Timeline for phone calls on your behalf?

[shocker]

OK, I am looking for a little help about when to ask mentors/people in the field with a connection to said program/etc. to make a call on my behalf, "aprogdirector", any suggestions.

Should it be: if I am not getting interviews, possibly before interviewing, or closer to time for them to rank us? I am quite clueless and feel priviledged that someone would make a call and I just want to have it help in the best way.

Thanks.

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[NotAProgDirector]

Depends.

If you are a competitive candidate for your chosen field, then simply apply, interview, and then have people make a call once you know where you want to go. This is usually the best way to go.

If you are not competitive, then you may need a call to make an interview happen. I don't suggest this if possible -- it's happened for a few candidates for Rads/Derm etc at my institution, and usually the discussion at ranking is "well, we interviewed them because Dr. XXX asked us to and we didn;t want to insult him/her, but this person is not going on our rank list".

 

[buckley]

Do interviews on your behalf really do good? I was thinking it might also backfire.

 

[shocker]

Thanks for the advice, I didn't really think about pity interviews, I'll pass on that. Saving them for my top few ranks sounds like a great idea.