What did you do different this year compared to last year?
TLDR: I'm a unique case (over 30 Veteran) but suggest networking hard to find research/clinical opportunities in unique places.
I did a lot of networking trying to find opportunities I could pursue. My job is very employee friendly and they connected me with our research department. I ended up with a publication as a result. I also spoke to some doctors at the VA about research opportunities but nothing came of that. I did recently see a payed research intern position on usajobs.gov, the federal governments job site. In fact, there's always some interesting jobs popping up there.
I also volunteered with the Medical Readiness Corp, though not a lot because their events were held during the work day.
I took a upper level humanities course and received an A, I had waited to fulfill this prereq because I figured my 2000 level from my alma mater was good enough. With COVID I decided this was a good use of time since in person clinical and shadowing evaporated for non- certified individuals (like myself). I did all this while planning a wedding to another MN resident which I used in the secondary question about why MN. We both love MN and staying here was really important for us.
On the other hand I actually applied later this year than last and ended up interviewing much later (interviewed Sep 2019 then Feb 2021).
I have some suspicions about why I got accepted this year that are pretty unique.
I was rejected post interview in the first batch of rejections last cycle. I kinda wonder if my MN resident status, which I claimed, had lapsed. I lived in NC for 12 years but since I was an active duty service member and then a student my residency never changed. I did have about 6 months between graduating and moving back to MN that may have made me a non-resident.