Effective Interviewing:

Essential information and preparation

for medical graduates

Warren Frehse
Senior Advisor, Experiential Learning
warren.frehse@unimelb.edu.au
Student Success
 Outline

At the end of this session, you should be

able to:

• List the four common styles of interviews

• Explain the importance of “professional branding”
• Identify common interview questions
• Examine group interview formats
• Locate assessment centre and other resources
 Interview styles and questions

1. General questions – related to your background, interests and

motivational levels; assessing person/job/cultural fit

2. Behavioural - how you would act in specific situations (e.g., capability

to work in a team, questions related to your work experience and
specialised skill set); based on the premise that past behaviour is the
best predictor of future behaviour

3. Situational (hypothetical) – typically clinical scenarios assessing your

judgment, knowledge and critical thinking (e.g., “What would you do in
this situation?”

4. Group Interviews (is a format) – gauges capability to work in a team;

discussions on health related topics, i.e. the role of medicine and
ethical implications; your knowledge of medicine in a specific field and
in general (interactive and participative)
 Professional branding: What
makes you unique?
Professional branding allows you to distinguish yourself from others with the
same credentials
 Strengths Develop a list of your 4 - 5 key strengths relevant to the role (can include
skills, abilities, talents, attributes, character strengths)
 Characteristics: reliable, hard working, leadership, highly motivated, goal-oriented,
self starter, takes initiative, ambitious, flexible, compassionate, dependable, confident
 Skills (as they relate to): patient-centred care, effective and safe medical practice,
multi-cultural/inter-disciplinary relationships and interactions, protect and promote
health of individuals/community
Choosing your best, most appropriate strengths, characteristics and skills by undertaking
self-assessment activities:
 Strengths Inventory, Interests Inventory, Work Values Inventory; (for more resources
refer to careers.unimelb.edu.au website.
 Refer to evidence wherever possible to back up your claims of your unique
combination of top personal attributes, motivations, strengths, values, and passions.

Refer also to codes of conduct and professional practice for the medical profession
 Interview topics and questions:

Common questions
To ascertain how you’ll contribute to the workplace; prompts
discussion of your skills; opportunity to give overview of what you
have to offer and emphasise your competencies.
Prepare for questions related to your specific area of interest and
medicine in general by providing specific examples.
The below questions are most common in interview settings:

1. Tell us about yourself

2. Why should we hire you?
3. What are your greatest strengths?
 “Tell us about yourself”
A summary of information that encompasses your career goals, past
experience, highlights your individuality (strengths), why you are
interested in this particular internship or how it would help you take a
step towards your longer-term goals.

 Begin general … (i.e., “referring to your degree… the learning, the

transition from coursework to research to placements; development of
self and awareness)
 Become more specific … (i.e., mentioning clinical rotation/s, work
experience, research projects, an issue of significance for you,
volunteering, travel, interests)
 Finish by relating to the internship and the medical profession (i.e.,”…
“which is why I was very interested in this role…”)

Create and practice your personal statement (under two minutes)

 “Tell us about yourself”

Both the manner (enthusiastic body language, eye-contact) and content

(clear, concise, organised) matters!

• Prepare by making a list of your top strengths, goals, values,

accomplishments, and abilities
• Draw from your overall background – academic, work, volunteer,
creative, social

Make it (preferably) interesting – use anecdotes, analogies and

examples as storytelling tools

• Anecdote – ‘ an interesting story/case/experience/learning’

• Analogy – coursework (learning) vs. clinical rotations (application)
• Examples – real situations you can refer back to
 Behavioural interviews

 Identified competencies required to do

the job are defined by the organisation
in terms of specific behaviours, that are
observable and measurable

 You are asked to discuss concrete

and specific examples from your own
experiences to demonstrate you
possess the required competencies
 Required to give a structured response
based around a specific example –
not a generalization.
 Based on past behavior being the best
predictor of future behaviour.
Example: “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult
person. What was the problem? How did you resolve it?”
 STAR or SAC technique

Provide evidence using examples that are recent,

relevant and related to the question.

