The Interview Itself
*As with all of my residency interview series posts, keep in mind that some experiences may be specialty-specific.
Some things that surprised me
Time goes by extremely fast
Of course I kind of expected this, but the actual experience of having interviews pass so quickly still surprised me. I personally found that 20 minute interviews felt like just the right amount of time. It went fast, but was enough time to complete a few conversation topics and get a sense of the personality of my interviewer. Of course that may be the hopeful future EM doc in me that isn’t afraid to draw conclusions and gather an impression rather quickly.
More of my conversations were focused on personal interests and hobbies than I expected.
I was told by multiple Emergency Medicine residents that their interview experience was largely personal and focused on hobbies and interests rather than professional accomplishments, and they were right. I was surprised how often I was talking about my blog, my Tough Mudder races, and “what I do for fun” or “what I do to keep me grounded”.
The interviewers were so nice and praised my application so much more than I ever could have hoped for.
I’m not sharing this to sound arrogant, but just to be honest as this was a really large part of my interview season experience. I can’t count how many times I said to Dominic, “I can’t believe how nice they are to me!” I pictured my interviewers being much more indifferent and critical of me, but instead the majority were extremely warm and positive which made me feel instantly more comfortable and able to be myself. As I touched on in my first residency series post, I think it’s part of many students’ experience to doubt yourself at least a little all the way until Match Day, so positive feedback from interviewers is both surprising and fulfilling at the same time.
Many programs really emphasize helping residents find and foster their interests within “niches” of emergency medicine.
Before starting my clinical rotations I honestly didn’t realize what a large field Emergency Medicine is and how many sub-areas of interest residents and attendings can focus on. As I started researching programs and was going through interviews, I realized what areas I potentially am interested in, and I found that this helped me greatly in figuring out where I “fit”.
Virtual Interview Advice
My class had the unique experience of doing our residency interviews on zoom. Hopefully this isn’t the case for the next class, but just in case I’ll briefly outline some virtual interview tips I collected.
- Look at the webcam when you’re talking! This feels really awkward at first, but is the only way to simulate eye contact in this setting, and you’ll get used to it.
- Put time and effort into your set up: no distractions, have a nice background behind you, make sure your lighting is good (I bought a selfie ring-light), and set your laptop on some textbooks so that you’re not looking down at the screen.
- Test your technology beforehand, and check zoom for updates before logging on.
- Body language is still important, so be sure to sit up straight and keep in mind what areas your webcam does and doesn’t show.
- Smile and look engaged even during the information sessions where you think people may not be looking at you. I received a couple of comments from interviewers that I was at times one of the only students smiling and nodding and they appreciated that I was clearly paying attention.
General Interview Advice
Ask all of your questions. You really are interviewing the program too.
Remember that the purpose of interviews is both for them to get to know you and for you to get to know them to see if you’ll be a “good fit”. I was told this countless times and honestly at first didn’t put much stock into the idea that I was interviewing them. Before interview season began, I kind of assumed that all of the programs would sound great and essentially the same. However, after a few interviews I realized that this statement I had been told so many times is repeated for a reason. Sure, programs are the same in the big picture; they are accredited so they must offer a certain standard of experience and education to their residents. But, the settings in which you’ll work, your patient population, program culture, and many characteristics of the curriculum will vary surprisingly widely from program to program and those are the things that will ultimately help you make your rank list.
Ask questions about whatever is most important or interesting to you. I personally always asked about the program’s community outreach efforts and their opportunities to be a mentor because those are both aspects that I would like included in my residency experience. I also tried to get an idea of how much autonomy residents are given, and what the teaching on shift structure is like. I was comforted to find that most programs have very structured and well-designed orientation months, and some programs had closer mentorship with your senior residents especially in the first few months. For emergency medicine specifically, I found myself being drawn more to programs where residents shared that they get a lot of autonomy, but also that they have close and supportive guidance the whole way.
On a related note: have a lot of questions prepared.
You will be asked countless times, “what questions do you have for me” or “what else can I tell you about the program?” For me, this was honestly one of the hardest parts of the interview season. Usually the PD’s presentation at the beginning of interview day coupled with all of the research I did beforehand honestly answered 99% of my practical questions. Remember that it’s also acceptable to ask questions that would likely not be on a website such as asking about culture, what keeps people there and happy, etc. I would also try to ask questions that either reflected a specific interest in a unique aspect of the program, or that demonstrated I had done my research on the program. I found Dr. Atasha Jordan’s post a really helpful starting point as I considered what questions I wanted to ask, and she makes the great point to have questions prepared based on who you’re speaking with (faculty vs resident vs PD).
Take care of yourself throughout the interview season
Even though our interviews were virtual, I was surprised how exhausted I was after each one. My usual post-interview headspace was: extremely excited (for most, especially those that ended up in my top 5), and soon after my excitement and adrenaline calmed down I was completely drained and usually couldn’t do anything else that day that required looking at a computer screen. I think maybe having the opportunity to travel to the cities you’re interviewing at would help combat this tiredness, because you’d then have fun things to do to go see if you can picture yourself living there. Or, maybe with the travel, it would have been even more tiring, I’m not sure.
Either way, I just want to take a moment to say that it’s so important to take care of yourself, especially as you’re doing the last push through medical school. Even though you’ll be tired after the interview, make yourself go for a walk, do a home-workout (or hopefully a hotel workout if you get to travel), meditate, etc. Do something that gets you out of your own head for a few minutes. On non-interview days, continue to be kind to yourself. This is a big deal, there is a lot of pressure on you at this point, so lean on your support system and try to keep looking at the big picture.
Be honest and be yourself.
I’m a self-proclaimed mushy, overly compassionate, person and a large part of what draws me to EM is the unique connections we get to form with brand new patients every shift. I was nervous initially to be extremely honest and extremely Monica-like in some answers, but I just kept telling myself that that was how they would really get to know me. As you can see in my post where I shared my personal statement, my journey through medical school has had several personal adversities, and this has taught me to focus on resilience and how I move forward through each challenge.
This being said, I didn’t feel I could be my full self in every single interview, and that’s okay, and this helped me in making my rank list. The programs where I had the strongest connections were ones where I felt I was being treated like “part of the family” already, where conversations were focused on topics that are important to me and to the program, and where they appreciated my honest answers to their questions. This is just my personality, and I know my learning style coincides with feeling that I have a non-judgemental support system nearby.
Everyone is different, everyone is looking for different things in their residency match journey, and that’s a great thing. The more honest you can be both with yourself and with the programs as you’re interviewing, the easier it will be to make your rank list at the end of interview season. Write down your honest “gut feelings” immediately after each interview so you can reflect on them later. You’ll be surprised how strong some gut feelings are as you go along, but at the same time it’s okay if some interviews don’t give you a strong feeling either way. Just write everything down, and try to keep the faith that you’ll end up where you’re meant to be.