Worst/Funniest Interview Experiences

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Finally getting around to posting this. The night before my first interview I was browsing a reddit thread on great one-liners. The next day, I'm wrapping things up with my last interviewer - a professor emeritus who is 80+ years old.

Him: Before you go, what's a good joke you've heard recently?
Reckoner: (Immediately starting the first joke I could remember from the thread): What do you get when you mix human DNA and goat DNA?
Him: ???
Reckoner: (WHY WHY WHY DID I PICK THIS JOKE) Kicked out of the petting zoo...
Him: :lame:..... (30 seconds pass)..... Well, good luck!

Result: won't know until early spring
 
Reckoner said:
Finally getting around to posting this. The night before my first interview I was browsing a reddit thread on great one-liners. The next day, I'm wrapping things up with my last interviewer - a professor emeritus who is 80+ years old.

Him: Before you go, what's a good joke you've heard recently?
Reckoner: (Immediately starting the first joke I could remember from the thread): What do you get when you mix human DNA and goat DNA?
Him: ???
Reckoner: (WHY WHY WHY DID I PICK THIS JOKE) Kicked out of the petting zoo...
Him: :lame:..... (30 seconds pass)..... Well, good luck!

Result: won't know until early spring
Click to expand...

Well if it helps, I'm laughing hysterically as I type this. Funny joke :roflcopter:
 
He didn't laugh? No sense of humor on that guy! I hate that "Well, good luck" phrase. So far it's preceded waitlists on two occasions.
 
Reckoner said:
Finally getting around to posting this. The night before my first interview I was browsing a reddit thread on great one-liners. The next day, I'm wrapping things up with my last interviewer - a professor emeritus who is 80+ years old.

Him: Before you go, what's a good joke you've heard recently?
Reckoner: (Immediately starting the first joke I could remember from the thread): What do you get when you mix human DNA and goat DNA?
Him: ???
Reckoner: (WHY WHY WHY DID I PICK THIS JOKE) Kicked out of the petting zoo...
Him: :lame:..... (30 seconds pass)..... Well, good luck!

Result: won't know until early spring
Click to expand...

Unrelated comment, but your avatar scares me...
 
pyrrion89 said:
He didn't laugh? No sense of humor on that guy! I hate that "Well, good luck" phrase. So far it's preceded waitlists on two occasions.
Click to expand...
Nope, absolutely nothing. He was pretty formal throughout the interview, so that last question sorry of threw me off.

nemo123 said:
Unrelated comment, but your avatar scares me...
Click to expand...
I'm now picturing Dory and Nemo in your avatar reacting to mine 😀
 
This was from an interview 3 years ago, but I just found this thread today so here it is:

*At a DO interview*

Interviewer: So why do you want to be a DO?

Me: I really like the DO philosophy and how the DOs I've shadowed treat their patients.

Interviewer: Can you explain that more?

Me: Well, all of the DOs that I have shadowed took a lot of time with their patients and really treated them like family. They all showed a lot of compassion and really wanted to help their patients. Some of the MDs I shadowed did this, but about half of them acted like their patients were more of a business than people. They didn't spend much time with them and really just asked 2 or 3 questions then left. So I feel like DOs just have a better attitude towards their patients than MDs.

Interviewer: Hm, interesting.

I found out after I finished and talked to one of the student ambassadors that one of the 2 interviewers was an MD. Needless to say I got my rejection letter shortly after that. :bang:
 
Stagg737 said:
This was from an interview 3 years ago, but I just found this thread today so here it is:

*At a DO interview*

Interviewer: So why do you want to be a DO?

Me: I really like the DO philosophy and how the DOs I've shadowed treat their patients.

Interviewer: Can you explain that more?

Me: Well, all of the DOs that I have shadowed took a lot of time with their patients and really treated them like family. They all showed a lot of compassion and really wanted to help their patients. Some of the MDs I shadowed did this, but about half of them acted like their patients were more of a business than people. They didn't spend much time with them and really just asked 2 or 3 questions then left. So I feel like DOs just have a better attitude towards their patients than MDs.

Interviewer: Hm, interesting.

I found out after I finished and talked to one of the student ambassadors that one of the 2 interviewers was an MD. Needless to say I got my rejection letter shortly after that. :bang:
Click to expand...
This kind of stuff annoys me. Why do people assume the MD/DO philosophy of patient treatment is different! Maybe it's because I go to a school that puts a ton of emphasis on the doctor/patient relationship and prides itself on being consistently ranked #1 or 2 in primary care, but I feel like this is just part of being a good physician.

:bang:
 
Result of my 'stripper cake' interview gaffe: Rejected

:penguin:
 
Stagg737 said:
This was from an interview 3 years ago, but I just found this thread today so here it is:

*At a DO interview*

Interviewer: So why do you want to be a DO?

