Another year of virtual residency interviews: What M4s need to know

Virtual residency interviews have eliminated days of cross-country travel and uncomfortable, unfamiliar surroundings. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced residency programs to change their approach to interviewing, moving from traditional in-person meetings to virtual conversations via computer video.

If you intend to make a strong impression at an interview in this technology-driven environment, you should prepare to tell your personal story on a computer screen with your notes and other resources at hand, according to AMA experts.

John Andrews, MD, is the AMA’s vice president for innovation in medical education. He joined Candise Johnson, MD, a transition year resident at West Virginia University, to detail their tips for virtual residency interviews during a recent episode of “AMA Moving Medicine.”

“With virtual interviewing, I had more control over my environment. I had a few cues around me that I could feel more comfortable with when I was doing an interview,” Dr. Johnson said. “I had sticky notes around my laptop with little talking points that I’d like people to know about me that I might have forgotten to talk about if I didn’t have a little cue. I also put my CV on the side, just in case I forgot something.’

Dr. Johnson also used video technology to improve his own focus on the interviewer by making the video conferencing window “super-super small” and placing it “very close to the camera” on the monitor.

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In doing so, she explained, “I’m always kind of looking directly at you when I’m looking at the camera as well. So I have slightly better eye contact. I was told that I made really good eye contact in a few of my interviews,” said Dr. Johnson.

Learn about the three residency interview questions that M4s should be prepared to answer.

While virtual interviews have some advantages for both residency applicants and residency programs, it is far from a flawless experience.

“The programs really missed an opportunity to show the learning environment to their interviewees,” said Dr. Andrews of the AMA. “You don’t get to arrive at the institution, get a feel for the place, the geography, actually meet a large number of people. And that’s a big difference. And I think a lot of programs saw that as a loss.”

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As a result, “programs are really looking carefully at what resources they can provide to applicants to help them understand what it would be like to study there for the next three to five to seven years,” Dr. Andrews said.

Dr. Johnson agreed that virtual interviews hurt the personal touch of the site visit.

“Having that personal experience is something you really can’t beat,” she said. “So when I was trying to make my ranking list in January, I would visit maybe a few places just to make sure it sort of fit.” C

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has made virtual interviews a necessity, the technique is unlikely to disappear when the virus is defeated, Dr Andrews said. It’s likely here to stay as programs realize the benefits of graphics and convenience.

“None of this would have happened without the pandemic. No one was going to dip their toe into the water to offer virtual interviews to their candidates unless everyone did it and the pandemic forced everyone to do it,” he said. “The parallelism of the experience was something I think the programs really welcomed.

“They got a very consistent view of their candidates from all the different regions of the country. I think on the program side it was a little bit easier to organize,” added Dr Andrews. “There’s a lot of manpower that goes into interviewing, and getting physical faculty to meet people on-site on campus is a little more difficult than providing them with a zoom link.”

Check out this helpful list of things to know before residency interviews.

“AMA Moving Medicine” highlights innovations and emerging issues affecting physicians and public health today. You can watch each episode by subscribing to the AMA YouTube channel or the audio-only podcast version, which also includes educational presentations and in-depth discussions.