Ald today we’re going to start talking about residency and fellowship interviews this is going to be probably the only video that I make in English and Arabic so that it would serve both um speakers I’ll try to alternate between English and Arabic accordingly when we talk about residency
Interviews this is the most important aspect after all the hard work that you put through into this track and all the application process that you have completed successfully your preparation will require a lot of serious steps but we’re going to learn how to do this smarter not
Harder this is going to be the agenda of what we are going to do and we’re going to go through each step from before you even start the interview season until you go home after finishing the interview the first step starts before even the invitation comes to your email
With the interview to your residency or fellowship program so first thing you have to do before you get any email is to track the season a lot of us grads already know about this but for a lot of the foreign and International Medical graduates there is a lot of application
Spreadsheets that are dispersed on the reddit website and these are basically an anonymous forums that people use to track the season of interview for each specialty in a different spreadsheet for example this here is showing the general surgery residency application spreadsheet if you go and Google um the joural surgery
Residency application spreadsheet Reddit you will find it very easily and you can do the same for any other specialty in a similar fashion and you will see here there’s a link for the 2024 general surgery residency application spreadsheet and you will will be able to access that very easily and track the
Season and comment on the changes that happen day by day for each program as they send out the applications um invitations for interviews here is an example here of what the general surgery application spreadsheet looks like and you will see here that it’s just a simple uh Google
Sheet where people can go in and put their comments and write what’s happening um live and and it’s very Anonymous that’s why a lot of people are comfortable uh talking on it freely now some Specialties may not have Google spreadsheets they might have some like channel on Discord or on telegram
Or whatever so try to find where is your Specialty Group is gathering and where they’re talking and use that because that’s going to give you information and information is going to be very powerful to you to be able to track That season here is an example here I opened one of
The sheets here and chose the applicant info you can see here each applicant and try to find out for example get an idea of what people look like but you have to be careful when you look at these things I don’t want you to look at this and
Like start to fixate on the exam scores here and try to look at all the qualities and all the great things that other applicants have done before they apply for residency and start going into a panic mode it’s supernatural as a physician that you are going to look around and
You will see that you’re the least qualified person among the entire applicant pool but that’s not true you have done amazing you have done great things but keep in mind that you don’t want to have your impostor syndrome active at this point by any means also there are objective reasons why you
Should not look at these qualifications and other applicants and start comparing yourself to them and I’ll tell you why first of all there are lots of people who just lie on these spreadsheets and they’re not for coming and they don’t display the accurate information about themselves so you
Should always take the information you see here with a grain of salt and don’t trust it blindly the other thing is that if you look at these data and you try to really examine what is going on here and to get an idea of what’s going on and
You look you will find that we are just talking about what like 300 applicant for example here that are displaying their information while in fact if you look at the general surgery applicants for the same year you will realize according to the data that there has been a total of uh 2400
Applicants like competing over 1,600 spots that means if that sheet was truthful and everything was correct you have only seen 300 people out of 2,400 so you haven’t seen everything you have just seen a very very small sample of what’s going on the other thing is if you really want to
Know the data if you want to know what is going on what exactly do the applicants look like and what have they done if you are trying to prepare and things like that then you have to look at the actual data and be it is available it is
Published if you go to the match the nrmp website and you look at the research reports that they publish every year you can take a look at the charting outcomes uh for the match they have them separated they have the US uh grads separate from the MGS and separate from the
Dos but let me show you an example so that you don’t go into automatic Panic or try to compare yourself let’s look at these data and I’ll show you something very quick so for example here this is showing the um Step 2 CK scores for the
Imgs versus the US grats for like each specialty here and it’s showing here in uh blue these are the people who matched in uh green these are the people who did not match these are just uh they’re not average standard deviation they’re actually median at the horizontal line
With the interquartile range so how do you figure out like if you are within that range or not I mean not that this is going to benefit anyone but let’s say that you want to know what is your target you’re still prep preparing or studying or
Anything then you can do that with a simple calculation basically if you look at the US imgs for or the non- US imgs for example for general surgery same specialty if you want to calculate what is going on you just can um calculate this by looking at the uh median and the
Interquartile range so if you look and you zoom into here you will see that the median is 250 interquartile range is like it’s going to be like the third quarter minus the first quarter and this is going to be like 244 2 54.5 you can easily and that’s why I put
The uh the um formula here for anyone who wants to uh um learn from that so basically if you want to know what is the minimum and the maximum score of the people who applied and matched for example for general surgery for that year you will see with the simple
