Worst/Funniest Interview Experiences

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I think that you gave a very good answer, for the first part. The shoes part, leaves me wondering, though.


w0rldw3y3d said:
Interviewer: " So, let's say you come to our school, and on your orientation day you overhear a peer saying racist comments about another peer. What do you do?"

Me: "...how severe is it?"

Interviewer: "...I don't know"

Me: "Oh, ok. I would confront the person and say, 'hey man, that's not cool!'"

Interviewer: *blank stare*

Me: "...yeah, cuz unless you walk a mile in someone's shoes you can't judge them."

Interviewer: *writes down something*

Me: (internally) "F***!!"

Open mouth, insert foot.
Click to expand...
 
Goro said:
I think that you gave a very good answer, for the first part. The shoes part, leaves me wondering, though.
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Haha you think so? That's a saying my my folks always used to say growing up. In the moment I couldn't think of a more elegant way to say it.
 
w0rldw3y3d said:
Haha you think so? That's a saying my my folks always used to say growing up. In the moment I couldn't think of a more elegant way to say it.
Click to expand...
I know the saying, it's just more typically applied to folks who are in a different situation than the speaker, making different choices based on their circumstances, rather than to something like race which isn't so much about choice.
It's just a bit incongruous, but it's not inappropriate or anything, so no biggie. The first part was on point, though, so probably good overall.
 
mehc012 said:
I know the saying, it's just more typically applied to folks who are in a different situation than the speaker, making different choices based on their circumstances, rather than to something like race which isn't so much about choice.
It's just a bit incongruous, but it's not inappropriate or anything, so no biggie. The first part was on point, though, so probably good overall.
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Exactly! that's why after I said it I was thinking, "YOU IDIOT!" Hahaha.
 
Interviewer: So do you have any questions for me?
Me: [drawing a blank] ...ummm...since the med students rotate through so many different hospitals in the area, what do you think their favorite rotation is?
Interviewer: Favorite? 😕
Me: Like the one they enjoy most
Interviewer: The purpose of hospital rotations is not enjoyment, they are for learning how to practice medicine.

The guy proceeds to give me an extensive lecture about how medicine isn't supposed to be fun and if thats why I'm interested I should find another profession...

Didn't feel what I said was THAT bad, but he certainly wasnt happy lol

Result: Accepted 😱
 
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goldy490 said:
Interviewer: So do you have any questions for me?
Me: [drawing a blank] ...ummm...since the med students rotate through so many different hospitals in the area, what do you think their favorite rotation is?
Interviewer: Favorite? 😕
Me: Like the one they enjoy most
Interviewer: The purpose of hospital rotations is not enjoyment, they are for learning how to practice medicine.

The guy proceeds to give me an extensive lecture about how medicine isn't supposed to be fun and if thats why I'm interested I should find another profession...

Didn't feel what I said was THAT bad, but he certainly wasnt happy lol
Click to expand...

Damn, that's brutal.
 
goldy490 said:
Interviewer: The purpose of hospital rotations is not enjoyment, they are for learning how to practice medicine.

The guy proceeds to give me an extensive lecture about how medicine isn't supposed to be fun and if thats why I'm interested I should find another profession...

Didn't feel what I said was THAT bad, but he certainly wasnt happy lol
Click to expand...

Yikes! In my opinion, you asked a pretty benign question. Sorry things had to turn out the way they did!
 
goldy490 said:
Interviewer: So do you have any questions for me?
Me: [drawing a blank] ...ummm...since the med students rotate through so many different hospitals in the area, what do you think their favorite rotation is?
Interviewer: Favorite? 😕
Me: Like the one they enjoy most
Interviewer: The purpose of hospital rotations is not enjoyment, they are for learning how to practice medicine.

The guy proceeds to give me an extensive lecture about how medicine isn't supposed to be fun and if thats why I'm interested I should find another profession...

Didn't feel what I said was THAT bad, but he certainly wasnt happy lol
Click to expand...


When you left the room, he started grumbling about millenials, I'm sure.

If he is the sort who would take so much offense at that, then rest assured that everyone he interviews manages to annoy him in some way or another.
 
Promethean said:
When you left the room, he started grumbling about millenials, I'm sure.

