The dinner before

[peerie]

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I have another question for those who have already passed the steeple chase known as interview season.

I am trying my best to ask good questions, be polite, listen to how residents interact and all that other stuff you have to do to pick up a good feel for a program. So far so good, and usually this all reveals itself pretty quickly.

What if at the resident dinner, you the applicant are basically ignored? I mean, I know residents are busy and are being forced to take you out but still, from a resident point of view what do you expect from your interviewees?

I have seen the gamut from super friendly and interested to downright rudeness to my face. A couple of residents didn't make much effort to show their lack of interest in being there. One resident even suggested other programs for me to apply to. 😱

How I am treated by the residents is a real indication of where I decide to put them on the list (or not). Any thoughts from people who are on the other side? I try and be a gracious guest but it's weird when residents are not nice to you as an interviewee. I am sure it's not personal, but still.

 

[hippiedoc13]

There is no excuse for residents to be rude to applicants. You are the guest, they are the host. If they're not going to be good hosts, they shouldn't bother showing up.

However, I wouldn't assume that suggesting other programs for you to look at is necessarily a negative thing. These residents were once in your shoes (some as recently as last year), and they interviewed at multiple programs as well, and have interacted with folks at those programs. I got some great tips during one of my sub-i rotations about a couple of nearby programs to check out--I probably wouldn't have even looked at them otherwise, but I was pretty impressed when I interviewed. And I know that resident wasn't making those suggestions because they didn't want me at that program...later in the season he and the other residents were calling me every couple of weeks to invite me to recruitment functions or let me know how highly the program thought of me. And I actually thought it spoke well of the program and those residents that (a) they could speak honestly and positively about other programs, and (b) they at least gave the impression of being helpful and interested in my interests.

Of course I don't know what the tone was when they were telling you about these other programs, but basically it's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[bluealiendoctor]

Sorry to hear some residents were actually rude...inexusable. However, as I've come to learn, nobody has the balls to stand up for themselves anymore. Just follow the others like sheep. Doesn't matter how the residents treated you, nobody has ever confronted those a-holes so they will continue to be that way for the rest of their lives. They could wrestle you into the bathroom and give you wet whirly and no one would do a damn thing about it. It's a shame. When only one person stands up for himself/herself...he/she instantly becomes a 'trouble maker' or a 'whiner'. Too many cowards out there. Bahh bahh bahh.

 

[peerie]

The day actually went pretty well after all, altho I was apprehensive after the initial dinner. I was thinking today, that maybe people are nervous or something and so they group together and talk shop while the poor applicant is sitting there in silence.

In other words, maybe they weren't really 'rude' but just preoccupied and nervous because they don't know who I am or anything. Today everyone was really awesome and I had to realize that you just can't take anything personally in this whole process. People are stressed and uncomfortable and it's hard to really know what's behind someone's behavior.

It was a great day - who knew? 🙂