Calculation minimum 227 maximum 271 and everyone was in between so wait a minute someone got 227 on the CK and they matched into general surgery yes as an IMG yes the data says so and what about the people who did not match the people who did not match you will do the same
Calculation 224 266 wait a minute someone got a 266 on the CK and still did not match yes that’s what the data says so it’s basically that what what that teaches you is that you should not stop so long and like fixate on your score and think
That it will make or break your entire experience that’s not true now this was the uh scores for the imgs we can take a look at the uh us grads as well and you will see that for those who matched gen surge minimum 231 Max 269
Unmatched minimum 190 Max 270 um so go figure the lesson from that is not going to be oh I’m not going to study I’m just going to do whatever no you still have to study because this is going to benefit you to be able to treat and it
Will help you as well these still make a factor and they help but it’s not the only Factor so you still have to do well on them if you can now a lot of people start to think about number of interviews and they think that this is going to be the main
Thing they have to focus on number of interviews never matter it only gives you comfort it only gives you a placebo effect but nobody is going to become a resident or a fellow at more than a one program anyway way so if you interview at one versus 20 30 programs it doesn’t
Really make a difference you’re only going to be a resident at one of them um and also you can have so many interviews and still don’t match because this is a game that’s what we’re here to learn it’s a game it has nothing to do with
Your qualifications it has a lot and a lot and a lot it has everything to do with your personality believe it or not and to be honest a lot of times it’s not going to be about your real personality but about what kind of personality you’re going to portray in that 10minute
Interview in front of the people you’re going to work with so as much as like I don’t like that but that’s the reality of it so that’s for you to understand so that you don’t uh if you have a wonderful personality I don’t want you to lose in that game because you don’t
Understand what’s going on okay invitations for interviews always come in waves now that will of course is going to differ depending on the specialty but there are like several Specialties who like you think think oh they sent already all the interviews but most of the time that’s not 100% true
Because they send the first wave of emails as interviews and invitations to people this is a large wave they’re just testing the waters they’re just going to see how many people are going to respond it doesn’t matter what kind of a program how famous it is how prestigious it is
It’s still they’re going to send to 100 people not all of them are going to say yes not all of them are going to end up confirming that initial yes a lot of time they just sent that first wave because that’s the those are the people who have been already the
Applications that have been seen already by the um faculty they have already seen these okay send invitations to these please uh coordinator and uh I will look at the rest of the applications in the meantime so if you got an invitation as part of the second wave don’t think of
Yourself as less desirable that doesn’t mean that you’re not as good or favorite that’s not not true it it it’s just like a process it’s just a routine um and there’s another wave actually a third wave that could happen and that’s going to be like a closest possible to the interview
Date the reason behind this is because people cancel because they have some conflicting dates or they don’t have like flights or they cannot make it because of whatever schedule they have a lot of people they’re either students already or if this is a fellowship they are residents they have shifts and like
They have duties they cannot postpone these so these happen and you have to be careful that up to two days or sometimes one day before the interview date you might get an interview invitation so always be careful and like wake up for these uh waves when they
Happen and be ready if you really want such a specialty or such a program be ready to pay more in like flights or all of these Logistics in order to make it to that interview if you can so these multiple waves teach you that people cancel all the time it doesn’t
Mean that oh every one of my friends are getting interviews and I’m not getting anything that doesn’t mean you’re less that doesn’t mean you’re bad it just means that it’s just a lot and a lot of applications and paperwork it just takes time so it’s fine trust your God trust your self and
Be confident now what about Connections well here’s the thing if you have friends or colleagues uh that are residents who are residents at certain programs they could talk to the program director and get you interviews but that is a customary and a very well-known thing in some Specialties
Only um I know that for Maternal Medicine it’s very routine and a usual thing that program directors go to the residents and ask them before the season even starts hey if you guys have friends or like colleagues who are applying this cycle send me their names so that I can
Give them priority and everyone is very comfortable with that because they don’t want to look at thousands of applications if they have people who are already going to do well and like have a harmony with the current residents uh already in the program so if you have friends like that colleagues like that
Perfect that’s great if it’s in the right specialty that’s wonderful but they have to be really friends or people you know beforehand um if it might not be very um honorable if you email or message people um you have never met you have never spoken to before just because um they’re a friend
Of a friend or something um at least if you don’t know them personally have someone introduce you to them that would be the most like decent and um respectful way of connecting to people you don’t know um but don’t cold email people um like that the other thing is mentors that
Mentors can always talk to the program director and get you interviews but I don’t think that you shouldn’t use that as a first priority it should be like third fourth priority or so like let your application at least try to get itself an interview on its own if that is not
Helping if the first maybe second wave is still iffy nothing is coming then you should ask your Mentor hey can you make sure that they at least take a look because the last thing you want is for a program to send you a courtesy interview if a program director just got an email