If he is the sort who would take so much offense at that, then rest assured that everyone he interviews manages to annoy him in some way or another.
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Hahaha thats what I was thinking. He was an older guy who seemed to have a very strong "Back in my day" bent. Thanks for all the encouraging feedback everyone!
 
goldy490 said:
Interviewer: So do you have any questions for me?
Me: [drawing a blank] ...ummm...since the med students rotate through so many different hospitals in the area, what do you think their favorite rotation is?
Interviewer: Favorite? 😕
Me: Like the one they enjoy most
Interviewer: The purpose of hospital rotations is not enjoyment, they are for learning how to practice medicine.

The guy proceeds to give me an extensive lecture about how medicine isn't supposed to be fun and if thats why I'm interested I should find another profession...

Didn't feel what I said was THAT bad, but he certainly wasnt happy lol
Click to expand...


???? If you don't enjoy your job to at least some degree, you probably shouldn't be doing it. I would rather have a doctor who enjoyed practicing than the alternative. Add to that the enormous amount of debt many of us are incurring with potentially decreasing compensation? Yeah, you better enjoy this.

That said, I agree with the other posters who said this was a relatively benign question. As least you didn't ask which was the "easiest" rotation.
 
Had one this week at a school that has a pretty low intensity interview. This was from another kid.

Interviewer: Why medicine? Go ahead and say why osteopathic medicine as well.

Kid A: I gotta admit it. There's a girl involved...

Interviewer: ...

Kid A: ... (unenthusiastically) ...and she exposed me to the medical field, which has grown into a raging aspiration for me.


In the same interview:

Interviewer: Why osteopathic medicine?

Kid B: I believe in the power of touch. One of my jobs is being a clown, and so I get to work with kids. Whenever I touch kids on their backs when I'm on stilts, the kids raise their hands and get a little startled. I believe that touch is very important and really allows you to connect with another person.
 
akaMondo said:
WOW. So. I was at an MMI, and the prompt was something about marijuana/alcohol abuse/etc. I get in the room, the doctor was friendly and joking around, we talked about legalizing marijuana, so on and so forth. After I said I'd probably vote to legalize marijuana and we started talking about the costs of alcoholism on society:

Me: "Yeah, I'd say alcoholism has a high cost on our society. You think about long-term physical and emotional care, cirrhosis, its ties to obesity, and yeah, the pricetag is really getting up there."
Him: *raises his arm up to signal high cost of alcohol*
Me: *goes for a high five*
Him: "Um... Mondo, did you just go for a high five?"
Me: "... no. Definitely not."
Him: "I think you were going for high five."
Me: "No, no, I was agreeing with you as to the high cost of alcoholism on our society."
Him: "Or you were going for a high five."

I was BEET RED. Why in the world did I do that? Why would he be high fiving me after I talked about alcoholism of all things? Oh my goodness! Mortified!
Click to expand...

This made me lol so hard that my house-mates heard me through the door and thought I was crying
 
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goldy490 said:
Interviewer: So do you have any questions for me?
Me: [drawing a blank] ...ummm...since the med students rotate through so many different hospitals in the area, what do you think their favorite rotation is?
Interviewer: Favorite? 😕
Me: Like the one they enjoy most
Interviewer: The purpose of hospital rotations is not enjoyment, they are for learning how to practice medicine.

The guy proceeds to give me an extensive lecture about how medicine isn't supposed to be fun and if thats why I'm interested I should find another profession...

Didn't feel what I said was THAT bad, but he certainly wasnt happy lol
Click to expand...

On the topic of disproportionate responses, I was at an interview with a new school a couple weeks ago. During the first general presentation on the school, the assistant dean was talking about their first international service trip to Guatamala they had just taken this past summer. I'm very interested in that sort of thing, and I had a few questions about the trip I wanted to ask, but I started off asking for confirmation that the trip to Guatamala marked the commencement of their international work. The assistant dean answered the questions (yes), but before I could ask any of my actual questions he kind of gathered himself up, told the group he was going to go pause his presentation for a moment, then proceeded to lecture me about how no school is perfect, every school has its warts, and if I was looking for the perfect school I wasn't going to find it. I hadn't meant my question in a derogatory way at all, and I was shocked that the dean apparently felt strongly enough about my imagined slight that he opted to lecture me about it right then and there in front of everyone.

That really threw me off and definately gave me a negative impression of the school when I had initially been very positive about it.
 
