¶ Crafting Compelling Interview Stories
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Run the tape , okay right , what you want is stories , because stories especially because they tend to go chronologically right there , they tend to have some sort of timeline that you can follow . Stories tend to stick very well with people and they allow the listener to be more anticipatory .
Right , they want to anticipate what is , what is it that you're going to say ? Right ? So , if you , you know , if I ask you , well , if you , how do , how do I know that you were doing right , what ? How you know what was the process by which you contributed either to this research or that you completed this research ?
And then what do you expect you know to come from this research ? Because that's something that a listener can hold on to . Right , like , oh me , darko , he's the one that's doing surgery , or he , he's the one that's doing research on um . You know the surgical complications of , you know soldiers in iraq , right , and figuring out .
You know what , you know what things are , you know what's the ? I don't know , whatever , whatever , it is right , but you want to have some sort of detail . So stories is going to be the first thing that you're going to do in order to really compel the listener , the interviewer , right , yes , do you agree ? Got it , got it .
Yeah , okay , the other thing you want to avoid the other thing you want to avoid , so other thing you want to avoid , so stories I'm keeping notes on my whiteboards . Okay , so I'm creating a story .
You're creating a story . Who , what ?
when , where and how right .
That's how you do a story , and why .
Okay .
The other thing is you want to avoid a laundry list right , what I call the grocery list of adjectives . I'm a people person . I'm compassionate , I'm there's , I'm bad right , I'm accustomed to .
I'm a custom daddy every guy like I said another thing that people don't know what you're talking about okay , alfred some , if he could figure that out alfred , can you figure that out ?
um , so you don't want a long list , a laundry list of adjectives ? Right , so tell a story , but be very plain about how you so the . So this is so . This is the important thing about the laundry list you can tell a story and the laundry list will be made in the interviewer's head .
Okay , so let the interviewer come up with that by himself .
Let the interviewer come up with a conclusion . Right , Judge Judy ? She always says right , Like , just tell me what happened and I will come to the conclusion as to what the situation . Is Right , but you got to tell me the details before I can come to that conclusion .
So hold on . So if someone says , tell me about yourself .
Yeah .
How do you start with that ?
So you can just tell a story about your life that hits the points that you want that person to know .
So if you want them to know that you're a team player , if you want them to know that you have good dexterity , if you want them to know that you're passionate about surgery , then what you do is you create a chronological story in your head that goes it hits every single one of those themes .
For the question of tell me about yourself but that particular theme right , that formula is going to go throughout the interview . You're going to tell stories . You don't want to be so generic in talking to the interviewer that the interviewer then melds every single thing that you said with the next five interviews that they had .
So is it possible that you're , is it possible that you can , a very successful interview ? Is you telling a series of stories ?
Yes , that really is . Yes , okay , you have to tell a series of stories . Yes , that really is yes , okay , you have to tell a bunch of stories because you need to . You need the interviewer to come to the conclusion of who you are . So , so , how about ?
this . So let's say ask me the question okay , tell me about yourself . Well , should I just say like so there was a time when , you know , I was on my fourth year internship , sub-i internship .
Well , you can introduce yourself . You know , Hi , I'm Nidarko . I'm Nidarko .
My name is Nid and I'm from Jersey . You know what I'm saying ? New Jerus . You know what I'm saying ? Irvington you never heard that . No , that's because you're from Brooklyn . Um more about me . So listen , I am interested in surgery and I'm very much interested in surgery for um so many different reasons .
See , I'm getting nervous even myself , and I've gone through exactly right . So I want to go into a story . So how do I go into the story of like , why I'm interested in all this stuff ? Because I do have a good story hold on so that that .
So the first thing was the story , the second thing was the second thing was don't , don't create a laundry list . Allow the , allow the interviewer right to create the laundry list list of adjectives for you , right ? And then the third thing oh dang it .
But how do you forget ? But how do you transition to the story ?
hold on a second you may be . Oh dang it . You keep making me forget cuz you talking , so okay .
Let's talk about surgeon . We talk , yell , you yell . I've never yelled at you . Okay , Alfred All right , we're getting kind of long in this interview .
Come on . So how do you transition into a story ? Oh , this is what I was going to say . So you transition into your story by thinking about what it is that you actually want to convey , and what it is that everybody wants to convey is why you would be a good candidate for the program .
And you have to talk about why you would be a good candidate for the program . If you have to talk about why you would be a good candidate for that program , right , it's the same way that I tell my pre-meds you have to talk about why you would be a great doctor .
All right . So , student Dr Volney , you are here at Docs Outside the Box surgery residency . Oh Lord , Tell us about yourself .
