If you are reading this guide, you are probably doing one of the following:
-Googling answers to questions like "what is your weakness?" and "why should we choose you?"
-Thinking of what perfect questions to ask your interviewers if they ask: "do you have any questions for us?"
-Memorizing unique aspects of the curriculum of the school you are interviewing in
-Picking what outfit you will wear for you interview
Now, if everyone is taking these steps to prepare, how the heck do you stand out? Let's go through two important concepts: "How to not be boring" and "How to prepare effectively." This advice applies to all interview types: MMI (multiple mini interviews), traditional interviews, and recorded interviews (e.g. Kira Talent).
The key is to understand one simple thing about professional school interviewers- they are REALLY bored. Being an interviewer is fun but gets really tiring, really fast. You have to sit there, listening to candidates giving you nearly the same answer every single time. You have to continually pay attention, analyse all aspects of the answer, and think of follow-up questions to ask. Imagine doing that over and over again. Whether they are interviewers in the MMI or traditional formats, they are going to be tired when they interview you (or reviewing your video in the case of recorded answers). They will be tuning out at various times during your answers, and that is the reality. This is even a bigger problem with online interviews. Want proof? Think to how much tuning out you do during a typical zoom lecture/seminar.
So what can you do to reduce their boredom and make yourself more interesting? Here are four tips:
It's shocking how many blatant lies you hear from candidates' answers. When given a scenario such as "your best friend is taking an Introductory Spanish course while being a native Spanish speaker," and the interviewer asks, "would you report this to the professor?", almost every candidate from our experience says that they will report. However, when we ask if they would do that in real life, most people say they will talk to the friend about this being a wrong decision but certainly not report them. So why lie to the interviewer? The answer is usually "because that's what they want to hear!". Think about it- the "they" are also real humans who would also not report in this situation. Just because they are interviewers, this does not change their morals and ethics.
A better way to answer this is to say the truth: your friend is certainly doing the wrong thing, but to preserve your friendship, you would not report. You can talk to them, bug them to change the course, even argue with them, but reporting them would only make you look bad. When should you report then? Whenever there is a safety concern involved. If your friend was sexually abusing another individual or killed someone, report the heck out of them. This is similar to how physicians only break confidentiality whenever there is a safety concern. Treat your relationships with others like you would treat physician-patient confidentiality!
Another good example is if your mother was driving in a 40 km/hour zone and you were sitting next to her. If she went above the 10 km/hour limit and she was driving 51 km/hour, would you report your mother? You would be surprised how many candidates would say they would.
When we listen to interview answers, a big problem that makes us tune out is that candidates do not engage us with the right tone of voice. This is especially common in MMI answers, where candidates often speak in a monotone, robotic way. They also use "hyper-professional" words that no one uses when talking and only in essays such as "consequently." Their answers are more of a lecture than a discussion. To explain this further, imagine discussing an ethical issue with your friend. Your tone of voice and manner of speech would most likely be more casual than during an interview, but it would be more conversational. It would also be more engaging. Think back to your university courses when you certainly paid more attention during seminar discussions than lectures. This is because the seminar discussions were more conversational.You should not be lecturing the interviewer; you should have a conversation with them as if you were talking to a classmate. We guarantee that they would pay more attention. This does not mean you should ask them questions and stimulate back-and-forth discussions but rather speak as though it's your turn to explain something in the conversation. How can you practice being more conversational? One trick is to record yourself answering the same question three times. Each time, try to talk in a more conversational and less lecturing manner. This would really help with recorded interviews that some schools are using!
How many times can an interviewer hear, "I want to help people, and I like science" to answer "why medicine?" in medical school interviews. Can you imagine how expected it is for a candidate to mention a medicine-related book to reply to "what's a good book you read lately?". Don't get us started with "I can't say no," "I care too much," or "I'm a perfectionist" to answer "what's your weakness?". The moment you say one of these, the interviewers will be rolling their eyes in their minds. Pick something they don't expect! This will help them be more interested in your answers and will view you more positively as a candidate. For "why medicine?" try to think of career aspects of physicians that attract you besides helping people. For "what's a good book you read lately?" think of a non-medical book that you found fascinating and why. For "what's your weakness?" state a real weakness you are actively trying to improve.
