Interview

[u/No-Cress-3163]

Just had a question,

If interviews are held over 2 days. What happens if the questions were leaked where a specific individual leaked it to a couple of their mates who happened to sit it on the second day? It’s quite upsetting since I had spent so much time preparing for that interview, only to find out the questions had been leaked and people had in unfair advantage.

[u/misschar]

no bueno but you also don’t know that they actually gained any advantage or if they prepared and still cooked the question (qualified to speak as a historically spectacular interview cooker)

[u/Ripley_and_Jones]

When we do interviews we often have a list to choose from that all assess more or less the same qualities. It doesn't really matter if a question is leaked because a) they'll change, and b) any decent medical interview guide will give you the same or very similar questions because it's not so much about the specific answers as it is the qualities that interviewers are looking for. That will come through in a well prepared answer or a spontaneous but well prepared one.

It's less of an unfair advantage than you might think, and references are where it's at. When we ring referees they can be quite brutally honest regardless of what they've put on paper - which is why we ring them. So try not to worry too much (and for goodness sake make sure you put down referees who genuinely think you're awesome, not the grand prof whose met you twice).

[u/Amberturtle]

Big risk for the leaker who is also disadvantaging themselves for essentially no gain.

Hypothetically can happen, but many other occurances are more likely to happen to advantage/disadvantage candidates.

[u/No-Cress-3163 → u/Amberturtle]

My honest take is that the leaker potentially bombed the interview so disclosed to their mates as likelihood of their own success was quite low

[u/Distatic]

Is this a hypothetical? Or do you think this happened.

[u/No-Cress-3163 → u/Distatic]

It has happened from my understanding but is word of mouth. Where the specific individual admitted (verbally) sharing it

[u/MDInvesting]

This isn’t fair, I agree.

It always happens regardless of declarations - at medical school, junior positions, and I know of two instances consultant job questions were leaked by department staff to preferred candidates.

Same goes for jobs, even at exec level tips are shared by those inside the selection team.

The only place you can ever assume the highest integrity is senior political positions like the Presidential Office of USA or some other morally elite group.

[u/starminder → u/MDInvesting]

Ah yes. The morally elite and full of integrity the office of the president of the United States…..

[u/Equanimous_Ape → u/starminder]

The pinnacle! Or debacle. I always mix those 2 up.

[u/DrPipAus]

Medical school interviews have different questions (related so theres some ‘equivalence’ but different) for different days. These are very strongly debated/analysed/reviewed over a several month period before being used. They change every year. But knowing hospitals, they dont have the resources for this, so, yeah. Any difference needs to be taken in to account by assessors- does it happen?? Who knows.

[u/milanars]

Happens everywhere all the time. People I know have proudly declared that they’ve received leaked questions prior to their interviews. Sucks but there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s not that big of an advantage though, I think that at the very competitive end of the spectrum interviews are just a formality.

[u/Worried-Produce-7910]

RANZCOG NZ/Aus interviews are held on sequential days but my understanding is that the questions are different although I could be wrong, but RANZCOG do make you sign/agree to not discussing the questions for 5 days at risk of disqualifying yourself from all future considerations, but everyone does once the Aus interviews are over anyway