tooty Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 I heard that there are people or companies that offer professional school interview coaching. Has anyone done something like this or know of these people/companies? I have a decent shot at an interview this year and I don't mind spending some money to boost my edge on the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspired17 Posted November 8, 2007 Report Share Posted November 8, 2007 I would advise you to look into what your University offers in terms of interview preparation. I think that the advice that you would get from your University would be more valuable than that offered by a company. After all, you are applying to an academic institution and it thus makes sense to consult your University for this kind of preparation. I imagine that most schools offer this service. I know that McGill's Career and Placement Center allows you to sign up for mock interviews, and you can sign up for as many as you want to attend (within reason, obviously). However, I also think that overpreparation can be harmful. It is easy to overthink the whole process and come across as rehearsed. Preparation is important, but being spontaneous and natural is also critical. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurfette Posted November 8, 2007 Report Share Posted November 8, 2007 Try doing some mock interviews with friends, preferrably med students. That'll give you a perspective of what an interview might be like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted November 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2007 Try doing some mock interviews with friends, preferrably med students. That'll give you a perspective of what an interview might be like. I plan to do that anyway, but some help from professionals might bring up some shortcomings in my interview skills that I others would have missed. Afterall, these people know what interviewers want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon01 Posted November 15, 2007 Report Share Posted November 15, 2007 Just go out there and give it 110%. Leave it all out there in the interview room. Remember, when the day is done you gave it all you had and had nothing left in the tank. *Chest Bump* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted November 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Just go out there and give it 110%. Leave it all out there in the interview room. Remember, when the day is done you gave it all you had and had nothing left in the tank. *Chest Bump* Doing what you're advocating would be like not studying for a final exam and then giving it "110%" on the day, isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploughboy Posted November 16, 2007 Report Share Posted November 16, 2007 Afterall, these people know what interviewers want. Do they? 1. The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0T6 Posted November 17, 2007 Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 Tooty, it sounds like you're convinced that these consultations are going to increase your chances, so why ask for others' opinions? If you feel like you need to do that and you'd regret not doing it if things don't work out - then by all means do it. I personally think they're a waste of money. If I'm interviewing you - I want to see you. I want to see some faults cause I want to be working with someone human, not someone who feels they have to prepare and script themselves so much as to pay others for help. LOL and like ploughboy said - do they? Every interviewer's different - you're putting your money on the people interviewing you looking for the same person your consultant is looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted November 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 Hrm. This isn't quite the discussion I was aiming at. Here are my answers OT6 with all due respect. Tooty, it sounds like you're convinced that these consultations are going to increase your chances, so why ask for others' opinions? I wasn't asking whether or not I should do it. Like you said, I'm already convinced it's beneficial. If I'm interviewing you - I want to see you. I want to see some faults cause I want to be working with someone human, not someone who feels they have to prepare and script themselves so much as to pay others for help. I don't like to think of it as scripting. There are a lot of common attributes that interviewers look for in the interviewee. I hope you'll agree that compassion, empathy, honesty, integrity, respect, maturity, etc. are things that most med school interviewers from all walks of life would like to see. If not, demonstrating any of those attributes certainly would not hurt you. Now, do you believe that you yourself possess these qualities? If you do, and your grades and EC's make the cutoffs, it's fair to say that you deserve to be accepted, correct? I'm sure the vast majority of us do indeed possess these qualities to a certain degree; however, only the select few are accepted every year. This is because, in my opinion, the rejected simply do not have the skills/practice/knowledge to portray these qualities to the best of their ability. Either that, or they didn't portray their qualities well enough to beat the competition. Learning how to communicate to the interviewers that you have what it takes to be a good doctor is simply another form of selling yourself. For the same reasons that we wear proper business clothing to interviews, so too should we learn how to answer questions in ways that would best display our attributes (that we already possess) that interviewers are looking for. I get the feeling that you think practicing with a consultant is a little unethical because the interviewee would be pretending to be someone he/she is not. If that is the case, then at your interview you should go in and wear whatever clothes you would wear any other day instead of a shirt and tie. If you would not wear a nice shirt and tie everyday, then isn't wearing a shirt and tie a form of manipulating your image to put yourself in a favourable light in the eyes of the interviewers? One person on this Interviews forum started a thread years back about whether or not he should cut his long hair before the interview. He wouldn't be genuinely himself if he cut his hair short just for the interview, would he? Yet I'm sure there are many who feel for him in that if he keeps his long hair, he risks being viewed as too liberal for such a conservative profession. What about telling a sex joke when your