No interviewer has ever said, "this person is too humble!" but "this person is too cocky!" is a common complaint that we often hear from those that were interviewers. Candidates often come into the interview thinking that they have to show they are the best of the best. They must show off their various awards, their high GPA, and always talk about how they stand out from others in terms of their empathy, teamwork abilities, and leadership. However, it may be shocking to realize that almost all candidates are the same. Everyone has high grades, worked in various clubs/organizations and held leadership positions. The chances you can prove that you are different are very slim.
It's important to realize that the interview does not serve as a place for schools to assess if you are the "better than others" but instead if you are a good person who people would like to work with and make a genuine physician. Don't ever put others down in your answer, don't say you are the best at something and be humble whenever you can! Some classic questions that make candidates cocky are:
-Why should we choose you out of everyone?
-Are you 100% sure you will make a good doctor/lawyer/dentist etc.?
-What makes you think you can make it in this field?
For these questions, you will be seen in a much more positive light if you stay humble! This does not mean you should sound unconfident, but the line between confidence and cockiness is very slim. This is an art that you need to practice during your interview prep.
We've heard countless stories from students of how they got their invites only one or two weeks before the interview and were on a time crunch to prepare. This means that you have to start preparing before you get an invite and know the right strategy for preparing in a short amount of time. Here are some of the things we recommend to our clients to do during their preparation:
This does not mean just writing down the activities you put on your autobiographical sketch but writing down any significant event in your life. Here is a small list to help get you started
-Times you got into a conflict with someone
-Times you are/are not proud of
-Times when you stood up for someone
-Times you demonstrated enthusiasm
-Times you had to make difficult decisions
Interviewers can ask you about any aspect of your life, and the last thing you want is to be caught off-guard. Using these experiences, you get to prepare for anything they may throw at you! You can also integrate these experiences into ethical scenarios by talking about how you faced similar situations in your life.
Interviewers can ask you about everything and anything. The answer to "would they really ask me that?" can never be answered with a 100% certain "no". However, it's essential to realize that the number of types of questions out there is minimal, and different questions can sometimes yield the exact answer. For example, consider all of the following questions:
-What are your strengths?
-Why should we choose you?
-What are you proud of about yourself?
-What skills would you bring to our school?
At first, they sound like very different questions. However, if you think about it, they can all be answered in the same way. You can use the strengths you mention in the first question to answer all the other questions. This is important because it means that when you encounter a new question you've never seen before, try to think of similar type questions you've seen before and use similar answers. With that in mind, it's essential to practice as many questions as possible, so you familiarize yourself with the different types of questions out there. One common strategy that our clients find helpful is reading as many questions as possible, copying key questions to a Google Doc, and jotting down a few notes underneath each question to help guide their answers. This helps them think through as many types of questions as possible.
Our free interview questions database has many questions to practice from, access it here!
People generally do not like watching recordings of themselves. They find it too awkward and are afraid of listening to their voice. We get it. However, by recording yourself, you get to practice the content of your answers and your manner of speech. As mentioned before, being conversational is essential, and you can practice that by recording the same question three times. Each time, try to talk more conversationally.
By recording yourself, you get to find out if there are any repetitive words/expressions that should be taken out (e.g. "like", "you know", "and uhmm" are common culprits). The only way to get rid of them is by being embarrassed by watching yourself and actively trying to exclude them from your speech.
Recording yourself is especially important these days with online interviews. You want to make sure that you don't make any awkward facial expressions and have good eye contact with the camera.
Weird advice? Totally. However, what this means is that you want to get a basic understanding of a variety of topics that can come up during interviews. You should be reading the equivalent of a "Wikipedia page" about each topic but you don't need to spend hours researching each topic. You don't have time for that.
Form medical school interviews, for example, here are some topics you should become familiar with: abortion, euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide, affirmative action, legalization of marijuana/drugs, harm reduction/safe injection sites, mandatory vaccinations, genetic editing, private vs public healthcare, capital punishment, indigenous rights and issues, social media and freedom of speech.
When it comes to medical ethics, "Doing Right" is a very popular book that is often advertised. It's a great book, but reading it when you are on a time crunch may not be the best idea. If you don't have the time, there are plenty of resources online that can help, such as this tremendous online lecture: