 
InterViews
Important facts about the importance of the interview
Wagoner and Gray asked directors about the level of importance of interview and academic variables in selecting residency ...
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The Match Advantage Edge
Match Advantage provides medical students with a competitive edge during the residency interview process. Match Advantage has spent years observing applicants during their residency interviews. Applicants who interview well are at a distinct advantage over those who do not.
Our one-day seminars and individual consultations teach key communication skills required on the day of the interview. Our format provides a hands-on advantage that cannot be obtained from reading a book. Ample practice opportunities and individualized attention enhance the students interviewing skills.
The Residency Match Process
The National Residency Match Program (NRMP)is a system by which medical students apply and interview at various medical institutions and, through priority ranking by both the students and institutions, ideally end up with a position in one of the student’s desired residency programs.
Faculty members in the medical academic world face the challenge of interviewing many uniformly bright students, all with high USMLE scores, excellent academic records and powerful letters of recommendation. The problem is that too often students are academically gifted, but have poor interviewing and communication skills. When all objective factors are relatively equal, the applicant's individual interpersonal skills and ability to relate to the interviewers become the critical determinants in the decision making process.
Building Interviewing Skills
Poor interviewing behaviors include: being unprepared, poor verbal and/or non-verbal communication skills, inappropriate attitude, “slips of the tongue,” rudeness, and a myriad of other behaviors that can have a negative impact on the final match rankings.
Good interviewing skills in a highly competitive pool of applicants put a candidate at a distinct advantage for a favorable match. Many students assume in error that excellent academic grades and recommendations, combined with high USMLE scores, are all that is needed for a good match. While those factors may get a candidate an invitation to interview, they don't guarantee a desired match. Students who interview poorly can end up in residency training programs that may not be the best match for them. They may not match at all.
Interviewing Errors
Interviewing errors put a student at a disadvantage for an optimal match. Here's an example: During an informal lunch hour, an applicant ignores the chief resident and focuses only on the senior faculty. It costs this applicant a high ranking.
A perceived insult such as this, though unintentional, may result in the candidate being labeled arrogant or “difficult.” Match Advantage knows that applicants cannot afford to come across poorly to any individuals they come in contact with on the residency interview day.
The Match Advantage Program
Key components of the Match Advantage program include:
- Lectures by attending physicians providing specific examples of desirable and undesirable interviewing traits
- Videotaped sample interviews performed by actors for analysis and discussion by participants
- On-the-spot videotaped mock interviews by seminar participants for analysis of their own verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors;
- Objective voice and speech analyses
- Ample Q & A time to address participant's specific questions and comments
Course faculty includes attending physicians and residency program faculty members who have conducted numerous residency interviews over the years. Our voice and communication specialists are experienced in working and interacting with medical students and residents. Following the seminar, individualized reports are sent to each participant with a summary of the faculty’s collective observations and recommendations.
Match Advantage is committed to providing every student who attends this program an opportunity to develop and refine their residency match communication skills by discovering and practicing what they must make happen on the day of their interview. This gives them the edge in obtaining one of the residency programs of their choice.
Click here for seminars.
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