Going on Interviews while an intern

[The Fish]

So I am a prelim in surgery this year, reapplying through ERAS .. Did anybody do this? How do you schedule interviews? I mean it's my career and I have to on the interviews, whether the program allows it or not... any advice?

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[dmitrinyr]

So I am a prelim in surgery this year, reapplying through ERAS .. Did anybody do this? How do you schedule interviews? I mean it's my career and I have to on the interviews, whether the program allows it or not... any advice?

I did this last year, applying for EM while an IM-prelim intern. I knew that I needed time off during the interview cycle and so I asked for my vacation to be in december. I trying to fit in all of my interviews in that vacation month. For the ones that I couldn't schedule in that month, I had to take a personal day to go to the interview and come back. I can be done but in surgery it might be harder as you guys always have a 24 hour call and no short calls. If you cannot schedule all of your interviews during the vacation month and have few personal days to take advantage of, then try to get days of by working with your fellow interns and getting coverage for those days. Good luck.

 

[ShyFly]

Usually schedule your vacation weeks during interviews or vice versa. Also during your elective months

 

[bwschwa]

Dmit-

How did the EM thing work out? I'm seriously considering doing what you said you did. I was going to do ortho but have been second guessing and am planning on doing either a prelim or transitional and applying for EM next year. Did you keep an eye out for open pgy 2 spots? Had you done away electives in EM? have letters from EM docs? any advice would be appreciated

 

[Winged Scapula]

As the OP is a surgical intern, it can be difficult.

Some surgical programs, mine included, did not offer personal days and there are no electives during internship. Thus, our interns who needed to interview used their vacation time and tried to schedule interviews on weekends (many surgical programs interview on the weekend) when they weren't on call, working with their colleagues if they needed to change schedules.

 

[smq123]

Last year, I remember interviewing with someone who was trying to switch out of surgery. She had been on call the night before , and the poor girl was nodding off during the PD's welcome speech. She said that her post-call days were generally the only ones she could interview on, though.

 

[Buzz Me]

Usually schedule your vacation weeks during interviews or vice versa. Also during your elective months

As stated above, there are usually no "elective" or "clinic" months during a General Surgery internship. Usually interns/PGY-2s that are interviewing need to schedule their trips around vacation weeks or have their coresidents cover for them. Painful, either way.

 

[error404]

I'm hearing horror stories right now from a surg intern who's trying to leave a malignant program for another field-- her program doesn't do golden weekends, and only does weekend days off...
Since most IM programs only interview on weekdays, she hasn't been able to schedule an interview yet. Plus, because of travel time, she can't interview anywhere too far away.

Her program is known for being painfully malignant, and it sounds like a lot of folks would like to leave. It seems like the administration is using scheduling difficulties to make sure that the interns have nowhere else to go.

 

[deuist]

Last year, I remember interviewing with someone who was trying to switch out of surgery. She had been on call the night before , and the poor girl was nodding off during the PD's welcome speech. She said that her post-call days were generally the only ones she could interview on, though.

How could she schedule post-call interviews? I don't leave when I'm post-call until 10:00 am at the earliest. Quite a few people at my program use post-call to travel, however. I had to use my vacation time for one interview and will be taking personal days for the rest.

As aside, when I told one of my interviewers that I was using my interview week to interview, he told me that programs are required to give their residents non-vacation time off for interviews. I had never heard this rule before. Anyone have any knowledge of this?

 

[smq123]

How could she schedule post-call interviews? I don't leave when I'm post-call until 10:00 am at the earliest. Quite a few people at my program use post-call to travel, however. I had to use my vacation time for one interview and will be taking personal days for the rest.

It was an afternoon interview - from 11 PM to about 5 PM. Instead of a "welcome breakfast," we had a welcome lunch instead.