I’m interviewing in Family Med; have done well in getting interviews, am about halfway through with 6 of 14 done.
I’m having a lot of trouble assessing how I’m doing in interviews. In the past, I’ve always interviewed very well. Now I can’t really tell. I’m getting a lot of questions from interns/residents related to age (i.e. how well do you work with people who are much younger than you? can you deal with the hours?). Interviews with faculty are often much more relaxed.
I had thought that the interviews, especially in FM, would really be straightforward. Now I have no idea where I stand, and am a little concerned that I’m going to end up matching to my very last choice (even though my pre-med and med school academic records and everything else are unblemished, with good USMLE scores).
Any suggestions? Mary, you have been so helpful with advice over the past few years; I’m hoping you will have time to read and comment.
- meowmix Said:
I'm having a lot of trouble assessing how I'm doing in interviews. In the past, I've always interviewed very well. Now I can't really tell. I'm getting a lot of questions from interns/residents related to age (i.e. how well do you work with people who are much younger than you? can you deal with the hours?). Interviews with faculty are often much more relaxed.
I had thought that the interviews, especially in FM, would really be straightforward. Now I have no idea where I stand, and am a little concerned that I'm going to end up matching to my very last choice (even though my pre-med and med school academic records and everything else are unblemished, with good USMLE scores).
Any suggestions? Mary, you have been so helpful with advice over the past few years; I'm hoping you will have time to read and comment.
Hmmmmmm. I think I know what you mean, a little bit - at least at my program, the interviews were sort of free-form and I can imagine how some folks walked away not having a good feeling for where they stood. I can tell you that from the perspective of a resident conducting candidate interviews, my goal was to make sure that you were personable and easy to talk to. I hoped to get a sense that you would be a hard worker and a person who could get along with others. I wanted to hear that you knew enough about our program to want to join us.
Here are some vignettes that did NOT impress: a candidate who seemed very uncomfortable and repeatedly told weird nerdy pun-jokes; a candidate who did an "audition rotation" as an acting intern with us, and then proceeded to try to ditch work as often as possible (poor form!); another AI who, while doing patient care with one of our attendings, went back into the room after he and the attending had discussed a plan with a patient, and took it upon himself to tell the patient that he should NOT do what the attending had advised (!). Another candidate had to repeatedly excuse himself to take calls; I was initially understanding because he explained he was trying to rearrange a doctor's appointment but still. People who asked about schedules in such a way that it sounded like they were most concerned about their vacation always set me off.
People who made GOOD impressions: candidates who spoke enthusiastically about their experiences in FM as students, who asked questions on the hospital tour that were intern-level appropriate (how much do you get to do in the ICU? how many months of medicine? things like that). Also surprisingly important: BEING ON TIME. Helllloooooooo but I know that I obsessed over every detail prior to my interviews, and made sure I arrived plenty early.... it always amazed me that people were late, or went to the wrong address.
After the interview, what can you do to enhance your chances? First, write a letter telling very specifically what you liked about the place, why you'd like to be there, and in what ways you'd be good for the program. (without sounding like an egotistical jerk, of course) Next, if at all possible, arrange a "second look" day and think ahead of time about what you'd like to see during that day, who you'd like to speak to, and what you want to accomplish besides lobbying for yourself.
You should be able to get programs' match statistics -- is scutwork.com still around? If your #1 program always fills, then you know that you've got to put on a strong full-court press to try and ensure that you're one of the folks filling a spot. If, on the other hand, they've had to scramble the last few years, you are almost certain to get a spot if you let them know how much you like them.... unless you've got some sort of personality disorder that came out in the interviews. Programs love to be loved.
The bottom line for FM is people skills. If you're not an ax murderer, total slimeball, or histrionic borderline; if, in other words, you can carry on a reasonable conversation with people without them wanting to run screaming from the room, you're almost certain to end up at one of your top three programs given the current sad state of residency applications in FM.
Does this help? I feel like I am all over the map on this, sorry - tryptophan from turkey still having its effect on my brain . Good luck with the rest of your interviews and keep the questions coming. I love recruiting folks for FM!
Mary
Mary, thanks a lot for the detailed comments. It helps to be reminded that really, residents just want to know that we are reasonable people and not bizarre weirdos in disguise.
One of my interviewers (who I knew well before the interview) said her two weirdest interviewees were the guy who talked about his diarrhea, and the guy who acknowledged that he had gotten his previous residency program shut down. After that, I felt pretty safe!
LOL thanks, I really needed that laugh tonight! I’m glad you found my comments helpful. I was afraid afterwards that I was a little too, um, blunt!
Don’t forget everyone wants to be wanted. Even med schools, who can pick and choose, like to hear that they’re your first choice. (even though they know you may be lying) FM residency programs are hurting - and knowing ahead of time that they can match someone, and maybe come closer to filling in the match vs. having to scramble (which tends to make them look weak) means a LOT. So telling a program that they’re your #1 is definitely a good thing and can only help you.
Caveat: this is not necessarily going to be applicable for other specialties, but for the “people-pleasing” specialty of FM, it makes sense.
