2018-2019 Postdoc Interview Thread

[syzergy]

I'm doing 4-5 in person (my top choices/most competitive) and doing another 4+ phone/skype interviews. I'm still waiting to hear back from a couple sites but I'm aiming for as many phone interviews as possible.

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[emily621]

I'm going on 4 in person and doing another 3 via phone (waiting to hear from one more place and if I get an interview there, it will definitely be phone). I'm regretting applying to as many as I did because it seems like it's less competitive so it's more likely that you'll get interviews. I got that message from a couple of people but didn't believe it at the time.

A few of the ones I'm doing in person I probably could have done via phone but it was a bit of a mixed message in the email - like they offered the option for phone (because they have to) but it seemed like they weren't huge fans of it. I guess I also kind of wanted an excuse to travel because it means I'll get to see friends, but it probably was not the best decision financially.

 

[Feelings Doctor]

It's hilarious/sad how all of my APPIC application memes can just be recycled for the postdoc application process... Still waiting on 4.5 out of 7 sites... Done with one in-person, two in-person scheduled. What kills me is the 0.5 I've been waiting on - I'm so excited to have been invited for an interview for one track at a site but have to wait to book my flight until I find out about the other track, because I'm hoping to coordinate them if I get an interview. Is it common for tracks to be out of sync when it comes to interview notifications? At what point do I follow-up?

 

[kennilapug]

It's hilarious/sad how all of my APPIC application memes can just be recycled for the postdoc application process... Still waiting on 4.5 out of 7 sites... Done with one in-person, two in-person scheduled. What kills me is the 0.5 I've been waiting on - I'm so excited to have been invited for an interview for one track at a site but have to wait to book my flight until I find out about the other track, because I'm hoping to coordinate them if I get an interview. Is it common for tracks to be out of sync when it comes to interview notifications? At what point do I follow-up?

I would honestly follow-up now expressing your concern. I think if you mention you applied to two tracks and are hoping to coordinate interviews if invited to both tracks that they'll be understanding of that. They might at least be able to give you an idea of when the invites will go out.

 

[PsychCaRIH]

im doing 5 in person so far... waiting to hear back from 8.

 

[Parabolas]

Has anyone heard from New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell - Westchester or Columbia Medical Center/Best Doctors Midtown Outpatient?

 

[ctpsy11]

Yeah, I feel mixed about how many to do. Given that there is no match system, there's no guarantee we will get a position, I guess, so better to be safe than sorry. On the other hand, I don't really want to blow extra money to go to spots I probably don't want to go to unless they are a last resort (ie, sites 5-7).

I suppose one way of looking at it is that it's good to see these other sites in any case as you might want to work for them down the line (if in similar locations), but it seems like a lot of extra money to spend to do a 45 min interview and get a tour (see ya, stipend). How are you guys reconciling this?

 

[PhDorBusted]

Has anyone heard from the Bedford IPV program or Cambridge's Victims of Violence?

Crossing my fingers for everyone! This waiting is the worst.

 

[PsychCaRIH]

All of my sites are geographic specific, which makes it much easier...

 

[erw129]

Has anyone heard from the Bedford IPV program or Cambridge's Victims of Violence?

I didn't apply to the Victims of Violence Program but applied to two others at CHA and haven't heard a peep...

 

[jas1009]

Atlanta VA
1/19/18 - mass email
Invitation to interview
Health emphasis
In-person interviews only: 2/7, 2/8, 2/13

 

[kennilapug]

Atlanta VA
1/19/18 - mass email
Invitation to interview
Health emphasis
In-person interviews only: 2/7, 2/8, 2/13

Same exact info except it's for the general mental health position

 

[kennilapug]

James A. Haley (Tampa) VA
1/19/18 - mass email
Invitation to interview
PTSD/TBI emphasis
In-person interview on 2/9 or in-person next week (this is not a ton of notice)

 

[kennilapug]

What are people's thoughts on emailing sites you haven't heard back from and saying something along the lines of "I'm going to be in the area around such and such date and wanted to know if I am still under consideration for a position at your site and could come visit or interview around this time"

