Since this question gets asked alot in residency interviews I wanted some insight. Half of the people I talked to told me to talk about the things outside of medicine that you like to do so you don't bore the faculty because they already know your professional credentials from your CV and application. Other people told me to focus on your professional career and your interest in the specialty. I am confused. How do you guys approach this question?
"Tell me about yourself"
- Thread starter Cadet133
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2013
- Messages
- 2,401
- Reaction score
- 1,845
I approach interviews like this - they already see your credentials - that's why you were invited to interview. While still being able to discuss those things, bring outside things in. BE the person they WANT to work with. If they don't like you, or want to work with you, they won't hire you/offer you admission/offer a res. seat. BE the person they don't mind dealing with for hours and days on end, and be the person with whom they can grab a drink and not hate every second of it, haha. So far it's worked for me, but everyone has a different experience.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2010
- Messages
- 3,107
- Reaction score
- 10,071
Far and away the most commonly asked question on the trail. For this one you really do need a fairly well-rehearsed answer simply because of how commonly it's and when it's asked (usually at the beginning). For an interviewer it serves two important functions:
1) gives them time to review your file and remember which of the X00 applicants you are and why they wanted to interview you in the first place
2) depending on your response, may provide a natural segue into further lines of conversation
As you craft your response, you'll want to consider #2 very carefully. Where do you want the interview to go? What are your strengths and weaknesses as a conversationalist? If you simply give a summary of your application, you give them nowhere to go or at least nowhere interesting.
I think most people are best advised to skew toward the personal. Talk about your family, your upbringing, where you lived, what your parents do for a living, what you like to do for fun, your pet, etc. Any one of those things can provide the jumping off point for a new line of conversation and keep the interview flowing smoothly. It's also the kind of thing people can listen to and remember despite the fact they are reading your application while you talk, so save anything detailed and nuanced for later in the conversation when you have their full attention. Keep this part light and casual and see where it takes you. I actually made sure to end my spiel with something unique that made the next question impossible not to ask so I could pretty reliably predict the early part of each interview.
It also has a nice safety feature in that if you finish your spiel and there's too much awkward silence, it allows you to ask them something related about themselves (ie. "so what about you -- are you from this area originally?"). Can't really do that after regurgitating your ERAS (so, uh, what was YOUR step 1 score?).
It sounds oddly calculated and robotic written out like this, but that's what happens when you try to write down something that comes intuitively.
1) gives them time to review your file and remember which of the X00 applicants you are and why they wanted to interview you in the first place
2) depending on your response, may provide a natural segue into further lines of conversation
As you craft your response, you'll want to consider #2 very carefully. Where do you want the interview to go? What are your strengths and weaknesses as a conversationalist? If you simply give a summary of your application, you give them nowhere to go or at least nowhere interesting.
I think most people are best advised to skew toward the personal. Talk about your family, your upbringing, where you lived, what your parents do for a living, what you like to do for fun, your pet, etc. Any one of those things can provide the jumping off point for a new line of conversation and keep the interview flowing smoothly. It's also the kind of thing people can listen to and remember despite the fact they are reading your application while you talk, so save anything detailed and nuanced for later in the conversation when you have their full attention. Keep this part light and casual and see where it takes you. I actually made sure to end my spiel with something unique that made the next question impossible not to ask so I could pretty reliably predict the early part of each interview.
It also has a nice safety feature in that if you finish your spiel and there's too much awkward silence, it allows you to ask them something related about themselves (ie. "so what about you -- are you from this area originally?"). Can't really do that after regurgitating your ERAS (so, uh, what was YOUR step 1 score?).
It sounds oddly calculated and robotic written out like this, but that's what happens when you try to write down something that comes intuitively.
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2002
- Messages
- 10,910
- Reaction score
- 1,154
Laziest interview question ever.
Why are you saying that
Thanks for the tip you make excellent points. Im leaning towards talking about my personal life and hobbies etc but I dont want to come off to the interviewer as arrogant by talking about my strengths and weaknesses.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2008
- Messages
- 8,797
- Reaction score
- 9,032
I had an interviewer literally start off with the "So, do you have any questions about our program?", so I wouldn't say it's the *laziest* ever, just close to it.
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2013
- Messages
- 25,171
- Reaction score
- 35,179
I don't agree....
It's a pretty socially awkward question actually, most people haven't abstracted themselves into a 1-3 minute semi-impersonal blurb to tell a total stranger on demand, and most people don't get to know other people by asking that open-ended of a question
I usually get outside of work, "are you from around here originally?" "What part of town do you live in?" "what do you do for work?" "any family nearby?" "what do you like to do for fun?" None of which make sense to start a residency interview except for asking about family (could be getting onto EEO ground to ask about family/marriage stuff), they could ask what do you like to do for fun but usually not a first question so they ask "tell me about yourself".
or ask "How did you find out about our program/what makes you interested in our program?" "residency can be isolating, what sort of support system do you have?" that can get them the family stuff question answered without treading on EEO/family stuff
"What brings you to our program?"