Me: I really like the DO philosophy and how the DOs I've shadowed treat their patients.

Interviewer: Can you explain that more?

Me: Well, all of the DOs that I have shadowed took a lot of time with their patients and really treated them like family. They all showed a lot of compassion and really wanted to help their patients. Some of the MDs I shadowed did this, but about half of them acted like their patients were more of a business than people. They didn't spend much time with them and really just asked 2 or 3 questions then left. So I feel like DOs just have a better attitude towards their patients than MDs.

Interviewer: Hm, interesting.

I found out after I finished and talked to one of the student ambassadors that one of the 2 interviewers was an MD. Needless to say I got my rejection letter shortly after that. :bang:
Click to expand...


And here you are 3 years later, still classified as Pre-Medical :beaver:
 
This took way too much to find on my phone but totally worth it.
Jabbed said:
Back on topic!

In reference to a proposed financial regulation bill:

Me: Well, I like to think of [blah] and [blah] as the proverbial 'icing on the cake'. Everyone loves the icing, even if the rest of the cake is bad. But we bought the cake. We have to live with the cake. I just hope 5 years from now it still tastes good.
Interviewer: What if it doesn't taste
good, but fits our needs? What if some people get indigestion, but other people love it? It's almost a moot point because we really have no way of knowing what's inside. Anything could be in the cake.
Me: Like maybe a stripper
...
Click to expand...
Jabbed said:
[5 second silence]
Me: Well.. it's probably not a stripper.. but..
[Internal monologue]: For the love of god, STOP TALKING ABOUT STRIPPERS.
[I smile politely through another 5 sweaty seconds of silence]
Interviewer: We can agree on that at least. It's probably not a stripper.
Click to expand...
Jabbed said:
Result of my 'stripper cake' interview gaffe: Rejected

:penguin:
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
BABSstudent said:
This kind of stuff annoys me. Why do people assume the MD/DO philosophy of patient treatment is different! Maybe it's because I go to a school that puts a ton of emphasis on the doctor/patient relationship and prides itself on being consistently ranked #1 or 2 in primary care, but I feel like this is just part of being a good physician.

:bang:
Click to expand...

I hear you. To be honest Idk why I ever said the MD part of that, I think I was just so nervous about the 'why DO' route because my undergrad advisor was AWFUL and belittled the DO profession. Since then I've had a lot more medical experience and have realized that how doctors treat their patients varies from doctor to doctor regardless of their title.

BioBeaver said:
And here you are 3 years later, still classified as Pre-Medical :beaver:
Click to expand...

Well I've got 3 interviews and an acceptance, so I won't be pre-med much longer. Thanks for your outstanding contribution though.
 
Stagg737 said:
Well I've got 3 interviews and an acceptance, so I won't be pre-med much longer. Thanks for your outstanding contribution though.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was gonna elaborate, but didn't have time. Didn't mean for it to come off as that way, and that's really awesome that you've gotten accepted. Congrats!
 
BioBeaver said:
Sorry, I was gonna elaborate, but didn't have time. Didn't mean for it to come off as that way, and that's really awesome that you've gotten accepted. Congrats!
Click to expand...

No worries, there's just those people on here who can get pretty high and mighty or full of themselves and I like to put them in their place when possible. Sorry for jumping to the wrong conclusion about your post, and thanks!! It's been a long process (times 3 for me) and I'm just relieved that I won't have to do it again.
 
That stripper one was really funny. What is interesting about it was that you could have spun it into a good answer (and a creative one at that). Of course maintaining your composure after an answer like that is probably the more difficult challenge. I wouldn't be able to do it.
 
Don't have stories to add to the thread, never had to interview for med school. I only applied to one school, and they don't interview and I got accepted. This was actually pretty stupid of me... But somehow it all worked out! 🙂

Although this isn't an interview answer, I think that in itself fits here haha
 
lysine9740 said:
Don't have stories to add to the thread, never had to interview for med school. I only applied to one school, and they don't interview and I got accepted. This was actually pretty stupid of me... But somehow it all worked out! 🙂

Although this isn't an interview answer, I think that in itself fits here haha
Click to expand...
What school did you apply to that doesn't interview?
 
Tassatul said:
Okay, based on your avatar, I think I know the answer lol.
Click to expand...

Haha yup, MSU! I honestly feel like I missed out, though. This is a big part of the medical school admissions cycle. It might even hurt me because I won't have much experience when I'm doing residency interviews.
 
lysine9740 said:
Haha yup, MSU! I honestly feel like I missed out, though. This is a big part of the medical school admissions cycle. It might even hurt me because I won't have much experience when I'm doing residency interviews.
Click to expand...
Don't they do a phone interview or something? Or is it really just straight to decision after reviewing your app? Interesting.
 
BlueLabel said:
Don't they do a phone interview or something? Or is it really just straight to decision after reviewing your app? Interesting.
Click to expand...

