol. 99 on the asvab chipping paint in 140 degree weather. Winner right here.

Nuke sucks though. There’s a reason they have such high bonuses. My good friend at the time warned me all about it. Very glad I didn’t go that route.
 
looptheloop said:
In addition to all the other fantastic advice from others on this thread, here is my $0.02:
Read the room.
As an added bonus, this skill will continue to serve you well far beyond interview season.
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Obvi, every answer will be situationally dependent. If trish likes jokes, I throw Trish a joke. If grumpy gills Nancy over in the corner is a grumpy rumpy then I’ll be as professional as possible.

And apparently, it is never appropriate to use a Sméagol voice at an interview even over lunchtime icebreaker...
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Was he super intelligent or super intelligent for a Marine? In the Navy, supply is usually filled with people who got their citizenship in boot camp or before because it doesn’t require a security clearance or a high asvab score. But I’ve met some smart supply guys. I was an undesignated seaman with a perfect asvab and then a gunner with a math degree. It happens.
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He was generally just a very intelligent person. I remember the recruiter even encouraged him not to join because he was "too smart" but he came from a family with a long line of Marines so that was his primary reason for joining.
 
ExplodingUlcers said:
He was generally just a very intelligent person. I remember the recruiter even encouraged him not to join because he was "too smart" but he came from a family with a long line of Marines so that was his primary reason for joining.
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Military gets more legacies than Harvard lol But good on him, doing what he felt needed for regardless of aptitude.
 
Answer the question honestly and formally, but give your actual thoughts. I think so many premeds are just so terrified of getting anything wrong that they won't stick their neck out for anything - even their own opinion.

I remember in one interview, I was asked about a comment about compassion fatigue I made on my secondary. They asked if I thought it was avoidable. I thought for a minute and said "No, I don't think so." Not an optimistic answer, but it was what I genuinely thought. Turns out it was the answer they liked too
 
ExplodingUlcers said:
He was generally just a very intelligent person. I remember the recruiter even encouraged him not to join because he was "too smart" but he came from a family with a long line of Marines so that was his primary reason for joining.
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Yeah I was just joking. Some of my classmates came from the Marines and are smart as heck.
 
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