I've searched around this forum, but I haven't seen this information clearly yet. I was wondering what are the prime interviewing months for psychiatry. I'm assuming December and January, but I've heard that some specialties conduct many interviews during November as well. I need to know this so that I can plan my step 2 cs and ck and vacation. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Interview months
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my first interview was at the beginning of october and my last was the middle of feburary. it is hugely variable, but you should be able to schedule them in a way you can put in your other commitments. you might be best getting cs out of the way before september anyway as it doesn't require any preparation and will be nice to have out of the way.
In general, interviews are conducted from mid/late Oct through Jan. You will occasionally find a program that offers interviews in early Oct or even into early Feb. As far as what is the 'best' time to interview, in my experience PDs unanimously echoed that it does not matter when in the season you interview. Some people insist that you have a better chance of matching if you interview early in the season. Others swear its best to interview late in the season. Both have legit arguments and reasons why they think their view is the best, but again I will reiterate that every PD I spoke to insisted it didn't matter. Most people plan their interviews based on their schedule as mostof us don't have the luxury of unlimited time off during 4th year, and programs recognize that.
I will also add that Dec is somewhat limited as most programs take a 2 week break off for the holidays (depending where in the week Christmas falls).
I will also add that Dec is somewhat limited as most programs take a 2 week break off for the holidays (depending where in the week Christmas falls).
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Most programs offer spots late-Oct through late-Jan. If I had two months to take off, I'd take off Nov and Dec. You can interview later in the season, but I think it's best just to get it over with and be done with it.
And for all we talk of interview fatigue (not performing your best because of the fact that you're doing the same song and dance for the 10th time), there's also interviewer fatigue as well. I noticed at a couple of places at the end of the interview trail that the programs started looking a little worse for wear. Personally, I'd skew interviewing earlier.
That said, it doesn't really matter. If you're flexible, work out whatever two months work for you as long as it's not pre-mid-Oct or post-mid-Feb.
And for all we talk of interview fatigue (not performing your best because of the fact that you're doing the same song and dance for the 10th time), there's also interviewer fatigue as well. I noticed at a couple of places at the end of the interview trail that the programs started looking a little worse for wear. Personally, I'd skew interviewing earlier.
That said, it doesn't really matter. If you're flexible, work out whatever two months work for you as long as it's not pre-mid-Oct or post-mid-Feb.
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Just a few years ago, it was a big deal when my home program interviewed it's home applicants on Halloween (i.e. October interviews were unheard of, and most interviews occurred mid-Dec to late-Jan). At the rate it's going, interviews are going to be in July of M2 year by 2020.
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Digitlnoize's Interview Scheduling Tips:
1. Schedule as soon as possible: Spots fill up, and if you wait more than a couple days, you could lose your spot.
2. Schedule on Mondays: You'll miss less rotation days this way, if attendance becomes an issue. It also gives you the weekend to travel. Dinners will be on Sunday.
3. Schedule Regionally: Harder to do, but try and schedule things regionally with adjacent dates. I did a number of "road trips," hitting 2-3 places in a row. For example, I did USC-Palmetto (Columbia, SC), MUSC (Charleston, SC), and ECU (Greenville, NC), all in a row.
4. Schedule during Aways: Scheduled that South Carolina round while I was working in South Carolina.
5. Schedule at the Start or End of Rotations: If absences become an issue (or if you're just worried about them becoming an issue), this can help marginally. I've found that docs are less likely to count it as an absence if it's your first or last day, since you're not quite there yet, or you're gone anyways.
6. Don't schedule anything around the holidays: I gave myself Thanksgiving week off, and 2 weeks off before and after Xmas. Take a break.
7. Method 1: Space Out Interviews This is what I did. I basically did one interview a week (with a couple road trip exceptions), from October until February, with the holidays off, as mentioned above. Interviews get a bit grueling, and I found the days off in between helped keep me fresh.
8. Method 2: Mega-Blast Interview Vacation: Alternatively, you can schedule everything all at once during say, a vacation month. I think this would be harder to not burn out, but some people prefer this method, which is fine.
9. Don't Schedule Places You're Not 100% Serious About: You don't have to be planning to rank them #1, but if you're not very serious about possibly going there, skip it, or better yet, don't apply.
10. Cancelling: Give AT LEAST 2 week notice, preferably 1 month or more. See #11. This is simple courtesy, but it will also help your fellow applicants.
11. Don't be afraid to double book early on: Don't do this too much, but if you've got a couple places where you're not sure which one you want to go on, go ahead a double book a few months in advance...just make SURE to cancel one of them with PLENTY of notice.
12. Scheduling during aways: Just talk to the institution, but preferably just with your attending, not the PD. They know you're interviewing other places, and are generally fine with it. Just try and keep with on the D-L, and within reason. No one is going to blacklist you for doing 1 or 2 away interviews during an audition rotation.