interviewers ask for a joke? I'm sure we've all told and laughed at sex jokes in the past, yet no one would dare to tell one in an interview. Regarding the issue at hand now: I don't see how learning to speak and answer well in an interview is any different. In all of the situations I described above, you are putting your best foot forward and convincing the interview panel that you have what it takes. We CAN be professional, mature, ethical, empathetic, etc., we just need to show it. LOL and like ploughboy said - do they? Every interviewer's different - you're putting your money on the people interviewing you looking for the same person your consultant is looking for. To answer ploughboy's question: yes they do. We're all talking about getting into medical school right? Like I mentioned above, many (if not all) of the attributes that consultants teach you would be the ones that medical interviewers are looking for. If what interviewers are looking for is so unpredictable and biased by their own opinions, then they are not very good interviewers and I hope for ours and med schools' sake that we won't see many bad interviewers. Even if what interviewers are looking for is entirely unpredictable, you do not gain nor lose by going to a consultant because his/her guess would be as good as yours. These companies/people are not interested in a weekend scam. They all aim to make their clients happy and would do their best in their own research to help their clients. A quick google search brought me to several sites with consultants that are either doctors themselves or have served on the admissions committee of a medical school. Hell, the first link I got was this lady. She served as Assistant Director of Admissions for Stanford Medical School for 10 years, reviewing applications, admitting and rejecting applicants. The advice that she gives could potentially get you admitted versus rejected. Besides the money, what do you have to lose? You could say that she might not be worth the money. Well, most of us probably don't need Kaplan's or Princeton Review's help with the MCA either, but we do it for the security. If you have the money, I say it's a good investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsteen Posted November 17, 2007 Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 Hi there, If you're a UofT student and are about to undergo some interviews for medical school, or any other program or job, I'd recommend the services of the Career Centre. They have counselors there who can provide excellent feedback regarding interview performance and who will ask the clutch questions and help you come up with sensible approaches to the questions. I used their services early on when applying to medical school and was very happy with them. In terms of the tricky questions I needed help with, they included the likes of, "Do you wish a kids/family and how will you balance those" (unethical question but it arose at a UBC interview), etc. I was skeptical initially, re: the utility of the Career Centre counselors, but gave it a shot and was very satisfied. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted November 17, 2007 Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 The biggest thing before any interview is to go over it, figure out what you want to get across, and to practice. I used the same pattern for all my engineering and medicine interviews. Personally, I like to get a list going in my head of potential issues/questions and figure out the main ideas or points I want to make in answering them. For example, you know that you will get "Why medicine?" and "tell us about a time you had a disagreement with a group member and how did you solve it". You can easily think that through, have good points ready and practice the answer with someone (anyone, they don't have to be paid). I usually jot some ideas down on paper. That way, when I come back to them again, I don't need to rethink how I'm going to answer them. I used ideas and examples of things that I had thought of for my first engineering interview in my med school interviews 6 years later. Even if you don't get the same question exactly you can draw on your ideas to answer other questions they might have asked. You don't want to have a set script you are listing off, but a idea of what you would like to say extremely helpful in phrasing a good answer. A second thing that I did was a sat down with a Dr. I know well and he grilled me. He took the list of potential questions I had thought up and asked a bunch to me. When i gave my answer, he grilled me with follow up questions until I was so twisted around that I didn't know what to think. Then we went over what was good and what was bad about how I answered. Basically, it was really tough practice. Again, I had done it previously when I did my first set of engineering interviews. A huge factor for interviews is people don't sell themselves enough. The best people I know at interviewing are excellent at selling their attributes and abilities. You want to highlight and emphasize things that they want. You also want to make sure you tailor your answer to fit to what they want to know, and emphasize those facts. Remember, you should be portraying yourself as the best candidate for the position. This is not the time for modesty (of course don't act like a cocky jackass either). The biggest advice I have is to practice practice practice. Interviewing is a skill, just like math or skiing. It gets better the more you practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0T6 Posted November 17, 2007 Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 Well, most of us probably don't need Kaplan's or Princeton Review's help with the MCA either, but we do it for the security. I guess I shouldn't get into why I'm against MCAT prep courses then. Maybe I'm too idealistic about all of this but I think all prep courses and prep whatever take your money to give you confidence that you could probably bring out on your own. Anyways, like you said, if you have the money (not all of us do), then go for it. Regarding the lady you had the link for? A former labmate of mine used her services. He's 2nd year meds in Australia now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gleevec Posted November 17, 2007 Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 My 2 cents: With a few exceptions that I sure we can all think of, most people who want to be a doctor are smart, dedicated and passionate about helping other people. Unfortunately, this mean that in the interview