The interview experience

I was expecting my letter today as I know they were posted yesterday but it didn't come (stupid freaking Australia post) so now I have to wait till Monday. I thought I would fill in my time by telling you all about my interview.......

Well my interview was at 9am. Whereis said that the drive there should take about 35 minutes. I had to be there at 8:45 so I thought I better time it so that I would get there at 8:30 to be sure, to be sure. I was going to park at the Broadway shopping centre which was a little walk away so I added 15 minutes for the walk, 15 minutes to get a drink at the shops and left an hour for the driving as it was going to be peak hour. I got up at 6 (very early for me as I like to get up at 8:30) and was I the car by 7am. I started to drive and finally calm down till I got on the M5 and the cars weren't moving!!!!!! I totally freaked, was almost in tears (I was very emotional), rang my husband saying "I'm not going to make it, I'll miss the interview" Thankfully he knows just what to say to bring me back down to earth. The cars moved slowly, then a bit faster and before I knew it I was there. It was 8:05. I was going to get a hot chocolate but couldn't stomach it right then (and I didn't trust myself not to spill all over my clothes). I got a bottle of water, some mints and started to walk to Buckland house (where the interviews were). I drastically overestimated this walk and it only took about 3 minutes. I arrived at 8:20. The doors were still locked. I just hung around the corner till 8:40 then went inside.

There were 2 people in there already. I was given a sheet explaining what was going to happen, when to expect offers etc. Everyone was silent, no-one was chatting. A few more people arrived, a boy sitting next to me tried to chat but in my current state I could barely hold the conversation (sorry if that was one of my fellow paging dr buffs but it just wasn't I needed to do right then). When all 7 of us were there a really friendly man came out and tried to put us all at ease. He told us that they should send the offers by the end of the next week (my interview was a Friday). I was pretty happy about this as it meant my suffering wouldn't be prolonged, however it didn't come to pass and I am still waiting......3 more days.

After this little chat the interviewers started to come out and take us in one by one. I was second last. When I walked through the door there were several offices with glass fronts. These were where the interviews were. I was up the back so I had to walk past all the others that had started their interviews already.

I had 3 people. One was a surgeon at Auburn hospital (male), one was part of ND (male) and one was not interviewing me but was a high school career advisor that was observing the proceedings (female). The ND guy was good, he had good eye contact and appeared to be friendly, the girl just watched and the surgeon looked at his paper the whole time, it was really disarming.

1. Why do you want to be a doctor? what kind of doctor do you want to be? What are the good and bad about being a doctor?
   
2. Tell us about your greatest achievement.
3. Imagine you're a GP and a patient comes to see you. Earlier in the week her daughter fatally overdosed on ecstasy tablets that she had accidentally left lying around the house. She says she is depressed and doesn't know what to do. She is worried about being prosecuted by the police. What do you do? They extended the question to say she has other children, what should happen to them
   
4. A tobacco company have offered ten million dollars to your uni to help fund a regional aboriginal health centre. You need to make a recommendation to the board about whether or not to accept the money. What would your recommendation be? Why? I said I wouldn't take it and they talked about how much good it could do, why wouldn't I take it.Then they said what if it was placed in a blind trust so noone would know where it came from.
   
5. Explain to us how you've solved a conflict in a team? tell us about the experience. And a time when you have been a leader?
6. Do you have any questions for us? Anything that you think we should know about you that you haven't already said.

It all seemed to over very quickly.

Every answer you gave you had to justify it.

I then went to the after interview waiting room. I was the second to finish. This freaked me a little as I had started 2nd last and finished 2nd so it must have been pretty short. The interviewees were much more relaxed in this room. We had a little chat then I got told I could go.

So that is what happened to me. Afterwards I was just glad it was over.