Or a phone call from a friend who asks them hey I have that um student or research fellow or like someone that I worked with that he’s really good and I want you to get him an interview for residen Fellowship the last thing you want is the program
Director say oh yeah sure let’s just send him an email it’s not going to cost us anything at the end of the day he’s just going to come over he’s going to pay for the flight and all of that and we’re just going to spend 15 20 minutes
On him that’s not a problem just as a favor to my good old friend you don’t want that you want a program to send you an interview because they want you not because they want to please uh or do a favor to their friend so what I’m always
What I always ask my mentors is that I ask them hey can you just make sure that they looked at my application if they look at it and they don’t like it perfect I don’t want an interview there if they looked at it and they like it
They will they will know what to do that’s all what I ask because that’s usually what happens your interview you’re you’re not getting an interview because most of the time no one has seen your application so that’s what the mentors actually would be U very helpful uh when it comes to especially in
Competitive Specialties now mock interviews are extremely important because these are going to help you a lot try to establish what exactly to say how to say it especially when you know you’re going to be nervous and very irritable on the actual interview a lot of people think that they Oh Come me
Come on interview is easy I can talk all of that not really especially when you know some people are but most people even though they can talk very well in front of others or in front of strangers the interviewer is going to try to be difficult because they want to see if
You’re going to be able to handle the unusual stress that happens in residency and if you can’t handle a 10-minute difficult interviewer I don’t know how you’re going to be able to handle a three four five six seven years of residency um that are difficult every
Day so try to do a lot of mock interviews it doesn’t have to be with a physician it could be with anyone the scarier the person the more malignant the person the more un understanding the person the better you want to do a mock interview with someone who hates you or
Someone who doesn’t like you or who’s trying to pick mistakes and trying to crash you that is better that is what really will teach you um because you will be automatically stressed and the stress will be augmented by also the interviewer um but also keep in mind not
All the comments or the feedbacks from the mock interviewer are worth taking um pick what you think is fixable and what you can really benefit from and ignore what doesn’t add anything or doesn’t really apply to uh the medical field now when it comes to social media it’s way better
Please like stop and cancel or deactivate your social media until the interview season is over you are going to be Googled you are going to be looked up people are going to look up your name they’re going to read about you they’re going to try to figure as much information as they can
About you before they send you an interview or be before they actually meet you on an interview day so and this was going to keep happening until the end of the season because they going to might they might need to look at you again before they put you on the rank
Order list the reason this is important is because is they people actually can be very comfortable with their social media and they can put a lot of things over there thinking that this is something only read by their friends but a lot of people in the programs in the
Hospitals in the universities are going to look at that and come up with whatever extrapolations and understanding they want so you don’t want to be um rolling the dice on that careful it’s true that legally everything is supposed to be very equal opportunity Fair no bias no discrimination all of that but someone
You’re applying you’re applying for residency or fellowship at a place people are looking you up on their computers in their closed offices they’re going to see something they don’t like and they will decide to ignore your application and no one is going to ask them why they did it so
What I’m saying is you don’t want to give people evidences to believe their own prejudices or to act on them so you want to be very neutral very ambiguous you want to be mysterious believe it or not you don’t know how people are going to
React to whatever you do say or put I’m not saying that you’re going to put like things that uh for luxury or for fun but I’m saying any opinion of any sort could be um interpreted either way all right all of that was before you got the interview email now
Congratulations you got the interview invitation now what now you got to have some prep tools here these should be there before the email hits your inbox because you’re going to have to act quickly once you get that email these are the four items that I want you to prepare before your
Email gets that first invitation first you got to have an email application on a smartphone and you got to set the notifications to be pushed you don’t want them to come after a minute or after five minutes you want them to come immediately I found the most reliable
One to be Gmail but you can use whichever there is some Mis mystery that keeps Distributing among foreign graduates that oh it’s much better to use your institutional doedu email on the match this is not this is nonsense don’t please don’t do that if that institutional email is not quick
Enough in telling you you received an email use a Gmail I have used Gmail for my residency and fellowship applications and I’ve used outlooks some people use Yahoo use whatever it is as as long as it’s a decent email nothing like um uh dancing lollipop or arrogant
Surgeon do um edu or whatever don’t don’t do these use a professional looking email but uh any email provider that’s reliable um the second is going to be the calendar you need a calendar on your phone that calendar I want you to use it and that’s where that tracking
Information and tracking the season uh element is going to come in handy because you’re going to fill that calendar with whatever programs that you know are going to have interviews on the same day now for example let’s say you’re applying to 50 programs for example and you went
Through each program of them and you were able to find okay what are the interview dates these programs are going to send out and you realize that for example 15 of them they have interview dates happening on the same day now this is going to help because if you fill your calendar
