One of the Most Common Residency Interview Questions: What questions do you have for me?
As you're preparing for interviews, it's important to be ready to answer a wide variety of potential questions. However, we've noticed that many of our students aren't prepared for one of the most common interview questions out there.
That question is this: "What questions do you have for me?" Almost every single interviewer will ask this question.
If you're looking for more help applying to residency, we also offer our online course: The Residency Interview 101. Our expert strategies and insider tips on the admissions process can help you become a standout applicant.
You May Only Have Enough Time to Ask One Question--or You May Have an Entire Interview to Ask Questions
During an interview you may only have enough time at the end to ask one or two questions. In other interviews, however, faculty may choose to give you a significant amount of time to ask your questions.
In fact, some interviewers will even begin the interview by asking "What questions do you have about our program?"
What does this mean for you? It means that you need to be prepared with multiple questions for your interviewer, and you need to be prepared to do so at any point of the interview.
What questions should I ask residency program directors and faculty during my residency interview?
We're going to provide some suggestions below, but we have a warning first.
Only ask questions that you are sincerely interested in. An interviewer shouldn't feel that you're just working your way down a list that you found somewhere. Unfortunately, that's all too common.
You should definitely start with a list of potential questions to ask your interviewer, but you need to narrow down that list to the topics that you really want to learn more about.
In this post, we're going to highlight several examples for how to formulate unique, high-yield questions.
If you'd like to see a comprehensive list of potential questions to ask your interviewers, we have a long list of potential questions in our book The Successful Match.
We've included some of these general questions below.
If you find a particular topic that interests you, you can read further in this post for recommendations on how to ask these questions in a more compelling fashion.
Potential Questions To Ask Program Directors and Faculty Interviewers
General
What are the major strengths of the program?
What changes in the residency program are likely in the next few years?
Education
How does your program demonstrate its commitment to the residents’ education?
What percentage of attending or teaching rounds is spent at the bedside?
What resources are available to assist residents in the fellowship application process?
Clinical duties/responsibilities
How autonomous would you say the residents are in the program?
Research opportunities?
What research opportunities are available for residents?
What type of research have the residents done in recent years?
What research projects are currently ongoing?
Teaching opportunities/responsibilities
What teaching responsibilities do residents have in regard to medical students?
Are there resources for improving resident teaching, such as workshops?
Advising/mentoring
Is there a formal advising/mentoring program for new residents? If so, how does this program work?
Specialty board examination
How have your graduates performed on the specialty board exam?
Is there a didactic series to help residents prepare for the boards?
Graduates
Where are your graduates (private practice, academics, local area, etc.)?
What percentage of your graduates successfully place in fellowships? Which fellowships do they get into? Where?
Don't Just Ask Questions from a List: Determine Which Questions are Important to You, and Then Ask Those Questions in a Memorable Way
As you read through lists of potential interview questions, take note of the ones that speak to you. Which of these questions are important to you?
Your job is to then ask those questions in a memorable and compelling manner. The key is to ask in such a way that you are highlighting something important about you, or your interests, or your future in the specialty.
An Example of How to Ask Questions:
How to Ask About Procedures in this Residency Program
If you were a family medicine residency applicant, part of what may have drawn you to the field is the opportunity to perform procedures. Perhaps you envision yourself practicing family medicine in a rural area. If that's the case, you may not have access to specialists when you start practice. Therefore, it may be particularly important to you to acquire strong procedural skills during your residency training. You are really aiming to be comfortable and confident in your ability to perform a variety of procedures by the time you finish your residency. With that being the case, you can ask questions about procedures during residency training.
Let's say Sergio, our superstar applicant, is asking this question. He may ask
"Dr. Patel, are there opportunities to perform procedures as a resident in your program?"
or
"Dr. Patel, can you tell me about the procedures residents take part in at your program?"
How to Significantly Enhance The Quality of Your Questions to The Interviewer
I want to point out that there's nothing at all wrong with these questions. However, you can make them significantly stronger. How? By giving the interviewer an idea of why this question is important to you.
A Much Better Question to Ask About Procedures in this Residency Program
"Dr. Patel, my hope is to practice family medicine in the area of Texas where I grew up. This is a very rural area with a lot of underserved patients. The area lacks specialists, so it will be important for me to become proficient with a variety of procedures. I was wondering if you can tell me about the procedural training that is available in your program and how residents can make the most of these opportunities."
In providing some context to the question that he's about to ask, Sergio has now communicated some very important points. We know that he's interested in caring for the underserved and we know that he has plans to practice in a rural area. If those factors are important to the program, then Sergio has just reminded the interviewer that he's a good fit for this particular program. From the interviewer's perspective, it now makes a lot of sense as to why he's asking a question about procedures.