Situation What was the context?

Task What was the problem/opportunity?
Action What did you do?
Result What was the outcome?

 Prepare real life examples

Situation
“Can you give me an example of …” Action
“Describe your experience with …” Conclusion
“Tell us about a time when …”
 Situational/Hypothetical

Gauges ability to analyse a given problem or capability at

handling situations, and focus on “what you would do in this
situation?”

 Designed to test your decision making abilities, judgment,

interpersonal, and professional skills; capability of on-the-
spot thinking whilst under pressure:
What would you do if a patient arrived at emergency and
presented with one of these clinical symptoms: said they
had taken poison or an overdose; showed signs of
deliberate self-harm and suicidal behaviours?

Critical Thinking (analytical, problem-solving, judgment, decision making)

 Situational/Hypothetical

Example of assessing critical thinking and handling an

ethical issue:

Your patient has been diagnosed with breast cancer but

their family requests that you tell her she has a rare blood
disease; they worry that she will not be able to cope
psychologically with a cancer diagnosis. The patient,
however, is fully lucid and functional. What, as a physician,
should you do? Where does your responsibility lie?

Critical Thinking (analytical, problem-solving, judgment, decision making)

 “What is your weakness?”

How you handle a tough question; more importantly tests reflective ability,
how self-aware you are, and what you are doing to develop yourself

 Identify specific, non-essential areas (skills/knowledge) for

development
 Weakness is an area that is not a strength; something that doesn’t
come naturally and requires preparation (e.g., public speaking)
 Choose a weakness that is a “strength in disguise” (e.g., people
pleaser ~ easy to work with)
 Demonstrate reflection and honesty – choose a real weakness and
mention how you are addressing that weakness

Example:
“I don’t have a lot of experience speaking in front of a large group and I still get
a bit nervous when asked to present. I am working on it by attending
Toastmasters public speaking sessions.”

Don’t just identify your strengths. Figure out areas that are weaknesses!
 Group Interviews

Used to assess you relative to your peers, and to assess interaction

with each other including co-operation, and contribution in a group.
Introduce yourself - Create a positive impression during the
introductory stage of the interview when you “tell the group about
yourself”.

Group activities – a discussion topic or scenario is given to discuss in

the group with the aim to assess performance in creativity, initiative,
assertiveness, collaboration, interacting with diverse cultures,
reasoning ability, thought leadership.
e.g., What do you think about...the current and future state of healthcare?

Behaviour – examples include language and listening skills, stating

your viewpoint and giving reasons, accepting views contrary to yours,
rapport building, confidence, and taking initiative.
 RESOURCES: Interview
Preparation

Interview preparation

• Refer to careers.unimelb.edu.au web pages on Behavioural Interviews

and other Interview techniques

• Use Interview Stream, an online platform to practice and video record

responses to interview questions
 RESOURCES: Medical-related links

Australian Medical Council (AMC's) forty attributes for medical graduates

Competencies for Jr Doctors - Australian Curriculum Framework
http://curriculum.cpmec.org.au/clinicalmanagement.cfm

Medical Board of Australia

http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Registration/Interns/Guidelines-resources-tools.aspx
Download Guidelines, resources and tools on intern training

http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Policies.aspx

Good Medical Practice: A Code of Conduct for Doctors in Australia

http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Policies/Code-of-conduct.aspx

Building Blocks Competency Model (U.S.) – Foundational Competencies & Allied Health
http://www.careeronestop.org/CompetencyModel/competency-models/building-blocks-
model.aspx
http://www.careeronestop.org/CompetencyModel/competency-models/allied-health.aspx
 RESOURCES: Get to know yourself

Self-assessment resources:
• To assess your interests - Self-Directed Search (SDS); information about interests
and abilities to determine your vocational type based on Holland’s theory.

• To assess your personality type preferences - Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• Other scales Humanmetrics (free), Kiersey, Using a SWOT Analysis

© Copyright The University of Melbourne 2017