Looking for some advice on re-entering residency as PGY-2

[mugimain]

I’m former PGY-2 applying into FM and EM positions and I’m finding little to no success. I’m signed up with ResidencySwap for notifications after mistakenly ONLY trolling FREIDA for about 2 months. I expect that things will be slowing down now that the new academic year has started but despite applying to nearly every opening for the last 3 months, I have yet to have an interview. I’m wondering if there’s something I’m doing blatantly wrong, so any general advice is welcome.

My main questions are:

• What are they looking for on a cover letter? For med school and residency it was generally the formulaic “Patient anecdote and why I want to be a doctor/resident”. I’ve obviously addended the formula to include the professional/academic concerns that led to me leaving my previous residency, but it’s fairly nonspecific because although there were academic concerns towards the latter part of my education, I think that professionalism concerns (that were remediated to their satisfaction) and poor fit still exacerbated the latter concerns. I’m careful to address my contribution to these, as I realize finger pointing is not going to get me further in my education.
• Are there tips/tricks/secret passwords that I should know? It took me two tries to apply for med school because the first time I applied pretty blindly (7 applications sent in October and was shook when I didn’t get anywhere). Before I found a couple friends in the know of what number, when, etc.
• Residency swap’s application materials do not include a letter from my PD even though the same programs have requested it on FRIEDA. My PD’s letter pretty scathing, despite the fact that I was very close to graduation when I was dismissed for academics. Should I be including it despite it not being on the list of requested materials?
• When I do finally get an interview, what are questions to expect or general knowledge points they would want me to have?

If you have any other recommendations, please let me know. I feel like I’ve been flying a little blind and could use some direction to finally stop spinning my wheels.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Whether or not it is explicitly asked for, programs will certainly want to hear from your prior PD. If it is scathing then that is likely making you DOA.

How long have you been out of clinical medicine and what have you been doing in the interim? What was your prior specialty? Is there any chance that you could negotiate a more neutral letter from your PD (i.e. " @mugimain struggled for X,Y,Z reason, which were specific to his prior specialty. I believe he will be able to be more successful in a different specialty."). That said, if you were not previously in FM or EM, you may need to start as a PGY-1 as you may not have enough portable rotations to get credit in the new specialty.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Everything depends on what field you were in, why you left, what your performance was like, and how long you've been out.