Back when I was an impressionable premedical student, my research mentor sat me down after I shared plans to leave his lab and said, “You won’t become a doctor.” He then explained that he would not be adding me to his lab alumni page on his website and that he would not write a letter of recommendation on my behalf to medical school.
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If you’ve come to this page, it’s probably because you’re a 4th year medical student searching how to figure out how to excel at your residency interviews. I have had the experience of interviewing for anesthesia, preliminary medicine, and transitional year programs when I was a medical student [back then, it was in person] and also the experience of being an interviewer [in a virtual setting]. I tend to like to give a lot of unsolicited advice, so here I am again sharing 7 residency interview tips that I think will help you get to a successful 2025 Match season.
Here are the 7 tips:
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If you’ve landed on this page, I assume you are an anesthesiology residency applicant or soon-to-be one. Please make sure to review my 2024 Match blog entry as my goal with this entry is to build upon my thoughts from last year and offer additional insights/tools to be prepared for Match 2025.
I don’t think I would have matched at MGH if I had to apply again today with my application from 4th year. I do think that I would have matched somewhere in anesthesiology based on my overall application, but maybe not. There’s some component of randomness to this process with how competitive the specialty has become.
The NRMP 2024 Main Residency Match data shows that there were zero unfilled spots for 2000 offered positions. When I matched into the specialty in 2015, there were 28 unfilled PGY-1 (intern) year spots and 37 unfilled PGY-2 (advanced) spots out of 1600 total offered positions (4% of total spots went unfilled). Also, notably, when I applied there were 1859 applicants for the 1600 offered positions, so at least 259 applicants went unmatched; in 2024, 3034 applicants applied for the 2000 total offered positions. That left 1034 applicants that did not match into anesthesiology. That’s a 5x higher unmatched rate than almost a decade ago when I matched. Things have certainly changed in the last decade.
If you want to see the slides from my August 2024 ASA presentation, they are available here: https://bit.ly/3zb9IdH
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It is no secret that ultrasound is a powerful tool for the anesthesiologist and intensivist. During residency, we achieve competence in using ultrasound for vascular access, regional anesthesia, and basic cardiac examination [both transesophageal and transthoracic]. When I was a resident, there were times when it was really challenging to get an ultrasound, which translated into feeling like my own skill was mediocre. Fellowship in critical care anesthesiology certainly helped me build upon my skill and clinical application of ultrasound has continued to advance my knowledge.
During my critical care fellowship, I opted to take the CCEeXAM® Examination of Special Competence in Critical Care Echocardiography. Mostly because someone else was paying for the certification and I thought that it could be a useful certification to possess. At the time, the exam had only been administered a few times; there were limited resources to study from and very sparse information on the internet on how to structure my studying or where to focus my attention.
Luckily, if you’re looking to make this ~$1,000+ [probably more like ~$2000-$3000 after you include the study resources below] investment in your clinical practice, I have some advice from my own experience and a recent test-taker’s experience to help guide your study plan.
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Last week, I reflected on 2023. As sort-of-promised, I decided to set some 2024 intentions. I think that every single day is a new opportunity to set and achieve goals; I don’t think we need a designated time of the year to do these things. I have short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term goals that I set and review on a semi-regular basis. But the idea of intentions feels like the right approach for 2024; they are touchy-feely types of ideas that I’d like to work toward in the new year. There is no checkbox for these items… they are lofty ideals that I hope I can remind myself to embody throughout the year. Maybe my 2024 reflections post will be assessing how these intentions came into play [or didn’t!]. Who knows. Maybe there will be silence on the blog for almost a year again [let’s hope not].
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It has been a while since I updated here [woah, almost a year?!]. I kept telling myself it was time to write something or record something but the passion just hasn’t been there. A couple weeks back, I actually recorded a video, but I wasn’t excited to edit it. Either way, I’ve wanted to explore writing regularly again as a way to stay true to myself and practice articulating things that are important to me. Someday, I’d love to write a book [yup, I’m writing it here so that all two of you reading this entry can hold me accountable].
Anyway, for my first entry of 2023, I thought I’d start with a big one.
For those of you who follow along on YouTube or my social media channels, I’ve been very open about the fact that I enjoy my job. Sure, I can come up with reasons to hate it, but there is no such thing as the perfect job/career/anything. In general, I think I’m the type of person who would try to see the best in any job I’m in, or figure out how to make the most of it. But there was actually a time after I finished fellowship when I wondered if my current job was the right fit.
I actually went as far as reaching out to someone I knew in a private practice group to ask if they would hire me[!].
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The COVID19 pandemic quickly pushed us into living in an era of Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, GoToMeeting, Skype… etc, etc video conferences. Suddenly, we are all masters at learning where the “mute” button is and how to find and use the “hand raise” function. Even little kids are learning that the “mute” button is an important way to maintain civility and order in the virtual classroom. It’s a weird time we live in.
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This is a question I’m frequently asked: What is the point of an away rotation? Every year, medical students match into anesthesiology residency programs without ever having done an away rotation. Many have read on SDN forums that doing away rotations could actually be detrimental to a student’s candidacy. Away rotations are expensive. Scheduling is a headache. Based on this information, it would appear that away rotations are not worth the hassle.
I beg to differ. Every individual will have to decide for her- or himself whether the investment in an away rotation is worth it. There will be some individuals where an away rotation would be detrimental to their candidacy. Either way, if you’re interested in learning more about the nitty-gritty considerations surrounding these rotations and some of my personal tips for excelling during either an anesthesiology sub-internship/audition/elective rotation at your home program or as a visiting medical student, keep reading.
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[Updated 9/2022 with updated TrueLearn discount ($25 off!)]
For those of you at the beginning of your residency trying to plan for future exams, please start with my guide to studying for the ITE and my entry on studying for the ABA BASIC exam, first. Then make your way back here when you’re a CA3.
If you’re a CA3 or a graduate about to take the ABA ADVANCED exam, you’re in the right place.
Read moreAfter graduating from residency, you’ll take the ADVANCED Exam. It focuses on clinical aspects of anesthetic practice and emphasizes subspecialty-based practice and advanced clinical issues. We’ll assign you an exam date after you register and can only change your assignment for religious observance, military commitments and medical accommodations.
https://theaba.org/staged%20exams.html
In life, career advancement is typically tied to being able to compile a resume, personal statement or letter of intent, and an interview. For many medical trainees, residency interviews are the first real “job” interview. While medical school also employs an interview process, it is a very different flavor of interview. The tips offered below can be readily applied to almost any kind of interview… but they’re most applicable to residency.
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