Business cards in residency fairs - Aye / No?

[lucid_interval]

Have been hearing mixed opinions. What do you guys think?

Heard someone did QR code link their CV into their cards, and seems very appealing at the moment.

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[surely]

I can't speak for program leadership, but as a PGY2, I would likely be turned off by this unless you're super charismatic and self-aware. And if you're super charismatic and self-aware, you don't really need one of these to succeed, right? That being said, if you hand out beer koozies with a picture of you giving a cheesy smile and double thumbs up, you will totally win me over as a goofball, and the world needs more goofballs.

 

[Birdstrike]

Have been hearing mixed opinions. What do you guys think?

Heard someone did QR code link their CV into their cards, and seems very appealing at the moment.

I would say no, unless you have some sort of business you're starting on the side, like a medical equipment company or some medicine-related phone app or something. Business card are sort of an old school way of low cost advertising, which has little benefit in EM since you won't likely have your own independent practice or business to advertise for.

 

[RoyBasch]

Who do you feel you need to give a business card to? What would your phone number be on it, 9-1-1? Our patients and consultants tend to find us, not the other way around. I guess it might be good to have for those old school restaurants with a fishbowl in the front that raffle off a free lunch to a random person everyday.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Don't. Your residency application has all that stuff. They don't keep files on applicants before they're applicants. Unless it's a file you don't want. "Hey, remember that person giving out business cards? Let's never see them again."

Have been hearing mixed opinions. What do you guys think?

Heard someone did QR code link their CV into their cards, and seems very appealing at the moment.

 

[gro2001]

Who do you feel you need to give a business card to? What would your phone number be on it, 9-1-1? Our patients and consultants tend to find us, not the other way around. I guess it might be good to have for those old school restaurants with a fishbowl in the front that raffle off a free lunch to a random person everyday.

At one point I had a set of business cards made that had just my hospital email on it (no cell phone or other personal contact details) and I'd give it to patients saying they can email me if they have any issues or if they want to share follow up details (like if I am discharging someone with a referral to a specialist to do some workup I am curious of what the final answer is, but if they follow up outside of our hospital network I can't follow up through the EMR). I was hoping it would be an easier alternative than calling back patients to check on how they are doing, but my response rate was <1% (and only one genuinely interesting follow up) so I stopped doing it. Patients did seem to like it a lot though and I didn't get flooded with nonsense emails, so it might be an easy way to improve satisfaction.

 

[sylvanthus]

Don't do it dude, id think someone was a total wanker if they did that,

 

[lucid_interval]

Non-US- IMG, kinda desperate for people to take a look at my application. I'm filtered out already because of VISA status at most places despite a pretty good application for EM. :/

Hence the drastic measures..

Guess I'll stick to charming them in person then.

Thanks for the replies, guys! Great help!