Here’s the scenario: You’re on your residency interview day and chatting with some of the residents over lunch, in between or during interviews and you ask them why they came here. They reply with “This is the best residency”.
That is a lie. In short, it’s because they’ve only ever been in one residency program. How would they know if this is the best one? They have nothing to compare it to.
Despite this logic, I heard that on almost every residency interview I went on. While I believe they think they are getting a good resident experience, I do not believe that program is any better or worse than most programs. Don’t call them on it though (quick way to get blackballed). Just be careful. Ask them what they like most about it and what they would change. That’s more insightful. If they say they wouldn’t change a thing, I’d press a little harder with something like “C’mon, no residency is perfect, there must be something, even if it’s a small thing like your cafeteria food sucks”. If they double down, then I’d be hard-pressed to believe anything else that person told me. Take another look around and see if you’re interviewing for a malignant program that desperately needs warm bodies to fill spots.
The reverse is quite different. If someone tells you this is the worst residency program, you should not believe them, but take that as a sign that something terrible has happened to them there, which may be entirely their fault or not. But, if the program wasn’t smart enough to shield their impressionable young applicants from that person, then they clearly can’t see the problems in front of them.
That is a lie. In short, it’s because they’ve only ever been in one residency program. How would they know if this is the best one? They have nothing to compare it to.
Despite this logic, I heard that on almost every residency interview I went on. While I believe they think they are getting a good resident experience, I do not believe that program is any better or worse than most programs. Don’t call them on it though (quick way to get blackballed). Just be careful. Ask them what they like most about it and what they would change. That’s more insightful. If they say they wouldn’t change a thing, I’d press a little harder with something like “C’mon, no residency is perfect, there must be something, even if it’s a small thing like your cafeteria food sucks”. If they double down, then I’d be hard-pressed to believe anything else that person told me. Take another look around and see if you’re interviewing for a malignant program that desperately needs warm bodies to fill spots.
The reverse is quite different. If someone tells you this is the worst residency program, you should not believe them, but take that as a sign that something terrible has happened to them there, which may be entirely their fault or not. But, if the program wasn’t smart enough to shield their impressionable young applicants from that person, then they clearly can’t see the problems in front of them.
