Interviews?

Good morning!
By this time, your personal statements for your target specialty are most likely uploaded to the ERAS site, so I wish you the best in obtaining interviews!

One client contacted me a few days ago for an 2nd target personal statement edit.  He was delighted to already have an interview offer, but decided to cover his bases with an 2nd target application. Though his 1st personal statement was fantastic, he realized there was a great need to tailor it for the 2nd target.

Anyway, I would really like to hear from you if you have had interview offers.  Also this note is to advise you that we are more than happy to help you edit your statement to direct it for a 2nd or 3rd target specialty.  I believe it is a good idea to cast a little bit wider net, especially if you have not yet received interview offers.  Or maybe you are just interested in additional areas of medicine. Do not use an identical personal statement for a different specialty.

We offer a discount for this type of editing.

Thanks for your business if you have used our service. And thanks for considering us for future projects.

Elizabeth

Medical Specialty Aptitude Test

Hello Medical Residency and Medical Fellowship Applicants!

As you know, it's almost June.  For many of you, that means it's time to start working on your personal statement.   

Some of you are not positive which specialty to pursue, so I found this "Medical Specialty Aptitude Test," from the University of Virginia which may help you decide on a direction.  At least there are some important questions to consider before you make your choice.   The test may be of general help to fellowship applicants too, not for a specialty of course, but for a general guidance about your clinical preferences. 

It's very easy and quick, and offers you a chance to think about your unique personality traits in terms of specialties which mesh with your preferences and social skills.

So here you go:

https://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/TestStructure.cfm

Interview Tip for Our Medical Residency Applicants - Listening, Listening & More Listening

Good morning!

I just came upon a very interesting piece of information about interviews in a little Kindle book, Listening Skills: Master the Art of Listening and Communication Skills for a More Confident  Life, by Michele Gilbert.  She mentions that during interviews, "most major corporations study applicants for listening skills to determine whether they have truly developed communication skills rather than knowing how to respond to an interview or work an interview." 

Fascinating new truth, as far as I'm concerned.  (You probably already knew it!)  I'm thinking about medical residency applicants who are applying for the specialties in which prime value placed on actively listening to the patient....psychiatry, internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, OBGYN, and of course all the sub-specialties thereof.  This advice can also be very useful for the other specialties in which communication with other doctors and staff are of prime importance: ALL MEDICAL SPECIALTIES.

So the bottom line here is that the interviewee needs to listen very carefully and digest what the interviewers are saying or asking before spouting off some technically complicated and correct answer already in his or her head.  That goes for your future conversations with patients, staff and colleagues too. But you already know that too!

This is a good little book though, and I recommend it, maybe even better than some of the "Interview Tips" books out there.

In a way, this advice takes some heat off you by too much pre-thinking about your answers to interview questions....that is, too much preparing and practicing for an interview with canned answers you have nervously memorized might get in the way of listening to what the interviewers are actually saying or asking.

Elizabeth