Guest Julie100 Posted February 21, 2003 Report Share Posted February 21, 2003 Hi I have an interview for U of T on March 30. Everyone keeps telling me I have to "sell myself" in the interview and I am unsure of how to do this without coming off as fake. Does anyone have any suggestions? My reference called me this morning and said she is very concerned as I am too "sweet and shy" which is not what they are looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lactic Folly Posted February 21, 2003 Report Share Posted February 21, 2003 Selling yourself is not bragging, but it does include being prepared with examples of all the things you've done/accomplished at hand (and then remembering to mention them at appropriate points in the interview, which is often the difficult part!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest walkorbike Posted February 21, 2003 Report Share Posted February 21, 2003 George Clooney, talking about his early career in an interview last year, offered these words of wisdom and I think his approach might apply nicely to the med interview. ‘When I started to go on auditions, I just wanted them to like me. That wasn't the right attitude. It's like coming up to bat -- you decide where to hit the ball. I started to view auditions as my chance to solve their problem.’ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Carolyn Posted February 22, 2003 Report Share Posted February 22, 2003 I am a big fan of the book "Interview Power" by T Washington, I believe (ISBN: 0931213150) -- it uses the concept of a skills/accomplishment table and makes you really think about some of the things you want to get across. I believe that you need to go into all interviews with a game plan. For my medical school interview at Mac 3 years ago I had 5 experiences ("accomplishments") I wanted to make sure I told them about and I had thought about how each of them represented certain skills which I knew were important at McMaster. I hadn't memorized answers but I had definitely thought through potential questions and how I would answer them using these examples. At the end of the 1/2 hour, I had brought up all 5 examples and had talked of almost all of the skills I believed they showed and I thought were important. I used the same technique last month for my residency interviews. I find it quite helpful because you can then ensure you tell them what you want them to know about you. At the same time, some questions will catch you off-guard. I believe that it is okay to pause and think about an answer. At my Calgary emerg interview they asked me a lot of great questions including a few that hadn't occured to me (interesting since it was my 10th residency interview!)... Anyways, I made statements like: "Wow, I've never been asked that, it is an interesting question" -- paused, took a couple of deep breaths while quickly thinking about the question and went on. The interview power book also talks about the importance of "the anecdote" -- An anecdote will stick in the interviewers mind and it is your job to come up with those anecdotes and explain to the interviewer how the anecdote illustrates your skills... In residency interviews we were asked a lot of medical anecdotes so of course I had a number of those in my back pocket but I also tried to illustrate that I had a life outside of medicine (and outside of reading this board!) by using other examples in addition (sometimes providing two examples if it was appropriate)... Hopefully this system has worked for me again -- I won't know until next Thursday at noon (Match day for all residency positions in canada)... In the meantime, best of luck to everyone with interviews coming up or waiting to hear about interviews. Carolyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Biochem10 Posted February 22, 2003 Report Share Posted February 22, 2003 Wow Carolyn, that was one of the most helpful posts I've read this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Koggetsu Posted February 22, 2003 Report Share Posted February 22, 2003 very very helpful post carolyn! thanx!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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