Medical School Interview, Job Applications, and etc!

I was hoping to get a bit more free time to make some posts. I am either busy catching up with work, or dead tired. So I will be addressing many things in this post.

1) Medical School Interviews

I know I'm a bit late with this, but hopefully most of you have seen my older posts on tips for medical school interviews. Because I had my interviews back in 2008, I'm not as "updated" as others out there as I'm sure the system has changed. In regards to my particular medical school, we still run the standard panel of 3 interviewing 1 applicant. Each applicant has 20 minutes. Here are some quick tips, which I have mentioned before:

• Reflect on your experiences. Integrate reflection of your past activities into your interview questions. It is one thing to answer the question with one word, but show us an example of when you had shown "this" particular skill or a particular experience where you learned something that helps you be a strong applicant
• Dress smartly - I'm not kidding you...I have seen some applicants turn up in a wrinkled shirt and creased trousers. I guess I don't have the right to judge someone's dress, but this is an interview for a very competitive spot in medical school. You need to impress and the first thing the interviewer sees, is you and how you carry yourself and what you're wearing. Yes we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but why start an uphill battle before you have even sat down in front of the panel. 
• Medical schools want to find out more about your personal qualities that they couldn't get from your personal statement. This is your time to shine in an interview. Some schools allow the interviewers to have read the applicant's personal statement before they come in for their interview. Expand on it.
• Confidence. Yes it is very nervous time, but you need to put on your confident face. Deliver your answers confidently. Don't sound unsure as these are questions about yourself. You shouldn't be unsure of your own personal qualities/experiences/achievements.
• Give succinct answers aka don't beat around the bush, yet try not to give very short answers as that means the interviewer will need to come up with more questions to ask you...
• Think your answers through before answering. You don't lose any points sitting for 30 seconds to think over your answer. Think the interviewers appreciate it more if you gave a structured succinct answer. 
• Back to basics: eye contact, try not to fidget while sat in your seat (trust me the interviewers notice it and it is quite distracting), and try to smile (it just makes the process seem so much less dreary and gloomy)
• I remember before going into my interview I told myself it is just questions about myself. I know myself best and no one knows me better than me. Interviewers (from what I have experienced) aren't out there to catch you out. They honestly want to know more about you and see if that personal statement matches the applicant who sits in front of them. 20 minutes isn't a long time to make that judgement, so as an applicant you don't have much time to get your personality across.

2) Job Applications

Right this biggest pain up the backside you'll face in your final year. Why is it a pain? It is because you're trying to focus on passing your finals, then this FPAS application crops up a few months prior so you're trying to revise yet do your job application correctly. The first step of job applications is filling out your basic details, your degree details/any additional degrees, if you are going for an academic job you have to answer 3 questions where you have 250 (?) words to answer, and then rank your deaneries which are based on regions. You have to rank all 26 or so regions, so you cannot opt out of certain regions. That means doing it strategically as well. Obviously London will be extremely competitive and you'll need to be realistic about your score and whether you can keep up with the rest of the country to get that job. You'll need to have in mind your "backup" region in case things don't go so well. 

Once you submit your application, there are these exams called the "Situational Judgement Test". It is 2.5 hour exam on ethics and being a good doctor. They give you a bunch of scenarios and you have to rank in order or select the best 3 things you should do. It's not exactly an exam you can study for, but it is worth practising. There are lots of books for sale. I personally used MedGrad book "Situational Judgement Test for the Foundation Years Programme 2nd Edition" and found it to be really accurate and similar to the paper itself. It also has really good explanations with the GMC guidance alongside for your reference. It's not cheap, but I thought it really helped me prepare for the SJT. I started practising approximately 2 weeks prior to the exam so it's not something you need to spend a lot of time on. Think the main thing to keep in mind that this exam is about what you SHOULD do, not what you would do.

Once SJT is over, we don't get our results until we find out about our deanery allocation in March, but the wait isn't that painstaking since there are finals to think about! As usual this year jobs have been oversubscribed so we'll see how that goes - fingers crossed.

3) Other Things - Update

So like the title of my blog - life of a medical student is pretty crazy...and I should just rename it to "hectic". I'm now on my final run of placements before end of medical school. Pretty crazy to think about that. It's just now working on skills that are needed for an F1, so that means not going to clinic or theatre and spending majority of my time on the wards and doing jobs. Bit weird to be honest. I always have this temptation to go down to theatres for a nosy.