RurouniKarly said:
On the topic of disproportionate responses, I was at an interview with a new school a couple weeks ago. During the first general presentation on the school, the assistant dean was talking about their first international service trip to Guatamala they had just taken this past summer. I'm very interested in that sort of thing, and I had a few questions about the trip I wanted to ask, but I started off asking for confirmation that the trip to Guatamala marked the commencement of their international work. The assistant dean answered the questions (yes), but before I could ask any of my actual questions he kind of gathered himself up, told the group he was going to go pause his presentation for a moment, then proceeded to lecture me about how no school is perfect, every school has its warts, and if I was looking for the perfect school I wasn't going to find it. I hadn't meant my question in a derogatory way at all, and I was shocked that the dean apparently felt strongly enough about my imagined slight that he opted to lecture me about it right then and there in front of everyone.

That really threw me off and definately gave me a negative impression of the school when I had initially been very positive about it.
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Yikes! Not in medical school interviews, but I have had several encounters in life where people were jumpy/defensive over a benign question. It happened enough that I started trying to phrase questions in a way that couldn't elicit such a response and or expressly state that I was inquiring for information, not questioning the idea itself. When even that didn't work, I gave up and decided that those situations just happen sometimes. But yeah that sounds awful and I'm sorry that happened to you...I'd be tempted to just leave at that point.
 
sunshinefl said:
Yikes! Not in medical school interviews, but I have had several encounters in life where people were jumpy/defensive over a benign question. It happened enough that I started trying to phrase questions in a way that couldn't elicit such a response and or expressly state that I was inquiring for information, not questioning the idea itself. When even that didn't work, I gave up and decided that those situations just happen sometimes. But yeah that sounds awful and I'm sorry that happened to you...I'd be tempted to just leave at that point.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was just kind of a bizarre day. I kept getting a sort of paternalistic vibe from the school, and I got similar reactions from the interviewers as well when I asked them questions about things that ended up exposing weaker aspects of their school. Towards the end I had resolved to just not ask anyone another question since that was going so poorly for me. The only other time I've gotten that sort of reaction in a professional setting was when dealing with an old boss who was outed as having misogynistic leanings.
 
w0rldw3y3d said:
Interviewer: " So, let's say you come to our school, and on your orientation day you overhear a peer saying racist comments about another peer. What do you do?"

Me: "...how severe is it?"

Interviewer: "...I don't know"

Me: "Oh, ok. I would confront the person and say, 'hey man, that's not cool!'"

Interviewer: *blank stare*

Me: "...yeah, cuz unless you walk a mile in someone's shoes you can't judge them."

Interviewer: *writes down something*

Me: (internally) "F***!!"

Open mouth, insert foot.
Click to expand...

I had to get up and leave my desk at work because I couldn't contain my laughter after I read"Hey man, thats not cool"
 
Gawd, I have a good number of students like that. Must be a Bay Area thing, because that's where they all seem to have come from.


sunshinefl said:
Yikes! Not in medical school interviews, but I have had several encounters in life where people were jumpy/defensive over a benign question. It happened enough that I started trying to phrase questions in a way that couldn't elicit such a response and or expressly state that I was inquiring for information, not questioning the idea itself. When even that didn't work, I gave up and decided that those situations just happen sometimes. But yeah that sounds awful and I'm sorry that happened to you...I'd be tempted to just leave at that point.
Click to expand...
 
Goro said:
Gawd, I have a good number of students like that. Must be a Bay Area thing, because that's where they all seem to have come from.
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Hey man, there's us Bay Area natives, who just are cool about it, and then there are all those sensitive transplants from other areas who didn't fit in their hometowns and now subject me to lectures about openness (namely, that if I don't share their views, I'm a closed-minded hypocrite... Ironic, I know). Live and let live. And please, don't get your panties in a bunch in the process. The rest of us have too much to do to go so far beyond human decency to insure your feelings aren't hurt. Ugh.
 
This just might be the most epic thread in SDN history. Thanks guys! Can't wait to add my own flops to this (and I assure you, there'll be more than I care to admit, but I'll be sure to return the favor!)
 
ImmunoLove said:
This just might be the most epic thread in SDN history. Thanks guys! Can't wait to add my own flops to this (and I assure you, there'll be more than I care to admit, but I'll be sure to return the favor!)
Click to expand...


"Things I Learned From My Patients" is loads more epic than this.

Sorry, but its the truth.
 
Goro said:
Gawd, I have a good number of students like that. Must be a Bay Area thing, because that's where they all seem to have come from.
Click to expand...

ImmunoLove said:
Hey man, there's us Bay Area natives, who just are cool about it, and then there are all those sensitive transplants from other areas who didn't fit in their hometowns and now subject me to lectures about openness (namely, that if I don't share their views, I'm a closed-minded hypocrite... Ironic, I know). Live and let live. And please, don't get your panties in a bunch in the process. The rest of us have too much to do to go so far beyond human decency to insure your feelings aren't hurt. Ugh.
Click to expand...