Now and for example let’s say you come to UT Southwestern for example and you realize they have an interview day on October 13 and also on um let’s See and October 20 and then this this way you go to October 13 and you put in a new event and you put UT Southwest one out of two and you go to October 20 and you put a new event UT Southwest two out of
Two this way you know if you got an interview invitation to UT Southwestern and they will always going to give you the option if they don’t then they don’t that’s it you’re stuck but if they give you the option they tell you hey we want to interview you on one of these dates
Pick one then you know okay it’s going to be this date or that date you’re going to do the same for all the other programs this way one look at your calendar and you will able to tell oh UD Southwestern just sent me an interview they have two dates October 13 and
October 20 but on October 13 the other program let’s see uh Yale is also interviewing people and I they haven’t sent out invitations yet and if they do I really would want to go so it’s better for me to pick October 20 for UT Southwest so that I can keep
October 13 open in case Yale send me an invite see what I’m saying that’s the whole purpose of that calendar so that you could have it in front of you so once you get the email you quickly look at the calendar you quick respond picking the correct
Date all right the other thing that you have to have and you have to keep is a response template you have to keep that on your drafts in the Gmail app or whatever template you have and this is going to be ready to respond within one minute of receiving the interview
Invitation email the reason I want you to be too quick because they sent these invitations as I said the first wave they’re testing the waters they send these emails to multiple people the sooner the quicker is going to be the one getting that invitation it happens that people would actually respond late
And they don’t end up being confirmed even though they got the interview invitation but it’s like ah sorry hard luck you were late so that’s why you have to have that ready the response template and I wrote one here for you that that’s exactly the one I actually
Have been using it doesn’t have to be any more than that just thank you I’m available to interview on whatever date you of course going to pick the date once you look at the calendar first and tell me if you need anything thank you boom send that’s
It now the last thing you need is going to be your own impression spreadsheet we spoke about the spreadsheet about the other people but that’s going to be your own spreadsheet this is going to be a place where you’re going to put your notes about each program if you go to
Multiple interviews so that you can have some information about them and then you can have to compare them later on when you compile your rank order list these are for example some of the factors that I have been using but of course everyone can use whatever factors that they feel
Most important to them but each of these factors is something that would matter uh of course it’s going to depend on the specialty and it’s going to depend on what you uh learn values and uh makes the most importance based on your consultations with other uh Specialists and mentors of uh
Yours okay you got the interview you got the email now you’re ready to start your bookings and start packing for everything now this is going to be important so first of all never check in a bag please do not check in a bag always keep your bags on you a carry-on
And a personal item and some stuff in your pocket that’s it if you were obligated to check in a bag okay no you can’t do anything about it but please don’t voluntarily check in a b now what do you need to have with you and you can
Have a screenshot of that if you want um in your personal item please have the stuff that you can not afford losing if they compel you to check in a bag small airplane or whatever these are the stuff you have to have without them there is no interview that’s usually I keep that
Personal item as a garment bag or that’s the thing that I put all my suits and the things that are essential in I always have two suits in case one got torn like stained whatever if you’re still trying to buy these things and I’m having this video for people who are
Already like this is the first time they ever do anything like that you always have to have like a couple of Suits keep to the Navy or gray don’t have black suits I know this is like old information for people who are used to this but for uh those who don’t know
Navy or gray are the professional interview suits Black is for special occasions to shirts keep to white or the baby blue two ties and nothing like flashy or too loud uh keep it simple and professional uh classic belt also keep to uh black or brown classic socks also keep to these colors classic
Shoes as well the shoes please do whatever it takes to get shoes that are comfortable for longdistance walking that goes for ladies please avoid high heels unless you’re going to have high heels and flats and use the high heels only inside the interview offices and then change immediately to Flats the
Interviews are going to have you tour the hospitals and this is extensive walking if you’re wearing uncomfortable shoes and the days are really long so try to um have comfortable shoes please um the carry-on bag that’s actually the stuff that you can afford losing if they compel you to check it in
So that’s where I keep an umbrella a small one uh some toiletries whatever you need to Bath and your shampoo and whatever things that you use your laptop your clothes I’m talking about like um uh indoor close um wrinkle release spray this is something that you can buy
Easily it’s just like a spray that you put on like something and it helps like iron it that’s instead of like holding an iron and like carrying steamer with you and things like that also you don’t need a steamer if you have a garment bag you can put your like suits here and
They’re not going to wrinkle um tight to go pen simple thing that you can buy also in case of any small stains emergency medicine whatever meds you take Tylenol please and the car charger these things are um easily forgotten in your pocket always have your ID or
Driver’s license or a passport um so that you can travel breath mints you’re going to need those every day please if you don’t use them you have have to use them lip moisturizer especially because most interviews are in the winter and people who are not used to that are
