Sunday, November 7, 2010

Interview Etiquette

I might have misspelled that word - etiquette...But anyway. Here's a topic few people spend time on, but is nonetheless an important one. For me, it was one of those make or break scenarios during my first interview. Call it silly, but I had forgotten my shaving razor when I was at my very first interview, which I didn't realize until the morning of the interview. By the time I found a store that carried one (apparently, Boston encourages people to grow beards by clearly consciously limiting the number of personal hygiene stores) I was almost late for the interview. I arrived a bit late, hurried and long story short it affected my mood the entire day to the point where I wasn't 100%.

So, let's get back to theory. You have gotten your interview invite. You're stoked. Now what. Let's assume you've researched the types of questions you are asked and you have done EVERYTHING to the max. All you have to do now is show to the adcoms that you are not a gorilla (although they are very gracious creatures) and you are golden. Easy, right? WRONG. I've seen things, interviewing, that made me cringe. I'm not going to give examples. Rather I'll guide you through a day of the interview. Disclaimer: This is my opinion, as usual. You can take it or think I'm crazy.

Dressing up. For girls it's a bit difficult for me to say, because even after living in San Francisco for a couple of years, I'm still not sure as to the standards of women's fashion when it comes to business vs casual vs biz-cas. When it comes to guys, it's simple. Two piece suit and tie. No if's, but's, or anything else. and make sure your tie is the right length. Call me superficial, but when a guy who aspires to be a DDS, where precision of dimensions is everything, comes in a tie which is 5 inches away from the belt, something doesn't sit right with me.

Haircut - the only thing I will say on this matter is that I've sacrificed my pony tail a week before interviews to look professional.

Great...I just got paged. I'll finish this later...cheers

7 comments:

  1. I actually have an interview at OU next week. Perhaps you could finish this post before then? Haha, hope all is well, my friend.

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  2. Hi! I just found your blog and it is kind of perfect because am actually trying to decide between OU and UCSF. I'm from Sacramento, but go to OU undergrad and so have friends and a support system out here I don't want to leave. From what you know about UCSF and OU would you say the schooling and opportunities at UCSF far outweigh OU? Or would you say that having a support system and classmates you already know is more important? Sorry it is such a loaded question, I just don't really know anything about UCSF! Thanks so much!
    ~Naomi

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  3. While both schools are great, I know next to nothing about OU SoD. As for UCSF, it's one of the top (if not the top) schools in the nation, it's the ONLY true P/F school, it's in SF (no more 100F summers in OK), etc etc... So if you really have a choice between the 2 schools, it would be a no-brainer to me ;) if you want more info, email me or add me on facebook and we can chat more in detail.

    P.S. I should really update this thing more often, huh...

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  4. Yeah, you would be surprised by the number of people who have come into my practice and have either not been prepared for an interview appearance wise and also had their cell phone go off(personal pet peeve).

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