Interview Questions

In preparing for interviews, I received some helpful advice from a Canadian graduate, who is now an attending specialist in Toronto.

"In preparing for my interviews, I thought about (and wrote answers to) the following questions. You will need to have your thoughts well organized before entering the interview situation and also want time to consider your answers in a non-stressful environment." Of course, you will need to modify some of it to suit your specialty.


· Why do I want to do _______________

· Advantages and disadvantages of ____________ practice

· My assets

· My weaknesses (always a difficult question to answer when asked); must put a positive spin on whatever you chose

· What I enjoy about _______________

· My career goals

· Qualities of a ____________-gist

· Qualities that make me an attractive resident

· A list of things I might want to consider bringing up at interviews; this was a list of my assets, experiences...remember, they do not have access to your application prior to seeing you therefore, they have not had the chance to hear all about your accomplishments listed on your CV. Pick some and try to drop them into conversation, you may have MANY!

· If there are any gaps or deficiencies in your application that they might ask about, be prepared to give an answer. For example, “I left graduate studies, despite a handsome scholarship, to enter medicine. It was a decision made for multiple reasons, professional and personal, but I put some thought into how I would address that issue if it did come up”.

Behavioral Descriptive Interviewing 

These are questions like: “tell us a time when...” or “give and example of...”

Formulate a three-part response to these:

1. Situation: to provide background info of the incident or example ou are going to supply – explain the people involved, the events, timing, and circumstances

2. Action: explain to the interviewer exactly what you did. Talk about your thoughts and feelings related to the situation. If there were multiple options you were considering, explain the pros and cons of each

3. Outcome: sum up the experience by telling the interviewer the results, what you learned from the situation, and how you have put that knowledge to use 


Here is a list of questions scoured from the internet. Some are from the business world and many are from American books or websites on residency interviews but I really wanted to be as prepared as I could be so I had answers for all of these! Maybe it was a tiny bit excessive......

1. Describe your energy level OR “are you prepared for the rigors of residency” may be another way of asking the same thing.

2. Tell me about yourself

3. How would you describe yourself

4. How would your colleagues describe you

5. What kinds of people are your friends

6. Person in your life that you admire and why. Who are your heroes?

7. Doctor you admire and why

8. Describe your strengths and weaknesses

9. How do you spend your leisure time

10. What, besides medicine, do you have in your life that you feel passionate about.

11. What was the last book you read that wasn’t a medical book

12. What was the last movie you saw and what did you think of it?

13. What kind of learner are you?

14. What has been the most life-changing/significant event/experience for you?

15. What is the one event that you are proudest of in your life

16. What have you learned from your mistakes OR what kind of mistakes have you made and how did you learn from them

17. Why did you chose to become involved in medicine in the first place

18. If you could no longer be a physician, what career would you chose and why

19. If we were to meet again in ten years time, what might be your accomplishments that you would tell me about.

20. What are your goals

21. How do you normally handle conflict

22. How do you make important decisions

23. What are the most important rewards you expect in and from your career

24. What have you done in your life that shows that you are hard-working and dedicated?

25. In your career so far, what achievements are you most proud of

26. Describe a clinical situation that you handled well and were successful on and one where things didn’t go as you would have liked

27. How do you work under pressure

28. What is the best/worst experience that you had in medical school

29. What has been your best/worst rotation and why (ie. Most or least enjoyable)

30. What have you learned that is most helpful to you

31. Have you always performed the best work you were capable of doing

32. What did you learn from medicine that you were able to use and retain

33. Describe your academic experience; what subjects did you have the most difficulty with?

34. Are you a team player

35. If you were a patient, what qualities would you want your doctor to possess.

36. What type of patient do you have trouble working with

37. Which types of patient do you work with most effectively

38. Tell me about a patient encounter that taught you something

39. Tell us about a time when you made an error in patient diagnosis

40. Tell me about an error you have made in patient care

41. A time when your attention to a patient made a difference in their care. How? How will this change your practice?

42. Tell me about the patient from whom you learned the most

43. Discuss a clinical situation in which you were over your head and what you did about it. What did you learn from the experience and how would you have handled it differently.

44. How well do you feel you were trained as an intern/clerk

45. Interest patient case to present as though in clinic

46. Memorable patients you have had

47. Tell us about a co-worker who was difficult to get along with? With which types of people do you have trouble working (and you aren’t allowed to say anaesthesiologists!)

48. What would you do if you knew one of your more senior residents was doing something wrong (filling out H&Ps without doing the evaluations, surgical procedure without consent, etc..ethical questions)

49. What about your most difficult experience with a faculty member during medical school years

50. What do you value?

51. Describe an ethical dilemma you have encountered in the past 2 years.

52. How did you learn about neurosurgery

53. What will be the toughest aspect of this specialty for you

54. What other specialties did you consider

55. What problems will our specialty face over the next 5 years

56. Do you see any problems managing a professional and personal life

57. What do you think will be the greatest difficult you will face as a resident

58. Why should we rank you

59. What is unique about you? What sets you apart from other applicants

60. What criteria are you using to evaluate the program to which you hope to be accepted? What are you looking for in a program?

61. Where else did you apply

62. How do you plan to rank the programs you have already interviewed with and what did you like/dislike about them (this is a bit of a dirty question; the CAIRMS rules say they should not be wandering into this territory)

63. If we offered you a position today, would you accept it?

64. What if you don’t match?

65. Can you think of anything else you would like to add?

66. If you were in charge of your medical school, what changes would you make?

67. Current events! “what do you think about......”

68. What has been the greatest challenge to medicine in the last 10 years.

69. What are the critical issues in healthcare that you believe need to be addressed in the next 10-15 years

70. If you could be any organ/cell in the body, which would you be and why?

71. Most scary event of your life

72. If you found a lamp that gave you three wishes, what would they be

73. Teach me something non-medical in 5 minutes

74. If you could choose one figure in history to have dinner with, who would it be?

75. If you were stranded on a deserted island, which 3 books would you want to have with you and why – You will basically be listing off your favourite books.  Try not to include a favorite medical textbook in your list!  I had a similar questions when interviewing with residents, regarding my favourite movie and music artist. 

76. Is there room for emotion in _____________?  Expect this one in a neurosurgery interview ;)

77. Tell me something about you that is not in your application.  In this case, if you're stuck, you could go into detail about an accomplishment/experience you were most proud of.

Best of Luck.