The reason I ask is two sites I got interview invitations from today are in two cities that are also the locations of two other sites I have not heard back from

I know medical school applicants do this but I have no idea if it's frowned upon at our level/in our field

 

[ctpsy11]

What are people's thoughts on emailing sites you haven't heard back from and saying something along the lines of "I'm going to be in the area around such and such date and wanted to know if I am still under consideration for a position at your site and could come visit or interview around this time"

The reason I ask is two sites I got interview invitations from today are in two cities that are also the locations of two other sites I have not heard back from

I know medical school applicants do this but I have no idea if it's frowned upon at our level/in our field

Just my two cents but I wouldn't do it preemptively. I did do this for one of my sites, but I had already gotten an invite from both and then asked if one would be flexible and allow me to interview on the following day. They allowed it, luckily. I think it could come off as kind of presumptuous to make that request before you even know if you have an interview.

 

[ellenew]

Emory School of Medicine through Children’s Hospital of Atlanta (CHOA)
Invite
Personal email 1/18
Dates: 2/2, 2/5, 2/9

 

[kennilapug]

Has anyone heard from Emory School of Medicine? (I applied to Grady positions specifically)

 

[ellenew]

Has anyone heard from Emory School of Medicine? (I applied to Grady positions specifically)

I did, but the track I applied for is through CHOA (Ped Psych)

 

[jas1009]

I didn't apply to the Victims of Violence Program but applied to two others at CHA and haven't heard a peep...

Also applied to CHA- BMED. Nothing yet.

 

[PsychCaRIH]

UCSF
Child & Adolescent Services Outpatient Mental Health/
Integrated Pediatric Primary Care Behavioral Health
1/19/18
Personal Email
Soft Rejection?

Says I'm still in consideration but they aren't interviewing me right now. Will contact before notification week if they decide to interview.

Meh.

 

[Mike Tyson]

Cal State San Marcos, Counseling Center
Invite for Skype interview
Date notified: 1-19-2018
Personal email
Interview dates:
1/23 11am-12pm
1/23 1:30pm-2:30pm
1/23 2:30pm-3:30pm
1/25 12pm-1pm
1/26 12pm-1pm
1/26 2pm-3pm
1/26 4pm-5pm

 

[CJolene]

Has anyone heard from Vanderbilt Center of Excellence?

 

[ctpsy11]

Long Beach VA
Interdisciplinary track
Rejection

 

[me9898]

Does anyone have any knowledge on how reciprocal offers work? Thoughts on how to go about getting verified proof from the initial site that offered? I’m worried it will be evident that I am attempting to use them as leverage for another site.

Also, do you think it’s possible to ask for a reciprocal offer from a site you haven’t yet interviewed at?

 

[ctpsy11]

Does anyone have any knowledge on how reciprocal offers work? Thoughts on how to go about getting verified proof from the initial site that offered? I’m worried it will be evident that I am attempting to use them as leverage for another site.

Also, do you think it’s possible to ask for a reciprocal offer from a site you haven’t yet interviewed at?

Interesting questions. If not answered here it may warrant its own post in the main forum...I would be curious to hear other people’s experiences with this who have already been through this process? Seems very important to know for all of us

 

[jackshouse]

Minneapolis VA
PTSD track
Jan. 17 personal email
30 minute interview in person, phone, or VTEL on
1/22
1/23
1/24
1/25
2/1
2/2
2/5

Pittsburgh VA
PTSD track
Jan. 18 mass email
Interview days 2/5 and 2/6

Still waiting to hear from Hines VA PTSD track

 

[123EW]

Does anyone have any knowledge on how reciprocal offers work? Thoughts on how to go about getting verified proof from the initial site that offered? I’m worried it will be evident that I am attempting to use them as leverage for another site.

Also, do you think it’s possible to ask for a reciprocal offer from a site you haven’t yet interviewed at?

When I got the first (lesser preferred) offer, I simply said, "Thank you. I am very interested and would like to take a few days to consider. Will you please send the offer to me in writing to my email XXXX.YYYY@ZZZZ." But as it turns out, my most preferred site never asked for proof of the other offer.

a friend also asked for a reciprocal offer. That offer was originally through email, so there was no need to contact the site. I also know of others who simply said, "I have another interview coming this week. I am very interested in your site but don't want to cancel that interview. Can you please send me the offer in writing."

