Pros and Cons of being a doctor

There are some questions which you can always expect to be asked in an medical interview and this is one of them. Even if you believe that this question is unlikely to come up, it is always good to practice and come up with some examples as answer to this question can be used in so many other questions e.g. what negative aspects you have witnessed in your work experience? How would you deter somebody from pursuing a career in medicine? What are the challenges of being a doctor? etc.

The way I approach this question and other questions like this one is by always keeping few points in my mind, and by extending or discussing those points in details. It is always good to list those points.  The idea is to first state one of this point and discuss that particular point by reflecting on your work experience or any other experience you had. Be careful when discussing negative aspects of medicine. Instead of discussing what you have witness in you work experience, go an extra mile and tell the interviewer how you would rise up to this challenge when you become a doctor or what skills you currently have to avoid those negative aspects. Below I have listed some pros and cons of being a doctor:

Pros


1. Satisfaction from treating patients and changing peoples' lives.
2. Opportunity for continuous and life-long learning.
3. Ability to apply theoretical knowledge into practice.
4. The human body is same anywhere in the world meaning with the medical training gained, you can practice anywhere in the world.
5. Challenging profession ( you can say, you like being challenged)
6. Respected by public and the media ( You can extend this point by discussing about how doctors build good patient-doctor relation resulting in good public relation)
7. Opportunity of teaching new generation of doctors.

Cons


1. A sense of depression may occur if attachment to patient grows and you cannot help the patient ( If you don't like the word 'depression' , then you can use the word 'emotional strain' but be careful not to come across as emotionally weak person. Essentially you need to strike a balance between an empathetic person and somebody who can be a professional doctor without being too attached to the patient)
2. Long hours and stress ( talk about how you can cope with working long hours and your stress management system. You can also talk about your extra curricular activities)
3. Sometimes doctors have to deal with very difficult and unreasonable patients who are not aware of limitation of medicine and demands high expectations ( Talk about your interpersonal skills which will help you deal with different kinds of patients)
4. Paperwork ( Reflect on your work experience)
5. Debt ( It's up to you whether you want to bring up this subject but I believe it is a very reasonable considering the fact that future medics will be acquiring debts of well over £45k)

I would strongly advise you against memorising these points. The way to practice this question is by simply talking to yourself as if you are discussing with your friends or families. The more of practice you do, the more of these points will stick in your mind and you will sound more natural in your interview. In your first practice, you may notice your answer lasting 8 or 9 minutes or even more. You will also notice you are drifting away from the main point and waffling. The idea is that through practice, you will be efficient and be able to compress the answer to within 3-5 minutes time frame. Feel free to add any specific points from your work experience but make sure you can discuss those points.

Welcome!

Welcome to Med School Interview. This blog is aimed at students applying to medical school in the UK. If you are from outside of UK, you may still find some of the contents useful. 

As I am preparing for my medical school interview (I still haven't received any interview offers yet but hoping to get one), in this blog I will be sharing my thoughts, ideas, tips etc on anything and everything to do with medical school interview. Some of the blog post will be more tilted towards medicine but there will be others in which I will discuss general interview issues which can also be applied to medical interview. 

This blog will not solely be about med school interview. I will also post any news or issues relating to medical field. So feel free to look around and drop in any comments you like. 

In this first post I would like to post a video which I found only yesterday. This video is produced by University of Bristol and mainly talks about how to stand out in a medical school interview. I am sure you will find this video extremely useful: