A question that comes up every year from final year students: how do I prepare for my intern interview? For most of them the answer is that there is not one. Australian internships are allocated by state campaigns, and most graduates are matched to a hospital without being interviewed. A minority are interviewed, and for them the interview is a shorter, gentler version of the RMO interview. This guide explains who gets interviewed, what they are asked, and how to prepare.
How internships are allocated
Each state runs a campaign: in New South Wales a ballot and preferencing system through the Health Education and Training Institute, in Queensland the intern campaign with preferencing and offers, in Victoria the match run by the Postgraduate Medical Council, and equivalents elsewhere. Graduates are grouped by category, with domestic graduates of the state's own universities first, and allocated to hospitals by preference and category. For the large majority, no interview is involved.
Who does get interviewed
Some applicant groups and some pathways do interview:
- International students and interstate or overseas graduates, in some states and for some hospitals, where positions are limited and the hospital selects.
- Rural generalist intern pathways, where the pathway selects for commitment to rural practice.
- Private providers that offer internships, such as some private hospital groups.
- Hospitals that choose to interview for a small number of positions outside the main allocation.
If your category or pathway interviews, the campaign guide will say so. If it does not say so, there is almost certainly no interview to prepare for, and the energy is better spent on the written application and the preferencing.
What the interview asks
Where it happens, it is short: two or three people, often the medical education lead and a consultant, about fifteen minutes, and the questions are a gentler version of the RMO set:
- Tell us about yourself and why you chose medicine.
- Why do you want to do your internship here?
- What will you bring as an intern?
- What are your strengths, and one weakness you are working on?
- Describe a time you worked in a team, or handled a disagreement.
- Describe an error or near miss on placement and what you learned.
- How do you cope with stress?
- A nurse calls about a patient whose observations have worsened. What do you do?
- What does cultural safety mean to you?
- How do you feel about a rural term?
The panel is listening for safety (go and see the patient, escalate early), honesty, respect for nurses, and realistic expectations of the year.
Preparing
Use the RMO question set on this site, which is the same shape one year later. Write a one minute answer to each with a specific from placement, prepare the deteriorating patient scenario with ABCDE and an ISBAR handover to the registrar, and learn the hospital and its values. A few sessions aloud with a friend who asks the follow ups is enough.
What not to do
Do not prepare for an interview you will not have at the expense of the application that decides your allocation. Do not assume the interview is like a medical school MMI; it is a job interview and the questions are about the job. And if you are interviewed, do not pretend to clinical confidence you do not have; the panel wants an intern who asks for help.
After the intern year
The interview most graduates face first is the RMO interview in their second year, for the post and the terms they want, and from there the registrar and training selection interviews. Those are the ones worth preparing properly, and they are covered on this site in full.