interview tips
Updated December 28, 2020
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The moment has come—your primary is complete, you’ve turned in your secondaries and just managed to forget about the typos you caught after submission, and an email with a bolded title, X School of Medicine: Interview Invitation has just landed in your inbox. The most humanizing aspect of your application process has finally arrived, and you are one step closer to your dream. It’s crunch time, and you want to show the admissions committee who you are, but how do you put your best foot forward, especially in a post-pandemic application cycle?
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Interviews for the 2021 cycle went fully virtual from the start of interview season. While the future of the interview format in a post-COVID application cycle is uncertain, there is good news—virtual interviewing actually isn’t so different from in-person interviewing. Keeping a few key principles in mind will help you stay level-headed and confident throughout the process, no matter what your interview ends up looking like.
1. Re-Read Your Application, Your Research Abstracts, Your Journal Entries
Yes, even after all of the hours you spent poring over every sentence you wrote for your primary and secondary, chances are that by the time your interview invitation arrives (anywhere from July through March in a typical cycle), you will have forgotten the true extent of your experiences, the minute details of your personal statement, and the many aspects of your application that align with the school’s mission, especially if you have a multitude of experiences spread out over your gap years. In open-file interviews—interviews in which your interviewer has full access to your file—different interviewers will focus on the parts of your application that most appeal to them. Maybe you get an MD/PhD interviewer who is particularly interested in the year you spent doing neurology research in your undergrad, and you’ll want to be sure you can answer any questions they might have.
2. engage in empathy
One of the best tips for interviewing is remembering that you are showing the interviewers the type of physician you are going to be. What do we look for in physicians? Empathy, compassion, warmth, intelligence, poise, perspective. As a physician, you will treat everyone and anyone—this is the basis of the Hippocratic Oath. Keeping this in mind is key to answering the types of “difficult” questions interviewers will throw at you, especially during multiple mini interviews (MMIs). Every ethical dilemma has at least two sides—explore both and show empathy and understanding even for the perspective with which you disagree. Read op-eds written by people on the opposite end of the political spectrum as you. Engage in active listening during debates with your friends. Brush up on the four pillars of bioethics—justice, beneficence, no maleficence, and autonomy—and learn to apply to those in all situations.
3. Practice and Prepare! But Not Too Much
If you’re worried about timing, do a couple of mock interviews styled in the way your interview will be held. Hundreds of free sample questions can be found online for free. Get feedback from others, like physicians, professors, or even your friends and family—were you coherent? Did you have enough time to make the point you wanted to? At the same time, as paradoxical as it is, try not to overthink it or over-rehearse it. The best description of an interview, even an MMI scenario, is a coffee-shop conversation. You don’t go into a conversation knowing exactly what you’ll say—you likely have a couple of main points you want to hit, and the rest is just you responding to whatever the other person is saying. If you don’t have someone to practice with you, you can always record yourself speaking to get a sense of what you sound like and how you might improve clarity.
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Do a little more research about the school and look up your interviewers if their names are given. Ask yourself what you want to know more about school, beyond the mundane details of student life, and prepare questions for your interviewers accordingly. Think big in terms of mission, the future of the school, the relationship the school has with the community, ideas for new courses and programs, and ask away.
4. Be Yourself (Yes, Really) and Go Forth with Confidence
Medical schools are looking for diversity, and that comes in many, many forms. We are all uniquely diverse just by the nature of our experiences—no one else has lived your life except you. Analyze yourself like you’re the main character in a novel. What’s your motivation? What inspires you to pursue medicine? What experiences have made you who you are, and how does that line up with what this medical school is hoping to accomplish?
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And finally, smile! The slogan “fake it till you make it” is actually extremely applicable to interview day, especially if you feel that your nerves may get the best of you. Laugh. Be warm. Be confident, but humble. The school chose YOU out of thousands for a reason. Know that this is your time to shine and believe in the power of body language. Here is a great link to a TedTalk on body language: Amy Cuddy - "Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are"
virtual interview?
All of the tips given above are fully applicable! But here are a couple more basics that can help you feel more fully prepared.
1. Find a Quiet Area with a Clean Background
Scope out a place for your interview well in advance and make sure it’s somewhere you won’t be disturbed with strong connectivity. While interviewers will likely be understanding of uncontrollable background noise (welcome to working from home during a pandemic), the peace and quiet will keep you from getting nervous ahead of time. Talk to the people you’re living with and let them know what your interview day looks like. Find a comfortable place to sit, especially if your interview day is several hours long, and test out how you look on Zoom, making sure your setup has you fully in frame. Add your full name to your Zoom profile, as well as your pronouns!
2. Look at the Camera, Not at the Screen (No Matter How Tempting It May Be Otherwise)
The best perception of eye contact comes from you looking into the camera, not at the screen. While it’s natural to want to see how your interviewer reacts to what you say, keep the focus on the camera to minimize distraction, and try not worry about the strangeness of it all. If your eyes do drift back towards the screen, it’s not the end of the world, but train yourself to refocus.
3. Keep Everything Fully Charged
Sit with your laptop plugged in so that you won’t need to reach over to plug it in if it starts to run out of battery. Keep your phone next to you as well, face-down, silenced, and out of frame, with its charger as well. Most schools will suggest that you keep your phone near you so that you can dial in or continue the interview on the phone if the connection breaks.
AAMC’s Video Interview Tool for Admissions (VITA)
Take advantage of the ability to take the practice exam. Watch how you look on camera, since the screen frame is slightly different from that of Zoom. Record yourself and note where your eyes focus, and how your tone of voice is. When you lack a human interviewer, it becomes very easy to let yourself become monotone. Being conscious of that can help you sound more like yourself. Pretend that someone really is on the other side of the screen and smile as you speak. Putting googly eyes near your laptop camera can help.
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Interviews can be stressful, but always remember, you were invited for a reason! Be true to yourself and take it as an opportunity for growth and the chance to meet new people. You’ve got this!
Shreya kumar
Hometown: Elk Grove, CA
Year: M0