Going to have really not very pleasant looking uh lips uh when they talk now let’s talk about you travel now and it’s going to be the day before the interview itself and you always want to arrive the day before the interview is never the morning of now when it comes
To the flight that’s what I said to always arrive one day before and never book The Last Flight of the day because if that flight got cancelled or delayed you lost your interview you always want to book a flight that if cancelled or if you miss they will put you on the next
Flight which is taada the last flight so at least you can make it still for accommodation a lot of people will try to save money on the interview Trail and they’ll try to go to airbnbs and things like that I learned very hard and um the
Hard way you always want to be in a hotel doesn’t matter what kind of a hotel it doesn’t matter what kind of um service or excellent amazing Airbnb or things like that look like a hotels are better for different reasons first you can have room Alternatives it happened
To me twice that I go to an Airbnb only to find it that the room doesn’t look exactly like the photos or there is something major that is I cannot go to an interview without and the owner doesn’t have other options it’s only one room and you rented it so they cannot
Accomodate anything else while a hotel they have 100 rooms if one doesn’t work they have other rooms for you uh there’s always an iron there’s always a reliable bed a reliable temperature that nobody else is sharing it with me um you if you miss your toiletries they always have a
Dental kit they always have a shaving kit you can keep your luggage in the reception of the hotel after a checkout this is like a standard international thing if you check out you can leave your bags there and they will keep it for you until you’re done with the
Interview your back you pick it up you go to the airport they might also have some shuttles from to to the airports so that’s why hotels are way better for me than Airbnb and they are way worth the U difference in the price Transportation if you are if you
Drive please cars are better more reliable easy you can work with them it happens so many times that I go to places where Uber is not reliable they accept the ride and then they cancel it and I can’t afford to be late to an important interview so cars at least are
More reliable um same thing public transport yes you can use them in some places but it’s way better to have your own uh ride now for the dinner or the social or the cocktail reception whatever they call it it’s whatever night activity they have the night before the interview sometimes the night
Off um if you have time if you’re interested go that’s fine it’s nice but it’s not mandatory unless they say it’s mandatory go to have fun go to listen uh please try to like resist the urge to talk and be obvious and apparent and
Um uh run the show don’t do that go to have fun go to listen to what people are talking about because a lot of actually most people match every year without saying a single word on these socials without even going to these socials so the socials are not really they don’t matter
Whatsoever I I can tell you that they have zero benefit to you but they can have a lot of harm now the thing is the the reason I’m saying this is because socials are actually an opportunity for people to judge you um very unfairly so to speak
Um and and and like speaking of that like resonance will like always try to ask you hey do you have any questions or they try to talk to you that’s fine fine talk that’s okay but always keep it as a priority to listen more than to talk um
If you like and and I put that example here because I I know it’s it’s something major if people uh will ask you a million times hey do you have questions and like please don’t like ever like try to fill the awkward silence and uh try to help them and ask
Something cuz you want to ask something uh don’t try to be a hero please um they weren’t appreciated they will only judge you and they you don’t want that because they are not uh they’re probably not going to remember very well a lot of them are just still residents
They don’t have any training in um how to evaluate applicants or they haven’t even seen your application believe it or not so they don’t even know who they’re dealing with so um also if you’re a foreign grad that’s an an extra layer of a problem because they have no idea what
Kind of uh challenges you have been through so they don’t know anything and they will take the smallest thing you say or do and um you have no idea how they’re going to um interpret it so and and you don’t want to roll the dice on that uh
Whatsoever all right moving on morning of interview now dress up be awesome be fantastic be the best best version of yourself what I mean by that has nothing to do with what you are going to wear it means everything inside your brain now we’re going to talk about
These things but I want your confidence to dress up more than anything but also you need to look fabulous now these are like some elements that I know are repetitive for a lot of people people but for those who don’t know it um for for gentlemen for example it’s okay to
Have a full beard totally okay if you’re a Muslim if you’re um if your beard is grown that is totally okay just be confident about it just be fine and happy and um strong with it that’s okay uh just don’t go with like a one day old
Grown beard that just means that you didn’t Shake it so but if it’s a full grown that’s fine um your hair make sure it’s fine your face make sure it’s like well washed your nails uh put perfume but don’t overdo it I know a lot of people will have these advice that oh
Don’t put perfumes on inie because people have allergies that’s I’ll tell you what to do for Men We tend to um sweat very easily so it’s much better for men to actually have something deodorant will be great but but of course a little bit of perfume just one
Spray is going to be okay but that’s it for ladies um hijab is okay just be confident about it no one is going to be bothered by the hijab and if someone is bothered by it trust me you want to know that before you end up as a resident
Under their control especially if if if someone is bad or racist or tell you something you don’t like or you feel they’re not going to be welcoming to uh Muslims or to uh ladies with hijab trust me you would you should thank them for being clear about it just on the
Interview you don’t want to be under their um uh uh control and uh give them the power to hurt your career uh if you end up being a resident uh with them um for ladies no or minimal professional makeup and no perfume for ladies no perfume because actually the perfumes and ladies
