Challenging Interview Questions
Written by Lindsey Ulin, MD
Regardless of how much time you put into preparing for residency interviews, you will undoubtedly be asked difficult questions you do not feel prepared for. Some questions are difficult in there is no way you could have possibly prepared for them, others feel difficult in the tone they are asked by the interviewer, or they border on breaking match violation rules. When faced with difficult interview questions it is appropriate to say something like “Hmm that’s a great question, let me take a second to think about it.” You can break “zoom eye contact” here while pausing to think. While most of my interviews felt very conversational, here is a list of difficult questions I was asked:
How are any of your publications going to change my daily practice?
A standardized hypothetical scenario involving patient care or team dynamics (important to verbalize your thought process here)
A small detail of a research project you don’t remember
Why should I believe you are going to leave X state/region of the country?
What makes you different than other applicants we’re interviewing?
Where else are you applying? (interviewers should NOT be asking this, you can keep it vague with “other excellent training programs like yours” or “all over”)
What do you want to be remembered for?
Tell me about a time you received bad feedback, how did you handle it?
What are your character flaws?
You spent time exploring other specialties on your CV, how serious are you about ours?
What did you not like about your medical school?
Tell me about a patient encounter you wish you could redo?
A rapid-fire succession of what did you learn from every experience listed on your CV?
A flipped format interview where you ask all of the questions- always come prepared with many questions, I liked having questions prepared in bullet point format on a sticky note next to me
Just like a shelf or board exam, you will always remember the questions you struggled the most with. We are our own biggest critics. Shake it off and be kind to yourself, I know it’s easier said than done. Try to separate how you feel you did on the interview from your overall impression of the program. I thought I did an objectively terrible job on one of the interviews at my program, but you’ll never know what is said in the selection committee “room where it happens.” A year from now you’ll look back and laugh. Practice makes progress! Best of luck applicants!
