Residency Interviews During a Pandemic: Two Unofficial Tips for Virtual Social Events

Pandemic or no pandemic, residency interview season is once more upon us. Back when I was myself a neurotic residency applicant in 2018, I was grateful for resources like First Aid for the Match and various other residency interview guides to help me think about all the more unspoken parts of interviewing well. As the first member of my family to navigate the U.S. medical school and residency system, I didn't necessarily have home grown personal connections to tell me how to present myself and effectively make new professional connections. In my family, the strategy was for your grades and CV to speak for you. But of course, there's a lot more to interviewing than that. What follows are some tips for handling the interview circuit in a season where practically everything is virtual.

I am by no means an expert on interviewing, but I do attend virtual recruitment events. Some of the tips I'm mentioning here may seem obvious to you; if so, great! If not, then you're probably the target audience I'm hoping to help. To be clear, I don't think it's 'bad' to not know the culture for networking over Zoom; we're all learning that together this year. I do think some of us are probably learning it at different rates, perhaps in part because some of us are better connected than others. And that isn't really fair. I'm hoping this post (and perhaps future posts if I notice new 'hacks' for interviewing) can serve as a resource for those applicants out there who aren't as well-connected, who don't have some insider connection to tell them about the unspoken stuff.

1. Keep your camera on so we can see your face (and more importantly, see that your face seems attentive, engaged, enthusiastic). This makes us think you're more interested in the program. If you can't have your camera on, then it's EXTRA important, when question/introductions time comes up, to be one of the people who unmutes to ask a question or introduce themselves. This again is a marker of interest and enthusiasm; we notice these things.

We don't care if you have a virtual background or not. But if you don't have a virtual background on, make sure the stuff behind you looks neat.

2. If people decide to go around and take turns doing brief introductions, this is actually an incredible opportunity for you to show off how socially awesome you are. Remember pre-pandemic when you met big groups and there were so many new people you couldn't remember all their names or keep track of everything they rambled on about? Everyone's name is on their image in Zoom. This isn't just a random fact. You can use this to your advantage. Imagine this: Annie, Bob, and Carol from the residency program introduce themselves and add some fun fact about themselves. While you're anxiously waiting for your turn to say your fun fact, you could be jotting down their names and what their fun fact was, either on a paper or on a discreetly* opened Word document on your laptop. Then when it's your turn, BAM, you can say "Hello I'm [Your Name]! Similar to Annie and Carol I also like soccer, and Bob has me very excited about the local craft beer scene." Amazing. You can now be the super version of you who knows everyone's names and can refer to them by their names as if you're actually good with names and faces. Who's gonna know? Obviously don't reference absolutely everyone who mentioned any fun fact about themselves. Keep it to just a few. It makes Annie, Bob, and Carol feel liked, and it helps establish rapport. Especially if you're going to specialize in psychiatry, you should consider that many psychiatrists care about your ability to establish rapport.

*People can see when the brightness of the screen changes on your face so be careful about switching windows to Word or email or the website of your choice.

Disclaimer: My views are my own and not intended to represent any residency program's official take on interviews.