Some people who have discrepancies and things like that on their application get invited to a standard interview. A kid I know had a DUI on his record so he was interviewed, where they asked him about it and such; and he explained it and what he learned. He was ultimately accepted. But yeah, only like 5 people get interviewed a year here. And yes it's a straight acceptance from just the application. We do get called when we get accepted, though. It is pretty odd actually, I feel like they should meet the person that will ultimately become a doctor, weed out the psychopaths, but that's just me.
 
dudeliness said:
Yeah, that no interviews thing has been known to cause problems in the past.
http://gawker.com/5816528/michigan-state-student-is-alleged-dog-serial-killer
You can't always weed out the psychopaths just through interviews, but it sure does help...
Click to expand...

Yeah I've seen that, it's pretty crazy. If a person really is a psychopath, it's pretty hard to figure out if they are. Unless you spend lots of time with them, and even then it can be hard. I really don't know why they don't interview, it doesn't make sense.
 
Reckoner said:
Finally getting around to posting this. The night before my first interview I was browsing a reddit thread on great one-liners. The next day, I'm wrapping things up with my last interviewer - a professor emeritus who is 80+ years old.

Him: Before you go, what's a good joke you've heard recently?
Reckoner: (Immediately starting the first joke I could remember from the thread): What do you get when you mix human DNA and goat DNA?
Him: ???
Reckoner: (WHY WHY WHY DID I PICK THIS JOKE) Kicked out of the petting zoo...
Him: :lame:..... (30 seconds pass)..... Well, good luck!

Result: won't know until early spring
Click to expand...

Hahahahahaha! I just turned around and shared this with a few people in my office and got about the same response you did...
 
Jabbed said:
Result of my 'stripper cake' interview gaffe: Rejected

:penguin:
Click to expand...
Jabbed, so sorry that you got rejected. The stripper post will live forever on the internet, making stressed out premeds/med students laugh (and thus making them less stressed out 🙂). That's an accomplishment worthy of putting on your AMCAS app, imao 🙂. Best of luck with the rest of the cycle!
 
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!
 
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...
Hahahahaha best one yet. Alcoholism is bad ya'll. High five!!

PS please make sure to let us know when you get a decision. My money is on: accepted.
 
narc said:
Gave that exact same answer and got in. Dont tell people what you think they want to hear. I hate when people answer I would go to dentistry school of get my PhD if I couldnt get an MD. That is the worst answer in the world. Come up with something cool. Join the FBI, fish for crab, something much less BLAH!
Click to expand...

Well that's better than my honest answer: a medical malpractice attorney.
 
I had a panel/group interview (3 on 2) at a school a few weeks ago where I was talking about the uniqueness of the doctor-patient relationship and was trying to say that success is tied to good bedside manner. An interviewer asked me what I would do when a patient got angry at me and I blanked for some reason and couldn't come up with an answer. He moved on to the other interviewee before I could say anything and asked him what his favorite color was.
 
McRunner said:
Him: "My names Dr. xxx, and I'm a forensic psychiatrist."
Me: "Ooh! Like Dr. Wong on SVU?!?!?!?!!!"
Him: "ummm, no...."
Me: thinking oh ****...

Result: accepted. Haha. Oops.
Click to expand...

I can empathise with bizarre experiences leading to an acceptance as well. I had one interview earlier this year where I showed up late, slept through the afternoon panel presentation, and still got in!
 
farnk20 said:
I can empathise with bizarre experiences leading to an acceptance as well. I had one interview earlier this year where I showed up late, slept through the afternoon panel presentation, and still got in!
Click to expand...
Cool & Tough interview day highlights. Only thing that would make it better is if you were late/hungover because of a night at the bars, haha
 
freetheyaz said:
this actually happened to me twice...you would think I would have learned by now.

Interviewer: So, you have tons of good research experience. Why didn't you apply into the MD/PhD program?

Me: (my standard answer on how I considered MD/PhD but decided it was not right for me - the three MD/PhDs I have worked with don't think it was really worth it, how they are phasing out the program because there is more support for MD research, you can get more NIH/other funding as an MD than a PhD, I want to do >50% clinical, etc)

...later in the interview
Interviewer ...then I got my PhD in ___ from ___.

Made me wish I had some info on the interviewer before meeting with them. Not totally bad, but possibly explains why I am 7I-0A-5WL.

012_421~The-Simpsons-Homer-D-Oh-Posters.jpg
Click to expand...
serious question though. How do you answer this question? I have lots of research and publications and I am applying to DO school... don't want to hijack this thread but i just wondering. I have a low gpa so i really only have 1 choice to become a doctor. If i could chosose, yes I would do an MD PhD from Harvard
 
Last edited:
bobthesun said:
serious question though. How do you answer this question? I have lots of research and publications and I am applying to DO school... don't want to hijack this thread but i just wondering. I have a low gpa so i really only have 1 choice to become a doctor. If i could chosose, yes I would do an MD PhD from Harvard
Click to expand...

