"If not a doctor, what would you be?"

 

Many a times, I am sure you have been told that medicine is a very noble profession. I am sure this is valid even today, though some may argue that medical practice is now run more as a business. Nevertheless, what would you do if this profession did not exist? What would you do if you just had no way of becoming a doctor? What other profession would you consider?

Here are THREE examples: TWO are from online interviews that I chose to include because of the very high quality responses - responses from other applicants were also very exciting, but for lack of space, I have not been able to include those in the current post. May be I will include them in a future version of the post. The third example is from my own personal experience.

Make sure you watch the video clips to get a feel for the interview. 

These examples are taken from 2 online practice interviews that I performed at ed4medus.com. Click on the links below and see the 2 video clips. You can also read the transcript of these interview clips. (Identity of the applicants have been withheld to ensure confidentiality). 

                Video: Teacher Video: Archeologist         

GM: “Well, I would love to be a teacher. I love to teach people and many times I have got feedback that I am a good teacher. In my medical school, we used to have a small group and my fellow used to tell me different topics which were difficult to understand. I used to first learn and then I used to teach them because they thought that I am a better teacher. And many times such topics which were really tricky ones in which simply we had to cram a lot, I used to teach them and they really found that it was useful to them. So soon, my juniors also approached me and I had a small tutorial group in my med school. And me along with my two other fellow colleagues - we were the three main teacher who used to teach the juniors and our batchmates also -  small topics which ever they felt they needed help with. I think I would be a teacher.”

AR: Back in the days, because I was a curious child, so I wanted to be an archaeologist. You know __ is in the Mediterranean coast and we have the second largest amount of Roman and Greek rows in the entire Mediterranean basin.  So back in the days, I was very curious about going to all the old cities and archaeological sites and spending hours with my family.  My brothers and sisters did not like it. So I would just go down, explore the caves, see how ancient civilization took settlement in this country and tried to build something.  I guess it was the curious side of me - that desire for me to understand how who we are and how we came from going back to our ancestors. I wanted to do this, but my aunt was really happy when I ended up not doing it and ended up doing medicine. I guess both share aspects of curiosity and the need for continuous discovery and working on it being a researcher. I would have done it I think and I guess I am still interested in it. I still love reading about archaeology and anthropology as well.

Dr Ed: If not medicine, I would really like to be a musician and play the piano. Music has been a passion of mine. I started learning the piano when I was in middle school but I had to give up playing music because of needing to spend more time for studies. What I find interesting is that many of the traits in music are similar to what is required in being a successful physician. Just like you have to practice, practice, and practice to play a beautiful song, one has to keep learning medicine by revising, reviewing and revisiting medical conditions and learning from each patient to add to his or her experience. So, the more you practice, the better you become and that also applies to being a great physician. Practice can sometimes be long and hard but the fruits of success and the beautiful music that comes with practice is amazing. In the same way, saving even one life or helping out a patient really makes the practice of medicine very worthwhile. You have to be able to play as a band otherwise if you play out of tune, then you can spoil the song. Similarly, while taking care of the patient, one needs to work in a team and collaborate with other consultants and nurses to deliver the best outcome for the patients.

So there you have it. When answering this question, make sure you explain the similarities between medicine and your passion outside medicine. This demonstrates high level of thinking and self-reflection.  

How should you not answer this question? Avoid controversial occupations (from the medical point of view) like being a bartender or owning a cigar shop (you may choose to do those after residency). 

Do share your thoughts in my facebook group and I can comment on your response. Plus, you can see other's responses too. 

That’s all for now. Hope you like this post. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Join the mailing list or my facebook group and check out Ed4medus.com to learn more about personalized services to help you get into a US medical residency program.

Photo credit for image in post: 

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/5a/d9/735ad9eabb1b3b03f09d9fcd8b4d5b59.jpg