10 Brilliant Things to Say in a Residency Interview for Guaranteed Success: Interview Tips

Let me ask you a question. If I promise to give you 10 brilliant things that you can say in your residency interview that can increase your chances of matching to your dream program, would you watch this video from beginning to end? If the answer is yes, stay tuned, because this is exactly what I'll be doing. And I'll also share with you at the end of this video a free guide that can help you ace your residency interview. It will be a guide of commonly asked residency interview questions and sample answers. And now, let's get started. The first thing to say is thank you at the beginning of your interview. When the program director or the interviewer asks you to introduce yourself or say welcome to this program, start by saying thank you for the opportunity to interview at this program. This powerful statement shows how grateful you are to be here, shows that you have good manners, and helps to build a connection with the interviewer. The second thing to stress on during a residency interview is that you have good clinical experience. No matter how many research experiences and extracurricular activities and leadership experiences you have, remember, at the end of the day, residency is a clinical job. And to be good fit for that job, you need to demonstrate through your answers that you have the clinical skill it needs to be a resident, and in the future, a successful physician. And you can talk about your clinical skills when talking about yourself or when answering your strength question, or just mentioning a small thing that can indicate that you have good clinical skills. Or you can also hint to your clinical skills when answering a behavioral question. Here is an example of how to talk about your clinical skills in the Tell Me About Yourself question. During my last year of medical school in India, I functioned as a first-year resident. Due to the shortage of physicians, I was responsible for 13 patients on the floor for every aspect of their care from admission to history, exam, running the plan by my attendings, and also discharging them. I believe this experience gave me great clinical skills to start my residency, but I did not stop here. I know that the system in the U.S. is different. That's why I pursued multiple rotations in the United States that gave me a really good understanding of the system and confirmed my interest in pursuing residency in the U.S. Here you can see how the applicants stressed their clinical skills by talking about the internship year or the last year of their medical school they spent in India and the volume of patients they were handling. But the applicant did not stop here. They talked about their experience in the U.S., they confirmed to the program director that they know what they're getting themselves into, they know the system, they know the differences, and they are ready to start clinical work in the United States. The third powerful thing that you can mention during a residency interview is an example of teamwork. And that could be mentioned as one of your strengths or it could be looped in indirectly through other answers. So for example, when you're talking about yourself or about your research experience or your clinical experience, you can mention something like, I've worked with a big team, I enjoyed working with people on the interdisciplinary team or working with other research fellows, with other attendings. And that by itself tells the interviewer that you have the ability to work with team and you enjoy teamwork. Because remember, residency, it's all about teamwork. You'll be working with a ton of residents, faculty, nurses, PAs, techs, and you want to tell the interviewer through every single answer that you have what it takes to be a good resident. Another powerful thing you can mention on your residency interview, if you have it, is research skills. Now a lot of programs are putting more emphasis on research, not only publishing papers, but understanding the literature because that will make you a better physician. So if you have that, I highly recommend mentioning that during your residency interview or indirectly by including it in the tell me about yourself or in one of the behavioral questions. For example, if they tell you, tell me about a miscommunication that happened between you and a team member, you can say during my research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, I was working with, and then you can start telling the story. So now the interviewer, if they didn't pay attention to you doing research, now this rings a bell and they say, Oh, this person actually did research at the Mayo Clinic. And they might ask you a question about that. The fifth powerful thing I recommend you include in your residency interview is that you research the program and that you consider this program to be a good fit for you. And you could be asked about that question directly. The program director or the interviewer might ask you, why do you want to train here? Why do you want to come to the program? Or you can include it in the answers of one of the other questions. So for example, when talking about your strength, and let's say you chose clinical work to be one of your strengths, you can say something like, I looked at the program website, and I talked to multiple residents, and I was impressed with the clinical volume you have at this program, and also the diverse rotations that your residents have, and the complex pathologies that come to this hospital. That's why I consider this program to be a great fit for me. And I would be grateful to be training here. The sixth powerful thing that you can say on your residency interview is something about your hard work and resilience. Remember that residency is a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours. Sometimes you're dealing with difficult nurses, residents, faculty. So you have to have some resilience and hard work to be able to survive residency. But I don't recommend mentioning, I'm a hard worker, I'm a resilient person. You need to back that up with examples. So through your life story in the tell me about yourself question, or through examples, when you talk about your strength, or the way you answer behavioral questions, I want to hear something about, are you a hard worker? Are you resilient? Are you adaptable? The seventh powerful thing you can include in your residency interview is career goals. Most programs want to train physicians who will make a difference in their field. And