What has been happening right after exams? I had another rotation in Orthopaedics as we all know you can't get enough of Orthopaedics. It was a really good attachment. Got a lot of theatre time and clinics peppered in between. Scrubbed loads of times and got to work on my surgical skills. Still got all my fingers as well - that's always a bonus. Now in my final year, I've finally really grasped this "pro-active" concept of things and think it has really helped. Instead of waiting to be asked to do something, I offer to do it first or just go off and get it done. Seems to go down well and I've gotten a lot more opportunities to do things and be more involved. Think it helps with gaining trust from the registrar/consultants. Also still managed to stay true to myself and continue to be really personable with the other team members (e.g. consultant, registrar, SHOs, etc). We are all human at the end of the day and no one likes to talk about work all the time. Gotten to know a few more registrars and a few consultants while sat in the coffee room in between cases and just makes the experience more enjoyable. Of course this is after gauging the other person's personality and how open they are. I know when to keep my beak shut and just be really quiet. So far the consultants I have encountered are pretty talkative and really laid back so quite lucky in that sense.

I shall give you all a break! Long enough post I believe! Sorry again for lack of updates...final year just seems to be that much more hectic...somehow.

Interview Tips!

Today I feel like posting in my blog despite having a bit of work to do for tomorrow. I will make this one brief and hopefully informative.

I have noticed people are starting to get interview offers and I reckon giving out some tips should be useful.

IMPORTANT: REFLECT REFLECT REFLECT! AND EXPAND ON YOUR ANSWERS!

1) Look around the city before going to the interview! A common ice breaker question would be: "Why *City*?" Make sure you find something to talk about the city/university. Nothing better than completely messing up the first question. It is a great time to help yourself calm the nerves as you SHOULD know the answer.

2) Look at the medical course that the university offers. A common question would be something like: "Why this university?" This would be the perfect to time to show off your knowledge about the university and the course. Shows that you are keen and you know where you applied.

3) Please have something to say when they give you the good ol' vague question: "Why medicine?". I personally hated this question because it is SO vague and you could basically talk for ages. A great thing to remember when answering is to try and pull in stuff that you wrote in your personal statement. For example you can talk about your work experience/volunteering helped you discover more about medicine/educated you about the career. Also draw in positives such as your skills that you have picked up helping you to succeed as a doctor. Make sure you try to keep the answer short despite it being a difficult task. Just give a summary and make sure you cover the important points and cover some of the stuff in your personal statement.

4) Read the news especially about the NHS/health. In some interviews - the like to ask you about something recent that happened in the NHS or a recent medical advancement. The day before just go on BBC or something and read up on some stuff. Don't pick the hardest thing you saw in the news...pick something that actually drew your attention and that you find interesting so you can actually talk about it in the interview.

5) Reflect on what skills a good doctor should embody. This is a pretty common question. They could ask you to name a skill or they could name a skill and ask you to talk about that skill. Remember to always try and relate the question to yourself. If they ask you about empathy - find something that you have done which helped you develop empathy/care for people. Something like working at the hospital or care home would be good things to talk about. Remember in an interview the interviewer wants to know about YOU and how capable you are to becoming a doctor. Show that you are three dimensional and do other things other than go to school.

6) Be prepared for an ethical question. There is no right or wrong answer....actually none of the questions have a right or wrong. Do not fake an answer...answer honestly because interviewers are smart. Don't think you can actually outsmart them. The best thing about ethical questions is to prepare a structure on how you will answer it. Remember to look at both sides of the argument! Don't just completely ignore the other side of the argument as it is important to acknowledge it.

7) Some interviewers like to play the "Good Cop/Back Cop" game. Ignore it and be patient! They may ask very similar questions where you will have the same answer. Don't get frustrated and just answer the question with different wording. Sometimes it'll get annoying but some could be testing how you cope in stressful/annoying situations.

Random Tips:

1) Dress professional/well.
2) Be awake! (I must admit I did fall asleep in the waiting room though) - but be awake during the interview!
3) Don't fidget during the interview - it is distracting.
4) Know your personal statement - they will draw stuff out from it and ask you about it.
5) Smile!
6) Don't ask "dumb" questions at the end. I know some will argue that you will sound keen if you ask a question but seriously most of the answers can be found on the university's website/prospectus. If you really have any questions before the interview - call up the admissions office to ask or if an upper year is taking you around for a tour - perfect time to ask questions.

To be honest I didn't find interviews that hard as they are asking questions about YOU and only you know yourself the best. If you do your research and know the course and genuinely want to go the university you'll cover the factual questions. Just relax. The minute you tense up you get what I call "brain farts". Avoid it because you'll find yourself saying "um" and "uh" for the next what feels like hour. Plus it gets awkward too when the interviewers just stare at you waiting for an answer. Oh and don't rush your answers...make your answers concise and to the point, but at the same time show that you have reflected about it and try and draw positives to yourself.

Anyways I should get back to working. Hope this post helps. I know it is brief but I really don't know what else is there to cover about interviews. When you get an interview it is technically like you got your foot in the door, you just need to get the rest of your body through. They won't ask for an interview if they aren't interested in taking you. Quite simple.

Good luck!