3 Things to Avoid During Residency Interviews: Tips and Insights from Dr. Jasmine Weiss

Ready to sail through your residency interviews? Join us for our bonus episode of the B-MED podcast as we navigate through the labyrinth of residency interviews. Dr. Weiss, our host, shares her experience and insights into the common pitfalls that students often face during residency interviews. From tech issues to lack of preparation, Dr. Weiss has you covered with three key tips for things to avoid during residency interviews.🌟🌟

So, tune in and equip yourself with the knowledge and tips to confidently stride through the residency interview season.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you know what time of year it is? Yep, it's residency interview season. It's already here, and today, on the Be man podcast, I'm gonna give you three things to avoid during your residency interviews. If you're ready to hear more, let's jump right into the episode. Roll the music. Ah, here we go. It's residency interview season. Welcome back to the Black man Connect podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:35

I'm your host, dr Jasmine Weiss, and here on the Be man podcast, we like to share inspiring stories of black physicians and physicians in training, and we also want to help you move through your training, and the first step to doing that is to jump right into your residency interview season. So I want to tell you the story of a student. We'll call him Mike. Mike is gearing up for his first interview and it starts at 9 am. It's 8.58 am and he's rushing around the room trying to find the plug to his computer, trying to set up his room. His dog is barking, he's not sure if his internet connection is going to work, and he is frantic because he knows he only has about 30 seconds left before he's supposed to be on his call. So that is the first thing I want to talk about avoiding during your residency interviews Avoid issues with technology and avoid issues with your background and the setting that you're in. So the night before I want you to think about where you're going to do your interview. Is it going to be at home or in an apartment? Is it going to be at school, in a quiet setting? Wherever it is, I want you to scope it out in advance. Don't wait till the last few minutes, because we've all been there before frantically trying to hop on a call, myself included. You want to make sure your background is nice, your setup is nice, you can speak clearly, you know the connectivity is going to go well. You've already got things lined up to get started early and to jump on to your call early for your residency interviews. So that is the first thing to avoid issues with technology and issues with your setup.

Speaker 1: 2:24

For Mike, this is his very first interview. He's not really interested in this program and he's got about 15 more interviews to do after this one, so he views this as a warm up interview. What that means is, even though he's on the call, he's not really listening. He's not really attentive to what's happening. When interviewers ask him questions, he has to have them repeat the questions and, yeah, he just doesn't seem engaged in what's actually happening. I'm sad to say this, but this happens all the time where people aren't really interested in what's going on on the interview, and so my thing to avoid here is being distracted and being disinterested. You don't want to come off as seeming like you're not interested in the program you're interviewing for. This is a huge opportunity for you to learn about a program that you may or may not know is the right fit for you. So you want to make sure you're excited, you show, convey that energy that you have, you smile, you don't look solemn, you don't look disinterested, you're not easily distracted. Make sure you bring it, stay locked in to what you're doing and show them that you're passionate about potentially joining their residency class. So that's the second tip to avoid being distracted and being disinterested during your interview process.

Speaker 1: 3:54

The third thing to avoid during your interview day is not being prepared. I know we talk about this a lot here at Beeman, but preparation is key. Once you get the list of your interviewers for the day, take a few minutes to look up who they are, what departments or divisions they may be in, what types of work they do, make sure you take a few notes down and have a few questions prepared when they ask you the infamous question do you have any more questions? Every interview you do, they're going to ask you do you have any more questions? And it will feel exhausting. But you have to remember, for this interview, for this interviewer, this is their only interaction with you. So even if you've answered that question a thousand times, you've got to be energetic and prepared to answer it again. So make sure you jot down some questions and avoid not being prepared for the interview.

Speaker 1: 5:00

You want to make sure, when they ask you, you know what are your plans for your career? You've actually had time to think about this. You want to make sure you have an answer for what your future goals are. We know that your interests may change over time, but it's nice to see when a person has thought about their career plans. Are you interested in subspecializing? Are you interested in a specific type of research or advocacy? Just having an idea of what you want to do while you're in the program and what you want to do in your future career is important to convey during your interview. So avoid saying remember.

Speaker 1: 5:42

This is my third key thing avoid not being prepared, and a part of that is avoiding oh, I'm not really sure what I want to do. If you aren't sure, it's okay to say you know I'm considering subspecializing an ex, but I'm open to learning and seeing different opportunities as I go throughout residency before I make that decision. That conveys the same message as I'm not sure of what I want to do by saying I think I may want to do this, but I'm very open minded and looking forward to exploring opportunities. So all of that falls under preparation. You want to avoid not being prepared by having questions for the interviewers you're interviewing with questions about the program that you're interviewing with answers to your future goals and what you hope to do and get out of joining their residency program. Here's a bonus tip of something to avoid during your interview day Don't come across as overly arrogant.

Speaker 1: 6:43

There's a fine line between sharing your interest, being passionate about what you do, being confident in what you do, and then there's being arrogant about what you've done. You have to be sure that when you're sharing about yourself, it's at the appropriate times. You're being detailed, you're being confident, but you're not coming across as you already deserve to be here and nobody else matters and you're over talking the interviewer and you just talk about yourself, without knowing when to give and take during the interview. This all comes back down to professionalism and the ability to have a conversation and communicate. Because you're not in person, these interactions are even more critical. So you want to convey confidence. You want to make sure you interject with your experiences at the appropriate times and with the appropriate amount of excitement and energy.

Speaker 1: 7:41

So these are the three things you should avoid during your interview day. Number one make sure you avoid having technology issues as best as you can and avoid being late or distracted. Tip number two avoid being disinterested by showing your energy and confidence and being excited about the opportunity to learn more about their program. The third thing you want to avoid is not having questions when the individuals ask you if you have questions and not being prepared to answer questions about yourself during the interview. So you want to be as prepared as possible and, as a bonus, make sure you're appropriately being confident, but not being overly arrogant or out talking the interviewer or not showing great communication skills by knowing the give and take of a conversation. Remember this is your opportunity to put your best foot forward and to learn more about the programs you're interviewing with. Most people have read your application thoroughly and want to get to know you. So make sure you're in a setting and an environment where you can be yourself, be friendly, show the things you've done and learn more about the program you're interested in and the program that you're interviewing with.

Speaker 1: 8:59

As a bonus tip, I want to make sure you remember you're going to have a lot of interviews, a lot. Some may be a few days in a row, some may have more than 10, some people have more than 20, it just depends on what specialty you're interviewing for. So it's always important to make sure you take notes and kind of keep a list of the things you've enjoyed and didn't necessarily enjoy about each program. So we have a key bonus for you. If you click on the link below, you'll see our residency interview tracker. Use this as a tool to help you as you progress through each interview. That way, you'll have a little bit of a reference about what you liked and didn't like during each interview day and some notes about each program. When it comes time to make that rank list in the next few months, feel free to customize it as you need to Remember. This is all for you the things you may be looking for in a program may differ from what someone else's priorities are, so customize this residency interview tracker, however you need to, and if you have other friends who are interested, be sure to share this with them too.

Speaker 1: 10:11

We hope you enjoyed this bonus episode of the Be man podcast, but I need you to do two things. Number one comment below what tips do you have for those who may be going through the residency interview process? And number two I need you to subscribe to this channel. Every subscriber helps spread the message, so be sure to subscribe and like this video. And if you are listening to this on any podcast platform, make sure you subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast platform. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time. Until then, always remember to dream without limits. Bye, I'll come back.