Using same situation twice

[Tryptophan]

So for the interview, would it be terrible if someone was to use to same situation twice? For example, if they ask a question and you answer with x situation and they ask another question and that situation x is better suited for. Use it again or think of another one even though the other one might not be as good?

 

Hope that makes sense..

[HBP]

In a med interview I've had to think of another situation.

[magnesium]

It's best to come up with different situations or different examples for every question. You want to show who you are in the interview, and let the interviewers know what you're all about, so if you can draw on examples from all your different activities it's probably better.

 

That said, I had one project for a class last semester that was essentially a full-time job outside of class, and I ended up using it three times as an example when I did my interview at UBC. I would definitely NOT recommend doing this. The third question was actually the best-suited to this project, so I stopped and asked the interviewers if they wanted me to try and come up with another situation since I'd already used it twice. They said yes, so I tried to come up with another one, but none of my other activities could provide as good an example, so I used it a third time. Clearly it's not necessarily an "auto-fail" to use the same activity, but avoid it if you can.

 

The reason I think I managed to get away with using it three times was because it was such a big project and there were so many different aspects to it. It would be like using very specific situations at one of your jobs to demonstrate different skills EX. if you worked at a restaurant, you would have different examples of times where you had to (a) resolve a conflict (dealing with a customer), ( work with a team, © deal with an unexpected situation (AWOL employees), etc. What not to do would be to use "dealing with an unsatisfied customer" as an example for all three. Clear as mud?