Tell me about yourself

I'm very surprised at not only how much i miss the interview trail but that i miss it at all. I miss the travelling, new places, experiences, feeling like a hotel hopper ( i stayed in about 14 different hotels since october), meeting new people and the actual interviews. I wouldn't say i am an interviewing pro but I got very comfortable with it. The secret is being yourself and not worrying about having rehearsed answers. That's what worked for me. Well, worked in terms of getting through the process with as little stress as possible. I haven't matched yet and if i end up matching into my 17th choice, then we would know that was a stupid strategy. Anyway, after being nervous for the first couple of interviews, I was just like this is not sustainable. Being myself is the easiest thing to do and I just went with it.

While i still hate the tell me about yourself question more than anything, it's a very predictable question and an easy one to prepare for. Guess who refused to do that? Me! I had a different answer each time i was asked. It all depended on which way the wind was blowing that day. Some i've started off talking about how i like to draw. I know the expected answer is to sell yourself and highlight why would you be a great resident.  No one is going to say I'm not a team player and i hate talking to patients. It's easy to sit there and list off all my supposed good qualities but how many people are just saying what they think the interviewer wants to hear.

I can't say my strategy didn't bite me in the butt because i found myself saying things that were not necessary to say like being Nigerian and where i went to for undergrad. LOL. All those things are not new information to the interviewer and that's what what they are asking. I guess a little rehearsal doesn't hurt anyone.

The biggest thing I learnt through this process is that I actually am funny/witty. I would say i made more then 70% of the people who interviewed me either laugh, chuckle or at least crack a smile. I had interview coordinatiors cracking up. One of them refused to give me a handshake when i was leaving, she wanted a hug. Like i said, if i match at my God forbid choices then i know i just interviewed like a bumbling idiot. I told a second year resident who was interviewing me that he was scaring me because his face was just straight and expressionless. LOL. I kid you not. He wasn't expecting that. At the end of the interview when he was walking me out, he told me he liked my personality. I've had a straight faced interviewer (a female resident) at the different program. She just made me so uncomfortable. I didn't joke with her o cos she seemed stuck up and I wasn't feeling the program. But i could joke with the male resident because we walked together after noon report and talked on the way back so when he switched into interviewer mode, I was comfortable joking with him.

It was a good interview season. I have some pretty decent options and i would be happy matching in any of my top 5 or even top 10 program. But i still have to spend time figuring out my rank order and that's hard work. I can't faff my way through that.

P.S. I like this poem. It helped me answer the Tell me about your question.

“who are you
really?

you are not a name
 or a height, or a weight
or a gender
you are not an age
and you are not where you are from

 you are your favorite books
 and the songs stuck in your head
you are your thoughts
and what you eat for breakfast on Saturday mornings
 you are a thousand things
but everyone chooses to see the million things you are not

you are not where you are from
you are where you are going a
nd i'd like to go there too" - Madisen Kuhn

 http://hellopoetry.com/poem/367737/who-are-you-really/