How will you successfully interact with some of the demanding faculty and ancillary staff in our program as a dental resident?
You may need to work with difficult to please dentists and other staff in your residency program. Your interviewers want to see that you can interact professionally and constructively with others, even if they have a challenging personality or work style.
"I fully understand that I will be working closely with staff who can be challenging at times and have very high demands of me as a dental resident. As part of your program, I plan to keep an open mind in any interactions I have and won't take any criticism of my work negatively. I am ready and willing to learn and grow in the coming years to become the best dentist that I can be. If I ever felt that a staff member was out of line, I wouldn't hesitate to have a one-on-one conversation with them to reset expectations and tell how I feel about our interactions. In the end, we are all working towards one goal, and that is providing the best care possible to patients."
The goal of your response is to show the interviewers that you work well with a range of individuals. Your answer should assure the decision-makers that your communication style will be an excellent addition to their team of dental residents. Don't hesitate to give an example of a time you had to work with a challenging person during dental school. If you give a direct example, be sure to outline the situation, describe why it was vital that you communicated successfully with this person, and explain the actions you took to build a healthy relationship with the individual. Explain to your interviewers that you are aware that some of the staff you will work with will have high expectations of you and that you are ready to meet those expectations head-on.
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
I understand that I will be working with superiors or auxiliary staff that are highly demanding. I personally do think that it is better to work with highly demanding superiors because this will be pushing me to always improve myself and to provide the best possible care for my patients. But if I ever feel that this is becoming overwhelming for me and negatively affecting my productivity, I will make sure to have a one-on-one conversation to express my situation and how this has made me feel. I remember when I was a first-year resident back home, my superior requested that I needed to go to the laboratory every day and help students during lab practice, at some point, this was exhausting for me and ended up speaking with her about it and she was so understanding and we made an agreement to go to the lab whenever I had time.
Marcie's Feedback
It's great that you like to learn from people who challenge you and place demands on you. The interviewer will be happy to hear this. It's also helpful that you've included an example in your response. Just be careful that it doesn't give the impression that you're easily exhausted or not willing to put in the daily effort (this likely isn't the case at all; just make sure your wording doesn't imply this accidentally). Otherwise, great job!
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