As for how it works, you contact your most preferred site and tell them you have an offer, but they are your more/most preferred site. Are you able to give me a reciprocal offer?

Most, if not all, sites know about this process. They also know it is time urgent. My site got back to me by the end of the day letting me know that I was second on their list, and they made an offer to their top choice giving that person 24 hours to respond.

In the meantime, you cannot go to all of your other sites and ask for reciprocal offers. When you get an original offer before the universal notification day, you can ask for time. If you get a reciprocal offer, you accept on the spot.

If you ask but do not receive a reciprocal offer, and you have other sites more preferred than the one you have the original offer from, you can systematically go down your list and ask for reciprocal offers, but again, only one at a time.

 

[123EW]

More on reciprocal offers

Back to my situation when I asked and they offered to someone else first. Yes, this can cause a cascade effect of people scrambling around asking for reciprocal offers from their more preferred site.

A asks site X for a reciprocal offer
Site X offers to B first
B asks site Y for a reciprocal offer
Site Y offers to C first
and so on....

This is why as emotionally crappy as it was, the match process is better than the post doc application process.

Personally, I would prefer that the post doc process work like a regular job application process, and also happen much later in the internship year.

 

[tartar]

I would also encourage y’all to take the uniform notification day off from internship especially if you’ve applied to multiple sites as it can be stressful juggling the phone calls.

More on reciprocal offers

Back to my situation when I asked and they offered to someone else first. Yes, this can cause a cascade effect of people scrambling around asking for reciprocal offers from their more preferred site.

A asks site X for a reciprocal offer
Site X offers to B first
B asks site Y for a reciprocal offer
Site Y offers to C first
and so on....

This is why as emotionally crappy as it was, the match process is better than the post doc application process.

Personally, I would prefer that the post doc process work like a regular job application process, and also happen much later in the internship year.

 

[ee4477a]

Has anyone heard from Oregon health and science university?

 

[erw129]

McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
"3 East" (Beckwitt-Hughey Adolescent Fellowship)
January 19 via personalized email
Offered to interview for date I am already planning to be at the hospital for another interview

 

[erw129]

Just my two cents but I wouldn't do it preemptively. I did do this for one of my sites, but I had already gotten an invite from both and then asked if one would be flexible and allow me to interview on the following day. They allowed it, luckily. I think it could come off as kind of presumptuous to make that request before you even know if you have an interview.

I agree that you'll want to think about this carefully before doing it, but it ended up working for me... I weighed the pros and cons for a long time and then ultimately decided to reach out. I had submitted my application 6 weeks earlier and waited until Friday at 4:45PM before emailing. I had already received an invite from program A at a particular site but not from program B at the same hospital. My program A interview was scheduled for one week from the day I emailed inquiring about program B and the travel involves a cross country (LA-Boston) flight and taking several days off of work. I was very worried about coming across as presumptuous but then again felt like if they decide not to interview me because of this email, well then I was ok with not being considered for that program (also realizing I applied to way too many sites, haha). I got an email back a few hours later indicating that it would be "ideal" if I could come interview with program B on the same day that I was already scheduled to come for program A.

 

[syzergy]

updated.

 

[Parabolas]

McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
"3 East" (Beckwitt-Hughey Adolescent Fellowship)
January 19 via personalized email
Offered to interview for date I am already planning to be at the hospital for another interview

Again, you get the McLean invite before me! I ended up getting the ART invite the following day, so hopefully that will happen again here. Congrats, btw =)

 

[PsychCaRIH]

A friend of mine got offers from Kaiser pain clinic and West la va -health psych yesterday...

 

[Lotus143]

Yeah, I feel mixed about how many to do. Given that there is no match system, there's no guarantee we will get a position, I guess, so better to be safe than sorry. On the other hand, I don't really want to blow extra money to go to spots I probably don't want to go to unless they are a last resort (ie, sites 5-7).

