What are the bread and butter interview questions we should have answers nailed down?

[chajjohnson]

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I have my first Psychiatry Residency interview in less than 2 weeks and I am trying to prepare engaging and succinct answers to the bread and butter questions I will be asked at every interview. Besides "tell me about yourself" and "why psychiatry", what sorts of questions get asked at every interview? Any tips on what things to focus on for the "why psychiatry" question? Thanks for any advice!

 

[OldPsychDoc]

"Tell me about your mother."

😀

 

[SourceOfDenial]

Know your story. Ask yourself, why do I want to be a psychiatrist? What did draw me to this work? What do I like about it? What don't I like about it? What do I want to do in X years? What things are I interested in learning more about or exploring?

If you know yourself I feel like it doesn't matter what questions you get asked.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

"Have your parents forgiven you yet for picking psychiatry"
"Can you count backwards from 100 by sevens?"

 

[SpongeBob DoctorPants]

What are you looking for in a residency program?
Why did you apply to our program?

 

[Doc1401]

"Remember these three words: car, apple, table
I will ask you those in five minutes, ok?"

Thirty minutes passes and you realize that you forgot to ask them to recall those words

 

[valid username]

Related question: is it okay to talk about your favorite (working) part of psychiatry? I was thinking it may sound picky. Or is this where the "in 10 yrs" thing comes in. For example, I reeeeeally like dealing with severe MI. There is nothing quite like "good morning" from a pt who was acutely psychotic 2 days ago. I appreciate their struggle. I appreciate their family's struggle. And I can totally see myself working inpatinet with my own set of duckling students. ... so...does that come off as someone who really doesn't care much about doing outpatient? Is that a problem?

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Related question: is it okay to talk about your favorite (working) part of psychiatry? I was thinking it may sound picky. Or is this where the "in 10 yrs" thing comes in. For example, I reeeeeally like dealing with severe MI. There is nothing quite like "good morning" from a pt who was acutely psychotic 2 days ago. I appreciate their struggle. I appreciate their family's struggle. And I can totally see myself working inpatinet with my own set of duckling students. ... so...does that come off as someone who really doesn't care much about doing outpatient? Is that a problem?

No--not a problem at all.
(In fact, at many programs, a refreshing change...)

 

[valid username]

WOW! That is very surprising. Very. I am in outpatient rotation right now but another attending is "borrowing" me 2 days a week for inpatient. The people in the outpatient clinic are very nice, but there's so much of a single office a person can handle.

 

[clausewitz2]

Related question: is it okay to talk about your favorite (working) part of psychiatry? I was thinking it may sound picky. Or is this where the "in 10 yrs" thing comes in. For example, I reeeeeally like dealing with severe MI. There is nothing quite like "good morning" from a pt who was acutely psychotic 2 days ago. I appreciate their struggle. I appreciate their family's struggle. And I can totally see myself working inpatinet with my own set of duckling students. ... so...does that come off as someone who really doesn't care much about doing outpatient? Is that a problem?

The question I would be tempted to ask if I was interviewing you and you said that would be "so a good chunk of the patients you are describing at our institution will hate you while inpatient and view you as a jailer. You will be sitting across a table from them on a regular basis and explicitly testifying about why they are severely mentally disabled and don't deserve a fundamental right at the moment. How will you reconcile yourself to that?"

...but then I'm someone who was a little disappointed that I never actually witnesses stress interviewing techniques while on the application trail.

 

[valid username]

LOL! I have grown children. I am immune to this. Nah, seriously. I will work on a better answer in case someone asks me that. I will certainly think about in the next few morning rounds.