Interview disorganization

[Guest physiology]

Did anyone have a really, terribly organized interview? I mean right from the get go, was anyone interviewed by the wrong panel for about 5 minutes until the mistake was discovered?

 

That musta been pretty scary for the person. I imagine the interview probably went like this:

 

"So you have a PhD in health care management..."

 

"uhh.....what?"

 

"How was your volunteer work in Guatemala?"

 

"Huh??????? I never did that!"

 

The med students at Robson Square said this had happened. It happened at really common last names like "Wong" or "Smith". Plus, when a member of the panel called out your name, all I ever really heard was the last name anyway (BAD IDEA when all the interviews are arranged alphabetically!).

 

I was a bit frightened when my friend who had already left for his interview was called AGAIN (I guess there were two people by the name) and I thought he had originally gone off with my interview panel by mistake!

 

We both share a same last name.

 

I think maybe next year they should call out the name LOUD and CLEAR and maybe memorize some small tidbit off your extracurricular sheet.

 

BTW, did they have access to our autobiographical sketches? It seemed as if my panel ONLY read the extracurricular sheet.

 

OH, on the subject of disorganization, how was the heat at the College of BC Physicians and Surgeons? The med students were also telling me the thermostat was at 26 degrees ( no matter what they did!) Do you think it severely affected your interview performance?

 

People were telling me it was worse than sitting in your car (no AC), lining up to get onto the Port Mann in rush hour on a hot summer day!

[Guest Jazz]

Yeah, it wasn't very well organized in my humble opinion. I didn't have the same name problem but I got asked the same question twice a couple of times and kinda felt silly answering it again. eg "i volunteered at X because...etc" then the next interviewer would look at the sketch and ask "so...you volunteered at X, why?"

At several points, the panel didn't know who was going to ask the next question and resulted in some awkward silence. The heat at the college wasn't bad, didn't really affect the interview. The disorganization you speak of is probably due to most panels being first timers, funny how some of us multiple yr/school interviewees have more experience in these things than they do.

[Guest 4EverRose]

Hey physiology,

 

Inside the welcome letter from Dr. Frinton, it says the following:

 

The interviewers will have a copy of your autobiographical essay and your extra-curricular activity list. They do not have access to the rest of your file, including your academic transcripts and references.

 

So yes, they do have access to our autobiographical essay.

 

And Jazz, regarding the panel members didn't know who will be asking the next question, I think this could be improved by having more training/practice sessions for the panel members. According to the UNBC medical program website <www.unbc.ca/nmp/interviews.html>, interviewers based in Vancouver attend the March 3 session, whereas interviewers outside of Vancouver attend the March 11 or 13 session. Unless UBC schedules some other time for the panel members to meet, this would indicate that the opportunity for the members to prepare for the interviews together as a panel is rather limited.

 

Luckily for me I feel the interviewers were well organized and as far as I know there were no chaos for me (well - fingers cross)

[Guest Makunouchi]

Wasn't that bad... although many people had their panel changed ... sometimes more than once.

 

Only had one confusing question because they have a few student's profiles there with them.

[Guest kooty]

I had mine on Saturday, so i think my panel had a bit of time to work on it...Jazz, I think that you had the same panel as me....you are the person I emailed a few weeks ago asking if you remembered me right? Anyways, my panel did get a bit confused about who was asking the questions, but that was a minor hitch in the process.

 

Temp was fine....I did notice that it was a bit warm at the end though.....perhaps it was warm the whole time but I may have been too nervous to tell. I was happy w/ the temp...better than a frozen room where I'm too cold to answer. On the other hand, my friend interviewed at Robson and said that his room was cold then hot then cold then hot.......that sucks.

[Guest Jazz]

Nope, didn't get an email from you.