Are you comfortable explaining complex medical information to patients and their families?
Interviewers may ask this question to assess your communication skills and ability to explain medical information in a way that is easy for patients and their families to understand. Use examples from previous experience where you were able to clearly communicate complex medical information to patients or their families.
Example: “Yes, I have had many experiences explaining complex medical information to patients and their families. In my last role as a genetic counselor, I worked with pediatric patients who often had parents in the room during our appointments. I always made sure to speak at an appropriate level so both the patient and their family could understand what I was saying. I also used visual aids like diagrams and illustrations to help them better understand the information.”
What are some of the most important factors you consider when providing genetic counseling services?
This question can help the interviewer gain insight into your counseling style and how you prioritize important information. Your answer should include a few of the most important factors that influence your work as a genetic counselor, such as accuracy, timeliness and confidentiality.
Genetic counselor explains how to introduce yourself in genetic counseling grad school interviews
To help you prepare for your Genetic Counseling interview, here are 25 interview questions and answer examples.
- How to Answer
- Answer Example
The interviewer wants you to go over your credentials so that they can verify your eligibility for the role. Talk about your highest level of education and plan to mention any volunteering work, awards or scholarships to make yourself stand out from the candidate pool.
“I graduated at the top of my class in high school. From then I attended the University of Miami and earned my Bachelors Degree. While in school, I shadowed a genetic counselor to gain experience specifically interacting with patients. I also was part of a local Red Cross and volunteered at blood drives. After my Bachelors, I decided to work as an intern filing paperwork and running lab tests with a genetic counselor. The more I learned and studied Genetic principles, the more I wanted to have a career in this field- mainly to help patients by identifying disorders.”
Explore expert tips and resources to be more confident in your next interview.
Continue practicing by visiting these similar question sets
Tip #1: Stopped obsessing over what makes your application bad, focus on what makes it shine.
Everyone has amazing grades, shadowing experience and advocacy experience, so what else makes you great? Pick something. It could be the reason why you are so passionate about becoming a GC, it could be your experience volunteering in a third world country, it could be a personality trait, or it could literally be your shadowing experience. But pick something that is somewhat unique, and make sure you express why it sets you apart from others. (Bonus tip: ask your friends/family how they would describe you, you may have amazing qualities that you aren’t aware of!)
Tip #3: Find your weakness.
They will ask you what it is. Sit down with an honest parent, sibling, or frenemy and ask them what they think you need to overcome, or for something that you could work to improve. When you present a weakness, tell the admissions committee how you are actively working to overcome it. Do not say, “I’m always late”, and then show up late to the interview. The weaknesses question is scary because it’s an interview and you want to be perfect. But in reality, no program wants a robot. Use this question as an opportunity to show your personality quirks. When addressing your weaknesses or your low GRE scores or grades, find a way to spin it positively. Maybe you got a C, but you worked day and night for that C, and that shows your work ethic/determination.
Refresh yourself on the basics of genetic counseling
Interviewing can be a scary thing, but don’t forget the basics! Watch the mock GC sessions on NSGC, read some blogs about genetic counseling – Maps&Genes is a good one – and stay updated about genetics in the news. I remember looking at the NSGC website before my interviews just to give me a piece of mind that this is indeed the career for me and that I knew the relative scope of practice for a GC.
Lastly, brainstorming some ethical issues that may arise in genetic counseling can also be helpful to get yourself in the GC mindset.
Some programs may ask you what initially drew you to the program specifically. A few of us found it helpful to go through each program website we were interviewing at and writing down specific things that stood out for that program. This looks different for everyone, so this is not an exact list about what you should focus on.
But some find location to be important, others think about what type of rotations are available, exposure to experts in the field, etc. Start a list! Also, if you haven’t noticed, GC’s love lists (well not all, but a lot of us are Type A so that’s why).
