APPIC Interview Invitation Thread (2021)

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Official Site Name: VA Maine
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Neuropsychology track
Interview Dates Offered: allow you to rank dates- 01/05, 01/06, 01/14
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane:
 
AlmostaPhD said:
This is wild to me. I believe you, and the posts on this thread show me that apparently my experience is not as universal as I thought. My sample is n = 2 programs, and I guess i could ask colleagues about their grad programs but I just assumed that people's GA funding in the advanced years of their clinical PhD programs were paid externships everywhere. For research-focused programs, how would you find time to meet research expectations while doing a GA and a volunteer 20 hours/week practicum??!
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Others have also chimed in, but you make it work. Additionally, the in-depth pracs for my program tended to be later in the program years when class load was minimal. It's a lot of work, but I managed that as well as being employed on a large research grant doing testing. Getting a stipend, full tuition remission, plus good health insurance was a pretty good deal when you actually look at the numbers.
 
On behalf of someone in my cohort!

Official Site Name: Yale Child Studies Center
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Phone call at 8:40am
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Early Childhood Specialty Track
Interview Dates Offered: 1/8, 1/11, 1/12, 1/13
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Professor Bren's psych insta (check it out, so good).
 
user4321 said:
Official Site Name: VA Maine
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Neuropsychology track
Interview Dates Offered: allow you to rank dates- 01/05, 01/06, 01/14
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane:
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Awww bummer. I definitely didn’t get that email
 
I have a question for this thread, is it better to schedule the first interview or the last interview date? How about a middle interview date? Thanks!

Also:

Official Site Name: Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): none
Interview Dates Offered: 1/11, 1/12, 1/13, 1/14, 1/15, 1/19, 1/20, 1/21, 1/22
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Watching stupid Youtube videos
 
inpursuitphdpsych said:
FBOP folx, has anyone heard back after completing the USAjobs.gov application?
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Starting to wonder about hearing back on the federal follow-ups - have you received anything from your site yet? Mine was FMC Devens and I have not heard anything. Would they notify us if they decided not to move forward with the interview?
 
spacegiraffe said:
Starting to wonder about hearing back on the federal follow-ups - have you received anything from your site yet? Mine was FMC Devens and I have not heard anything. Would they notify us if they decided not to move forward with the interview?
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I haven’t heard anything yet—someone in the thread suggested that based on last year, we may not hear until next week.
 
spacegiraffe said:
Starting to wonder about hearing back on the federal follow-ups - have you received anything from your site yet? Mine was FMC Devens and I have not heard anything. Would they notify us if they decided not to move forward with the interview?
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In the past, I think it's been 11/30ish when they change the status on USA Jobs. I read that it went from "received" to "referred" (hopefully- if we get placed in Best Qualified). I've been checking and they have not don't that yet this year :/ But yes, I'm sure they would let us know if/when/how to proceed.
 
I received an invite to interview that said they would be sending out a link to schedule a time and if not interest in interviewing to email them back.

I am interested in interviewing and didn’t know if it would be appropriate to email back thanking them for the offer to interview and a quick line about looking forward to it or if I should just wait for the scheduling email?
 
spacegiraffe said:
Starting to wonder about hearing back on the federal follow-ups - have you received anything from your site yet? Mine was FMC Devens and I have not heard anything. Would they notify us if they decided not to move forward with the interview?
Click to expand...
I have not heard back yet. If you sign in on the usajobs.gov site, and then click on additional application information until you get redirected to the federal prison portal on their monster website, you can see the status of your application. Right now mine still says vacancy applications are still being processed. From my understanding, this means I'm still under consideration. It will update once they have made a decision and say something about whether or not I'm still under consideration - I'm forgetting what exactly it will say at the moment but hopefully that helps?? Good luck! fingers crossed!!!
 
Official Site Name: Child and Adolescent Services (CAS) Multicultural Clinical Training Program/ University of California, San Francisco/ Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital / Department of Psychiatry
Date Invitation Received: 11/ 24 - invitation with no dates; 11/25 - invitation with dates
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): personal email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Adolescent Mental Health Track
Interview Dates Offered: Too many to list. December and January. One hour time slots.
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Reading this forum!

Official Site Name: Duke University Medical Center / Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Date Invitation Received: 11/24
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): personal email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Didn't specify which track in invite but I only applied for the Child track (trauma)
Interview Dates Offered: 1/8 and 1/15
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Painting!

Rejection from Allegheny General Hospital on 11/24
 
inpursuitphdpsych said:
I have not heard back yet. If you sign in on the usajobs.gov site, and then click on additional application information until you get redirected to the federal prison portal on their monster website, you can see the status of your application. Right now mine still says vacancy applications are still being processed. From my understanding, this means I'm still under consideration. It will update once they have made a decision and say something about whether or not I'm still under consideration - I'm forgetting what exactly it will say at the moment but hopefully that helps?? Good luck! fingers crossed!!!
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your help, good luck to you too!!!
 
Official Site Name: Coatesville VA Medical Center
Date Invitation Received: 12/04/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): Neuropsychology track
Interview Dates Offered: Range of times on these dates- 12/16, 01/07, 01/20
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane:
 
Official Site Name: University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center
Date Invitation Received: 12/03/2020
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Personal email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): n/a
Interview Dates Offered:TBD
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Cake is a good one. 🙂 Netflix, phone calls with friends and family, sporadic workouts.