So my name is , don't be telling all these stories Get to the point . It is Well , but I haven't themed it no . But I haven't themed it . I will try to win it .
I have stumped , I have stumped the teacher .
Teacher , teacher . I will try to wing it . Why ? Why ? Why ? Why it's easier for who has already themed out everything or who I can help to theme out everything , but kind of using what you said already . Right , what did you say ? You said that you have good dexterity .
Let me write it down Dexterity . And then you said team .
And then what else did you say Passionate about surgery ?
Yeah , passionate .
Okay .
Okay , he's still looking at you .
Who's looking at ?
me the interviewer .
Oh , that's the other thing . You don't have to answer a question right away , you can give seriously , you can tell your interviewer . Can you give me a minute , right ? Can you give me a minute so that I can organize my thoughts ?
All right , student Dr Voni .
Well , except for tell me about yourself , don't do that on . Tell me about the docs outside the box .
Uh , use it . University residency surgery residency program .
Tell me about yourself so my name is renee volney and I'm here to say I love surgery in a major way oh , so you're not serious yes , so my name is renee volney um . I am a student at kansas city College of Osteopathy and Medicine Doesn't like eye contact .
Yes .
And why are you doing this ? This is an interview , Right ? Your interviewer doesn't say doesn't make eye contact . They don't say that to you .
They should , they should do surgery to do . How would you know you haven't done a surgery Exactly ?
So why are you interviewing me for surgery ?
Because I want to see how good you are .
I can make a story out of anything , Go ahead . Anyway . I didn't say I could make a story out of anything .
But keep going , keep going .
Okay , so my name is Renee Volney , and what was I saying ? My name is Renee Volney , I'm a student at Kansas City University and let's say , you know , I grew up in Brooklyn .
¶ Discovering Surgical Passion and Teamwork
I grew up in Brooklyn , my family's of Haitian descent and you know , my parents came here in the early 70s and , you know , grew up in a very traditional household .
One of the things that I think I remarked about myself very early on in life was something that I think most people don't , and it's that I had very , I was very good with my hands when I was younger .
I used to help my mom bake cakes and a lot of times , you know , there were times when I , when I had to , kind of , we grate , right , you grate like lemons and things like that , which , you know , when you're younger , you don't really think anything of it .
She thinks this is a bakery , x her off .
You don't think anything of it . But as you go on , you know you start to get more and more responsibility and you know , next level up was , you know , chopping vegetables , onions , things like that , and I remarked , you know , pretty early on , that I was really good at that , never really thought anything of it .
But as I kind of moved on into you know my life and getting into medical school , one of the things that I found was that I had that same trait in surgery is that I was really good with my hands and that was something that was remarked very much on my surgery interview , my surgery rotations , my OBGYN rotations , my family medicine rotations , bragging on herself
.
She'll never make it here .
Keep going she'll never make it here . Keep going . So I think , you know , having , you know , having that level of dexterity either with baking , with cooking , even with sewing and crocheting , you know , from a very young age , really gave me the confidence to be able to use my hands and so you know that's .
That's one of the things that really interests me about surgery is that I'm able to use my hands . The other thing that interests me about surgery is the teams . Right , there are a lot of people who are involved in taking care of patients on the surgery rotation .
You know from not just the doctors , the nurses , obviously , the residents , but you have , you know , all kinds of ancillary staff , social work and case managers , things like that , who come in and , you know , help the patients to do what it is that they need to do in order to get much better .
And I think the practice that I've gotten from working on a team is actually working with an organization that I was a part of in medical school and just understanding the dynamics . And then I would tell the story about , you know , when I had to work on some project , right , like that's what I would do . I would tell a story right , I would tell a story .
I'd be like you know , for example , you know there was a time that we had to do X , y , z project , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . I'll tell the story about , like , when we did the MBA project , right , right . So in that way I could mention that I was also a dual degree , right .
So I would say , you know , there was a time that I was working on a project with my and with my MBA team because I'm a dual degree student , you , you see how I threw that in there , right . And then I tell the story about how we created the EMR project that we did Correct , right . So that would talk about the team ,
¶ Passionate Tales of Surgical Interest
okay . And then the last thing would be being passionate about surgery , which I kind of already mentioned in the whole dexterity thing . But you could see how that passion kind of comes throughout , right , it basically is kind of linear throughout the whole thing that I'm talking about .
So that's kind of what you want to say , right , it's a little bit harder for me because this is not my real story , but figure out what your story is .
I bet you I could do a really good OB-GYN one .
Go ahead . No , tell me about yourself .
I do want to ask you OB-GYN one . Go ahead . No , tell me about yourself . So I do wanna ask you about I love babies . Because we can .