Interviewing in the 1990s — The Hard Cell versus the Soft Cell

To the Editor: After years of interviewing candidates for house-staff training, it becomes apparent that standard questions elicit standard responses, and the conduct of yet another interview seems an insurmountable task. How many times can one ask, “Why did you want to become a doctor?” or “Where do you want to be five years from now?” In a desire to override the boilerplate mentality of the standard interview, we attempted to construct a question that would elicit an unrehearsed response. Fantasy and flight of imagination provide a window through which one may view the personality rather than the persona …