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Medicine Interview Questions - How to answer "What's your biggest weakness?"

2017-12-06 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Kenny, a guest · recording, 10:33 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Medicine and his doctor years · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Aimed at students

Ali presents tips from six medical students on answering "What's your biggest weakness?" in medicine interviews and mock answers from himself and Kenny; his formula is to pick something that really is a weakness and talk about how you are improving on it, without copying anyone's answer.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Ali's take on the question: no right or wrong answer, a real weakness and how you are improving on it

  • ★ Ali presents tips from six medical students on answering "What's your biggest weakness?" in medicine interviews, and mock answers from himself and his friend Kenny. — 00:00:00 · Medicine interview, Kenny
  • ★★ Ali says there is no right or wrong answer to "What's your biggest weakness?": the right answer depends on what you think your biggest weakness is. — 00:00:29 · Medicine interview
  • ★★★ Ali's formula for "What's your biggest weakness?" in medicine interviews: pick something that actually is a weakness for you, then talk about how you are improving on it. — 00:00:29 · Medicine interview
  • ★★ Ali advises personalising the answer to the weakness question and delivering it engagingly, with a smile. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Ali says the weakness question is not something to worry about, but applicants should think about it before the interview so they are not thrown by it. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Don't go too hard on yourself

  • ★★ a guest: A medical student advises not going too hard on yourself when naming a weakness, such as saying you are lazy, but also not saying you are a perfectionist, which is cliched and suggests medicine is not the career for you. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ a guest: The student suggests weaknesses that are not too self-damning, such as taking on too much, finding it hard to say no to opportunities, or prioritising with a lot on your plate. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ a guest: The student advises following the weakness with how you are working on it, for example time management that you now improve by prioritising what must be done immediately. — 00:01:54

00:02:20 — Example: anxiety

  • ★★ a guest: A medical student says they were honest in interviews that their biggest weakness is anxiety, and described how they improve it: regular talks with their GP, counselling and telling people when entering a stressful situation. — 00:02:20
  • ★★★ a guest: The student advises not selling a strength as a weakness: be open and honest about real weaknesses and say how you will improve them so they do not affect your clinical practice. — 00:02:50

00:03:13 — Example: confidence

  • ★★ a guest: A medical student says their confidence was not very good and is still a struggle, and that as a doctor they must learn to be neither over- nor under-confident. — 00:03:13
  • ★★ a guest: The student says both over-confidence and under-confidence in a doctor are bad for patient safety. — 00:03:13
  • ★★ a guest: The student advises naming a weakness that is true and realistic for you and showing that you are learning from it and how you will change. — 00:03:42
  • ★★★ a guest: A medical student advises being honest about your weakness, but not too honest. — 00:03:42

00:03:59 — Talk about how you've improved

  • ★★ a guest: The student would not have named poor time keeping, though it is true of them, because it is not a good quality in a doctor unless they could show how much they had improved. — 00:04:19
  • ★★ a guest: A medical student says knowing your weakness is an important part of medicine, where doctors are encouraged to self-reflect throughout their careers through portfolios and revalidation. — 00:04:19

00:04:30 — Example: perfectionism

  • ★★ a guest: A medical student says they were always very much a perfectionist, like many medics, thorough almost to the point of impairing the job, and advises being aware of it and having strategies to deal with it. — 00:04:55

00:05:13 — Introduction to the mock answers: don't copy answers

  • ★★ Ali says he was asked "What's your biggest weakness?" in about three of his four medicine interviews and gave pretty much the same answer each time, very similar to his mock answer. (hedged) — 00:05:17
  • ★★★ Ali says never to copy interview answers from anywhere: the right answer is the one that is right for you, and the mock answers only give an idea. — 00:05:47 · Medicine interview

00:06:07 — Mock answer 1: Ali

  • ★★★ In his mock answer Ali names public speaking as his biggest weakness: he has had a stutter since about age four, which made public speaking difficult. — 00:06:10
  • ★★ Ali says presentations in English class, even a book review, would raise his heart rate and make him sweat. — 00:06:10
  • ★★ Ali says that wanting to be a doctor and to teach, he decided he had to work on his public speaking. — 00:06:40
  • ★★★ Ali says that in year 12 he became a close-up magician to improve his public speaking, learned magic tricks and volunteered at the local hospice, performing for the residents and at their Christmas party. — 00:06:40
  • ★★ Ali says helping GCSE and A-level students with maths and science improved his confidence and showed him that confidence comes across when he knows what he is talking about. — 00:07:08
  • ★★ Kenny: In his mock answer Kenny sums up his biggest weakness with the phrase "if you want something done well, do it yourself": he likes to do everything, thinking he might do it quicker or his own way. — 00:07:38 · Kenny

00:07:39 — Mock answer 2: Kenny

  • ★★ Kenny says he must work on wanting to take on every role, because in a hospital doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants each have their own role but all work together. — 00:08:08 · Kenny
  • ★★ Kenny says that as chairman of a school committee filling an hour of his year group's time every other week, he found he could not do all the liaising himself and learned to delegate. — 00:08:59 · Kenny

00:09:38 — Closing remarks: make the answer personal to you

  • ★ Ali says more videos about medicine interviews are coming very soon, alongside his vlogs about life as a medical student. — 00:10:01

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Mentioned

Central: Medicine interview

Also: Kenny · stutter · University of Cambridge

Only in the description or credits: Chidera

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