Prepare to answer these medical student and resident interview questions

Doctors participate in several interviews during their careers, including applying to medical school, residency training programs and various jobs during their practicing careers.

I was an interviewer for many years and was not trained in how to interview applicants. Instead, most of the interviews were about asking routine questions and hearing routine answers that checked off all the boxes. Most of the process was subjective and biased.

Here is the new medical school, residency and first job interview model.

Here is how to pick a residency if you are interested in entrepreneurship.

How to get the residency you want now that the rules have changed.

Now that the premedical, medical student, and resident personas have changed too, interviewers need to be prepared to answer some questions they might not have heard before.

1. What happens if I decide not to complete medical school?
2. Suppose I decide I don't want to do residency?
3. How will you prepare me to practice the business of medicine?
4. Who owns the intellectual property if I discover or invent something?
5. Tell me more about the local and regional innovation ecosystem
6. Do you offer medical students and residents exit ramps?
7. Can I work with a company during my training?
8. Do you offer a mandatory course in digital health, data literacy and dexterity and artificial intelligence?
9. Suppose I want to do something other than see 30 patients a day working for someone else during my entire clinical career? Will you provide me with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to do it?
10. Can I take a gap year?
11. Why should I enroll in your MD/MBA program if I am interested in entrepreneurship?
12. When was the last time your reformed your education and training program and what has been the result?

Please meet the doctor persona 2025. Your answers to the above questions will determine whether you will win the war for talent.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack