"Ghosted" by supervisor for reference?

[positivetension-]

I recently had a rotation in a specialty I'm interested in. I received very positive feedback throughout the rotation, and felt like I got along well with the supervisor personally as well. I didn't get a good to chance to ask in person, but I sent an email a couple of days after the rotation asking for a reference for residency applications and still haven't heard back 2 weeks later. I know there are many reasons why someone might not reply, but how far should I pursue this? Anyone else been in this situation?

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[Tenk]

This is why you should always ask for these type of things in person. Not only do you get an immediate answer but you can tell by facial expressions and reaction if you even want this person to write you a letter to begin with.

It really depends on the person for how far you should push this. If they are a nice person you could probably email them again in a while or drop by their office. Otherwise I’d just cut your loss and move on. You don’t want a letter from someone who doesn’t want to write you one.

 

[IMGASMD]

If you have the chance, can always go back to the hospital and ask in person. If not, agree with what tenk said.

 

[positivetension-]

This is why you should always ask for these type of things in person. Not only do you get an immediate answer but you can tell by facial expressions and reaction if you even want this person to write you a letter to begin with.

It really depends on the person for how far you should push this. If they are a nice person you could probably email them again in a while or drop by their office. Otherwise I’d just cut your loss and move on. You don’t want a letter from someone who doesn’t want to write you one.

Normally I would have probably moved on already, but because of COVID our opportunities are limited in each specialty so we don't have as many people to choose from. I agree I should have made time to ask in person, and will definitely aim to do that in the future.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I recently had a rotation in a specialty I'm interested in. I received very positive feedback throughout the rotation, and felt like I got along well with the supervisor personally as well. I didn't get a good to chance to ask in person, but I sent an email a couple of days after the rotation asking for a reference for residency applications and still haven't heard back 2 weeks later. I know there are many reasons why someone might not reply, but how far should I pursue this? Anyone else been in this situation?

There's never a "good" time to ask, it always feels awkward, you just need to ask. You said you got good feedback, when that happens that is your opening--"Thank you so much! I'm actually really interested in specialty X, would you be willing to write me a letter?"

That said, you've only sent one email. He could be on service, out of the office, running up against a grant deadline, or just plain had it fall off of his to-do list--I wouldn't write this off after just one email is what I'm saying. 2 weeks later it's totally fair game to ask again. If still no response a week later, try one more email, and then move on.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Attendings are incredibly busy and emails can get lost. And this is coming from a resident who has to email attendings about stuff all the time.

I would email again, maybe even CC their admin assistant if you know their contact info as well, since the admin assistant’s job is to make sure something like this doesn’t get lost.

 

[Fatalis]

Attendings are incredibly busy and emails can get lost. And this is coming from a resident who has to email attendings about stuff all the time.

That is never an excuse; I am busy so your stuff isn't important. Granted if it takes a day or so, that is understandable. If someone took the time to email you, you email them back. Mark Cuban, even spends entire mornings emailing people back and I can guarantee you that guy has more on his plate than most do. To the OP; find the attending in person and ask, you will get the answer you need.

 

[Neopolymath]

That is never an excuse; I am busy so your stuff isn't important. Granted if it takes a day or so, that is understandable. If someone took the time to email you, you email them back. Mark Cuban, even spends entire mornings emailing people back and I can guarantee you that guy has more on his plate than most do. To the OP; find the attending in person and ask, you will get the answer you need.

I agree with your attitude in this post and walk the walk myself to back it up.

That said, I do think sometimes things get lost in email quite easily. If I read an email during a moment of downtime that requires further action I need to flag it or sort it so I know the deal with it later when I can sit down. If I don't do that, sometimes I might forget for a couple days. OP should email a few more times to at least get an answer. I know as a student, I receive tons of emails each day from my school about the dumbest things ever and I delete 99% of them without reading them. I can imagine as an attending getting even more of these emails, being busier, but also just becoming like a lot of my attendings who have like 3000 emails in their inbox (were they always email heathens or did they just stop caring?). If OP's attending has an abomination of an inbox they probably just missed the email due to overload and thinking about other things during the day.

Imagine being such an ass that you don't even send an email back declining though. That's even worse and inexcusable given we all have to go through the same BS with LORs. I encourage everyone to promise themselves they will never do this. It's cruel and cowardly.

 

[slowthai]

I know as a student, I receive tons of emails each day from my school about the dumbest things ever and I delete 99% of them without reading them.

This is just fantastic, lol. Yeah those school emails get ignored, hard. I've reported as spam and blocked as many individuals as possible.

 

[Lost in Translation]

That is never an excuse; I am busy so your stuff isn't important. Granted if it takes a day or so, that is understandable. If someone took the time to email you, you email them back. Mark Cuban, even spends entire mornings emailing people back and I can guarantee you that guy has more on his plate than most do. To the OP; find the attending in person and ask, you will get the answer you need.

Nowhere did I imply that stuff is lost because it isn’t important.

Like the guy replying to you said, attendings get their inbox blasted daily. You should know this as well. Some (many) aren’t neurotic enough to clean it out daily because they just don’t have the time (what admin assistants are clutch at).

Anecdotally, take my mentor all throughout med school from M1-M4. Relatively large role in the ortho department, early in M3 year I went to set up a meeting and didn’t hear back for a month when in the past he would respond by the end of the week. I emailed him again and he apologized because his inbox gets literally hundreds of messages a day.

 

[Fatalis]

Nowhere did I imply that stuff is lost because it isn’t important.

Like the guy replying to you said, attendings get their inbox blasted daily. You should know this as well. Some (many) aren’t neurotic enough to clean it out daily because they just don’t have the time (what admin assistants are clutch at).

Anecdotally, take my mentor all throughout med school from M1-M4. Relatively large role in the ortho department, early in M3 year I went to set up a meeting and didn’t hear back for a month when in the past he would respond by the end of the week. I emailed him again and he apologized because his inbox gets literally hundreds of messages a day.

I never said it wasn’t important, I am sympathizing with the OP.