I know it is still really early in the cycle since secondary essays have just gone out, but I wanted to share some advice on preparing for interviews. It’s important to start thinking about this early (especially if you have the bandwidth for it–I know it’s not always possible!). It can move fast–during my cycle, I received my first interview invite in August and the interview was just a week after that invite, and I was glad I had started practicing early on so that I’m not scrambling to prepare!
The key is to practice
Obviously, the best way to practice is to do mock interviews. However, that is not always possible!
You can start off by looking up common interview questions and record yourself answering them. Play it back (yes it will be painful to watch yourself), and evaluate what you like and do not like.
A resource I found to be particularly helpful is Dr. Ryan Gray’s Premed Playbook, Guide To the Medical School Interview. I think it’s overall a fantastic resource and a good place to get common questions that are asked on interviews as well as some sample answers. It’s about $13 on amazon at the time of posting right now and in my opinion it is definitely worth it. In the book, Dr. Gray goes over common interview questions, sample answers, and why each sample answer is good or bad. The point is not to copy those answers. I personally looked at the questions, prepared my own answers, then read the sample answers and evaluated my own answer in a similar critical lens.
Ask your friends to do mock interviews with you
Let your friends give you mock interviews, practice giving a mock interview to your friends.
If you know someone who’s in med school, ask if they can give you a mock interview. But if you have friends who are not in the medical field, they can be equally helpful! The internet has tons of commonly asked interview questions, and I found that my friends who were working in industry at the time that I applied had gone through so many interviews (during their job search, for example), and several of my friends have conducted interviews for their jobs–and lots of interview skills (ex: how you articulate your thoughts, how you present yourself) is not exclusive to the medical field. I personally think trying to give a mock interview would be helpful too, because it can give you some insights on how the receiver of the answers might feel like when the interviewee delivers it.
Ultimately, mock interviews will give you an opportunity to refine your answers and build confidence. The more you do them, the less nervous you’re going to be on the day of your interviews.
What questions do you have? Let me know in the comments :)
