How do Carms interview help distinguish between applicants??

[lovemedicinesomuch 1]

By this point, I'd imagine that everyone has good interviewing skills - how does the interview distinguish between applicants?

[Bambi 1,763]

For the most part, this is the first opportunity for the Panel to actually meet you, they know you fairly well on paper, however, they are able to obtain a sense of whom you are, of your personality and to gauge whether or not they feel you will be a good fit for the team. They may have preselected one or more candidates for the position, but a poor interview will assure these candidates won't be chosen. The interview is your opportunity to be genuine, to be authentic to whom you are, and by being comfortable in these surroundings, and simply being yourself and honest in your answers, you are letting the interviewers be comfortable with you in this give and take, thereby maximizing your chances.

I recall being asked how I would handle difficult situations. I smiled and told them something about my personal circumstances that clearly demonstrated I was well able to deal with difficult situations. I walked in with the feeling that I was going to chat with colleagues, rather than trying to prove myself. The interview that was scheduled for 45 minutes, lasted all of 10 minutes, it was easy and comfortable. Just be yourself and this alone will distinguish you from other applicants. You cannot look into the minds of the panel of interviewers to see what they are thinking or looking for, however, you can be yourself, ensuring they have an accurate picture of whom you are and answering their questions openly with honesty. 

[JohnGrisham 1,742]

Similar to Bambi above - but I would say for bigger specialties (FM, psych, IM), it is somewhat of a formality to rule out red-flags.  I don't imaging the match rankings would be all that signfiicantly different in these fields without interviews. It is also a chance for students to see those schools/programs/cities and usually that alters OOP lists for most students. With covid - don't know how this factor comes into play. 

For example, when I did CaRMS, i had a poor interview experience at one OOP school - very disorganized, not very pleasant etc, so it went straight to the bottom of my list.  Very subjective yes, but it is what it is.

[blah1234 149]

You would be surprised on how bad medical students can be at interviewing.

[dooogs 111]

2 hours ago, Bambi said:

For the most part, this is the first opportunity for the Panel to actually meet you, they know you fairly well on paper, however, they are able to obtain a sense of whom you are, of your personality and to gauge whether or not they feel you will be a good fit for the team. They may have preselected one or more candidates for the position, but a poor interview will assure these candidates won't be chosen. The interview is your opportunity to be genuine, to be authentic to whom you are, and by being comfortable in these surroundings, and simply being yourself and honest in your answers, you are letting the interviewers be comfortable with you in this give and take, thereby maximizing your chances.

I recall being asked how I would handle difficult situations. I smiled and told them something about my personal circumstances that clearly demonstrated I was well able to deal with difficult situations. I walked in with the feeling that I was going to chat with colleagues, rather than trying to prove myself. The interview that was scheduled for 45 minutes, lasted all of 10 minutes, it was easy and comfortable. Just be yourself and this alone will distinguish you from other applicants. You cannot look into the minds of the panel of interviewers to see what they are thinking or looking for, however, you can be yourself, ensuring they have an accurate picture of whom you are and answering their questions openly with honesty. 

I always see your posts and I just want to say that you sound like a badass!

[bearded frog 580]

It usually doesn't save a bad overall application, but it can sure sink an otherwise good application.

[Bambi 1,763]

And the interview can significantly improve your chances. 

[pyridoxal-phosphate 43]

4 hours ago, blah1234 said:

You would be surprised on how bad medical students can be at interviewing.

Watch this be me lol

[Pakoon 96]

So basically it means nothing and it means everything, it won't ruin your application but it can ruin your application . It's not a big component but its a big component, love it when things are this clear cut 

[bread 57]

1 minute ago, Pakoon said:

So basically it means nothing and it means everything, it won't ruin your application but it can ruin your application . It's not a big component but its a big component, love it when things are this clear cut 

Ahaha, sums up all of carms pretty well I’d say!  

[rmorelan 2,572]

5 hours ago, Pakoon said:

So basically it means nothing and it means everything, it won't ruin your application but it can ruin your application . It's not a big component but its a big component, love it when things are this clear cut 

Ha summing up all of CARMS is almost like summing the entire set of all possible job interviews in any industry and trying to draw some kind of broad conclusion. It isn't really a question that makes sense even if it is a natural question to ask. You can ask ok for this program at this school what do they do and what is important. Beyond that this it gets really vague, really fast. 

