japlanet Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Prepping for interviews, and these are invaribly my worst questions. You know, tell me about a time when . .. . . you dealt with conflict .. . you showed leadership . . . you failed . .. you helped someone etc and so on. I'm really bad at coming up with stories etc. Anyone have any tips/tricks? Has anyone ever encountered these kinds of questions in interviews? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Prepping for interviews, and these are invaribly my worst questions. You know, tell me about a time when . .. . . you dealt with conflict .. . you showed leadership . . . you failed . .. you helped someone etc and so on. I'm really bad at coming up with stories etc. Anyone have any tips/tricks? Has anyone ever encountered these kinds of questions in interviews? Thanks These are behavioural questions.... From what I heard the Queen's interview has been pretty behavioural over the last couple years. I took a workshop that gave hints on how to tell the story so you're not running around all over the place describing the situation, but didn't really comment on how to come up with examples fast. I think the idea is you either have the experience or you don't. Mind you I've had a couple of those types of questions where given the opportunity to think it over I came up with much more relevant answers. But what I've done is made a list of certain qualities they could ask me to explain or talk about and then went through my abs and found an example for each. Inevitably, there will be something the interviewers will ask you that you didn't prepare for but if you know your sketch well enough, and take 30 seconds to think rather than immediately scrambling to say whatever comes to mind you should be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewfieMike Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 I heard of a girl in an interview who was asked: "do you feel that at any point in your life you have failed?" and immediately responded "no." ... pause ... and then they went on to the next question. Probably NOT the best strategy, haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w8kg6 Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Probably NOT the best strategy, haha Wow, yeah, definitely not the best strategy, haha. Did she wind up getting in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 I googled "behavioural interview questions" and got some pretty good lists. Some are very corporate-oriented (e.g. "tell me about a time you had to fire a friend") but others are very general and could easily be encountered in a med interview. Even if you don't run into any of them at your interview (I didn't, for one), it will be helpful to practice thinking about situations in your life that could be used as good examples so you wouldn't forget an important experience in a real interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewfieMike Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Wow, yeah, definitely not the best strategy, haha. Did she wind up getting in? Scary thing is I think she did... I guess the adcom's believed her that she was perfect. I mean, why turn down a perfect applicant? haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youngdad Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Scary thing is I think she did... I guess the adcom's believed her that she was perfect. I mean, why turn down a perfect applicant? haha Maybe she didn't see her mistakes as failures. Whats wrong with that? Her idea of failure is probably just a bit less inclusive than most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 You could also go through your OMSAS sketch and identify characteristics that each item demonstrates. If I was stuck on a particular behavioural question, I would go through the major items from my sketch until I thought of one that "fit". I know of someone who was an interviewer at Queen's a few years ago, and she said that they had an applicant who talked about the same activity for every behavioural question they asked. Apparently, the doctor on the panel marked her down massively - enough to pretty much guarantee she wouldn't be accepted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewels1986 Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 The best advice I had on these questions was to come up with general categories of characteristics that cluster together beforehand and prepare stories. Here's a sample list of categories, with a variety of possible cue words that you can probably interpret somewhat inter-changeably (but obviously use common sense): - Negative situations / failure / conflict / disappointment / challenges - Empathy / compassion / helping / teaching / kindness - Learning / problem-solving / self-directed learning - Teamwork / collaboration / group work / PBL - Leadership / initiative / creativity / accomplishment - Dealing with change / tolerating ambiguity You might break it down differently, but something like that. Instead of worrying about memorizing the individual words and having a story for everything, come with a story or two for each of your general categories as part of your interview preparation and practice telling them. Then, when you're asked for an example of "blank", think about which cluster they're getting at, and pick a story. You can slant your story to fit anything within that cluster without much trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 The best advice I had on these questions was to come up with general categories of characteristics that cluster together beforehand and prepare stories. Here's a sample list of categories, with a variety of possible cue words that you can probably interpret somewhat inter-changeably (but obviously use common sense): - Negative situations / failure / conflict / disappointment / challenges - Empathy / compassion / helping / teaching / kindness - Learning / problem-solving / self-directed learning - Teamwork / collaboration / group work / PBL - Leadership / initiative / creativity / accomplishment - Dealing with change / tolerating ambiguity You might break it down differently, but something like that. Instead of worrying about memorizing the individual words and having a story for everything, come with a story or two for each of your general categories as part of your interview preparation and practice telling them. Then, when you're asked for an example of "blank", think about which cluster they're getting at, and pick a story. You can slant your story to fit anything within that cluster without much trouble. I'm actually quite impressed by this advice. Nice idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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