- Send a thanks letter to the program coordinator and/or director
- Before calling them to set the date for interview, try to find out with the current residents or other people in the program about the psychology of the director in terms of earlier interview candidates and later candidates. Some programs have a tendency to select from earlier candidates and some have the opposite
- Before going to the interview, you should always try to find out about your specific interview board personals and try to know their psychology. You should also know about their position in the program, their research interests and if the have any recent publications. Sometimes they feel good if you have the same research interest as them and they start talking about it
- You should try to arrive at that city or the hospitals 2-3 days before the interview and speak with the chief resident, other residents and interns. When you are asked in the interview about the program, then always quote that you have been here for 2-3 days, observing the atmosphere with residents and you really like the place. Try to make friends with the Chief resident because one of the chief residents is also in the interview board
- PREPARE – research program, research interviewers, mock interviews, rehearse answers to common questions
VERY IMPORTANT: SCHEDULE YOUR INTERVIEWS TOGETHER.
Download professional calendar logs from the internet (free), download maps of the US from websites, maps that show all the cities and towns of all states (called the click able or zoom able maps). Start adding interview dates as they come. Name each week as the week of a state, for example, NY, Texas, Michigan, Illinois are the states where most IMGs will have interviews. Plan to spend a full week in each state and schedule accordingly. Travel from state to state on weekends depending on where you live. Fly between the East Coast to the Mid West or the West Coast and travel by other means from airport to the city/ town of interview.
The above explanation on scheduling is important because intelligent scheduling saves hundreds of dollars more than the “smart deals” of southwest…