Are really um going to be very obvious and sometimes more than obvious um for most and that’s at least like as as someone who interviewed a lot of people I can attest to that I mean it’s very easy to tell once there is like a feminine perfume in the room it’s very
Difficult to tell once there is a male perfume in the room for some reason it’s not as obvious uh actually help so there’s a difference here that’s why the difference um the difference in the body order between both so that’s why uh no manicure no perfume it’s very it’s much
Better to be very um clean and uh professional dressed up but not EX in an exaggerated manner now when it comes to professionalism arrive early cuz you will be late and you will be late because this is a new place a new building a new office usually happens on
A Saturday when there’s no one to ask and there is always something that happens on the day of the interview for some reason Uber is always late the car is the parking is is always something so you will be late so try to be ridiculously early but not too much like
30 minutes 40 15 minutes uh early is excellent silence your phone but do not turn it off if you turn it off and they need to call you to check on you or to tell there is an update in the program or they want to interview you first
Instead of last or something like that the only way they can reach you is by calling you so just put it to silent be polite be nice to everyone you have no idea I have read this advice million times and I felt as a beginner that it’s something ridiculous because who’s going
To be rude and who’s going to be uh arrogant for people on an interview I mean that’s just like nonsense you would be surprised you have no idea idea there are so many people that are screaming rudess and you will see them on the zoom interviews as well they will be too
Obvious to not just the interviewers but also to the co- interes um so be polite to everyone be kind to everyone um not in a fake manner like in general be be be a decent person um you have to um well now these questions are just like I’ve been asked these questions lot
Will anyone judge me if I eat too much food no eat the whole breakfast and dinner if you want no one is going to care just don’t eat other people’s food um I oh I have to go to the bathroom like 20 times that’s fine go the
Bathroom and live there just like get up get out to go to the interview itself and like go back to the bathroom if you want no one is going to Care is it okay if I read Quran there trust me it’s totally fine I’ve I have done all of
These so it’s totally okay if you want to drink all the coffee if you want to talk to the other applicants if you want not to talk to the other applicants if you don’t want to talk to anyone except the people inside the interview offices that’s totally fine as well I have done
All of it I have done well so do I have to socialize if you don’t want to talk totally fine no one really cares now special considerations for the virtual interview now virtual interviews on Zoom are like more common because they save money and all but people still
Hate it applicants and programs because it doesn’t give you a good sense about the applicant as a program and for the applicants that doesn’t give you enough sense about the city and the hospital um because the virtual is a very selective thing you basically the program shows you what they want to show
You and you show them what you want to show them because it’s not real okay now when it comes to Virtual you have to set the scene first test all your electronics text your camera your microphone your computer your Wi-Fi very frequently Asked question the background a plain empty wall is 100%
Okay nobody cares no one is going to wonder oh how come you don’t have like a very well elaborate very orchestrated decorated beautifully background no one is going to Care plain empty wall is fine anything you put in that background behind you anything you put within the
Scene of that camera is subject to question you it means you want to be asked about it if you put a plant you will ask someone will ask you oh do you like plants what what is the name of that plant oh how do you grow it blah
Blah blah if you put a guitar you will be asked to play it if you put a books you will be asked what the latest book you read a flag whatever it is people are going to assume you put it there to be asked about it and don’t put a blurry
Background it’s distracting put a clean background um so that people can see you and focus on you and what you’re saying rather than being distracted by what’s behind you or around you um totally okay to interview on your phone or your tablet or your iPad but
Only if you have it fixed on a desk don’t walk around and like interview there because that means people are going to be distracted by the background that keeps changing behind you don’t do that so sit somewhere put it somewhere the scene should be fixed without
Movements um and don’t forget to put it on a do not disturb so that you don’t get any incoming calls uh during the interview now before the interview starts make sure you have enough light light should always come from behind the computer or the camera towards your face
Not from behind your face now if you look here this is exactly how how the lighting should be you should always have the light from behind the screen pointing towards you on the chair this way you have the best visibility to your face in front of the interviewer you
Have your light coming from behind you like the other photo here this is actually going to make your face look very dark as if you’re a ghost who is coming out of the dark haunted house to look at the interviewer in the camera so please don’t do that um noise try to go
And have your interview at a place where there is the minimum amount of noise um but if there is keep con keep your confidence and stay strong if something happened if there’s an interruption if someone walked into the room your parents your kids your brothers your roommate your
Cat your dog whatever it is take it simply just like introduce them oh hey here’s my cat here’s my wife here’s um and you just like ask them to leave come and you come back to the interview very cool and very um easygoing okay uh Don’t
Panic don’t be angry don’t do any of this that’s totally fine life happens um the same thing for oh wear pants please don’t do a virtual interview with uh sh or without wearing your whole suit it happens a lot that people ask you to stand up to do something or to like
Perform something or to like show them something and it’s not going to be great if you’re in um uh less than your full um suit um have a pen and paper so that if you want to take any notes you can write them down don’t type on the computer
