It has been months preparing and passing the licensing step examinations (USMLE), volunteering as an observer/extern, completing your research projects, trying to get them published and applying to as many programs. But, the hard work isn't done yet. There's one important penultimate hurdle to pass through. The Medical Residency Interview. This story remains, more or less the same, for all international medical graduates applying to US residency programs every year.
You know it has started as Mr. Ben White (a medical blogger) mentioned in his blog about residency interviews as ' Your heart almost skips a beat when you hear the nudge of every e-mail on your smartphone' and halts for a while when the e-mail is from noreply@aamc.org. No matter how pleasant the outside weather is during the fall, you aren't much thrilled. You wake up every morning expecting mails from aamc.org and your excitement knows no bounds when it's an invite from your applied program. It's equally depressing when you receive rejections. You develop an obsession and compulsion to check in to your amc account every now and then. And you hate it on weekends as, you won't be receiving any e-mails for the next 2 days.
You hook yourself on to the popular forums on the internet to see how your contemporaries are doing, multiple times throughout the day. And as the famous old saying goes; 'It's bad when you fail but it's worse when you fail and your colleagues succeed'. You tend to compare your credentials with them and wonder why you were selected/rejected and the vice versa. Not to mention, the multiple times you open up your aamc account and check in the message box to see for any occult messages. I feel, even the keypads on your laptops know when they are going to get pressed and for how often.
So, finally you get some invites. Now starts the real movie. You search about the program online, read every details about it, how it's doing and how do residents feel about the program. You prepare for interviews with all the available resources, with your friends, family members or even alone, speaking out loud to yourself, if no one's available. You try making your handshake stronger. You improvise your american english communication skills. You buy a new suit, maybe a tie or shoe or whatever, personal belonging that you feel need to optimise. You try to cluster your interviews geographically, though they may cause you to schedule them days in a row. You call your friend living in the City, whom you have/haven't met for years, or their friends or long distant relatives just to save some valuable dollars. Your research on google map is so extensive, you might even recollect the directions even without the smartphone or with your eyes closed. You find the cheapest or most affordable means to reach your destination city and finally reach there. Tomorrow is your 'the' day. You set up multiple alarms, ask your every relative or close friends to call and make sure you wake up on time. In my case, i'd ask my wife to call me and wake me up from thousands of miles away. I just don't trust my smartphone or clock alarms. I don't trust myself on waking up in the morning, ever.
'End of Part -I'
You know it has started as Mr. Ben White (a medical blogger) mentioned in his blog about residency interviews as ' Your heart almost skips a beat when you hear the nudge of every e-mail on your smartphone' and halts for a while when the e-mail is from noreply@aamc.org. No matter how pleasant the outside weather is during the fall, you aren't much thrilled. You wake up every morning expecting mails from aamc.org and your excitement knows no bounds when it's an invite from your applied program. It's equally depressing when you receive rejections. You develop an obsession and compulsion to check in to your amc account every now and then. And you hate it on weekends as, you won't be receiving any e-mails for the next 2 days.
You hook yourself on to the popular forums on the internet to see how your contemporaries are doing, multiple times throughout the day. And as the famous old saying goes; 'It's bad when you fail but it's worse when you fail and your colleagues succeed'. You tend to compare your credentials with them and wonder why you were selected/rejected and the vice versa. Not to mention, the multiple times you open up your aamc account and check in the message box to see for any occult messages. I feel, even the keypads on your laptops know when they are going to get pressed and for how often.
So, finally you get some invites. Now starts the real movie. You search about the program online, read every details about it, how it's doing and how do residents feel about the program. You prepare for interviews with all the available resources, with your friends, family members or even alone, speaking out loud to yourself, if no one's available. You try making your handshake stronger. You improvise your american english communication skills. You buy a new suit, maybe a tie or shoe or whatever, personal belonging that you feel need to optimise. You try to cluster your interviews geographically, though they may cause you to schedule them days in a row. You call your friend living in the City, whom you have/haven't met for years, or their friends or long distant relatives just to save some valuable dollars. Your research on google map is so extensive, you might even recollect the directions even without the smartphone or with your eyes closed. You find the cheapest or most affordable means to reach your destination city and finally reach there. Tomorrow is your 'the' day. You set up multiple alarms, ask your every relative or close friends to call and make sure you wake up on time. In my case, i'd ask my wife to call me and wake me up from thousands of miles away. I just don't trust my smartphone or clock alarms. I don't trust myself on waking up in the morning, ever.
'End of Part -I'
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