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Interviews

I recently went through the pharmacy residency Match process, which included an extensive interview journey. I participated in nine interviews over the course of six weeks and these interviews consisted of various formats including prescreening telephone and Zoom interviews, and final in-person and virtual interviews.

Residency interviews utilized mostly situational and clinical questions. The “tell me about a time when” questions were utilized in every interview to assess candidates’ past experiences and abilities to work in a team, prevail during stressful situations, and overcome failures, all of which are essential for residency. The clinical portions examined candidate knowledge, also critical for the position. These clinical portions served as work-sample tests, evaluating applicability of clinical knowledge to patient care. This improves both reliability and utility and is critical for the interview process as mentioned in the articles by Bohnet and Knight.

While I am unsure if applications were reviewed in a blind systematic method, this would be an excellent way to reduce bias and focus on the candidate’s specific qualifications instead of demographic qualities, thereby increasing validity and applicability (Knight, 2018).

Although it is unclear whether programs had a “likability score” as mentioned in Knight’s article, how much I liked the interview and panel influenced how I ranked each program.

The interview that I liked least, was one that felt unstructured. Multiple panels asked the same questions repeatedly without much variation. It felt repetitive and unorganized. This repetition reduced the utility of the interview process and I left thinking that the interview could have been condensed. There was also a time in which candidates could ask current residents any questions. This was a very unstructured period and while I appreciated the freedom, it made for an awkward time where I felt that I needed to continuously ask questions to fill the time.

I would recommend that this program better coordinate its questions and structure of various interview panels. Repetition of essential questions like “why this residency” is understandable, but it is a better use of everyone’s time if different or less questions are asked. The resident portion could benefit from organized structure.

References:

  • Bohnet , I. (2018) How to Take the Bias out of Interviews
  • Knight, R. (2018) 7 Practical Ways to Reduce Bias in Your Hiring Processes

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