situation you're not usually dealing with anti-social idiots, you're competing against many people who you would respect as colleagues. I am not very good with improv, so I did a lot of research into the questions that medical schools asked. Then I thought a lot about the experiences from my life that were relevant to these questions. I found that taking this time helped me come up with answers that were articulate and balanced (and way more interesting than what I would have though of on the spot). If you think that someone to coach you in an interview will help you present yourself in the best way possible, go for it. One warning though, be careful not to wash away any personality with your answers. A friend of mine is involved in medical school interviews and he said that the worst thing that people do is give scripted answers. Remember, you are not competing against idiots. By giving a generic answer that is free from personality, you give the interviewer the feeling that you are just saying what you think you should to get in, not what you actually believe. So if you think that by practicing you will come in as stiff and over rehearsed, maybe coaching is not the best idea. Okay this is getting really long. Here is my last 2 bits of interview advice; -Always make sure that you take care of your patient (in an ethical scenario) -Be consistent with your answers, it is better to know what you believe and stand by it then to flip around, trying to say what you think they want hear. After all, as a doctor you have to make difficult decisions and stand by them everyday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted November 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2007 Regarding the lady you had the link for? A former labmate of mine used her services. He's 2nd year meds in Australia now. Did your labmate find her helpful and worth the money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0T6 Posted November 18, 2007 Report Share Posted November 18, 2007 Did your labmate find her helpful and worth the money? He said he was glad he did it so he can say "I did everything I could" but doesn't think it changed his chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbrugby Posted November 21, 2007 Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 I think the interview consultant would be able to help you with general interview skills (e.g. clear commmunication, eye contact, handshaking, general interpersonal skills, etc. etc.). But in terms of actual ANSWERING of the questions intelligently, then unless the interviewer is someone who has sat on med schol addcoms and has done very well in the interview process themselves, I probably wouldn't trust them completely in their opinions on how I should adjust my answers/perspectives for answering questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted November 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2007 brian townsend is that you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbrugby Posted November 22, 2007 Report Share Posted November 22, 2007 Yah, obviously. Thinking of applying to medicine because it seems much more fulfilling than swimming in money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostintime Posted January 26, 2008 Report Share Posted January 26, 2008 Yikes that Judy lady is $550?! Who in the world has that kinda money? I was considering it...until I saw that it was $550. No way. And to think so many people pay that much for her, wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted February 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 Yikes that Judy lady is $550?! Who in the world has that kinda money? I was considering it...until I saw that it was $550. No way. And to think so many people pay that much for her, wow. I have some money saved up. I'm probably going to take her on for some coaching. She could make the difference between an acceptance and no acceptance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 Another way to practice for free is with current med students. When I got my interview at OttawaU, I called 2 people on the provided "if you have questions you can call these students" list (of course, you could also just ask friends). They both offered to give me a prep interview, & one was even in the same building & the same rooms as my actual interview! I don't know if it actually changed the way I formulated my answers or anything like that, but I think it did help me feel more relaxed when I went in, as it was almost like I was doing it for the 3rd time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tdotter Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 I have some money saved up. I'm probably going to take her on for some coaching. She could make the difference between an acceptance and no acceptance. I think I know which lady you're talking about, and yeah, her fees are pretty outrageous. I actually just went to go see a professional for interview coaching. He charges $90, which I at first thought was steep, but after seeing other rates I think is pretty good. Honestly, what's another couple hundred or so for the 1000+ spent on applications? Especially if it can save another round of apps. This guy was reallllllly good and helpful, and unlike the services offered by Universities, was actually able to help me in the content of my answers. Plus, he's able to style the meeting depending on if you have an MMI or traditional interview. I really think his help was invaluable, and I KNOW I will be more confident and have better answers than I otherwise would have because I went to see him. If anyone wants more info on the guy, PM me and I'll send you his website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted February 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 Tdot, I pm'd you. Thanks dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooty Posted August 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2009 ^^ here is his information. mods, remove this if it's not allowed. i got a pm about it and thought i'll share with people i'm not affiliated with this guy. i'm sure he would appreciate more business David Lawson Career Solutions (905) 330-0624 (905) 681-2138 careersolutions@cogeco.ca http://www.lawsoncareersolutions.ca Burlington, Ontario Fee $90/hour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryann Posted August 7, 2009 Report Share Posted August 7, 2009 Thank You, Tooty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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