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Dress for Success

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A few simple rules regarding clothes and interviews:

1. Do not be noticed for your clothing. You do not want to be the “guy with the Bugs Bunny tie.” This is not the time to be creative, unfortunately.
2. Be professional but comfortable. You may have to walk a mile between interviews. I still remember a miserable ten minutes in a Manhattan winter, getting from one building to another.
3. Pack carry-on. I won’t forget the embarrassed applicant who came to our institution in jeans when his suitcase was lost by the airline.

Contact me for mock interview assistance soon.

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The Medical Residency Interview: Quick Tips

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Once your ERAS has been submitted, getting into residency kicks into high gear with the interview season. Because residency admissions have become so competitive of late – especially in certain specialties – the residency interview has become critical.

Here are a few quick tips that I offer my clients: Read more ›

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Don’t Beg

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There are a lot of good points in my colleague Ann Levine’s book The Law School Admission Game: Play Like An Expert. In particular, I want to point out her advice regarding avoiding pleas for acceptance. I notice many applicants make this error at the end of personal statements for medical school, residency and fellowship. Here’s Ann’s take, which I think is very useful:

“Your personal statement should convince the reader to admit you based on the strength of your experiences and perspective. No begging at the end. None of this, “I truly hope for the opportunity to prove myself” nonsense…” (p.91).

Remember: If you make yourself a distinctive candidate through your accomplishments, you won’t feel the need to address your reader in this manner.

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Distress in Medical Training

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Here’s more on the difficulties associated with training to be a physician. This isn’t new news; it’s just getting more attention as of late.

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Match Violations

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This WSJ article refers to a PGY-1’s experience last year with Match violations.

I was asked multiple inappropriate (and illegal) questions when I was interviewing. (I was later told that one of my interviewers was taken off the roster because of his routine practice of asking unprofessional questions.) One thing I review with my clients in residency mock interviews is how to best answers these questions. I am currently scheduling mock interviews into the end of October, so please contact me soon if you are interested in my assistance.

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more

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Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on The Visible Voices podcast: 

 

Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the White Coat Investor podcast:

Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the FeminEm podcast: