Interview 101: Show, Don't Tell

Hate it or love it, a huge chunk of the interview process is selling yourself. You likely chose to apply to that medical school or residency program because you believe they are a good fit for you. Now that you have a shoe in the door with an interview slot, the onus is on you to convince them that you are a desirable applicant as well as a good fit for their school or program. Part of convincing your interviewers that you are a good fit is having well thought out and strategic answers to questions you are asked. Given the times we're in, it is especially crucial to have good interviewing skills because some of the other interview day interactions that may aid applicants is now gone.

Tip number one for interviewing: Show, don't tell. You can bet that in at least at one interview, you will be asked to talk about your strengths and/or weaknesses. The question may not be that plainly put but ultimately you will realize that your interviewer is simply looking to hear about your strengths and weakness. It is not enough to say that you are a "good communicator, team player, and eager learner". You must be able to show, prompted or unprompted that you, in fact, embody the characteristics you speak of. I got a handy framework to help me systematically think through my strengths and weaknesses during residency interview season (Thank you Dr. Comfort!). The framework was particularly useful for compelling me to "show" my strengths and weaknesses versus merely telling. See sample below:

Below is the template and I encourage you to work through it. I had an interviewer ask about my strengths and when I mentioned problem solving, the first thing she said was "That sounds nice in theory but how have you solved problems?" And I immediately regurgitated column three of the template without breaking a sweat. While it might initially be painstaking to go through the template, having worked through it will grant you a certain eloquence during actual interviews and you'd be glad you did the work beforehand. If you are working through this template for your weaknesses, make sure to throw in your efforts in work on that weakness as that puts you back in a positive light with your interviewer.

Interview Preparation_Template.docx

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All my best wishes for the virtual interview season!

Tinu