54920465.jpg
 
caffeinemia said:
So wayyy back in the day...

"Say you and your classmates flying to Africa on a medical mission and the plane starts having engine trouble, what would you do..."

"Take the last parachute. Automatic AOA."

Got in.
Click to expand...
Id say fly the plane. Because I can (also sorry for not being more humble at the moment. In truth, I suck at most things, but flying planes isn't one of them... Yet... But if I screw that one up, you wouldn't know bc i'd prolly be dead. Annnnddddd with these terribly non-PC things, I prolly ought to get off SDN for the evening. In my defense, I have post-secondary overload psychosis. It's a thing. Just check the threads!)
 
ImmunoLove said:
Hey man, there's us Bay Area natives, who just are cool about it, and then there are all those sensitive transplants from other areas who didn't fit in their hometowns and now subject me to lectures about openness (namely, that if I don't share their views, I'm a closed-minded hypocrite... Ironic, I know). Live and let live. And please, don't get your panties in a bunch in the process. The rest of us have too much to do to go so far beyond human decency to insure your feelings aren't hurt. Ugh.
Click to expand...
You PC bro?
 
giraffesuptop said:
I wasn't saying you were a millennial. I was trying to say that the overly sensitive mindset you complained about in your last post is prevalent among millennials.
Click to expand...

Yeah I figured (honestly, only bc you quoted goro). I just thought it was funny, since I barely made the millennial cutoff ( I think...phew!)

And also, you're right (them Whiney youngens'... And I'm obviously old and ornery and don't even Have then energy to tell them otherwise. Just mostly look at them like "oh, so you're of *that* kind..." And back away slowly before I've abused some kind of "born privilege" like "female privilege" or male privilege" or straight/gay privilege" or whatever. It's hard to keep up nowadays...)
 
Not me but from someone else in one of my interview groups recently:

[Everyone is sitting around a big table waiting for the Admissions Dean to give his opening remarks]

Dean: Why doesn't everyone go around the room and say an interesting hobby they have?
Overly excited student: Ummmm...Uhhh... I love to play with switchblades!

Literally the entire room: :whoa::whoa::whoa::whoa::whoa::whoa:
 
At a southern school, not in Louisiana, first thing said as I walk in:

Interviewer 1: "So how do you Oregonians pronounce the capital of Louisiana? New Orleens, or N'orlans?"
Me: "New Orleens, we have a very proper accent"
Interviewer 1: "Well we pronounce it Baton Rouge"

Both interviewers laugh really hard, and I join in because it was pretty funny and embarrassing
Me: "Well as you can see I'm not from around here," and we continue laughing

(I've never been to the south or even the East Coast)
Accepted 🙂
 
schlitter22 said:
At a southern school, not in Louisiana, first thing said as I walk in:

Interviewer 1: "So how do you Oregonians pronounce the capital of Louisiana? New Orleens, or N'orlans?"
Me: "New Orleens, we have a very proper accent"
Interviewer 1: "Well we pronounce it Baton Rouge"

Both interviewers laugh really hard, and I join in because it was pretty funny and embarrassing
Me: "Well as you can see I'm not from around here," and we continue laughing

(I've never been to the south or even the East Coast)
Accepted 🙂
Click to expand...
Should've asked them whether they say Or-ugh-in or Or-ugh-on 😛
 
My last interview of the day, so I'm a little tired of talking and thinking:

Interviewer: So what are you thinking about for residency?

Me: Well, I'd like to go somewhere nice, somewhere other than [**institution I'm interviewing at**].

My interviewer is clinical faculty at the residency I just said that about. What I meant by "nice" was nicer weather, as my hometown where I was interviewing is super hot and humid. However that is not what I said.

I was accepted.
 