This is all the price for the subjective system we set up - which has some advantages for sure - but this is the cost down the line. It is fuzzy, random, and unpredictable. That is uncomfortable . 

The sort answer is that all sections matter, and any one section of the app can and does separate out people. Thus you must try to be as good as you can at all of them (ha, easy to say of course). For the interview - I will say there are significant differences between applicants, and no not all med students are good at interviewing (getting through potentially one med school interview 4 years prior boosted perhaps by your ECs/GPA etc does not automatically make you an expert. Still it is a skill that can be improved upon.  ) 

[Jarisch 8]

On 1/17/2021 at 6:02 PM, JohnGrisham said:

Similar to Bambi above - but I would say for bigger specialties (FM, psych, IM), it is somewhat of a formality to rule out red-flags.  I don't imaging the match rankings would be all that signfiicantly different in these fields without interviews. It is also a chance for students to see those schools/programs/cities and usually that alters OOP lists for most students. With covid - don't know how this factor comes into play. 

For example, when I did CaRMS, i had a poor interview experience at one OOP school - very disorganized, not very pleasant etc, so it went straight to the bottom of my list.  Very subjective yes, but it is what it is.

I have interviewed candidates for my IM program, and the interview certainly does discern between candidates in my experience. Success on medical school interviews does not guarantee success on residency interviews. MMIs are relatively discrete and largely trainable encounters. Panel interviews can be rehearsed to death. As many have pointed out, residency interviews can be like conversations. That is both favourable but also potentially a bit of a trap.  

In general I have seen candidates struggle with either poor communication skills or lack of examples to back up answers. For instance, some interviewees were overall informal and treated it too much like a hallway encounter. Professionalism matters, and I would mirror the tone and vibe of your interviewee. I have been called bro and man during an interview. I did not particularly mind it, but other members of the panel sure did! Keep it formal and be safe. Use humour sparingly and read the room. 

In other situations, some people did not know some components of their CV, or when called on to provide examples of certain attributes struggled. Preparedness helps. A degree of spontaneity, as Bambi mentioned, adds authenticity and takes away from the scriptedness.

Another thing that is different from medical school interviews is that you need to be prepared to explain why you want to come to that school. For medical school people generally appreciate you're desperate and will go anywhere you can. For residency, not explaining for instance "Why Winnipeg?" or "Why Kingston?" (completely random cities - just giving an example!) will make you look suboptimal.

 

 

 

 

[bearded frog 580]

1 hour ago, Jarisch said:

For medical school people generally appreciate you're desperate and will go anywhere you can.

This most definitely applies to a large proportion of residency applicants as well who just wanna be an X and will go anywhere that takes them to do it.

[Jarisch 8]

37 minutes ago, bearded frog said:

This most definitely applies to a large proportion of residency applicants as well who just wanna be an X and will go anywhere that takes them to do it.

Yes, that is true, though the point is that for medical school interviews they typically do not ask why you want to go to that particular school/location, whereas for residency they very often will. They are both high stakes interviews of course. 

 

 

[rmorelan 2,572]

6 hours ago, Jarisch said:

Yes, that is true, though the point is that for medical school interviews they typically do not ask why you want to go to that particular school/location, whereas for residency they very often will. They are both high stakes interviews of course. 

 

 

that is often in part is to see if you researched/know their program at all. If you don't that say something about you as an applicant. 

[Guest2020_ 1]

10 hours ago, Jarisch said:

In other situations, some people did not know some components of their CV, or when called on to provide examples of certain attributes struggled. Preparedness helps. A degree of spontaneity, as Bambi mentioned, adds authenticity and takes away from the scriptedness.

 

 

 

 

At this stage, are examples expected to come from clinical experiences in M3/4 or does it work the same way as it did for med school interviews (where most examples came from extracurriculars, etc.)? 

[Clever 17]

1 hour ago, Guest2020_ said:

At this stage, are examples expected to come from clinical experiences in M3/4 or does it work the same way as it did for med school interviews (where most examples came from extracurriculars, etc.)? 

If you have an example from M3/4 it would certainly be of advantage to use that. But if you only have an example from other areas of your life that is okay too.