I suppose one way of looking at it is that it's good to see these other sites in any case as you might want to work for them down the line (if in similar locations), but it seems like a lot of extra money to spend to do a 45 min interview and get a tour (see ya, stipend). How are you guys reconciling this?

MANY sites state in their brochure and their invite email that they are happy to offer a phone interview as well. Unless they explicitly state they prefer or require in-person, why don’t you just opt for phone interviews? I am doing 7 phone interviews and 1 in-person. The stakes aren’t as high as they were during internship, and sites know we are all working full time as opposed to when we were applying for internship.

 

[Lotus143]

Has anyone heard from the Houston VA (Michael E DeBakey)? Their application was due 12/18.

 

[psychedonpsych]

Given that we are all on here and reading this anyway, a question for ya'll. How many post-doc interviews are you guys planning on going on? I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere on this forum but a quick search didn't come up with anything.

I would be especially interested to know how many post docs you all be interviewing at if in a highly competitive area and are non-neuro? I'm not sure how this is supposed to differ from internship....now that there isn't a match system, i'm not sure if it's actually more or less competitive, as I imagine there are a lot of people hoping to get appic post-docs but there seems to be much less spots because everything is so specialized? If you had, say, 8+ interview offers. How many would you go on? In hindsight, I do feel I could've gone on a few less for internship, for sure.

Right now I have three in person interviews and I am waiting to hear back from 2 sites!

 

[psychedonpsych]

Has anyone heard from the Bedford IPV program or Cambridge's Victims of Violence?

Crossing my fingers for everyone! This waiting is the worst.

I applied to CHA, too, but the adolescent violence risk track, also haven't heard back. According to last year's thread, they sent out offers around 1/23/17, so I am thinking that they might make offers next week.

 

[Brett2352]

Atlanta VA
1/19/18 - mass email
Invitation to interview
Health emphasis
In-person interviews only: 2/7, 2/8, 2/13

 

[Brett2352]

University of Massachusetts Medical School
1/19/18 Personal E-mail
Invitation to Interview
Health
In-person 01/26/2018

 

[erw129]

Boston Children's Hospital
DSD-GeMS fellowship
Personalized email 1/21/18
Invitation to interview on any Tuesday between 1/23 and 2/13 but offered some flexility if Tuesdays don't work

 

[aaaa1111]

Has anyone heard from New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell - Westchester or Columbia Medical Center/Best Doctors Midtown Outpatient?

I have not heard anything yet

 

[Starlight17]

Anyone hear from Milwaukee VA, any track?

 

[NeuroLady]

Anyone hear from Milwaukee VA, any track?

I'm also waiting on them!

 

[FreudianSlippr]

Anyone hear from Milwaukee VA, any track?

I heard from the Post-Deployment Mental Health emphasis on Saturday in a personal email.

 

[FreudianSlippr]

Milwaukee VA
1/20/18 Personal E-mail
Invitation to Interview
Post-Deployment Mental Health
In-person or Phone Interview between 02/02/2018 and 20/09/2018

 

[EF861]

Fellow neuro-post doc applicant here. Still waiting to hear back from:
Ann Arbor VA
American Lake VA
Hines VA
Minneapolis VA

Has anyone heard from neuro tracks for any of the above?

 

[Parabolas]

What are people's thoughts about asking for constructive criticism after a rejection? I've never done this before but I've heard that some people do it. Just got a rejection from a site that I seemed highly qualified for and I'm puzzled/concerned that I'm overlooking a red flag in my application.

 

[Brett2352]

What are people's thoughts about asking for constructive criticism after a rejection? I've never done this before but I've heard that some people do it. Just got a rejection from a site that I seemed highly qualified for and I'm puzzled/concerned that I'm overlooking a red flag in my application.

I’ve done it with every rejection starting with internship and now postdoc. Most of the time they don’t reply or say that they don’t have time to look over my application. The few times I have gotten constructive criticism it wasn’t extremely helpful. Mainly say that other applicants are more qualified yada yada. I got good criticism once which I was already aware of. Frankly the same thing happened to me recently. I was extremely qualified and the person said the other people’s experience matched the site better which was really puzzling to me too. It’s a crapshoot but the way I look at it is why not they already denied you.