Pre-interview dinner and tail of interview days

[mercaptovizadeh]

Attending interview dinners and leaving slightly early, how bad is it? What if our flight plans require us to leave half an hour or half hour early at the end of the day, e.g. missing a bus tour of the town? What if we plan our flight so we can make it to the pre-interview dinner, but our travel ends up being delayed?

Just trying to assess how critical it is to attend these functions, because it often means the difference between making flights and missing them or paying way more to have to fly out to a certain area twice rather than keep it consolidated into one trip.

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[MS87]

Although it's good to go to pre-interview dinners, they are optional. Many people have back to back interviews and simply can't get to the interview dinner in the next city after a day of interviewing somewhere else. I wouldn't worry about it

 

[Stellar Clouds]

Attending interview dinners and leaving slightly early, how bad is it? What if our flight plans require us to leave half an hour or half hour early at the end of the day, e.g. missing a bus tour of the town? What if we plan our flight so we can make it to the pre-interview dinner, but our travel ends up being delayed?

Just trying to assess how critical it is to attend these functions, because it often means the difference between making flights and missing them or paying way more to have to fly out to a certain area twice rather than keep it consolidated into one trip.

If your flight is late and you miss the dinner, that's one thing, but don't plan on missing pre-interview dinners. The dinners are one of the best ways to really get to meet the residents and see if you fit in well with them. You'll also learn an awful lot from the residents themselves about the program (more than you will learn from the "this is the best program in the entire world, you should cancel all of your other interviews" speech from the PD during the interview day).

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Attending interview dinners and leaving slightly early, how bad is it? What if our flight plans require us to leave half an hour or half hour early at the end of the day, e.g. missing a bus tour of the town? What if we plan our flight so we can make it to the pre-interview dinner, but our travel ends up being delayed?

Just trying to assess how critical it is to attend these functions, because it often means the difference between making flights and missing them or paying way more to have to fly out to a certain area twice rather than keep it consolidated into one trip.

It all depends.

In an ideal world, you should plan your travel so that you can attend every pre-interview dinner and the entire interview day.

We all know that stuff comes up sometimes.

Regarding leaving the interview day a bit early (to catch say a 5 pm flight) - best thing to do is to call the program coordinator and find out the skinny on the interview day itinerary from them.

At my program our day technically goes until 4pm, but the last 2 hours are really just everyone rotating through interviews with a little downtime between each round. Our PCs can usually accommodate people who need to leave town a bit early by shuffling the interview schedule (with some advance notice obviously).

 

[Law2Doc]

Although it's good to go to pre-interview dinners, they are optional. Many people have back to back interviews and simply can't get to the interview dinner in the next city after a day of interviewing somewhere else. I wouldn't worry about it

I'd say while they are technically "optional" they are strongly recommended. At a lot of programs the residents' vote counts for a lot (do they want to work/hang out with this person for the next 3-5 years --PDs often consider this important) and this is usually the best place to get to meet a lot of residents in a less formal and lower stress setting, often with drinks flowing. If you arent there, that puts more pressure on you to make a positive impression on the residents you meet during the interview day. For some people the pre-interview dinner ends up making a difference as to how highly they are ranked. Yes you are allowed to miss it, but the guys who show up and win over the room may pass you on the ultimate rank list. So in my mind that's anything but "optional". If the program is high on your list, find a way.