While you’re having you interview because the noise of the um keyboard board is going to be very distracting um you can just imagine if I start doing this while we’re talking it’s just going to be too loud um chair and desk uh stationary chair is good if you have a
Chair that keeps moving and like swaying and swiveling it’s just going to be too distracting have your coffee your water your snacks whatever things you want Within Reach uh next to you before you start backup WiFi um it it I mean I hate to say it but of course if you were if
You have a trouble with the Wi-Fi make sure you have an extra one a myfi USB whatever it is um same thing uh it’s okay to have a wired headphone um just make sure they have a microphone it happened to me twice that I would buy a wired headphone only to realize that
They are for hearing only but they don’t have an integrated microphone in them uh and I’ve seen it happening to a lot of interviews as well okay okay now this is going to be important what happens in the brain of the person sitting on the other side of
The table the interviewer what is this person thinking what exactly is going on in the head of the program director and the other interviewers were are going to meet me that’s a very important thing to think about are they evil are they good what is going on now you have to keep in
Mind that in the program’s mind the fact that they sent you an invitation to interview means that you are good means that you are equal to all the other invited applicants means that you’re equal to all the current residents and fellows they have it does not mean
You’re there invited for an interview on probation or because they want to try you if they like they’re going to keep you if they don’t like you you’re still within the return policy no it means you passed so stop looking at the other applicants thinking oh I’m here for an
Interview and there are people from Harvard from Hopkins from blah blah blah people who have done 280 on the steps have done this and that stop thinking this way it doesn’t because as I can tell you exactly the programs are not considering your CV at this point they
Ask you to come over so that they can see if you’re G to be good fit for them or not so that’s what you should focus on your personality so you passed and that’s what matters now that takes us to what exactly is the purpose of this
Interview it’s unlike a lot of people who might tell you that oh it’s just interview so that they can pick the best and the brightest and the most qualified person that’s not true the whole purpose of R and fellowship interview is to find the fittest person is to find the person
Who have the highest like sort to speak score of personal ity Harmony this is exactly how much we are going to be um living our daily life in the hospital with this person with the least amount of friction or troubles so usually this is calculated based on the notes the interviewer is
Going to take when while you answer his or her questions no one is going to look at your application again for the most part once you’re invited so at the end of the day they’re going to all the interviewers are going to meet together they’re going to talk about all the
Applicants and they’re going to sit there to rank them according to that um sort of score of Personality thing um this is something I made up there’s no such thing as score of personality but I’m but I’m telling you what goes in their minds when they are meeting with
You that’s exactly what they are looking for now that takes us to the interviewer the interviewer I want you to keep a few things in mind when before you go to the interview always assume they know nothing about you here’s the thing the interviewer got about maybe 20 or 30 or 40 applications
For people like you that he had to read and then have to interview them he probably read these applications like several weeks ago he forgot all about you guys already and he’s not getting paid for that he is not going to be doing this while he has more important
Things to do like seeing patients in clinic finishing o uh doing some paperwork doing whatever is going to really matter for their own daily uh life and daily responsibilities most people actually hate doing interviews it’s it’s not something that people enjoy at all so I don’t want you to sit
In front of an interviewer and think oh my God I I want to say this but it’s already in my CV I don’t want to repeat myself for the love of God please repeat yourself please tell them what they don’t know even if it’s already on your application interviewers have already
Forgotten your application um your job in that interview is to summarize things for them is to feed them info about you and to summarize everything in your life in just 10 minutes the notes they’re taking in front of you are going to be the only source of info they’re going to
Use when they talk about you at the end of the day meeting when they compile the rank order list for all the applicants they interviewed you want the person to take lots of notes about you if and and people are actually two types here when it comes to interviewers some
Interviewers they the moment you walk in they start asking you questions and collect information and they’re taking notes about you for these talk talk talk talk give them info give them info ignore the fact that they’re not looking you in the eye they are writing down things they’re not writing down things
Like different like or like away not related to you they are writing notes about you they’re writing what you what you’re saying actually and and um give them everything because that means they’re starting everyone with zero and adding up score uh the more good information you provide about
Yourself the other type of interviewers are people who actually want to talk rather than hear you and these are um pretty common actually um if you go there and they want to talk shut up maintain eye contact be a good listener engage that means they start everyone with a full
Score and they subtract down if you are a bad conversationalist if you’re a self-centered person who’s arrogant who wants to talk and you care about nobody else except you I had so many interviews like that at places that rank me so high and R me places rank me to match
Actually and I didn’t say a word in the whole interview I was there just listening to the person talking to me um now every program and this is very important actually to keep in mind every program will have at least one interviewer who will play the bad cop
