Does your private life get considered when being interviewed for residency?

[Lothric]

As part of the application process to residency, does the private life get taken into account? Is your name being Googled on the Internet? What would they think if they see you have a Youtube channel and you upload crazy videos?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Crayola227]

Sure, I've heard of some programs checking FB and the like.

 

[operaman]

I don't know how much is done prior to interviews, but of those who get interviews, we do some serious google jiu jitsu and pull up every scrap of info we can find and contact anyone we know from their school or other away rotations, even their own classmates if we have a connection with them. We also enlist the help of literally every person who helps out with interview day in some capacity to alert us to any people with attitude problems. And despite what people think, I've yet to encounter an applicant that changed their FB name whose profile I couldn't locate in under 2 minutes. Equally easy to find their twitter profiles as well and Lord knows people post some crazy stuff there!

So yes, if you upload crazy videos and I can find them, it will absolutely be considered along with your application. It will also be considered by every patient who ever googles you, so be smart about what you post online.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

Officially, no, your private life is not considered. Unofficially, people are human and it's hard to disregard information once you know it.

 

[Amygdala23]

I look at that this way - as a candidate, I googled and checked, not only pubmed, but FB as well, of people I had interviews with (if I knew the names beforehand) just to see who I am dealing with. I don't have a reason to believe they aren't doing the same.

 

[Apollyon]

Peripherally, back in the early 2000s, when I started residency in NC, a board member talked to all the interns, and told a story about a resident that was male, and an exotic dancer. He went into graphic detail about what this guy did (although the guy was not naked), but didn't say outright that they pulled the guy's license, but heavily implied a morality issue (notwithstanding it being completely legal).

 

[Ironheme]

If you bring it up, it's fair game, especially if you write about it on your application...why some people bring up their more ...questionable activities, I don't always understand. Not everyone checks though, especially if you don't bring it up and you aren't weird during the interview. Recruitment committees don't always have that much time.

 

[RangerBob]

Probably. The program director is stuck with you for at least three years. And they’re sticking you with a bunch of residents that you’ll depend on, and visa-versa, but most of you won’t know each other well. It’s about minimizing risk. If I were a PD I’d be googling names of anyone I was ranking-it takes all of 5-10 seconds to type in a name and skim headlines for red flags.

People google the people they’re interested in/dating, and they’re not signing on for a 3+ year commitment like you are in residency.

Your future patients(and employers) will also google you. Your online presence should be as conservative as possible. I would take down any videos that are truly “crazy.”

 

[galactus]

If some of your private life is public (ie social media), then it's fair game. It's not any different if a patient googles you, so why not the PD/chair/attendings?

Probably. The program director is stuck with you for at least three years. And they’re sticking you with a bunch of residents that you’ll depend on, and visa-versa, but most of you won’t know each other well. It’s about minimizing risk. If I were a PD I’d be googling names of anyone I was ranking-it takes all of 5-10 seconds to type in a name and skim headlines for red flags.

People google the people they’re interested in/dating, and they’re not signing on for a 3+ year commitment like you are in residency.

Your future patients(and employers) will also google you. Your online presence should be as conservative as possible. I would take down any videos that are truly “crazy.”

 

[killerleaf]

In a prior program, the top 20 on the match list were googled...if anything came up, their position on the list went down, depending on the pics. For instance, many, many years ago...actually ended up not ranking someone who was initially in the top ten, because of pictures that were posted on their facebook page...obviously wasted, scantily dressed...and not on just one occasion, but several.

 

[Sardonix]

I don't know how much is done prior to interviews, but of those who get interviews, we do some serious google jiu jitsu and pull up every scrap of info we can find and contact anyone we know from their school or other away rotations, even their own classmates if we have a connection with them. We also enlist the help of literally every person who helps out with interview day in some capacity to alert us to any people with attitude problems. And despite what people think, I've yet to encounter an applicant that changed their FB name whose profile I couldn't locate in under 2 minutes. Equally easy to find their twitter profiles as well and Lord knows people post some crazy stuff there!

