#residency interviews

[ontrackmind]

Very messy desk. (Peep the pre-interview and interview question cheat sheets on my laptop 😅)

Idk how it happened but this week I am just slammed with so much stuff to do.

[atmedicine]

Im terrible at the politics of interviews and its really hard to see beyond all the bs. Still have plenty more interviews to go but, trying to get more efficient with my time/asking important questions.

[witchmd13]

[justinesattendingadventures]

Anyone else redecorate to have a medical aesthetic Zoom background after learning that this season’s residency interviews will be virtual? No? Just me?

[pathwaytohealing]

October 29, 2019

I know this sounds crazy to a lot of people, but I love traveling alone.

Sitting by myself at the hotel or airport bar and having a glass of wine.

Not having to worry about anyone being packed and at the airport on time.

Spreading out in a huge king sized bed.

But more than that. I feel like when you’re in a new city, where no one knows you and you don’t know them, there’s no chance of anyone calling you and asking you to come over or do them a favor... there’s this sense of calm and quiet that I don’t feel like I ever can quite achieve at home in my apartment.

Like I could probably write the most killer journal entry on the hotel stationary, with the free pen they leave you next to the bed.

[drdessertfox]

Completed my last interview! I’m sitting at the airport drinking margs while completing my rank list. Now I just gotta wait til March to find out where I will be going! I’m so glad to be done with traveling. The next month I have my home EM rotation followed by a bunch of boring required crap.

Good luck to all the other MS4’s out there still interviewing! May the match be ever in your favor ❤️

[mdrambles]

A Residency Tour Memory

A young woman sits next to me on the plane, with her 9-month-old infant sitting in the seat between us. She struggles to shove her baby bag under her seat and arrange the baby's bottles in the compartment behind the seat in front of her while holding one of her arms out in front of her son so he won't topple forward.

Woman: Oh... crap. Me: Is there... anything I can help you with? Woman: *looks at me for a few seconds* Would you... would you mind holding him for a moment? I just need to get all this stuff in order-- Me, with 0 seconds of hesitation: Yes.

She watches me pull her son into my lap and immediately start talking to him.

Me: Hello my little friend! Did you know you're on a big airplane? You're gonna fly today! Are you excited?

The young woman finishes sorting out her affairs and turns to me, still chatting away at her giggling son. I help to settle him into his seat, and she buckles him in as the seatbelt lights turn on.

Woman: Thank you so much! Me: No problem at all, he's so cute. Woman: Where are you headed? Me: I'm actually headed to (province) to interview for a residency position. I'm a medical student and I'm hoping to do pediatrics. Woman: Pediatrics! That'd be great for you.

We chat a bit more, and the plane takes off. Her son is gurgling happily as he goobers on a biscuit.

Eventually, the seatbelt light comes off and she unbuckles her son to settle him into her lap and give him his bottle. She tells me that she is moving with her son to finally reunite with her husband, and that this is the first time he will see their son since he was born. After a while, we lapse into silence and the next time I look over, the bottle is empty and sitting in the baby’s seat while he snoozes on his mother’s chest, and she’s asleep with her cheek resting on his little head.

I can’t explain to you exactly why it was so flattering that firstly, this stranger trusted me with her child (do I exude, “I want to cuddle your baby” vibes while also not being creepy? Life goal accomplished!), and that in an interaction that probably lasted less than fifteen minutes, she felt that pediatrics would be a good fit for me. It was a very fulfilling moment as I was in the midst of flying across the country interviewing for pediatric residency programs and praying that one of them would pick me. 

There are some new medical students out there who are fresh into their first year, and I hope that each and every one of them has a moment like this that tells them, “You made the right choice”. And this moment wasn’t just about making the right choice of medical specialty, but the right choice about going into medicine and the right choice about how it was going to determine the trajectory of my life. In a career like medicine in which there’s so much uncertainty, it’s always appreciated to get those signs that you’re on the right track.

[medschooltutors]

When It's OK to Cancel Your Residency Interview

For some, cancelling residency interviews is the only option. Fortunately, we can talk you through how to do it.

Looking back, it was for the best. #TBT #NoRegrets