Archive for November, 2009

If you are a medical student or an IMG preparing for your residency interview, don’t waste your time on forums and blogs that give you a huge list of questions people were asked. When it comes to residency interview questions, sometimes too much information is worse than not enough. Long lists of rare questions can distract you from the highest-yield interview questions you should focus on.

Are there times where you will be asked a medical question? Sure… some residency programs ask medical questions during the interview… Some surgical residency programs ask about specific surgical techniques. But what are you going to do? Read Harrison’s before the interview?! Read Sabiston’s?! Of course not.

Relax… be yourself… and be familiar with the highest-yield residency interview questions like the ones covered in this video:

If you could sit down with me and ask me any question about your residency interviews, what would it be?

==> Ask Me About Your Residency Interview

Wondering what to bring to your residency interview? I just posted this video on YouTube as the first in a series of video tips that just centers around your residency interview, questions you’ll be asked during your interview, etc. Check it out:

If you could sit down with me and ask me any question about your residency interviews, what would it be?

==> Ask Me About Your Residency Interview

I may not get to every question directly, but may be able to post important answers here, in special RookieDoc reports (PDF), on the RookieDoc Squidoo lens, etc.

After shining on your residency interview, that’s when the real work begins.

I have received several questions about how to respond after getting an interview for a residency program. And although most people are aware that thank you letters should be sent, many seem confused about what comes next.

In particular, I saw a question on a forum that seems pretty typical of some of the questions I’ve received lately. You can see the question below and how I responded to it:

Question (unedited): I was wondering if you get replies from the ppl you send a thank you note to , cuz somehow they never write back to me . Is that normal ? or does that mean they hate me ?

My Reply: Don’t expect them to reply.

There are several reasons why I have never replied to thank you letters written to me after I interviewed someone.

1 – There are so many
2 – Because there are so many, my reply would not be very specific for each individual (think form letter)
3 – There’s room for misinterpretation of what is written or for me to misrepresent the opinion of the Program as a whole
4 – I never thought anyone expected a reply

Email… different story. I have replied to some emails with generic things like “Wish you the best”, but I’ve regretted it, because I thought that person might be sitting at home saying, “What does that mean?!… Wish you the best? Is that like ‘have a nice life’ or is it like ‘I really thought highly of you and I wish you the best’?”

So, it’s not about being polite or not.

By the way… I really do wish you the best

Dr. Tori
RookieDoctor.com

I just started posting a whole bunch of video pearls and tips for your training on various video sites (YouTube, DailyMotion, etc). Here’s the first tip. It’s under 2 minutes… check it out.