Rejection from University of British Columbia today (12/4/20)

Rejection from University of California - Berkeley on 12/2.
 
Official Site Name: St. Cloud VA
Date Invitation Received: 12/2
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Phone Call
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): General
Interview Dates Offered: 1/11, 1/15, 1/20 (morning or afternoon slots)
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane:

and I didn't see anyone do the format for this but
Official Site Name: Eastern Oklahoma VA
Date Invitation Received: 11/20
Method of Invitation (Phone call, personal/mass email, Snapchat): Email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): General
Interview Dates Offered: 1/6 & 1/12
(In honor of years past) If & How you're staying sane: Crying to my dissertation chair and mainlining coffee
 
2blackcats said:
Hi! I say this very sincerely... I have a strong reaction to the statement "I should be getting more research" from students and the inclination to tell them that they have it better than others. I am in a clinical phd program like this, and it has backfired and set the program back in a lot of ways. This is the type of mindset that myself and many rising academics I know are actively fighting against. It's toxic and is often counterproductive.

I have a background in business management and at the end of the day, research labs, clinics, departments and academia as a whole is a business (which is not a bad thing). There is good theory and research on how to manage "workers" in a way that preserves their dignity and autonomy, and encourages intrinsic motivation for productivity without using shame. As someone trained under the clinical science model, I choose to follow the research. I think we, the field, can do better.
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I wanted to reply to this and then I will let this thread get back on track 🙂. I was being a bit sarcastic and will not actually tell my students that, but it's also the case that academics are typically pretty driven people and for me, at least, I find myself getting frustrated a lot with student productivity levels. I'm not a senior person so I imagine it depends on your career level/the students you attract, and I do try to be sensitive to the fact that students have a variety of things on their plates and dont work 100% on research (that's what postdocs are for 🙂). Plus now we've got the pandemic on top of everything else. I've tried to follow good people management practices (which you don't learn in grad school...) and I find that this is good for dynamics in the lab and my relationships with trainees, but still doesn't get their productivity to the level I would want.

I appreciate the student perspective and the push back against a hyperintense productivity culture, but I also want to warn future academics that my experience has been that I enjoy mentoring students but that I still feel like I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting for all of our research productivity and I wish I was seeing more from the students. Perhaps this will improve as I continue to learn how to manage a lab, but those of you who are very ambitious and excited to start your own lab...be aware that there's a lot of frustration because a lot of people can't live up to your standards, at least not for a while.
 
Official Site Name: UMass Medical School and Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital
Date Invitation Received: 12/4
Method of Invitation: Mass email
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): N/A
Interview Dates Offered: 1/7, 1/14
If & How you're staying sane: Treating myself to lots of Starbucks
 
kayfay89 said:
Anyone heard from the VA Maine or Robley Rex VA in Louisville Kentucky yet? Deadline for date notifications is tomorrow and I am waiting in anxious fear and anticipation.
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All I’ve received so far is a “save a date” for an open house for Robley Rex VA. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
AlmostaPhD said:
I wanted to reply to this and then I will let this thread get back on track 🙂. I was being a bit sarcastic and will not actually tell my students that, but it's also the case that academics are typically pretty driven people and for me, at least, I find myself getting frustrated a lot with student productivity levels. I'm not a senior person so I imagine it depends on your career level/the students you attract, and I do try to be sensitive to the fact that students have a variety of things on their plates and dont work 100% on research (that's what postdocs are for 🙂). Plus now we've got the pandemic on top of everything else. I've tried to follow good people management practices (which you don't learn in grad school...) and I find that this is good for dynamics in the lab and my relationships with trainees, but still doesn't get their productivity to the level I would want.

I appreciate the student perspective and the push back against a hyperintense productivity culture, but I also want to warn future academics that my experience has been that I enjoy mentoring students but that I still feel like I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting for all of our research productivity and I wish I was seeing more from the students. Perhaps this will improve as I continue to learn how to manage a lab, but those of you who are very ambitious and excited to start your own lab...be aware that there's a lot of frustration because a lot of people can't live up to your standards, at least not for a while.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the distinction between those who can or even want to work hard and those who don't. Also, I know I am very hard working in certain ways but work differently than others (my former advisor, a bit of a task master, for example). I think it is interesting to see what positions people get themselves in (student) or expect from a student (advisor/investigators), recognizing that there is a span of circumstances, approaches, personalities, abilities, priorities, etc. I can imagine how frustrating it would be to have people working under you who you experience as under-invested/otherwise prioritized, when you are doing so much "heavy lifting" toward certain aims. That being said, I am in a clinically-driven program (not research), and haven't thought a whole lot about the degree to which people who pursue heavier research paths are truly there for the research.
 
kayfay89 said:
Anyone heard from the VA Maine or Robley Rex VA in Louisville Kentucky yet? Deadline for date notifications is tomorrow and I am waiting in anxious fear and anticipation.
Click to expand...
Acceptance from VA Maine GMH around 915 am via email. Interview dates are Jan 4,5 & 14. Sorry I am on my phone so not easily able to outline everything!
 
Last edited:
Official Site Name: VA Eastern Colorado Psychology Internship Program (Rocky MTN Regional VA Medical Center)
Date Invitation Received: 12/3
Method of Invitation: Email. Was addressed to me.
Specialty Track or Site (e.g., for consortiums): General track.
Interview Dates Offered: 1/4, 1/11, 1/25.
If & How you're staying sane: Netflix, my dog, and commiserating with friends lol.
 
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