So yes, if you upload crazy videos and I can find them, it will absolutely be considered along with your application. It will also be considered by every patient who ever googles you, so be smart about what you post online.

This part confuses me. I see all the 4th years at our school changing their names to obnoxious crap under the assumption this will somehow make them harder to trace. I've never bought into the idea and think it's stupid. However, I'm curious as to what happens with people who set their profiles to private/non-viewable by public. If you're not the person's FB friend, how do you even view anything about them?

 

[Raryn]

I don't know how much is done prior to interviews, but of those who get interviews, we do some serious google jiu jitsu and pull up every scrap of info we can find and contact anyone we know from their school or other away rotations, even their own classmates if we have a connection with them. We also enlist the help of literally every person who helps out with interview day in some capacity to alert us to any people with attitude problems. And despite what people think, I've yet to encounter an applicant that changed their FB name whose profile I couldn't locate in under 2 minutes. Equally easy to find their twitter profiles as well and Lord knows people post some crazy stuff there!

So yes, if you upload crazy videos and I can find them, it will absolutely be considered along with your application. It will also be considered by every patient who ever googles you, so be smart about what you post online.

This is probably viable for smaller programs, but for something like an IM program that interviews hundreds of candidates for a few dozen spots, I can say most of the time there's no time to bother with something like this.

 

[operaman]

This part confuses me. I see all the 4th years at our school changing their names to obnoxious crap under the assumption this will somehow make them harder to trace. I've never bought into the idea and think it's stupid. However, I'm curious as to what happens with people who set their profiles to private/non-viewable by public. If you're not the person's FB friend, how do you even view anything about them?

I’m sure they could make it hidden enough if they wanted to. Most don’t. Usually I know someone from their school and just look for them in their friends list. Can also search archives and find their actual username and search by that. Usually isn’t hard to find. Really takes about 2 minutes tops. From there it’s easy to find everything else.

 

[operaman]

This is probably viable for smaller programs, but for something like an IM program that interviews hundreds of candidates for a few dozen spots, I can say most of the time there's no time to bother with something like this.

Agree completely. We interview about 40 people in total for the whole year so it’s much easier.

If I were in IM I would still probably do some searching on top candidates likely to match, but you’re right it really isn’t feasible on a large scale.

 

[DrMeowMeow]

There was a candidate who we found out via mutual friend was physically abusive to his girlfriend (now ex) and punched her in the face before. It was not on his record, but that was an immediate do not rank.

 

[el_duderino]

Everything gets considered, officially or not.

 

[Donald Juan]

This part confuses me. I see all the 4th years at our school changing their names to obnoxious crap under the assumption this will somehow make them harder to trace. I've never bought into the idea and think it's stupid. However, I'm curious as to what happens with people who set their profiles to private/non-viewable by public. If you're not the person's FB friend, how do you even view anything about them?

I think the bigger thing is why most people feel the need to change their profile at all when there isn't anything sketchy on it. I'd say the vast majority of my med school classmates had nothing on their profile that would've been considered truly unprofessional, and most of them probably have a profile that make them look like normal, affable, social people. I didn't change my name on facebook; my feeling was that if somebody looked at mine and saw a picture of me at a concert or football game with a beer in my hand and thought I shouldn't be at their program, then so be it. I don't want to be involved in that kind of place anyways.

 

[Sardonix]

I think the bigger thing is why most people feel the need to change their profile at all when there isn't anything sketchy on it. I'd say the vast majority of my med school classmates had nothing on their profile that would've been considered truly unprofessional, and most of them probably have a profile that make them look like normal, affable, social people. I didn't change my name on facebook; my feeling was that if somebody looked at mine and saw a picture of me at a concert or football game with a beer in my hand and thought I shouldn't be at their program, then so be it. I don't want to be involved in that kind of place anyways.

My feeling it's the paranoia that there was something bad at some point that maybe they aren't aware of.

Or they had a bunch of controversial posts and didn't want to risk the the person interviewing them having a drastically different viewpoint.

Either way people changing their name is stupid, in my mind.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

Either way people changing their name is stupid, in my mind.

I agree.

Sincerely,
BuddyBingeDude