Usually I can say:
"Dr. Advisor/mentor so and so says _____" or "Being from ___ area I'd like to stay in the area, and I'm interested in a program that is academic/community with ___ feel for ___ reasons, and from talking to so and so or reputation or my research on program (could mention website, resident reviews online) I think this program and this location are a good fit. Or, if out of the area where you live, mention "Having ___ family or friend or spouse or education experience or work or life experience in area"
That can segue into talking about your career goals because of course saying what brings you to a program and what you value about a program is starting to get into that
You are essentially assuring the program that you know what sort of program it is, why that is the program you want, and what about the program and yourself is what will let you contribute and thrive there (program specific)
You are also assuring the program that its physical location (geography, location, climate, and your social network specific) means you might actually rank them or be willing to shovel your car out of snow and not fall into a massive depression because you're going from SoCal to Chicago or Oklahoma as it were moving to **** hole away from all your friends should that be the case. so here you can mention your spouse has family there, whatever is your tie
As far as tell me about yourself if that's the start, you are often weaving those above elements in or touching on them
"I grew up in blank area, went to blank school, had blank path through life for blank reasons, medicine/this specialty is important to me based on ____experience/reasons. I see myself as becoming ___ type of doctor for ___ reasons. So I'm interested in this program for ____. program specific reasons (as per above). At home, I like to do ____ hobbies/things, I have ___ family/friends/pets, so the ____ location specific considerations as per above, would work out well here.
The organization and what you say is going to depend on the answers to my fill in the blank, but I'm just typing mad here
I should fish out the stuff I used on my interviews to prepare
There are good things online that are questions that you can write/think answers to in order to help you have answers ready to the kind of stuff they will ask
1) why medicine
2) why this specialty
3) what unique skill/talents/interests you have that make you and medicine/specialty well suited for one another
4) do you have a personal/occupational/educational background that relates and how
5) what is unique about the program and how that attracts you and how does that make you two well suited for one another
6) why an academic or community or large or small program as this one is
7) where do you see your career in 5 years, 10 years? how does this program fit those goals?
8) what are the challenging aspects of this specialty, program, location, patient population and how does that fit you/how will you cope?
9) a word on geography, climate, location, and how that works for you personally, based on your background, any family and hobbies you have now
just a start
If you do the above analysis, get to know your goals, strengths, weaknesses, what the specialty is like, where you think you want to go in life, what is important to you and family, and details about what the program is like, take some AAMC/SDN quizzes, and read your ERAS, and think about what you have done in life and why, you will start to be able to form a narrative that is "tell me about yourself" and "why this program" which are the most common and important things to cover in the interview
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2013
- Messages
- 25,171
- Reaction score
- 35,179
google online for questions to ask any program and any program in your specialty, and questions related to what your career goals and how the program can help you with that
I think the NRMP has a list even
be sure to have a list of questions that you use, use that list to research the program beforehand to help you with asnwering the questions in my last post for the interview, to be sure you look like you have done your homework on the program (don't ask dumb questions that are easily found on the website), and to be sure that you then have questions left over that make you look smart and interested when everyone asks you that dumb dreaded question "what questions do you have for the program" over and over again
if they start the interview with that, you can weave in details about yourself saying, "Well, it's important to me to be ___ kind of doctor because ___, what opportunities for ____ training is there here?"
you can ask the same question to more than one person that day if it's intelligent and makes sense to get more than one view if you start coming up short on questions
I think there are threads on SDN where people ask residents/attendings what questions to ask, because the irony is as an MS4 you don't really know what is important for residency training
you don't know what you don't know
ask your specialty advisor/docs in your chosen field what sorts of things matter and what they wished they had known about residency training in picking a program that they didn't appreciate when they were going through the process, I had some surprising things come up
on the interview trail I even asked the residents and attending at the programs what they wished they had know and what they thought was important for an MS4 to consider that they wouldn't have thought of when they were in my shoes (they won't be as real with you as the above suggested group, but you will learn certain things about the program you wouldn't have known otherwise)
I think the NRMP has a list even
be sure to have a list of questions that you use, use that list to research the program beforehand to help you with asnwering the questions in my last post for the interview, to be sure you look like you have done your homework on the program (don't ask dumb questions that are easily found on the website), and to be sure that you then have questions left over that make you look smart and interested when everyone asks you that dumb dreaded question "what questions do you have for the program" over and over again
if they start the interview with that, you can weave in details about yourself saying, "Well, it's important to me to be ___ kind of doctor because ___, what opportunities for ____ training is there here?"
