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The Myers Hurt Method Podcast

Countdown to the MATCH - the official podcast of the Dr Myers Hurt AKA the Match Gurus is the only podcast dedicated to helping residency applicants shine on interview day. Dr. Myers Hurt discusses specifics involving the NRMP and ERAS, and dissects common (and uncommon) residency interview questions for The Match.
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Oct 10, 2016

While I’m sure you all hang on my every word, just in case any of you skip to the next track at the at the end of every show, I want to lead off this episode with a reminder that my partners and I are primarily a boutique coaching and mock-interview service. Too many times we’ve seen very strong applicants either sound average or even absolutely tank their interviews, and conversely weaker candidates outshine their peers and end up high on rank order lists. Interview day means a lot, you only have a handful of hours with a handful of people to impress, and there are things we can teach you that help you put your best foot forward when it matters the most. Our calendar is filling up quickly, but we offer a free 15 minute trial to show you what we can do, and our most popular package is now discounted for the remainder of this 2017 season to just $499 for three 30 minute interviews.  After the first interview, you’ll end up with explicit feedback on your verbal and nonverbal communication style, specific diction to use when answering questions that will help you stand out, and how to work the strongest points of both your personality and CV into the questions you are sure to be asked. We do the same homework I ask you to do and we role-play specific programs in specific cities to best simulate your actual interview day. The remaining two interviews give you a chance to put that feedback into action, and approach questions with a new angle that highlights what program directors want to see.  It is not too late to any of you who are listening to this in the middle of or even towards the end of your interview trail - if you were just blindsided by questions you didn’t prepare for, or had confidence walking into your first few interviews but now want to polish some rough edges before you talk with your dream program - drop us a line as well and we can look at our schedule.

Allright - for today’s topic, to cap off the questions you should be asking programs, I want to simply read an article I wrote for Student Doctor Network entitled The Million Dollar Question.  Link is in the shownotes, and it is based on advice I’ve given countless times, and still think holds true. I want to read it only so that the content isn’t diluted by one of my usual ramblings, and so that you can reflect on why you think it is important, and how it can help you ultimately  decide on the program that is right for you.

The Million Dollar Question

 

Interview season. The time of year that roads and skies swarm with the best and brightest medical students to all corners of the country taking aim at the next step in their training – residency. Believe it or not, behind the shiny brochures, extravagant dinners and polished powerpoint slides, residency programs are just as nervous about attracting top talent as you are about getting your top choice.

The interview trail is usually a blur of dry cleaning bills, rental cars, and the smell of breath mints masking cheap coffee mixed with nervous sweat. The broken record of the obligatory “strengths and weaknesses” question loops in your head. One of the more terrifying moments in the day comes when an interviewer asks: “What questions do you have for me?” Regardless of who asks it–the intern only four months above you in training or the gatekeeping program director–you know you have to ask something. So why not make it count?

Things like call schedule, orientation timelines, research requirements, away rotations, moonlighting, and meal plans may look important to you on paper, but should not be foundations of choosing one program over another. In fact, the best questions regarding most of these details can not truly be asked until you are in fact already a resident. The proverbial hindsight being of course 20/20. Is a meal plan a perk if the food is terrible? Moonlighting opportunities? Moot point if your paperwork and 45-minute commute are already pushing duty hour restrictions. It is simply not possible to ask an informed question on the specifics of most logistical things before setting foot in the hospital.

The best bang for your buck in this golden opportunity to ask them anything boils down to one “Million-Dollar” question:

Where do the graduates go?

Most programs are proud to tell you, and will have specific data on hand for at least the last 3 to 5 years. Fellowship, small group practice, academic center, private practice, rural areas, urban centers, with program alumni, unemployed, mom’s basement–the nuance in these specifics will speak volumes.

From this data you can easily glean:

  • board passing rate
  • research requirements
  • the reputation of the program over geographic regions
  • the reputation of the program in competitive fellowships
  • a network of alumni to help with future job placement
  • faculty strengths
  • procedure exposure
  • much, much more

If all graduates of the plastic surgery program you are looking at go into a maxillofacial fellowship at an Ivy League university hospital, and that aligns with your goals, great! You can assume the program has a good reputation, skilled specialty faculty, sound research, strong professional conference participation, and that residents see a heavy maxillofacial caseload. If this is not in tune with your dream of becoming a burn specialist however, you may want to look at programs with a different focus.

You may feel like a specific family medicine program trains the most well-rounded doctors by exposing them to a rural patient population and teaching procedures like colonoscopies and cesarean sections. If on the other hand, you were planning on practicing in an urban area after graduation, those procedures will be lost to specialist. A residency program at a larger training institution might be better suited to your future goals of working as a primary care physician in an urban, specialist-heavy environment.

Variety is paramount here. Private practice, fellowship, rural, urban, hospital setting, outpatient setting, in-state, out of state, etc. A diverse mix of jobs tells us that the graduates leave the program prepared for anything and are competitive in any marketplace.

Free white coats each year? That will run the department a few dollars annually. Free food? Maybe a few thousand dollars over the course of a residency. Daycare? I’ll admit that might be hard to pass up in certain instances. Upon graduation, however, the stakes go up exponentially. Consider the above scenarios: a plastic surgery program can graduate three to four residents annually with average starting salaries in the $300,000 range. A family medicine program can churn out six to eight graduates with starting salaries of about $150,000. Crunch those numbers, and you guessed it: $1,000,000 worth of contracts signed by each graduating class.

Follow all of the usual advice: put your best foot forward, have fun, be yourself, and get ready to talk about the summer research poster you submitted at least 30 times. When the time comes–and it will–remember the “Million Dollar” question, and pay attention to how it either expands or limits the scope of your future practice. Most importantly, envision yourself and your level of future happiness in the scenarios that unfold.

Closing:

Short and sweet today - thanks for listening, as usual I hope you enjoyed the content and find it useful.

Please subscribe to catch each new episode as they are uploaded, and if you find the content valuable please take a bit of time to leave a review on iTunes to help get the word out to other med students looking for answers.  Also feel free to give us some feedback on what you think we could improve on.

Remember to send your questions to us through our website at www.thematchgurus.com, or twitter @theMatchGurus - I personally answer every email and twitter DM we get.

To join the Myers Hurt Method Course, visit https://www.drmyershurt.com/themyershurtmethodcourse

 Our book is also available on Amazon in paperback and eBook - less that 10 bucks - it is a quick read you can easily knock out on the flight to your next interview. If you find it helpful, please take some time to leave a review for that on Amazon as well - it means a lot. And of course, any of you looking for in-depth specialty-specific preparation for your interviews drop me a line and we can discuss our coaching packages in more detail. Take care.

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