With residency interviews on the horizon, most applicants are deep into their interview preparation.
The matter many future residents are likely pondering is which questions they should be most prepared to answer. Rather than guessing which questions you will get asked, it helps to know the ones that are almost certain to be lobbed your way.
Nobody can better provide insight on the questions an applicant is likely to hear than those who have been on both ends of the interview table: Recent residents and program directors.
Here’s a look at a few questions they believe are almost certain to come up in one form or another during conversations between residency applicants and program directors.
The AMA helps medical students master the residency-application process so you can make the right decisions about your career, prepare for a knockout interview, explore residency opportunities—all so you can successfully match.
Why are you here?
This is question No. 1 to be ready for. The answer isn’t to interview for a residency position. It should be specific to why you want to go into that specialty and, more important, what attracts you to that particular residency program.
“Be prepared to show why you want to go to my program,” said David Marzano, MD, director of the ob-gyn residency program at Michigan Medicine. “When we speak to applicants, we know why they want to go into ob-gyn, but why do you want to come to the University of Michigan?
“What we are trying to figure out is who is going to be happy here,” Dr. Marzano added. “This is a place you are going to be living for [at least four years]—and highly likely longer than that because there’s good data that show people stay close to where they train.”
Dive deeper:
- Meet your Match: Assessing program culture during virtual residency interviews
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Tell me about yourself
People are going to want to know about your background in a way that goes beyond your CV. You should have a concise story ready that presents your path and how it put you on a trajectory to your future in medicine.
“Tell your story in a chronological order,” said AMA member Liz Southworth, MD, a first-year urogynecology and reproductive pelvic surgery fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Think about someone listening to your story and how it makes sense to them. Highlight some big events—without regurgitating your CV. If there are three salient experiences you have had that you want to draw people’s attention to, it’s good to work those out beforehand.”
Dive deeper:
- What residency applicants should know before interviews
- Mastering M4: Top questions for your fourth year of medical school
Follow the road to residency
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How have you handled adversity?
Ambiguity and failure are part of residency training. Showing how you persevere when things don’t go according to plan can offer interviewers valuable insight on your fit in their program.
“When I’ve asked you about a time that you have failed and how you got through it, I don’t care about the failure,” said Hilary Fairbrother, MD, an AMA member who is the vice chair of education in the emergency medicine department at the University of Texas at Houston.
“We have all failed,” she said. “We have all been through something really challenging and it has pushed us—it has tried us. This is a test of your grit and your resilience. I want to see what happens to you when you give a treatment and it doesn’t work, even if it was supposed to.”
It is important to mention some of the coping mechanisms that you use to maintain your well-being, said Ricardo Correa MD, program director of the endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic.
“Programs are looking for residents that are resilient and that will be able to thrive during those years,” he said.
Dive deeper:
- When should you expect physician residency interview invites?
- How to address a medical school misstep in residency interviews
