WPC Residency Interview Guide

The Residency Interview: A Guide for Medical Students

AMA Members may access this resource in its entirety.
WPC Residency Interview Guide
(PDF, 112KB, requires Adobe® Reader®)

This resource addresses the following topics:

• Handling gender-based questions
• Couples Match
• Shared and part-time residencies
• Preparing for your interview
• Interview questions to ask
• Common and uncommon questions that will be asked of you
• What to bring with you

Introduction

The American Medical Association Women Physicians Congress (AMA WPC) is a special interest group comprised of physicians and medical students who are advocates for women's health issues and women in medicine professional and life balancing issues. Some of the goals of the AMA WPC include increasing the number of women physicians in leadership roles and strengthening the voice of women in organized medicine. Membership is free and open to all AMA members. Physicians and students who are not AMA members can join the AMA WPC for a limited time.

Women now represent 25% of practicing physicians and 46% of the students enrolled in medical schools¹. The increasing numbers of women in the profession might lead to the assumption that gender discrimination no longer exists. But while the problems have diminished significantly, women in medicine continue to report negative attitudes among some of their colleagues and in some of their institutions. The AMA WPC office, aids women physicians and medical students by developing products and services to address these issues. This online AMA members-only resource is one of those products.

Both men and women medical students report anxiety and confusion when faced with interviews for residency placement. Women medical students reported that they had difficulty with their residency training interviews when asked questions dealing with gender. Some women reported that they were never asked gender‑based questions, but many more reported being asked questions about their marriages and plans for childbearing. Men and women respondents alike said they were often asked questions which they found to be vague or provocative.

It became clear that the interview process is stressful for all medical students, and that medical schools seldom coach their students in how to approach residency placement. The AMA WPC Governing Council feels that providing a guide for the residency interview would be responsive to the needs of all medical students, and should include a special section for women on gender‑based questions.

This guide will not help you decide how to pick a specialty or how to interview specifically in the different specialties. Nor does it suggest how to plan your electives. Rather, it is an overview of the interviewing process, intended as a guide to start your thinking about what you will encounter. For more information about other aspects of the Match process refer to the “Recommended Resources” section at the end of this guide.

Acknowledgements

The 2003 AMA Women Physicians Congress Governing Council would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in the development of this resource: Patrice Burgess, MD; Clifford Deal, MD; Jeff Gonzalez, MD; Hillary Johnson, MD; Maurice Sholas, MD; Erin Tracy, MD; and especially Gretchen Green, MD for her immense contribution to its content, the Governing Councils of the AMA Medical Student Section and AMA Resident Fellow Section, for their support of this endeavor; the staff members of many departments and divisions across the AMA, who lent their expertise to the preparation of this document.

¹ American Medical Association. Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the US 2003-2004 edition