How to Be Yourself in a Med School Interview

Session 130

Today, I answered this nontrad student’s question on how to answer and connect with med school admissions. It’s important to be human and not a robot.

Listen to this podcast episode with the player above, or keep reading for the highlights and takeaway points.

By the way, the episodes in this podcast are recordings of our Facebook Live that we do at 3 pm Eastern on most weekdays. Check out our Facebook page and like the page to be notified. Also, listen to our other podcasts on MedEd Media. If you have any questions, call me at 617-410-6747.

[00:24] Question of the Day

“I have my interview actually Sunday here. I’m up in Canada. I’m just trying to juggle what I need to highlight in my ‘Tell me about yourself’ and ‘Why do you want to be a physician?”

[01:10] The Goal of the Interview

'The goal of the interview is to have a conversation.'Click To Tweet

Where most students go wrong in the interview process is they focus on selling. They feel like they need to make sure that this interview understands that they are competent.

They talk about how they’re so hardworking or that they’re good at science, they’re compassionate and empathetic, and all of those amazing things. But at the end of the day, the interviewer doesn’t care about those things.

A good interviewer only cares about who you are, how you communicate, and whether or not they can picture you as being trustworthy and compassionate enough through your communication to take care of their loved ones in a hospital.

[02:10] Humanize Yourself

When answering this question, most students will tell the interviewer who they are and where they went to school, their extracurriculars – in short, they’re giving their resume.

But to really answer this question and to tell them who you are, where you’re from, what you like to do. Talk about how many siblings you have and your hobbies –whether you like outdoors, fishing, running marathons, cooking, or whatever. Whereas reciting your resume and focusing on your strengths only dehumanizes you.

'Humanize yourself to make yourself a normal human being who can have a conversation, and not just a used car salesman.'Click To Tweet

The hope is for the interviewer to see that you’re human and you’re able to connect as human to human.

Our student is a nontrad being a registered nurse who works in critical care. He loves his job and he works in a helicopter doing EMS stuff. And so, he says that very much of his identity and who he is just that. So he’s struggling to find the balance between telling who he is and what he’s doing right now. But this is just what he does now, and not who he really is.

[05:42] How to Highlight Your Story Appropriately

Q: “The reason I’m pursuing medicine is because I want to do more. I want to learn more and more skills. I want to crack open chests and things like that, that I can’t do right now. Also, with my job, I do community education. I help teach residents, medics, physicians, residents, and med students prehospital stuff like resuscitation and whatnot. So I want to go into medicine to increase my capacity to educate and reach more people. I don’t know if those are things that I should be highlighting in those personal questions.”

A: Those should not be highlighted in “Tell me about yourself” because those are the sales pitch sides of things. I love to teach. I love being a flight nurse and saving patients, and I’m really good at it, and so on. That kind of stuff isn’t necessary now for “why physician.”

What you can do, however, is to say you’re currently a flight nurse. And you realized that your ability to care for patients stops as you land the hospital. You give sign out, you hand the patient off, and that’s all you can do. But you want to be on the receiving end, to take patients, and to help stabilize them, or treat them, or whatever it is you want to do. That is your reason for wanting to be a physician.

Now, that has nothing to do with you loving your work being a flight nurse. Because that’s a typical story of finding this passion for healthcare being a nontrad – whether you’re a nurse, non-healthcare or whatever. And then you water the seed, so to speak, by taking those steps. It’s something I’ve discussed on the The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Personal Statement. This is you figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life.

“Be careful with the 'I want to do it for me' discussion.”Click To Tweet

Additionally, you “wanting to crack chests” – that’s for you. But what is the patient receiving from that? You are then helping the patient in different ways that you can’t do now as a flight nurse. Focus on the patient when you’re talking about that transition and what you can do further with it with a bigger diploma and more responsibility given to you because of that diploma. Focus on the patient when you’re talking about those changes.

[08:53] Working Around Scenario-Based Questions

Trying to figure out what to choose is the wrong focus. The far majority of students choose which positions to highlight to be in the best light. They highlight their strengths or their skills or traits. And when students focus on those things, they’re dehumanizing themselves.

Think about going on a date, and you’re meeting your date at the coffee shop for the first time. You’re not sitting outside of that coffee shop planning on what things about yourself do you need to highlight. You just want to head inside and have a conversation.

'Go in and have a conversation. Listen to the question, answer the question. Listen to the next question. Answer the next question.'Click To Tweet

Where students go wrong is they listen to a question, go through their rolodex of skills, traits, and experiences. They try to highlight whatever competencies they have based on the AAMC core competencies. And that’s not a conversation.

[11:17] What Interviewers Really Care About

“Do not try to connect everything you're saying to being a physician.” Click To Tweet

Students will give an experience and then explain how that will help them become a good physician. Unless the interviewer specifically asks about a time when and why you think that’s going to help you as a physician, don’t add that in.

That’s their job to extrapolate that if they want to. But the far majority of interviewers don’t care about that. They care about – “are you a human being who I would want taking care of my loved one in a hospital.”

Medical school will teach you everything you need to know about being a physician. You don’t need to come in saying you already have the experiences to show you’re going to be a great physician.

[12:21] MCAT Prep

For MCAT prep, our student did the online course offered by Blueprint MCAT. After finishing his nursing degree in 2012, his program didn’t have any science classes. He only took an anatomy and physiology class and that was his extent of university-level science.

Being at a school for almost nine years, he went in to prepare for it thinking it would be an easy three or four months. But he realized it was not easy so he decided to just sign up and use Blueprint. He did it for six months and I went from relatively novice and got a decent MCAT mark considering his background.