Residency Insight -- A PRESENT Podiatry eZine

Volume 6 - Issue 7

By now, all podiatry students know how important it is to get a residency. You can’t become Board Certified without one and that usually means no hospital or surgery center privileges. So residency is important besides the training you will get. There are actually a lot of reasons that residency training was voted on by the APMA House of Delegates all those years ago. Residency is the time when all doctors learn to work with each other in teams and learn how to use specialists. It’s the time when doctors become doctors, in fact, not just in their minds.

On to CRIP 2014. In years past, it was an acceptable strategy for a program or student to wait out CRIP and jump into the Scramble. This strategy is less expensive and has less hassle. Many excellent residents landed great programs that way. There is always a Scramble and there are always good residents and good programs in it. Due to current demographics, however, this strategy only makes sense for programs to follow, not the students. The gap is narrowing, but there are still too many applicants for available slots.

What do you need to do to increase your chance of success in the CRIP? Maintain a positive outlook - Always.

Then you need to strategize. There are expenses in participating in the CRIP, so plan carefully. Apply to as many programs as you can afford. Some programs have an application fee, some don’t and I believe that you still have an additional fee to AACPM for every program you apply to. Don’t forget that VA programs do not charge an application fee. Visit all the programs you want to apply to. Nothing turns off a Director more than an application from someone who has never visited their program. Just how interested in that program are you really? Visiting does matter, even if you haven’t been able to extern there.

Next, you need to worry more about your interview skills and appearance than your interview suit. Know how to interview. Look the interview team in the eye, even if it’s uncomfortable for you. Have a decently firm handshake – don’t break bones [the interview team members are surgeons you know] but be firm and solid. No limp fish hands, that does not work well here in the USA. You want to give a strong, controlled appearance and that first interview handshake says it all, male or female.

As for appearance, well, a cheap suit well tailored is better than an expensive one that doesn’t fit. Hair and nails should be professional. Professional as defined by the people interviewing you, not your friends from home or your ‘friends’ in podiatry school, also interviewing. ‘Oh, I love you with the purple spikes and yellow streaks’ may be great advice when going to the club in NYC or San Francisco or DC or wherever, but it WILL NOT get you ranked for a residency. Trust me, even if the team members dress that way themselves when going to a club, they are interviewing you now to cut open their patients. Be professional, well coifed and clean. Don’t forget breath mints either.

Find someone, not a classmate, who can review your interviewing skills. Video it if you can and review it. How many times do you pick, I mean scratch, your nose without realizing it? How many times a minute do you start a sentence with ‘um’ or some such? What other habits do you have that you don’t think about because they are your habits? All of this shows up on taped interviews. Practice, practice, practice until you have it down perfect. And if you can’t, then figure out how to ‘fake it ‘till you make it’. Check with your podiatry school or undergraduate school to see if they offer this service or can refer you to someone. Check with a local college if yours doesn’t. Start now and practice often.

Your essay is important to some members of the interview team and ignored by others. There is no way to predict this. The essay needs to be grammatically correct. It should be easy to follow and easy to read. We get a lot of them. I’m not sure that a compelling story helps. It seems that some years, every applicant had a family member who lost a leg due to diabetes. Try to be honest in your essay and use the space allotted. A short essay only works for those who don’t care about them. Do interview committees need to know why you went into podiatry? I don’t think so. What matters is that you are in it and you want further training. We try to figure out if you will work hard and without much complaint. Make that easy for us to see in your essay.

Take what you hear from residents [current and yet-to-be] with a grain of salt. A good Program Director does not always let their resident[s] know what they are thinking or looking for.

A strong interview is gold even for a weak candidate. A weak interview is death, even for a strong candidate.

May you interview well and get the program you need, even if it’s not the one you want.