you can ask the same question to more than one person that day if it's intelligent and makes sense to get more than one view if you start coming up short on questions
I think there are threads on SDN where people ask residents/attendings what questions to ask, because the irony is as an MS4 you don't really know what is important for residency training
you don't know what you don't know
ask your specialty advisor/docs in your chosen field what sorts of things matter and what they wished they had known about residency training in picking a program that they didn't appreciate when they were going through the process, I had some surprising things come up
on the interview trail I even asked the residents and attending at the programs what they wished they had know and what they thought was important for an MS4 to consider that they wouldn't have thought of when they were in my shoes (they won't be as real with you as the above suggested group, but you will learn certain things about the program you wouldn't have known otherwise)
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2010
- Messages
- 72,719
- Reaction score
- 115,853
Crayola, perchance, were you an English major?
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2013
- Messages
- 25,171
- Reaction score
- 35,179
No, hard science, (I had to to write lots and lots of very long amd detailed lab reports) my first career interest was being a writer/English teacher, I've won some writing awards and been an editor for a school newspaper. (Hard to believe I once was responsible for writing/making articles concise I know). I know a foreign language too and wrote a lot doing that.
I have a hard time typing as much as I used to. (Hard to believe I'm sure.) I went into a field of medicine notorious for long notes but I like to dance around too many details of my life for amonymity's sake. Like usual, I may have said too much already
I have a hard time typing as much as I used to. (Hard to believe I'm sure.) I went into a field of medicine notorious for long notes but I like to dance around too many details of my life for amonymity's sake. Like usual, I may have said too much already
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2008
- Messages
- 2,390
- Reaction score
- 2,414
Some tips:
- I think the biggest paradigm shift I made in my interview performances happened when I realized the interview is not just some sort of chat session where you try to look pleasant and presentable - it's a bidirectional sales pitch. They're selling a position, and you're selling your skills and traits. But why should they want what you're selling? You have to tell them. Don't assume they're going to glean this information from your app etc. Basically, everything you say and do should be aimed towards points like 'your program values x and y, and I embody x and y because of abc'. Or 'I'd be a great trainee at this program because of xyz'. You don't have to say these things explicitly (although there will be times when it may be good to do so), but focus your thinking on these open-ended questions towards that goal. I used to meander around and make some good points but also talk about a lot of things that were not especially relevant. You may encounter interviewers who just want to shoot the breeze, but most are going to want to hit the core points of your app etc. Basically, these open ended questions become a lot easier to deal with when you realize they're giving you an open door to drive the interview in the direction you want it to go.
- To really grasp what the program cares about, peruse the program's web site beforehand and/or simply just listen to the 'program introduction' in the morning before the interviews. Often times they will explicitly tell you what they're looking for - there will be a slide detailing this etc. Then go into the interviews and hammer home why you are the physical embodiment of everything they care about.
- Convey this stuff with enthusiasm and passion. You care about this stuff, right? Don't just sit there and recite some boring nonsense...be poised and openly display whatever you're passionate about. You don't want to look excessively rehearsed etc, but it's better to have rehearsed some of your core talking points than to look like you're coming up with all this off the top of your head (and sloppily, to boot).
- The interviewers will definitely care about good social skills, but keep in mind that the best applicants are unquestionably going to have good social skills already. What will distinguish them is being able to take the interview farther to really demonstrate why they belong at the program (among the other things listed in this thread). You need to do this too.
- As I alluded to before, you should try to drive the interview. Now don't necessarily try to grab control of the interview from the interviewer etc, but make sure the interview is getting around to the main points that you want to be selling to the program.
- Never let an interview 'die' or 'go flat'. I've been in a handful where the interviewer is awkward, a 'cold fish', not much of a talker, in a ****ty mood etc and you can sometimes feel the conversation dying as if both sides are struggling to come up with more to say. These can be a real handful because you feel like you can't read the interviewer and you're not sure if what you're saying is helping or whatever. Make sure you have enough talking points, questions, etc to keep the conversation rolling. If all else fails, simply make an observation about the program ('boy, the fellows sure do seem happy about xyz') and use that as a conversation point.
- I think the biggest paradigm shift I made in my interview performances happened when I realized the interview is not just some sort of chat session where you try to look pleasant and presentable - it's a bidirectional sales pitch. They're selling a position, and you're selling your skills and traits. But why should they want what you're selling? You have to tell them. Don't assume they're going to glean this information from your app etc. Basically, everything you say and do should be aimed towards points like 'your program values x and y, and I embody x and y because of abc'. Or 'I'd be a great trainee at this program because of xyz'. You don't have to say these things explicitly (although there will be times when it may be good to do so), but focus your thinking on these open-ended questions towards that goal. I used to meander around and make some good points but also talk about a lot of things that were not especially relevant. You may encounter interviewers who just want to shoot the breeze, but most are going to want to hit the core points of your app etc. Basically, these open ended questions become a lot easier to deal with when you realize they're giving you an open door to drive the interview in the direction you want it to go.