This is the only reason I'm glad that I have 0 research experience. 😛
 
Interviewer asks me to step into his office so we can interview. His office is overflowing with paperwork -- papers spread over every square inch of his desk in a pile literally 1' high.

Me: Wow, that's a lot of paperwork.
Him, in a pissed off tone: Yeah, want some?
Me: ...
 
McRunner said:
Him: "My names Dr. xxx, and I'm a forensic psychiatrist."
Me: "Ooh! Like Dr. Wong on SVU?!?!?!?!!!"
Him: "ummm, no...."
Me: thinking oh ****...

Result: accepted. Haha. Oops.
Click to expand...

Was this ucf? I had a forensic psychiatrist interview me there, see "a lot of eye contact, for an engineer" story above, p. 41
 
Captain Sisko said:
Was this ucf? I had a forensic psychiatrist interview me there, see "a lot of eye contact, for an engineer" story above, p. 41
Click to expand...
Semi related but I had a "a lot of eye contact, for an asian. You're not Korean right"
 
Captain Sisko said:
Holy crap, I hope you told admissions about that!
Click to expand...
According to him, it's bad in the Korean culture to look superiors in the eye and a lot of korean interviewees wouldnt make eye contact during interviews
 
bobthesun said:
serious question though. How do you answer this question? I have lots of research and publications and I am applying to DO school... don't want to hijack this thread but i just wondering. I have a low gpa so i really only have 1 choice to become a doctor. If i could chosose, yes I would do an MD PhD from Harvard
Click to expand...

I'd tell them that you understand the value of the research and how important it is, but that your experience has shown you that it is not something you want to pursue as a major focus of your career. Talk about how you value patient interaction, or how you want to get involved with specific organizations. Many doctors either do research on the side or don't do research at all. You can say you'd be interested in learning more about subject X, but that your main goal is achievement Y. Just let them know it was a valuable experience, but it's not what you want to do for the rest of your life. Most interviewers are more understanding than pre-meds think they are. Don't tell them what you think they want to hear, be honest. It'll work out better for you in the long run anyway.
 
chillaxbro said:
According to him, it's bad in the Korean culture to look superiors in the eye and a lot of korean interviewees wouldnt make eye contact during interviews
Click to expand...

When I was really young, I got severely beaten by an elder of my extended family because I made an eye contact with him when he was in a bad mood. He might have ended up in jail had it happened in this country.

Yes, this incident may seem unusual even to other Korean folks, but not unheard of, or not unimaginable.
 
Last edited:
My pretty bad interview
I had 2 interviews back to back. So when I walked in my second one, my interviewer asked me who I had talked to. And I couldn't remember her name (well as an immigrant I am bad at remembering strange names, but I didn't want to bring this up to him). Then he told me that I didn't list one of my brother (thinking to myself what???). He said that I listed a household of 5 when growing up. I looked stupid for a few seconds and then started finger-counting, then realized that the missing person was my grandmother. The app just asked me to list parents and siblings (how stupid I must be counting my fingers like that, don't even know why I did that). It seemed like my interview started on the wrong foot and the rest was kinda bad.
Rejected

On the eye contact issue, not only Korean but for lots of Asian culture, direct eye contact with your elder relatives/ superiors is disrespectful.
 
amy1209 said:
My pretty bad interview
I had 2 interviews back to back. So when I walked in my second one, my interviewer asked me who I had talked to. And I couldn't remember her name (well as an immigrant I am bad at remembering strange names, but I didn't want to bring this up to him). Then he told me that I didn't list one of my brother (thinking to myself what???). He said that I listed a household of 5 when growing up. I looked stupid for a few seconds and then started finger-counting, then realized that the missing person was my grandmother. The app just asked me to list parents and siblings (how stupid I must be counting my fingers like that, don't even know why I did that). It seemed like my interview started on the wrong foot and the rest was kinda bad.
Rejected

On the eye contact issue, not only Korean but for lots of Asian culture, direct eye contact with your elder relatives/ superiors is disrespectful.
Click to expand...

Sorry buddy, that seems like a trivial thing to grill you about at an interview. While it may be disrespectful in Asian culture, you must be cognizant of social norms in American culture, which includes eye-contact with anyone you are sharing a conversation with.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Most Meaningful Experiences
Replies
2
Views
561
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
M
Other Impactful Experiences?
Replies
4
Views
1K
maybefuturedoctor7
M
R
Types of Clinical Experiences
Replies
6
Views
422
LizzyM
LizzyM
S
Other Impactful Experiences
Replies
1
Views
611
LunaOri
LunaOri
T
Length of Nonclinical Volunteering Experiences
Replies
2
Views
656
candbgirl
C
Top