Guest question Posted December 17, 2001 Report Share Posted December 17, 2001 Hello, I was just wondering, if during an interview, they ask "What do you have to offer to us?" I really don't know how to answer! I am pretty much regular premed with volunteer experiences. Anyone who has been accepted faced with similar dilemma? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest questions Posted December 17, 2001 Report Share Posted December 17, 2001 also, what the heck did you guys talk about duringi your interview that you think helped you get accepted???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Akane200 Posted December 17, 2001 Report Share Posted December 17, 2001 I really hate questions like this. There isn't any sure one answer fits all type of solution. Don't obsess about things like this. It will only affect your performance badly during the interviews. Don't get thrown off by all these strategies of what to say. JUST BE YOURSELF! There is nothing better than that. Be earnest, and honest, and that should help you lots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SmileyKitty Posted December 18, 2001 Report Share Posted December 18, 2001 Just tell them that you will bring more depth into the class, then they will ask why would that be? then you tell them how amazing you are, provide some evidence, boom boom, you're set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Akane200 Posted December 18, 2001 Report Share Posted December 18, 2001 Then they'll notice how you're the 300th person who said the same thing (ie add depth to the class). :lol Sorry. It think the standard "adding depth to the class" is pretty redundant since of course all members of the class will do so. There's more to it than showing just how amazing you are (and a lot of people are pretty amzing). The interview isn't just a time to explain yourself. There will be other questions that will be asked to assess the person that you are. And you can't really change that too much. So you can't go too much wrong than just being yourself and stop stressing over things that probably don't make too much of a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SmileyKitty Posted December 19, 2001 Report Share Posted December 19, 2001 It may be true that you are the 300th person who said it, but then again, if it is a regular answer, they would expect someone to answer the question like that. So it's not what you say that matters, (to a certain degree I'm not gonna lie), it's how you say it that counts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted December 19, 2001 Report Share Posted December 19, 2001 Content definitely counts. Interviewers are looking for solid reasons as to why you would be a good fit at their medical program. There are so many well-qualified applicants out there vying for a seat in medical school that a fluff interview will probably lead to a rejection letter. Ian UBC, Med 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest question Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 Although i understand that you can't "fake" an interview, i'd just be interested to know what you talked about during your interview. I'm not sure what I have to offer (aka I don't really see my activities as anything special, although they might be). Can you offer some styles of interview? I know the phrase "be yourself." It really helps calm my nerves if I have an idea of what is expected. I tried to be myself last year when I applied and received interviews. Obviously "being myself" did not cut it (I agree, it may be luck whether the interviewers and myself "jived"). In light of this, can anyone offer any advice? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest question Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 Ian, you mentioned that I should offer "solid reasons." That is a good advice. Thanks. I was wondering what would be some examples of solid reasons? I don't want to come across as being arrogant, too proud of what I have achieved. I have volunteered extensively, researched and will be publishing, involved in the arts, play various sports, and other things. What kind of things should I pick out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest strider2004 Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 Give examples. If you say "I'm a leader" make sure you can say "I'm a leader because I did this and this and this". As much as you don't want to sound arrogant, you shouldn't be too shy to say what you've accomplished. The person in the waiting room won't be shy. If you're asked what you can offer, think what you seriously could offer. I mean really! Every person brings something unique into the world. Just try to find it for yourself. Think about how your friends regard you. If that's too generic, find different friends. Just kidding. It's hard to say "I will be good for the class because I've done this and this". That's all in the past. Think about what you want to do in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Carolyn Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 I found this to be a good opportunity to bring up other examples of what I've done in order to support what I would bring to the table... "I've always been involved in extra-curricular activities -- I was President of this and involved in such and such a group in my undergrad and really enjoyed it... I find the more busy I am the more I accomplish in school as well.... Thus I'd really like to get involved in a variety of groups her at (school)... Some of my major interests are bla... bla,,, bla...." More broadly I can offer my approach on interviews: I approached interviews by thinking of five solid experiences from my life which I felt showed a variety of skills that would be good for the school... I practiced talking about those so that I could adopt them to all sorts of questions... It ended up being really easy to get them in... I also recognized that I wanted the interviewers to remember me -- thought of the sentence which I would want them to recall: "Oh yes, she is the one who A, B and C" -- and I wanted that to differentiate me from the others... Then made sure I emphasized A, B and C in the interview... Take care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest arcticaguy Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 Hi Carolyn, that's great advice, thanks. Infact, I actually used the same technique when applying for jobs, and it worked! I didn't practice interviews with anyone then, yet I feel like I need to go through a few practice sessions before I go through an actual interview. My question is, how objective can friends really be? Should I just give them a list of questions from which they can pick what they want to ask, along with my application materials and so forth, OR is there another strategy I should consider? cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 Try that. If your local university has an employment center, the folks inside are often very experienced at giving mock interviews for job applicants. You could ask if anyone is willing to give you a medical school-type interview, and then provide you with feedback. Here's some sample interview questions: premed101.com/interv.html#links It's good to do some practice runs of the interview before the real thing. Very often, if you are just thinking in your head of something you'd like to say, when the time actually comes to explain that concept, it becomes a hundred times more difficult to actually say it out loud. It's the same for most people, and for me personally, my interviews almost certainly got stronger with each interview I did. Ian UBC, Med 3 PS: Oh, and while we're discussing about interviews, I think I'll move this to the Interviews forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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