What residency applicants should know before interviews

There’s a lot on the minds of fourth-year medical students as they prepare for residency interviews, which are largely going to take place virtually. In speaking with medical students, resident physicians and faculty over the years a few key topics have emerged that offer insight on how to prepare for residency interviews. 

Here are some of the major themes, thoughts and tips about the interview process that will help medical students prepare.

1. Know what not to do

   1. One red flag in the interview process: Being a box-checker. Simply saying you did something—and not explaining how it influenced your career path or fed your interests—makes it seem like you did it to simply check the box as an applicant. Learn about other red flags in the interview process.

2. Know what you’ll spend

   1. The lack of in-person interviews does present at least one silver lining: A savings on residency interview travel costs. The FREIDA™ Residency Calculator is an AMA member-exclusive tool that helps medical students plan ahead for residency application costs and interview expenses. How much will you save, and what should you expect to spend on the rest of the application process?

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3. Ask the right questions

   1. As a physician, the questions you will ask of your patients will go a long way toward determining a diagnosis. As a medical student moving into the realm of practice, questions you ask during your residency interviews will be a vital part of determining which residency programs are the best fit.

4. Practice for a virtual format

   1. You may have some idea what the line of questioning will be, but you still need to be ready for interviews. Ideally, that means finding colleagues and faculty members who can put you through mock interviews. Another key method of rehearsing for interviews is to record your mock interviews so you can assess your performance.

5. Plan to manage interview invitations

   1. Data indicates that most interview invitations do not go out on weekends or evenings, so they largely arrive during business hours. To navigate that, students may want to take some extra steps. Those steps may include setting up a separate email just for residency applications that has notifications enabled to let students know when an invitation arrives.

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6. Follow post-interview protocol

   1. The after-the-interview do’s and don’ts are going to be program-specific. For instance, if a program requests that you do not follow up, heed that request. If a program allows for follow-up emails or letters and you never hear back, current residents say not to read into it.

The AMA Road to Residency series gives medical students, international medical graduates and others guidance on preparing for residency application, acing your residency interview, putting together your rank-order list and more.