that could be through exemplary patient care, through education, through research, whether you want to pursue a fellowship, or just be a general practitioner. And you could be asked about this question directly, if they ask you where do you see yourself in five or 10 years, or you can hint to it by the answers to other questions. Researching the program and the previous graduate is key when answering this question. Because if you're a basic science person who published multiple basic science projects, have worked in the lab for five years, it might not be a good fit when you apply to a community program that doesn't have even a basic science lab. So it might not be ideal to say to a community program that never graduated a physician scientist that I want to be a physician scientist. So if your career goals align with what the program offers, what the program has graduated so far, and what the program is looking to graduate, then that would be a great fit. Before we move on, make sure to check out our residency interview preparation services. We have a phenomenal team of advisors who are training in top-notch residency programs in the US. You can check the full list of our advisors in the link below. And we trust our advisors so much that we made this service 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you're not happy after the first hour, we are happy to either assign you to another advisor or give you your money back. So check out the different services we have for residency interview preparation. In my opinion, even one hour can help make sure that you're on the right track and you don't miss up this golden opportunity, which is a residency interview. And you can find our offers by clicking on the card above or the link in the description below. Now, the eighth thing that is extremely powerful to see on your residency interview is that you are a high achiever. But you don't necessarily need to say that word. The interviewer wants to hear that you are a high achiever, that you have demonstrated a track record of success through examples, through evidence. So in answering the Tell Me About Yourself question, you can say something like, during my medical school, I was consistently ranked the first in my class. I worked hard not only to gain clinical knowledge from books. I also was very interested in research. And I started a research interest group in my class. And we started connecting medical students with physicians who have research projects. To continue on my research interest, and I started a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, where I was able to work on 20 projects with a phenomenal team of researchers. And we published 10 papers so far. So you can see how it's important to tell about your achievements. You should not shy from that, but make sure to be humble. For example, in the research part, I said, with a research team. So it's not like I, by myself, I'm publishing 10 papers and doing 20 research projects. Because you also want to tone down any arrogance that might be perceived on the other side, and show that you're part of a team, you're working with a team, because this is how residency will look like. Number nine is when asked about a weakness, mention a weakness that does not exclude you from residency. Don't say, I don't like working with patients, or I get angry around patients, because that disqualifies you from pursuing residency. So you need a weakness that does not reflect so negatively on you to exclude you from the process. So an example of a weakness that doesn't look so negative is, I don't have many leadership skills, because I didn't have that opportunity during medical school. However, I'm very interested in expanding my leadership skills, and I hope that your residency offers me such opportunities to work on that. So you can see that not having a leadership skill is not a positive, but it's not a huge negative. And that this applicant is looking forward for such opportunities, and looking for someone to mentor them with this process, and help expand their leadership skills. And finally, number 10 is that you have some questions at the end of your interview to ask your interviewer. So most interviews will end, do you have any questions for me? Don't say no, all my questions are answered, even if all your questions were answered. Asking one to two questions can help show interest in the program, and possibly express your strength. Here is an example of a question that you can ask to most residency programs. What are the strengths of this program, and is there anything you would like to change? Another question that can show your strength, if you've done research in the clinical outcomes of pancreatic cancer resection, and you're interviewing with someone who's big on research, you can say something like, I've done multiple research projects on the clinical outcomes of pancreatic resection, and I'm interested in continuing to build my research experience and research skills during my residency. Can you please tell me a little bit about the support you provide your residents to do research? And you can see here, you're asking a question, but you're also telling the interviewer that you have some research interests, some research skills, and you want Now it's time to share with you the guide that I promised you at the beginning of this video. To get this guide, click on the card above or the description below, and you will be prompted to put your email and name, and then within a minute or two, you will get the guide directly to your email. If you need any help with your interview preparation, don't be shy to ask for our help. We have a phenomenal team of advisors that are ready to help you ace your interview. Remember, interviews are extremely important. I feel applicants do not understand the value of interviews. Some programs might have a different opinion, but a lot of programs believe in that. Once you get an interview, you're almost on the same level as other applicants, so your performance on the interview will make a huge decision on whether you were ranked high or low, and that will reflect on whether you're matching or not. So take residency interviews very seriously. Check out all the free resources that we have that I'll leave in the description below. Check the full residency interview tutorial that I recorded recently, and don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel, and share this video with your friend who is doing their interview as well. Thank you everyone so much for watching, and good luck on your interview.