- To really grasp what the program cares about, peruse the program's web site beforehand and/or simply just listen to the 'program introduction' in the morning before the interviews. Often times they will explicitly tell you what they're looking for - there will be a slide detailing this etc. Then go into the interviews and hammer home why you are the physical embodiment of everything they care about.
- Convey this stuff with enthusiasm and passion. You care about this stuff, right? Don't just sit there and recite some boring nonsense...be poised and openly display whatever you're passionate about. You don't want to look excessively rehearsed etc, but it's better to have rehearsed some of your core talking points than to look like you're coming up with all this off the top of your head (and sloppily, to boot).
- The interviewers will definitely care about good social skills, but keep in mind that the best applicants are unquestionably going to have good social skills already. What will distinguish them is being able to take the interview farther to really demonstrate why they belong at the program (among the other things listed in this thread). You need to do this too.
- As I alluded to before, you should try to drive the interview. Now don't necessarily try to grab control of the interview from the interviewer etc, but make sure the interview is getting around to the main points that you want to be selling to the program.
- Never let an interview 'die' or 'go flat'. I've been in a handful where the interviewer is awkward, a 'cold fish', not much of a talker, in a ****ty mood etc and you can sometimes feel the conversation dying as if both sides are struggling to come up with more to say. These can be a real handful because you feel like you can't read the interviewer and you're not sure if what you're saying is helping or whatever. Make sure you have enough talking points, questions, etc to keep the conversation rolling. If all else fails, simply make an observation about the program ('boy, the fellows sure do seem happy about xyz') and use that as a conversation point.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,868
- Reaction score
- 887
Me: "Tell me about yourself"
Applicant: "Well, what do you want to know?"
Me: "Oh, things like whether you always answer questions with another question. That sort of thing."
In all seriousness, I use that question as a way of putting people on the spot while I review their application/CV/statement. It's either that, or sit in uncomfortable silence while I try to remember who you are.
Applicant: "Well, what do you want to know?"
Me: "Oh, things like whether you always answer questions with another question. That sort of thing."
In all seriousness, I use that question as a way of putting people on the spot while I review their application/CV/statement. It's either that, or sit in uncomfortable silence while I try to remember who you are.
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,897
- Reaction score
- 409
I think it also depends on the field and the interviewer. Some fields/interviewers primarily want to make sure you are not a psychopath.
When I was asked something generic like "tell me about yourself..." I assumed that the interviewer had already read my personal statement for why I loved ____ field, so I started off with where I grew up, where I went to school and what I studied, and a very safe extracurricular: bike racing and triathlons. Given the higher likelihood of stumbling on a negatively polarizing topic as compared to a mutual interest, you should play it safe. It's the exact same as shopping for an interview outfit. If you have to ask, then you clearly have no idea and should stick to something as basic and dull as possible. Navy suit. White shirt. Red or blue tie. The guy who is truly able to pull off a madras suit with a pink bowtie is not asking anyone for fashion advice... especially not on SDN. Similarly, if you need to ask how to answer a question, then the safest bet is to stick to safe topics and just be pleasant. Don't talk about church, guns, politics, etc.
During my interviews, I went to great lengths to be definitely likeable but not super memorable, because I thought I had good board scores and letters. As a result, I thought I had more to lose by going out on a limb during the interview than I had to gain. This may have been a bad tactic, but I still matched very well.
When I was asked something generic like "tell me about yourself..." I assumed that the interviewer had already read my personal statement for why I loved ____ field, so I started off with where I grew up, where I went to school and what I studied, and a very safe extracurricular: bike racing and triathlons. Given the higher likelihood of stumbling on a negatively polarizing topic as compared to a mutual interest, you should play it safe. It's the exact same as shopping for an interview outfit. If you have to ask, then you clearly have no idea and should stick to something as basic and dull as possible. Navy suit. White shirt. Red or blue tie. The guy who is truly able to pull off a madras suit with a pink bowtie is not asking anyone for fashion advice... especially not on SDN. Similarly, if you need to ask how to answer a question, then the safest bet is to stick to safe topics and just be pleasant. Don't talk about church, guns, politics, etc.
During my interviews, I went to great lengths to be definitely likeable but not super memorable, because I thought I had good board scores and letters. As a result, I thought I had more to lose by going out on a limb during the interview than I had to gain. This may have been a bad tactic, but I still matched very well.
Similar threads
- Locked
