Hi
I’m aware that your original question was for 2021 applicant but I was an Army GMO for 4 yrs and successfully matriculated to a residency in 2020.
It required a lot of time management to ensure that I was able to separate on time in order to start civilian residency by 7/1. I saved up as much leave as possible to use it as my terminal leave (or now called transition leave I think). If you didn’t know, you can save more than 60 days of leave for your transition leave if you have already accumulated over 60 days and are saving more in your last year of active duty service as long as your separation date doesn’t go past to the next fiscal year (or you will lose any in excess over 60 days). I saved mine to something around 74 days and was able get all my transition paperwork and approval done to start my terminal leave on 6/1. This was critical because I was serving my last 2 yrs in an overseas duty station where the local separation process was much more strenuous and the communication with the HRC was also more difficult due to the time difference. So wherever you are stationed now, get your separation process started soon. I started mine over a year ago to get all the mandatory separation classes (the Army has such classes, but I was told the mandatory separation classes exist in other branches too) done or otherwise they would not let you separate. On top of that, I had to get all my documents prepared and ready through so many levels of leadership which took months, even before I was able to schedule my mandatory separation meeting l with my Brigade Commander (O-6) in person in order to get my separation counseling and get my memo signed by him. Along with the signed memo and the rest of my separation packet was sent to the HRC for my approval which took another 3-4 weeks before it came back approved (thankfully). Only after the approved packet from the HRC was received to the Garrison’s separation office, they started my official separation and post-clearing which also took a few months. However, at the time my packet was being reviewed at the HRC, COVID started spreading (this was Spring2020) in my area of operation so intermittently I heard that they would deny my separation packet to keep me in the area since they couldn’t afford to lose a doc in the country where COVID was growing. Thankfully like I said it got approved but all that extra stress and uncertainty did not help. On top of that, I was trying to find a place to stay back in the US from thousands of miles away on the other side of the earth which didn’t make things any easier.
Regarding the application itself, I was applying in both the military and the civilian match during my last year or ADSO because I was not 100% sure on which route to pursue but I had served my years and had the ability to apply civilian as a 4th-year GMO. I began my applications for both matches starting as early as possible and did interviews for both military programs and civilian programs. The military programs understood that I was in another continent and offered phone interviews. For a few programs that I wanted to impress more, I used leave to fly back for in-person interviews with my ASU which the programs really appreciated coming in from so far. For civilian programs, I flew back to all the interviews that I was offered and wanted to interview. I requested the dates from different programs to be as close to one another as possible so I could do all the interviews on one trip back in CONUS instead of having to come back OCONUS and again to CONUS, wasting more leave, money, and tome. From the military match, fortunately I was offered a spot which I found as a blessing. Good thing with the military match was that it was not a binding contract until I signed it. However after thoughtful consideration with the loved one(s) for a few weeks, I sent an email to the program leadership in January to respectfully decline the offer. Looking back it was a huge gamble because nothing was guaranteed with the civilian match since the match result wasn’t available until March. In case I didn’t match, I had to extend my overseas tour for one more year because moving back to CONUS would incur me a 2-yr ADSO for the PCS. On top of that I had already burned(cordially but still) the bridge with the program director and potentially with every military GME since army GME is a small world. Fortunately I matched to a program in NRMP so I was able to focus on my separation and preparation to fly back and start being a resident again.
I have to tell you. Everything has pros and cons. I truly wouldn’t have minded doing the military GME if I knew that I could truly stay as a clinician in the Army. 4 yrs as a GMO allowed me to get to do some cool things and to work with amazing soldiers, however also allowed me to experience the unique military medicine administration (especially having to listen to O-4/O-5 midlevels who love to use their rank over O-3 physicians) and also the responsibility of being a staff member to your commander. Also sometimes some of your non-medical commanders and superiors in line units don’t understand your job and expect you to function like his/her ordinary staff OIC’s like S1/S2/S3/S4/S6 which is completely different from medical. I have served as a battalion surgeon and a brigade surgeon, and when I was wearing those hats I only had maybe 1.5 clinic days at most and the rest were meetings with the commander, starting my day at 3am for an airborne operation only to learn my jump was scratched at 4pm after waiting for hours in my parachute at the green ramp and my face all camouflaged, having to drive in a government vehicle 3-4 hrs to check the flight physicals for a remote group of my soldiers only to know their flight medic forgot I was coming and completely wasted my day, and doing other Army admin that I found so meaningless as a physician, etc. Now that I’m out and making 1/3 of my latest GMO salary it stinks. Also now that I have to prepare my fellowship application in the civilian match I feel like it’s more competitive because in the military match sometimes you can actually get lucky in certain years when there aren’t too many applicants and you get the slot for the sub-specialty fellowship that you know is always competitive in the civilian world.
Anyways, time management for the separation packet and match applications, leave management, and appropriate use of funds all play an important role. If you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise good luck!