By providing context, Sergio has also made it clear that he has a sincere interest in learning the answer to the question.
Another Way to Stand Out: Focus on Hot Topics in the Field That Are of Interest to You
Medicine is an always-evolving field, and every specialty has important developments, advances, and challenges. Let me give you some examples in the field of family medicine.
In the following examples, I'll start by introducing an important topic or issue in family medicine. I'll then give you an example of a standard question that applicants might ask, followed by a more unique, memorable question that applicants might ask.
Patient Safety Concerns are a Hot Topic in Many Fields:
How to Ask Questions About This Important Topic
In family medicine, a very important issue has to do with ensuring that patients have a smooth transition from the inpatient to outpatient setting. We know that this is an important time. If the transition period is handled well, it can make a huge difference in terms of patient outcomes and readmission rates.
This is a very hot topic right now and hospitals are instituting and testing many programs and interventions that improve patient safety and outcomes.
Recognizing the importance of educating residents about how to safely transition patients, programs are using a variety of methods in their efforts to educate learners. These methods include:
Didactic lectures
Case-based workshops
Role-playing
Some programs are even sending residents out into the homes of recently discharged patients to better understand the challenges that patients face when adjusting from the hospital to the home environment.
Other programs are encouraging their residents to perform quality improvement projects to enhance patient safety at this time of transition.
There are also efforts underway to show residents how a team-based approach which includes non-physician personnel can impact readmission rates, outcomes, and safety.
With this background in mind, Jennifer may be very interested in learning how this residency program is approaching this important topic.
"Dr. Strong, I've been reading a lot about patient safety issues and I know a difficult time for patients is when they move from the inpatient to outpatient setting. How can residents work with attendings and other support staff in your program to safely discharge patients so that they are more likely to do well and hopefully not be readmitted?"
In asking this question, Jennifer has just telegraphed that she's been reading about a very important issue and that she is committed to partnering with their staff to reduce readmission rates and enhance patient safety.
Another Hot Topic in Residency Programs: Collaboration with Other Care Providers
Another question you can ask has to do with inter-professional teams. This is another hot topic in family medicine. In fact, the ACGME encourages collaboration in family medicine residency programs between residents and other professionals including (but not limited to) social workers, discharge planners, pharmacists, and others. That's what we mean when we use the term inter-professional teams.
Knowing this, you might choose to ask about opportunities to work with non-physician personnel and how these personnel are incorporated into the learning process and patient care.
For example, an increasing number of family medicine programs are utilizing clinical pharmacists in the education of their residents. In some cases, they function as a family medicine residency faculty member. They may precept residents alongside family medicine physicians, they may deliver lectures, they may provide feedback to learners, and they may provide observation of resident patient encounters. Having such personnel involved in your education can definitely enhance your clinical training. So you could ask the following interview question:
"Dr. Merryman, I noticed that in your outpatient continuity clinics that you have on-site pharmacists, social workers, and behavioral medicine experts. Could you tell me if these professionals are involved in resident education? And if so, what are some of the ways in which they interact with residents?"
Moving Away from the Standard Questions Asked of Program Directors and Interviewers:
Questions That Highlight Personal Interests and Questions Related to Hot Topics in Medicine
So there you have it. Three important areas in family medicine and some examples of questions that you can ask in these areas.
Note that these are not the standard questions that residency applicants ask.
Instead, by taking the time to research the program and develop these personal, thoughtful questions, you can improve your interview performance on multiple levels.
First, these types of questions can communicate fit between you and the program.
Second, you can convey that you are a future resident who is knowledgeable about important and timely topics in the field.
Third, you are able to stand out.
What do we mean by stand out? Imagine if you're an interviewer and you've just spent the day interviewing 10 applicants. Almost all have asked similar questions during the interview. "Do you anticipate any changes in the program over the next five years?" "What do you see as potential areas of improvement in the program?" "What do you think is the greatest strength of this program?"
It's hard to stand out when everyone is asking these same questions.
Although it certainly takes longer to craft the types of impactful, personal questions that we've highlighted here, it's an important part of your interview preparation.
If you'd like more resources for residency interview preparation, we have over 150 pages devoted to interview prep in our book The Successful Match. You'll also find additional resources at our website. We wish you the best of luck in your residency interview.
Dr. Rajani Katta is the creator of The Residency Interview 101, the online course that helps applicants quickly and confidently prepare for their residency interviews. She is also the co-author of The Successful Match: Rules to Succeed in the Residency Match and served as Professor of Dermatology at the Baylor College of Medicine for over 17 years.
Dr. Samir Desai is the author of 21 books, including The Successful Match and The Clinician's Guide to Laboratory Medicine. He has been a faculty member in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine for over 20 years and has won numerous teaching awards.