esp when it's virtual??
How to shine in fellowship interview??
- Thread starter SandP
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with lots of tanning oil! Oh!
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the fact that you have been invitd for interview means that they feel your resume, research (if any i suppose), and letters of rec all fit their minimum requirements and on paper they could see you fitting.
of course, a large part of the decision making stems on "who has the best on paper stats" and that's how the PD and the other attendings will make their final call
the interview (before it was virtual....) was to give the candidates a chance to tour the facilities, experience the local food and living life, and talk to fellows. now that that's gone, that part is no longer present...
so the interview boils down to
1) attendings make sure the candidate isnt a **$(#-bag and has his/her head on straight
2) give the applicant a chance to be articulate, friendly, and "showcase the qualities of being a good fellow" (i.e. professional, reliable, accountable, humble, and "teachable.")
you can only really be yourself honestly. unlesss it's the PD him/herself, trying to find common ground or something usually won't have that much merit at the end of the day
source? I am on faculty (not academic faculty though i have no titles) for a PCCM fellowship and that's how I approach it come interview season.
of course, a large part of the decision making stems on "who has the best on paper stats" and that's how the PD and the other attendings will make their final call
the interview (before it was virtual....) was to give the candidates a chance to tour the facilities, experience the local food and living life, and talk to fellows. now that that's gone, that part is no longer present...
so the interview boils down to
1) attendings make sure the candidate isnt a **$(#-bag and has his/her head on straight
2) give the applicant a chance to be articulate, friendly, and "showcase the qualities of being a good fellow" (i.e. professional, reliable, accountable, humble, and "teachable.")
you can only really be yourself honestly. unlesss it's the PD him/herself, trying to find common ground or something usually won't have that much merit at the end of the day
source? I am on faculty (not academic faculty though i have no titles) for a PCCM fellowship and that's how I approach it come interview season.
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Do you have the option for an in-person interview? If you're really interested in their program, go in-person. You're interviewing them too.
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The fact that interviews are still virtual is completely ridiculous.
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med schools too from what i gather from my sister who is interviewing for med schools now
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I actually am happy that we're virtual.
It's cheaper and you don't need to take vacation time for an interview now.
It's more fair towards applicants at programs that limit vacation or for applicants who are strapped for cash. Making someone take a loan out to go on interviews on top of literally paying for the pleasure of being able to interview at all is just not a reasonable process.
I was personally very happy interviewing from my home for fellowship. Not only did I feel comfortable. I didn't have to immediately once the interview was done think about transportation back home.
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All true . Though As long as they have a nice video tour and have video chat with the current fellows would be a nice touch
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You should at least be allowed the option of interviewing in person (no penalty if you do virtual). I don't like how some programs are strictly forbidding in-person interviews.
If you can reasonably travel (4-6 hour drive even), I'd suggest it. Hell, once I drove from San Diego to Lake Tahoe in one day for some . . . [ahh never mind.]
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Problem is that it creates tiers of interviews then. With in person candidates being seen in better light, more serious, etc.
Programs actually don't even want to do second look days or in person tours because they understand how things like this produces an uneven playing field.
A program needs to be either entirely in person or completely virtual.
And my preference is that all programs be virtual. We are not applying to programs within the same city. We are applying to often programs on complete different sides of the country. It is completely insane that we were expected to burn this much money on this ****. I think I easily burnt 5k between med school flights and board and my flights/board for residency.
For fellowship? I spent 500 bucks for ERAS. If i had taken my 11 interviews in person i'd likely have spent conservatively at least 2000 if I decided to drive every one of those places but more likely 3000-4000 as some would need to legitimately for sanity be flights. And again, I'd need to take a whole month off for interviewing to do this. Where as some days I finished an interview and did a night/call shift 2-3 hours after it was done.
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And I just can't imagine trying to decide on a place to live/work for 2-4 years without actually visiting them in person. I realize it's temporary, but for me at least, it would be really important. I'd probably wind up traveling to every place I thought about putting in the top 10 spots of my ROL anyway, so might as well do it for the interview.
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Honestly I got my impression pretty well from my virtual interview.
Ex. what does the clinic look like. Faculty. What's the climate like. What research and patient population is there.
A 2-3 hour tour doesn't do much better than a 10 minute google map tour or a discussion breakout room with fellows for 30min to 1hr.
At least I personally always thought the interview day was very overrated because truthfully there were very few times when I interviewed that my opinion or expectation changed from where I thought my match list was going to be based off of just googling the program.
But I also was never a ballpark star. Even now I'm in a firmly mid program. I interviewed exclusively in mid programs. Maybe if I interviewed at MGH v.s UCSF etc I'd want more exposure.
But for me I knew how my top 3 ROL was going to be before even the interview happened. My 4-6 rearranged a bit after the interviews. My bottom 8-11 stayed pretty firmly bottom of the list with little rearrangement.
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I agree with this, went to all my 14 interviews for IM and chose to goto 10 for heme onc. All worth it. Some of the places did a dinner the night prior with residents/fellows and was fun to hang out more casually and get a feel for the place.
Part of the of a whole comprehensive experience imho.
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I will say for the procedural subspecialties (cardiology, GI, PCCM) it's optimal to get a feel for their facilities, ICUs, call rooms etc....
i mean if its a top academic center then you can be sure the virtual is good enough
but if its some dingy little community hospital, then it would be ideal to get a feel for the facilities to get your feeling on it. but just my two cents
i agree virtual is far easier and costs less. but unless one's goal is "let me just get the board certificate and open a private practice," then getting a closer feel for things may pay off more in the long run
i mean if its a top academic center then you can be sure the virtual is good enough
but if its some dingy little community hospital, then it would be ideal to get a feel for the facilities to get your feeling on it. but just my two cents
i agree virtual is far easier and costs less. but unless one's goal is "let me just get the board certificate and open a private practice," then getting a closer feel for things may pay off more in the long run