Mary
I did not know about the shortage of applicants to family medicine. Our Clinical Practice class is completely run by family medicine physicians. My own preceptor and seminar leader are awesome teachers, but I wish we had more variety in the specialties of the instructors. That will probably come with the organ systems classes next semester, I suppose.
Why are you doing so many interviews? from the match data outcome pdf file you should be SET with ranking about 9 programs…just wondering.
I hear ya about NOT knowing how you did on inteviews…I have done 6 so far for IM and often wonder…
My geographic range is actually fairly limited (only 4 states), but it’s been difficult to really assess programs and gather info. There are hundreds of excellent FM programs with a huge range of clinical experience, esp in OB and operative OB (read C-section training).
Several of the old standbys in my state are currently in flux and not offering C-section training. All will mention “operative OB experience”, but when you actually get to the interview, you learn that you will never do enough C/S or will never be primary, so you will never be able to get privileges. There are big turf wars going on over endoscopy training. And, in FM, the big question is always, which other residents are training alongside us? And how supportive are they/the hospital of the FM residency program? This again really only becomes clear when you visit a site; otherwise, most residents just say their program is great.
There is a wide range of religious restrictions on birth control, IUDs, vasectomies, etc. within programs, even within the Catholic programs, and again they do not advertise that info to the outside world. There are also many programs where faculty/residents choose to restrict their practice (and thus teaching) based on their own religious beliefs. This is a big factor in my choice.
In an ideal world, my faculty advisors would have been able to help me sort through the choices and find 5-10 great possibilities. In reality, I’ve had to figure it out through conversations with friends and a little detective work. For example, none of the faculty told me that there was any such thing as the combined 4-yr FM/OB residency at Davis, even though one of our grads went there only 3 years ago.
At least I get to travel to some great places!
Meowmix, good for you. It gets tedious to go on so many interviews but you’ve got a terrific agenda for your site visits and you are definitely getting important information. Keep on truckin’ and I’ll be wishing you all the best!
Mary
- meowmix Said:
I'm curious abouthow many other nontrads have had questions like these. I personally find them appaling but I guess that's the infortunate way the game is being played these days.
How well do you work with people younger than you is just a dumb arse question, IMHO.
I don’t think it’s that unfair to ask. Sometimes those who are a generation apart have very different experiences and learning styles/approaches to problem solving. In this field, if you are older than the average applicant coming in, there are definitely going to be times where you are subordinate to people much younger than you. The residency director maybe really does want to know how you would handle it.
So if you answer this question with a bit of common sense, I don’t see how it can harm you.
The “younger senior resident” vs. “older intern” dynamic is actually one that I think is reasonable to try and explore at least a little bit in interviews. A smooth accomplished interviewer can probably do it without being quite so blatant. And one could always hope that your LORs from rotations would make it clear that you’d gotten along and that your senior residents on your 3d year rotations thought you were great. But I agree with megboo, I think there are situations where it would be illuminating to find out your perspective on how you work well with others.
And yes, there ARE non-trad students / interns / residents out there who pack attitude and fling it back in the face of their more experienced but younger senior residents and attendings. I’ve seen it, and it’s not pretty. Doesn’t help the rest of us, either.
Mary
who is very, very tired of seeing people with influenza, that’s for sure!
- Mary Renard Said:
1) How well do you work with Blacks, women, Asians, ect?
2) How well do you work with people who stink?
3) How well do you work with people who are disabled?
I simply don't see the differences in these questions. A person who gets who truly gets along with people/is easy to work with, gets along with ALL people, black or white, able bodied or disabled, clean or funky. Put another way, asking any of those other questions would be considered discriminatory and so are questions having anything to do with age IMHO.
Now if the question is how well to you "party" with young people, NOW you have a legitamte question, one where there are sure to be clear differences.
Maybe my perspective is very different in this matter because I don't look 15+ years older than my current classmates, I love a lot of the same things they love, but most importanly, I've had no problems developing working relationships with my class and lab mates. So perhaps this is something that I'm never gonna "get". You know I'm thinking, I don't have problems in clothing stores, fast food restaurants, or with my kids, so it's gonna be all good.
Maybe a good question for me is how will I work with people older than me since they have FAR more problems with what I'm trying to do than people younger than me.
Yes, this has been a terrible winter for respiratory illness. Of the 35 or so kids on my caseload, all of them have had to cancel sessions this winter.
- pathdr2b Said:
2) How well do you work with people who stink?
3) How well do you work with people who are disabled?
I simply don't see the differences in these questions. ...
pathdr2b,
Did you just say that blacks, women, asians stink and are disabled?
Maybe I've been doing too many of the "The Author would most agree with the statement:" questions for the MCAT verbal section prep!!!
- Dazed Said:
Did you just say that blacks, women, asians stink and are disabled?
Maybe I've been doing too many of the "The Author would most agree with the statement:" questions for the MCAT verbal section prep!!!
Yeah, I guess one could draw that conclusion! ROTFLMAO !!!!!!