School X 2014:
Interviewer: So you've described earlier a time where you had to diffuse a challenging situation, can you tell me another time where you had to do it again.
Me: ummm... well my ex-girlfriend got really drunk at a party so I brought her back to her apartment and took care of her all night. The next morning her boyfriend came pounding on the door and accused me of raping her even though I didn't. He tackled me to the ground and I put him in a headlock and said "I'm not going to fight you, man!" So I avoided a violent situation by using my words.
Interviewer: ...So you kept a cool head, even after being accused of being a rapist.
Me: exactly.
Rejected

Same School X 2015:
Interviewer: Would you like to work for a small, median, or large corporation and why?
Me: * solid three minute answer on medium corporation.
Interviewer: ....
Me: ....
Interviewer: ....
Me: ...would you like me to expand on that?
Interviewer: I think that would be a great idea. Wow me.
Me: well I don't know much more about corporations. My brother is a business major, I wish he were here so I could defer this question to him *chuckles*
Interviewer: ...hmm

Waitlisted but eventually rejected
 
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zkane11 said:
School X 2014:
Interviewer: So you've described earlier a time where you had to diffuse a challenging situation, can you tell me another time where you had to do it again.
Me: ummm... well my ex-girlfriend got really drunk at a party so I brought her back to her apartment and took care of her all night. The next morning her boyfriend came pounding on the door and accused me of raping her even though I didn't. He tackled me to the ground and I put him in a headlock and said "I'm not going to fight you, man!" So I avoided a violent situation my using my words.
Interviewer: ...So you kept a cool head, even after being accused of being a rapist.
Me: exactly.
Rejected

Same School X 2015:
Interviewer: Would you like to work for a small, median, or large corporation and why?
Me: * solid three minute answer on medium corporation.
Interviewer: ....
Me: ....
Interviewer: ....
Me: ...would you like me to expand on that?
Interviewer: I think that would be a great idea. Wow me.
Me: well I don't know much more about corporations. My brother is a business major, I wish he were here so I could defer this question to him *chuckles*
Interviewer: ...hmm

Waitlisted but eventually rejected
Click to expand...

Ouch! That's brutal!
 
At an interview last week I had a terrible interviewer. He hadn't looked through my application and would spend several minutes of silence scrolling though it while I sat there. Sometimes he would ask me a question and whenever I started to answer he would interrupt me and say that my answer didn't give him something to "write in this box for the committee" and I would have to change my answer. He also had a very flat affect and would stutter and run his hands through his hair like he was frustrated.

Towards the end, he exhausted his common questions list it went something like this:

Interviewer: *looking down list of questions he printed off the internet* "Uhh no I don't like a lot of these other questions"
Interviewer: "Obviously you have probably researched a lot of common interview questions to practice, why don't you tell me a good question you came across and answer it."
Me:"oh uhhh um okay..." *comes up with question and answer about overcoming weaknesses*

Overall, I think I did an excellent job dealing with this odd interviewer, but it certainly rubbed me the wrong way how much I could tell he really didn't want to be there.
 
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Munty said:
At an interview last week I had a terrible interviewer. He hadn't looked through my application and would spend several minutes of silence scrolling though it while I sat there. Sometimes he would ask me a question and whenever I started to answer he would interrupt me and say that my answer didn't give him something to "write in this box for the committee" and I would have to change my answer. He also had a very flat affect and would stutter and run his hands through his hair like he was frustrated.

Towards the end, he exhausted his common questions list it went something like this:

Interviewer: *looking down list of questions he printed off the internet* "Uhh no I don't like a lot of these other questions"
Interviewer: "Obviously you have probably researching a lot of common interview questions to practice, why don't you tell me a good question you came across and answer it."
Me:"oh uhhh um okay..." *comes up with question and answer about overcoming weaknesses*

Overall, I think I did an excellent job dealing with this odd interviewer, but it certainly rubbed me the wrong way how much I could tell he really didn't want to be there.
Click to expand...

I like this guy.
 
This is my favorite thread. I oddly cannot wait until next year when I can add some of my own ridiculousness to this!
 
Btw for pretty much everyone on this page, not so bad. Just kind of awkward "eheheh...heh.....eheh." moments but nothing damning like "you're screwed just get out of here NOW" type encounters so it seems like most of you handled it as best you could and that's that.
 
Interviewer: "What super power would you like to have?"
Me: "Mind reading because it would be a lot more straightforward understanding people." [**** did I really just say that? Now I look like a evil villain with terrible communication skills.]

Result: Well, I'm in my second application cycle now and I'm still struggling with coming off as a normal human being.
 
Justtheworst said:
Interviewer: "What super power would you like to have?"
Me: "Mind reading because it would be a lot more straightforward understanding people." [**** did I really just say that? Now I look like a evil villain with terrible communication skills.]

Result: Well, I'm in my second application cycle now and I'm still struggling with coming off as a normal human being.
Click to expand...

LOLOL. But also, I sympathize with this one. Especially after a psych rotation trying to take down a history that at least makes a little sense...
 
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