Residency Inteview Day Powerpoint Presentations

[LTS6776]

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I am in the process of revamping our residency program's powerpoint presentation for the next interview season. As a (relatively) younger faculty member, it was turned over to me to make it appeal more to the new generation of med students and residents. I'd be interested to know what the med students and recent matchees would want to hear about/see during the program overview to make the interview day more useful for them. Thanks.

 

[specepic]

I am in the process of revamping our residency program's powerpoint presentation for the next interview season. As a (relatively) younger faculty member, it was turned over to me to make it appeal more to the new generation of med students and residents. I'd be interested to know what the med students and recent matchees would want to hear about/see during the program overview to make the interview day more useful for them. Thanks.

-short presentation
-call expectations
-program strengths
-program weaknesses
-lay out the 3 year schedule of rotations

On another note I was shocked as an interviewee how many interviewers/programs apparently did not read my application before I walked in the room. It showed a lack of respect and reflected pooorly on the program.

I also remember being nervous enough that I don't remember any power points anyone showed me 🙂

I would also advice not having depressed/disgruntled residents do the tour

 

[padresp]

I echo specepic's comments too. I went through the process this last year, so it's fresh in my mind. I viewed the PPT presentation as answering the questions that all the applicants had but didn't want to ask. For example, "how many days am I going to have to take call?" "Do I have to drive to 5 different sites?" "Do we get lunches covered?" "Can we moonlight?" "Will I have time to see my family?" "How much vacation do we get?" All those things that we felt would make us sound lazy or superficial, but were honest questions.

Additionally, everything that is on the web site was nice to have laid out for us - full 3-year schedules, locations of hospitals, # of residents, outside opportunities, program strengths/weaknesses, research opportunities, etc.

The bane of our existence in interviews was the question, "do you guys have any questions?" Especially at the beginning of the day, when we haven't seen anything yet. Of course, feel free to ask for questions, but don't pause for an awkward minute for someone to feel the need to ask something 🙂.

The worst presentations, in my opinion, were the ones that had too little information and were talked about too long. The ones that had a lot of information, but were quick, were the best. I felt that I had about 5 or 6 things I was truly interested in learning from the presentations, and I got those pretty quickly when the slide came up. And I could always ask to see slide #5 again, if necessary.

Hope that helps! And thanks for getting feedback for this stuff - it's the best way to improve a program. It shows on interview day, I promise you.

I am in the process of revamping our residency program's powerpoint presentation for the next interview season. As a (relatively) younger faculty member, it was turned over to me to make it appeal more to the new generation of med students and residents. I'd be interested to know what the med students and recent matchees would want to hear about/see during the program overview to make the interview day more useful for them. Thanks.

 

[ASUAZCOM]

Great post, I completely agree with everything. I would also recommend giving interviewees copies of the presentation in either paper or electronic form. There were several presentations that would have been helpful when making my ROL.

I echo specepic's comments too. I went through the process this last year, so it's fresh in my mind. I viewed the PPT presentation as answering the questions that all the applicants had but didn't want to ask. For example, "how many days am I going to have to take call?" "Do I have to drive to 5 different sites?" "Do we get lunches covered?" "Can we moonlight?" "Will I have time to see my family?" "How much vacation do we get?" All those things that we felt would make us sound lazy or superficial, but were honest questions.

Additionally, everything that is on the web site was nice to have laid out for us - full 3-year schedules, locations of hospitals, # of residents, outside opportunities, program strengths/weaknesses, research opportunities, etc.

The bane of our existence in interviews was the question, "do you guys have any questions?" Especially at the beginning of the day, when we haven't seen anything yet. Of course, feel free to ask for questions, but don't pause for an awkward minute for someone to feel the need to ask something 🙂.

The worst presentations, in my opinion, were the ones that had too little information and were talked about too long. The ones that had a lot of information, but were quick, were the best. I felt that I had about 5 or 6 things I was truly interested in learning from the presentations, and I got those pretty quickly when the slide came up. And I could always ask to see slide #5 again, if necessary.

Hope that helps! And thanks for getting feedback for this stuff - it's the best way to improve a program. It shows on interview day, I promise you.

 

[oreosandsake]

👍 on all the responses so far.

Listing of past X years post-graduation plans (fellowship/job). some, but not most of the places I went to presented what recent graduates went on into. we had to ask those questions from the residents and they would only be able to recall a handful of post-residency fellowship/job offers.

and for those applicants inclined towards academics, a listing of "recent" publications or "areas of active research interests" would be a nice gauge of how active the pm&r dept is at research.


Now, what I think is a waste of paper/space for me to take home:

- sample contract (with "sample contract" watermarked on all 50+ pages)
not sure how many people actually look at these, but It didn't make an impact on my ROL

 

[carlosc1dbz]

👍 on all the responses so far.

Listing of past X years post-graduation plans (fellowship/job). would add that some, but not most of the places I went to presented what recent graduates went on into. we had to ask those questions from the residents and they would only be able to recall a handful of post-residency fellowship/job offers.

and for those applicants inclined towards academics, a listing of "recent" publications or "areas of active research interests" would be a nice gauge of how active the pm&r dept is at research.


Now, what I think is a waste of paper/space for me to take home:

- sample contract (with "sample contract" watermarked on all 50+ pages)
not sure how many people actually look at these, but It didn't make an impact on my ROL

I would want to know where there graduates ended up. This does sound good. If I was on the interview trail.

 

[Llenroc]

Good thread.

One thing you should not do is to show slides with pictures of everyone there (including secretaries and such), and a description of who they are. Completely pointless. And nobody remembers who those people are at the end of the day.

Also don't start the interview day before 9. I hate early interview starts. If the whole thing runs longer than 5 hours, you're doing something wrong.

People also don't need to be taken to every rotation site, and shown every damn room in the building. Emory actually did this. Completely pointless.

Don't order weird **** like fish for lunch. Baylor-Houston did this. I didn't eat that day because I'm not a fish eater. If you're not taking people out to a restaurant, get chicken plus some kind of vegetarian alternative.

 

[PMR 4 MSK]

You might even consider setting up a/the powerpoint online that prospective residents could view at their leisure before and after the visit, to remember what they saw/will see and/or prompt questions.

 

[drusso]

The powerpoint presentation should be geared to answer question, "Why should I rank *this* program over another."

 

[Nico47]

All these whipper-snappers want are text messages. Don't bother with the power point presentation, just send them:

This place is the gr8est, ul luv it 4evarz!

 

[Bombesin]

The powerpoint presentation should be geared to answer question, "Why should I rank *this* program over another."

The best presentation I saw that did this was Dr. Boninger's at Pitt. It sold me!