That's all I've got for now...
1. Schedule as soon as possible: Spots fill up, and if you wait more than a couple days, you could lose your spot.
2. Schedule on Mondays: You'll miss less rotation days this way, if attendance becomes an issue. It also gives you the weekend to travel. Dinners will be on Sunday.
3. Schedule Regionally: Harder to do, but try and schedule things regionally with adjacent dates. I did a number of "road trips," hitting 2-3 places in a row. For example, I did USC-Palmetto (Columbia, SC), MUSC (Charleston, SC), and ECU (Greenville, NC), all in a row.
4. Schedule during Aways: Scheduled that South Carolina round while I was working in South Carolina.
5. Schedule at the Start or End of Rotations: If absences become an issue (or if you're just worried about them becoming an issue), this can help marginally. I've found that docs are less likely to count it as an absence if it's your first or last day, since you're not quite there yet, or you're gone anyways.
6. Don't schedule anything around the holidays: I gave myself Thanksgiving week off, and 2 weeks off before and after Xmas. Take a break.
7. Method 1: Space Out Interviews This is what I did. I basically did one interview a week (with a couple road trip exceptions), from October until February, with the holidays off, as mentioned above. Interviews get a bit grueling, and I found the days off in between helped keep me fresh.
8. Method 2: Mega-Blast Interview Vacation: Alternatively, you can schedule everything all at once during say, a vacation month. I think this would be harder to not burn out, but some people prefer this method, which is fine.
9. Don't Schedule Places You're Not 100% Serious About: You don't have to be planning to rank them #1, but if you're not very serious about possibly going there, skip it, or better yet, don't apply.
10. Cancelling: Give AT LEAST 2 week notice, preferably 1 month or more. See #11. This is simple courtesy, but it will also help your fellow applicants.
11. Don't be afraid to double book early on: Don't do this too much, but if you've got a couple places where you're not sure which one you want to go on, go ahead a double book a few months in advance...just make SURE to cancel one of them with PLENTY of notice.
12. Scheduling during aways: Just talk to the institution, but preferably just with your attending, not the PD. They know you're interviewing other places, and are generally fine with it. Just try and keep with on the D-L, and within reason. No one is going to blacklist you for doing 1 or 2 away interviews during an audition rotation.
That's all I've got for now...
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Great tips, Digitlnoize. A couple additional thoughts...
Regardless of when you schedule your interviews, try to have your trip include a Saturday stayover, which reduces the price of tickets pretty dramatically for longer flights.
This should be a last resort for anybody. One truism about interviews is that almost everyone believes they interview better than they do and absolutely no one interviews as well on a third interview when scheduled back-to-back after their first two. They may think they do, but they don't. You can spot folks who are interviewing worse than they would have otherwise by packing too many in, and you won't be cut any slack.
If your away rotation is in psychiatry, I'd be very, very cautious about scheduling interviews during this time. Away rotations = audition rotations and if you aren't going to commit 110% to show your best side, you're possibly best not doing an audition rotation there. Some programs might be fine with you missing 10-15% of your audition rotation (which is what a few days off comes to) to interview at competing programs, but others will not. I'd be careful with that one.
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Definitely feel out the situation and use your best judgement. If the place you're auditioning is an uber-competitive atmosphere type of place, I wouldn't do it, or even think about asking. When I did one, it was a laid-back place, with nice attendings, and the only days I missed off service was for my interview at the audition institution, plus one day (which was actually a holiday that I would've had off anyways), for a local interview. Just schedule smartly.
The other place I "auditioned," was less of an audition, and more of an excuse to do a psych rotation close to home and my family, visit with my grandmother, and check out a possible backup. I was gone from there for a interview, for a couple of days (TH/FRI), but by then I'd decided that I didn't like the program very much and would be ranking it, but not very highly. They still offered me a pre-match, which I declined. Pretty sure we're still ranking each other, although I doubt I'll wind up there.
Anyways, these are just some things that I did, based on my situation, my interviews, and some dumb luck.
***Final Word of Caution***
Lock your cars, including your trunk popper. Or, better yet, don't leave ANYTHING in your car. Travel as light as possible and don't leave anything you can't live without anywhere of your person or out of your sight. I had a bunch of stuff stolen when my car was broken into at an interview, but am happy to say that we're getting a giant check from the insurance company, so I think we're actually coming out ahead...
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Agree with this. I scheduled 15-some interviews in mid-October to November and wouldn't really recommend it. During my busiest week, I had 3 interviews in Washington and California; at the end of that week I promptly cancelled half of my interviews because I was feeling fairly demotivated at that point.
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Psych starts as early as late September (JPS) through early February. Space the interviews out.
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I had several during November, the bulk during December, and a few during January. I'd do something where you can get work done from the road, like research (if you don't do benchwork) during interview time. That way you don't have to worry about losing credit for rotations because you miss too many days...
