Kevin's Interview Guide

Preparation

"Be yourself!" This is the standard interview advice we've heard time and time again. Although I am generally in agreement with this statement, I must challenge applicants to really question what this statement means. Often people take it as "since I'm a good person, if I walk into that interview room as I am, and show the interviewers who I am, everything will be fine". If this was your mentality, then you are at a disadvantage. Success in a medical school interview, as successes in all things in life, requires work and preparation. Being good at interviews is a SKILL. Although personality and character can carry you a long way (if not all the way), it's not the be all and end all. You must still keep in mind the fact that as all skills, you can always train yourself to be better at interviewing. Even if you are socially awkward, naturally anxious, or lacking confidence, you can challenge these behavioral/cognitive obstacles and maximize your chances through PREPARATION and PRACTICE. So what does interview preparation entail? I like to break it down into two components: content and skill. Content refers to knowing what you are talking about. So what do you talk about in an interview? It would probably include discussions about you as a person, healthcare issues, ethical dilemmas, etc. To be able to talk about such issues intelligently, you must research into such topics and carefully form your opinions. Skills refer to the way you carry yourself, tone of voice, body language, manners, verbal skills, etc.

Here are few things that will help you to prepare:

1) Know the relevant issues

To be able to present yourself well, you must know yourself well. It may help to write a timeline that includes everything significant you've done in your life, and then describe what you've learned from each experience. By evaluating your history, you will have a clearer perspective of what your life has been about and who you are as a person. You should know who you are, how you became that person, and have examples to back it up. For each activity listed in the application form, list out the reasons for doing it and the lessons learned. Also, interviewers love the question "describe a time when you were a good leader, team player, had to resolve a conflict, faced an ethical problem, challenged an authority figure, etc..." It would be very helpful to look at your timeline and find solid examples to respond to these frequent questions.

3) Prepare for individual questions

All traditional interviews will include generic questions. Even MMIs include questions that are similar in nature. Despite their predictability, they are necessary questions for the interviewers to get to know you. "Why do you want to be a doctor?", "Tell me about yourself", "Why not other health care professions such as social work?", etc. You want to have well-thought and prepared answers for these. It is NOT to say you should follow a script, but by organizing your answers prior to interview, you can better convey your thought process, opinions, and values. Have a list of general questions, think through all of them, and have standard responses. Come interview time, you'll find that you've already prepared for 85% of the questions asked by the panelists. As for MMIs the thought processes for prepared questions are easily translatable to other questions similar in nature.

4) Practice, Practice, Practice!

This is undoubtly the most import aspect of interview preparation.

• Do mock interviews with friends.
• Ask to be interviewed by more senior individuals (preferably people in the field of medicine)
• Tape/video record  your interviews and review them.
• Attend school-organized mock interview sessions. Many premedical societies hold these.

By simulating the actual event and getting feedback, you will get a good sense of how well you may do on an actual interview, and perhaps realize the areas that you need to work on. Being familiar with the situation and process will significantly reduce your anxiety on the day of interview.

Multiple-mini Interviews

Multiple-mini interview is exactly what it sounds like. Generally you start in a hallway with eight to ten doors. Each door leads to an interview station where you must answer the questions associated with a senario. The senarios and questions are typed up and posted on the doors. You get 2 minutes to read the stem. Once the 2 minutes are up, you enter the room and spend 8 minutes to answer the question. Afterwards, you move onto the next door and repeat the process.

The MMI was introduced by McMaster University in 2004. Many schools are now adopting this interview format as it is more predictive of success in medical school. Currently all of Canadian medical schools with the exception of UofT, Queen's, and UWO use MMI (McGill uses both formats). The rationale of the MMI are fully discussed in the paper: An admission OSCE: the multiple mini-interview. The paper discussed six main benefits:

• it allows multiple samples of insight into a candidate's abilities.
• it dilutes the effect of chance and examiner bias.
• stations can be structured so that all candidates respond to the same questions and interviewers receive background information a priori.
• admissions directors have a great deal of flexibility in that stations can be desgined with a blueprint of the qualities they would like to select for in mind.
• candidates can feel confident that they will be given a chance to recover from a disastrous station by moving onto a new, independent interviewer.
• fewer resources might be required.

MMIs contain many senario-based questions focusing on testing critical thinking, communication skills, knowledge of health care system, ethical decision making, etc. In fact, as mentioned in the list above, admissions committee can really tailor the interviews to select for specific qualities.  Traditional interviews on the other hand are designed so that the interviewers get to know you as a person and assess you in a holistic manner. MMI on the other hand focuses on objectively testing your individual abilities/qualities while neglecting much of your personal side. In my opinion, it is much more difficult to prepare for MMIs as it is diffcult to anticipate senario questions. Your mind must be sharp on the day of the interview, as success is dependent on the ability to quickly evaluate senarios, consider both sides of the argument, and present your reasoning in a clear and logical way.

Pros:

• Multiple impressions. One can recover from doing poorly on one or more stations.
• More objective than traditional interview.

Cons:

• Not very personal. Interviewers will not be able to get to know you as a person. Your evaluation is largely based on how you handle problems/senarios.
• Many feel that MMI questions are more difficult. However, remember that if it's difficult for you, it's likely that it will be difficult for others as well. This may be a good thing as it leaves allows room for applicants to distinguish themselves from each other.

