Monday, November 5, 2012

Interview Season

It's fall of 4th year and that brings with it the exciting and sometimes dreaded process of interviewing for residency.  A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture by my dean when he discussed interview tips.  He jokingly suggested someone should keep a blog of all the crazy questions that get asked by interviewers.  I got to thinking about it and realized that I could definitely blog about this process and it would help me keep track of all the programs at the same time.  Win, win!! 

Interview #1
Last week I had my very first residency interview.  It was at my home program where I did my 3rd year pediatric inpatient rotation and where I am currently on my 3rd block of 4th year peds electives.  I love this program.  The attendings are brilliant and incredibly approachable.  The residents are fun and easy to work with. They have a new residency director that I have been very impressed with.  Overall, a great program.
 
Here are the questions I was asked:
-If your dean was talking about you at your med school graduation, what would he say?
-If your residency director was talking about you at your residency graduation, what would she say?
-At your retirement, who would you like to speak about your career and what do you hope they say?
-I also go questions about random activities from my personal statement and ERAS applications. 
Nothing was totally out of left field or uncomfortable.  I thought all the questions were reasonable.  There were 4 interviews total, 2 short (10 mins) and 2 long (20 mins).  The time went by so fast!  But all in all a successful day.  I was pleased with the actual interviews and after meeting the other interviewees, I realized that really fun people go into pediatrics!

Things I would change: 
My shoes!  What a disaster.  I had bought new shoes for interviews and didn't think they would need "breaking in."  Boy was I wrong.  My feet hurt so bad at the end of the day, I could barely walk.  Make sure you have comfortable shoes that you can walk in.  We went 1.5 blocks over to the graduate medical education building for our interviews and my shoes were not made for more than a short jaunt.  This was definitely NOT a short jaunt.  Go comfortable or be miserable.  Lesson learned.

Next up: 
I have my first out of state interview next week.  It is in a state that often has snow this time of year.  Hopefully I will not turn into a popsicle during this interview day.  At least I have a nice heavy coat to wear.  I will update about how that interview went and add any new questions to my list as well. 

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