Hi, my name is Maria. I want to be a resident at your program.

"Hi. My name is Maria. I'm from UNECOM. It's an osteopathic school in Maine. Yes, there's a medical school in Maine." I can't even tell you how many times I've had to say those words over the last few weeks. Residency interview season has officially kicked off. If you happen to be in a hospital this time of year and see a small group of people being herded around, all dressed in black or navy suits with a deer-in-headlight expression on their faces, then that's me and a bunch of other exhausted, freak-out med students. We're the interviewers.

Each interview is kind of like going on a mini vacation. You get put up in a swanky hotel or bed and breakfast. Well, most of the time. There was one hotel that I stayed at where I'm pretty sure I saw a hooker check into as well. You get your fair share of free meals. The night before each interview the residents either host a dinner at their house or take you out to dinner so that you can get to know them better and ask questions about resident life. It's been a really great way of hearing candidly from the residents about how they like the program and most importantly, how happy they are. What I'm finding out more and more is that the resident dinners are actually one of the most important parts of the whole interview process because these are the people you will spend the next couple years with, and it's good to see if you mesh well with them.

The interview day itself isn't much different program to program. You get up early, meet at the hospital or clinic, have a brief intro, interview, free lunch, then tour. Usually there's three or four interviews with a mixture of residents, faculty, and the program director. The best thing about interviewing for a family medicine residency is that the interviews are a lot less stressful than if you were going into a more competitive field. They're usually more of a conversation, rather than being grilled about your credentials or being pimped with medical questions. Usually I leave the interviews feeling pretty good about myself because I have to repeatedly talk about my accomplishments and what my good qualities are. And hopefully I've made a good enough impression so that the residency director, faculty, and residents all would like to work with me in the future. 

You may not think so, but going on interview after interview is quite tiring. It takes a lot out of you trying to sell yourself and being upbeat all day long. You meet so many people, who's names I can barely keep straight. You're constantly being asked questions like "Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?" or "What are your faults?" and my favorite "Do you have any questions for us?" Most people like to prepare for interviews by practicing answering questions. For me, I thought it was counterproductive to do so. I never wanted my answers to come across as rehearsed or cookie-cutter. Besides, the last decade of my life has been preparation for this. If I don't know the answer to "Why did you want to become a doctor?" by now, then I'm clearly in the wrong profession.

The thing is, even though I'm the one being interviewed, I'm actually interviewing them as well. Sure, I'm lucky to get any sort of job really, but I'll be committing the next three years to a residency program and I want to make sure it's somewhere I'll fit in, get a good teaching experience, and become the best doctor I can be. Not to mention, I have to consider what's best for my family. Is the program family-friendly? Is there good childcare in the area? Will they be flexible if I have an emergency at home? I've always said that being a doctor, as important as it is to me, is just a job. My family is my life. So I need to be somewhere that promotes that same mantra. Which is a big reason why I'm going into family practice to begin with. We're families treating families. And hopefully you find a good enough residency program where the people you work with become your family as well...... I could only be so lucky.