Sample questions:

• Placebo (Ethical Decision Making)
  Dr Smith recommends homeopathic medicines to his patients. There is no scientific evidence or widely accepted theory to suggest that homeopathic medicines work, and Dr Smith doesn't believe them to. He recommends homeopathic medicine to people with mild and non-specific symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and muscle aches, because he believes that it will do no harm, but will give them reassurance.
  Consider the ethical problems that Dr Smith’s behaviour might pose. Discuss these issues with the interviewer.

• Air Travel (Communication Skills)
  Your company needs both you and a co-worker (Sara, a colleague from another branch of the company) to attend a critical business meeting in San Diego. You have just arrived to drive Sara to the airport. Sara (played by an actor) is in the room.

• Deterrent Fees (Societal Health Issues in Canada)
  Recently, the Prime Minister of Canada raised the issue of deterrent fees (a small charge, say $10, which everyone who initiates a visit to a health professional would have to pay at the first contact) as a way to control health care costs. The assumption is that this will deter people from visiting their doctor for unnecessary reasons.Consider the broad implications of this policy for health and health care costs. For example, do you think the approach will save health care costs? At what expense? Discuss this issue with the interviewer.

Traditional Interview

A traditional interview usually involve 2 or 3 panelists (faculty, community, and medical student). This is a personal interview where the interviewers assess you in a holistic manner. Questions that often come up are, "tell me about yourself", "talk about your accomplishments", "why medicine", etc. Interview at some schools are open file, meaning the interviewers have your application with them. They may then ask you about your extracurricular activities, research, etc. Due to the personal nature of this interview format, applicants MUST sell themselves. If you don't tell the interviewers how good you are, how would they know? The downfall of this format is that people can say whatever about themselves and make it sound great. The methods of questioning do not rigorously test for the applicant's abilities as in MMI, therefore the interviewers must take a large portion of what applicants say about themselves at face value. Many, if not all applicants misrepresent themselves to a degree and try to be the person that they think the admission committee wants.

Pro:

• Personal.
• Questions are predictable. Easier to prepare for.

Con:

• Subjective.
• Everyone says he/she is great. It become smore difficult to separate applicants apart.

Day of Interview

Attire:

• Men - suit (jacket, shirt, pants, tie, dress shoes). Clean shaven, short hair. Stay conservative and professional.

• Women - Suit (solid colors are best). Skirt suit is usually considered more formal. Blouse should be pressed, clean, and well-tailored. White, ivory, or light blue are best. Avoid lace, ruffles, and shiny fabrics. Shoes should have low heels and closed toe. Jewelry should be minimal. Hair and makeup should be conservative and not draw attention (but really I shouldn't be giving clothing advice to women, so if you think you know better... you probably do).

Having put in a good amount of effort in preparing for the interview, the real barrier now is your nerves. Of course interiews are nerve-racking, especially if it is your career on the line.

To relax your nerves:

• Talk to the other applicants! Chances are that they are just as nervous as you are. You'd be surprised at how conversing with others on the day of interview can reduce your anxiety and put you in a more talkative and receptive mood.

• Don't make it too important! I've heard cases of applicants fainting and even vomiting before their interviews. Sure it's your future career that we are talking about, but if you truly deserve to be in medicine, then there will always be a way even if you do poorly in this particular interview.

• Eat a good breafast! A healthy and energizing breakfast will put you in a more energetic and confident state.

• Think positive. In your mind go through the process of the interview step by step, and imagine yourself doing an excellent job. Mental projections of the futures highly influences your future performance.

• Don't come to the interview too early. You'll have to sit and wait. The anticipation will kill you.

Usually an interview day is consisted of a brief talk about the school (if you an out-of-province applicant, be prepared to hear about how great the school is), an optional 30 min to 1 hr tour of the school, lunch, and the actually interview. The order in which these occur may depend on the school and the specific interview group you are placed in. Some applicants have the interview in the morning and some in the afternoon.

For the actual interview, keep in mind of the following:

• Don't be late.
  
  
• 93% of human communication is nonverbal, so be careful of how you carry yourself.
  i. Smile and approach the interviewers with firm handshakes.
  ii. Maintain eye contact with each of the interviewer when you speak (but obviously don't stare them down).
  iii. Open body posture (no crossing your arm or leaning back. Lean forward and engage your audience).
  iv. No fidgeting, and convey confidence. If you have high self-esteem, it will invariably manifest in your body language.
  
  
• Take your time to think before answering. People often feel the need to answer immediately after a question was asked. Good answers take time to synthesize, so don't be afriad of taking your time.
  
  
• Don't speak too quickly. Not only does this convey a lack of confidence, it also gives you little time to think when you answer. If you are generally a fast speaker, you may consider speaking a bit slower than usual to buy yourself extra time to think between your words.
  
  
• Do not lie! This is not tolerated in the profession of medicine.
  
  
• Do not brag. It lowers your credibility.
  
  
• Do not cry. Many students have very difficult life stories. If you decide to share them with the interviewers, make sure that you can handle it emotionally. Crying will not buy you pity points. It will disturb the flow of the interview and make you seem unprofessional.
  
  
• Thank your interviewer in the end.