Good Residency Interview Questions

I am going to start keeping a log of good interview questions I think of along the residency interview trail, feel free to post yours!

-To Chair: How does this program balance education, research and clinical care among its faculty? For example, how much non clinical time do the core faculty have?

– To Program Directors: Please explain why you received a ____ year instead of a five year ACGME accreditation and whether you had any citations

– Tell me about a time you mentored an resident and what lesson you taught them
– If you were me, what opportunities for would you take advantage of in your CA-3 year?
– To resident: On average, how many hours of sleep do you get per night, how many hours of reading per night? Off the top of your head, who do you dread being in a room with?

-To senior resident: What frequency % decisions do you get to make? Tell me about someone who has mentored you here. What was the last change they made in the program as a result of resident feedback? How politically involved, how much research, extramural activities do the residents get involved with?

What really matters? A spoonful of water in a hot bath

After staying with Ariel, Dan and Jenny and their kids for a couple of days in SF, I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for what really matters. Its not the glitz or dollars. What really matters at the end of the day is having a warm comfortable place to come home to. Put another way, its the family, stupid.

I watched Amber, Ariel’s daughter have a baby bath today with her mom and grandma taking turns pouring cupfuls of water on her as she squealed in delight. Now that’s happiness . . .

Someone remind me to install a jacuzzi in my mansion . . . make that two, one for the mansion and one for the stretch . . . :)

Anatomy of a great day

Today was a great day at the end of which I feel happy, excited and content. What were the elements?
Great nights sleep, feeling like I could take my time to catch up and put things in perspective after a long week of non stop interviews, a great lunch at a new eatery with good service and excellent service, finding a new bookstore and learning a little (read a few pages of Mike kryzewskis book about the gold medal bball team), feeling like my career is going somewhere(went to a good residency dinner), talking with someone I care about(Jane) and building something exciting (working on a Tuck healthcare club event) and receiving a compliment (from the editor in chief of the A&A journal whom I interviewed with in NYC)

Anatomy of a great day

Today was a great day at the end of which I feel happy, excited and content. What were the elements?
Great nights sleep, feeling like I could take my time to catch up and put things in perspective after a long week of non stop interviews, a great lunch at a new eatery with good service and excellent service, finding a new bookstore and learning a little (read a few pages of Mike kryzewskis book about the gold medal bball team), feeling like my career is going somewhere(went to a good residency dinner), talking with someone I care about(Jane) and building something exciting (working on a Tuck healthcare club event) and receiving a compliment (from the editor in chief of the A&A journal whom I interviewed with in NYC)

Something about Tejas

I’m in a Turkish cafe in the Rice Village in Houston (apparently Rice refers to the university not the food). Just had a tasty lamb kebab plate for 9 bucks and the waiter even threw in some extra bread and yoghurt for free. The service was good and fast and friendly. It’s interesting to compare this to the rest of the populous places in the country where people complain and the service and attitudes are horrible. My parents when they visited a couple of years ago made the comment that America was no longer the beacon of progress that it once was. Perhaps there really is something to be said for a laissez faire government that is proactive about attracting business and talent to the state with pro business income tax, tort reform and a low cost of living. Maybe life in Houston would not be bad after all as it would represent a real diverse setting, low cost of living and high salaries with a growing life sciences sector driven by institutions like Baylor, MD Anderson, Rice in the setting of a pro business and pro innovation government. Well we will see how my interview goes tomorrow with the Anesthesiology department here. If only I can get overthr whole perception about being in the “hick” south.