Conducting interviews for the medical field

We have recently gone through the process of hiring a new program manager for our research group. There is not much in medical school that informs you about how to go through that process of interviewing, checking references and ultimately hiring and training someone. So, like the good blogger I am, I looked around on the web for some nice resources.

First of all, were you aware that there are many different kinds of interviews? Perhaps this just shows my total ignorance about the business world (and, really, thank goodness for that since I would be a terrible salesperson and an even worse executive), but the interviews I am used to are pretty laid-back conversational events, where I barely have to prepare for them. As I am doing more interviews now I realize there is really a style and nuance to doing an effective, useful interview.

It appears that at my work place, we usually do two interviews for the top candidates. For interview #1 you are just trying to see if that person has what you want for your group, whether you mesh. Some places, it appears, only have one interview though, so things can really run the gamut. I usually will ask something like “What one thing on your resume would you really like to highlight for me?” which usually works out well. Here is a concise guide for conducting an interview that I liked. And here is another more general list of questions you can pick and choose from. I think it is useful to ask the same or very similar questions of all applicants so that you can judge the candidates for the job side by side.

For interview #2, usually the “behavioral interview,” you are looking for major personality flaws. I liked this page from Brazen Careerist. Here is another list of questions you may like to refer to. Sometimes I think these behavioral questions come off a little crazy (ha!) but they are necessary to weed out the really odd ducks out there (a few of whom are captured here, and here and here).