Game now this is a tactic it’s not real it’s impressive you’re going to go for example someone one attending you know from before who is a very kind and a very sweet person you walk into the room to interview with him thinking a he’s a nice person that must be a great
Interview you walk in and suddenly he is evil he is treating you poorly he is a totally unbearable person that’s not real this is something like a this is a set scene this is basically a stress response test um it’s kind of like the fraternities and sororities in colleges
Where they do The Hazing thing to see if you’re fit enough to join their um special group um but here there’s some more wisdom about the residency or Fellowship stress and all of that the interviewer and I’m putting here examples of things I have faced myself in uh some of my interviews interviewer
Eating in front of me playing with their phone interrupting me uh I I I remember very well that person who told me I don’t understand why don’t you just go back to Egypt I had that what the hell is University of Alexandria um so you really think you’ll be a resident here
You’ve done all that crap but I’ll be honest with you I don’t feel you’re good at I’ve heard all of that and you will probably hear something um of that sort and the main thing is going to be don’t lose your cool stay calm stay like decent never
Try to shout back or like treat them similarly or things like that because um that’s not really the right way to handle this um whoever it comes from a patient will do this to you at a certain point and um it life will do this to you
From different um people so you have to learn how to take these and either absorb them or deflect them away without letting them really affect you and that takes us to the interview personality what is going to be the personality you want to have during your interview
Now again unlike a lot of places where you will read this uh oh just be yourself do not be yourself do not be yourself do not be yourself this is a game nobody’s being themselves the other thing I hear this a lot from people who are either foreign grads or people who
Are from um my uh friends um oh I’m an introvert I don’t do will on on in interviews because I’m an introvert actually the like statistically the percentage of real introverts is is really really low um mostly you’re actually just anxious um what you need to do is to practice
Doing that and carrying that personality um a lot um what you need to do is like and and and I’m putting here exactly what I do and what a lot of people who are really uh successful in that I’ve seen doing they walk in you conquer you
Dominate you walk in as if you are the interviewer as if you are the person who has been working in this place for 20 30 years you conquer you dominate you walk in hello hi and you do a firm handshake oh nice to meet you thank you so much for having
Me and you sit up you’re like straight in your back there and you smile and you have an eye contact with them and you speak up don’t be shy don’t be speaking very quietly and no one could hear you no speak up be brave be confident they’re not going to bite you they’re
Not going to eat you actually you should eat them um so ignore the interviewer’s facial expressions these are always not fake I should say they’re all they all have this like Poker Face which like they don’t give you any interaction or any reaction to what you’re saying you don’t
Know if what you’re saying is good or bad or pleasing them or upsetting them do not care keep talking keep not not keep talking complete your answer like don’t stop or don’t be hesitant because they’re not giving you a welcoming or encouraging uh smile um it’s like oral exams that we
Have in med school um you want to guide the interviewer and take them where you want to be asked about this is a tactic that I learned from a very uh nice sudin physician uh he would go into any interview and uh the interviewer always
Ask oh hi how was your trip here and it was like oh it was great I had time to catch up on my research and of course the interviewer has no way but to ask oh what’s your research about Tada and then he takes them to talk about his research
I mean this is a fine tactic but I don’t think it’s great for every interview because you don’t want to just tell the people nothing about the other things that we’re going to talk about and just keep like wasting the interview time talking about one aspect you want to
Fill them in on everything they want to know about you um self-confidence um there’s always this fine balance between how do I come across as self-confident but at the same time I don’t want to be arrogant or like cocky and the good thing about this uh you always have to
Say that credit goes to your mentors or like the if there’s a reason why I’ve done all these things is because your mentors have been great and all of that um your biggest enemy believe it or not in the entire interview process is going to be modesty and impostor syndrome now
Modesty is a virtue I’m never going to change my opinion on that but um the interview is actually the only place where people invited you in so that you could tell them very frankly and openly why you are good a lot of time this is not seen on CVS or actually if
You sit on the other side of the table and you start looking at CVS you will understand that a lot of people because you have never seen other applicants CVS you think ah it’s very easy to figure out who’s good who’s bad it’s hard way harder than you think and after a few
Applications everything is going to be blurry everyone is going to be as good or as bad it’s going to be very difficult to say person a is better than person B so you help us or you help the interviewer know how good you are without being shy if you’re shy you’re
Just withholding information from me and I and I have no idea what how good you are um also never talk bad or look down on anyone never talk bad about a place you have been to never say that you want to leave like this hospital or this University to go
To this Hospital University because the first one is bad poor they didn’t treat you well blah blah blah don’t do that because that just tells the people listening to you that you’re going to do the same to them once you move on to the next phase of your
Life at the end of the interview you walk out the same way you walked in conquer and dominate thank you and give a firm hand shake this was a pleasure thank you so much for the opportunity you just leave making them feel wow this guy or this girl is just
Amazing it just like give it like they infused life whatever they uh they land now let’s come to the questions
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