Interview Prepration

Foremost, Congratulation that you got an interview call. Interview is the time when you present your best and sell yourself. In addition to the preparation for the interview day, you need to prepare for many other things for a successful interview.

1. Communication: Be on top while communicating with programs. Respond promptly when programs reach out to you. 

- While writing an email always acknowledge and greet people personally and professionally e.g. Dear Dr. Thomas, Good morning Ms. Cook, Hello Mr. Robinson rather than just saying Hi or Good afternoon. 

- Acknowledge you have received emails from people/program. If you need time to decide about your answer, it is ok to take time, but reply to emails promptly saying that you will get back to them very soon.

- Getting an email is not enough. Answer the sender and acknowledge you received the email message. Always close the communication loop by acknowledging that you received the message.

- Write precisely what you want to tell. Do not assume people will understand your message.

- Feel free to communicate with the program if you have questions. Send them an email or message if you have new documents added or there is any change in your application. 

2. Confirm Interview dates: Once you get interview calls, reply to program with your available date promptly. Ensure you get the confirmation email. The program will send you details of the program, interview schedule, and travel.

3. Plan your travel and accommodation: You may take a train, bus or airplane to the interview. Look into options that would be convenient and affordable to you. Look for hotels, Airbnb, friends or relatives nearby who could accommodate you. Programs could recommend nearby hotels. Be prepared for winter travel; the temperature will be very cold, and snowfalls and snowstorm may cause a delay in travel.

- Use websites like Travelocity, Expedia, Google flights etc to book hotels and flight

- Use Airbnb and evolve sites to find accommodation if you want to use hotels

- Try to buy your tickets a couple of weeks in advance

- If you want to travel by bus the best options would be Peter Pan, Greyhound, Megabus etc. Look for discount offers. Sometimes Megabus offers one dollar tickets. 

4. Prepare for dinner: Some program offers an interview dinner. Try to attend them if you can. Let them know in advance if you cannot attend them. Interview dinner will be an opportunity to socialize with residents and staff. This provides an informal and relaxed setting to know more about the program and people. Research about the place you are going to, menu and type of food it offers. Avoid surprises.

5. Know people in the program: If there are people from your medical college or your friends try to reach out to them and connect with them. When you say you are from this country or place, the interviewer will ask that they have residents from that place or country and if you know them? People who are working there may be able to tell you about the program and what to expect during interviews.

6. Prepare for short talk: Greet people who come to meet you and escort you to interview rooms. Be ready for short friendly talk while you are walking to the interview room, waiting for an elevator, etc. Talking about your travel, weather, recent sports match would be a safe bet. You can ask how long is the winter there? You can share your travel experience.

7. Prepare for the interview: Be ready and thoroughly prepare for the interview. Interview questions are similar but framed differently. You must sound spontaneous and confident. Speak your heart and express yourself. Do not worry about your accent. 

8. Be ready to meet other interviewee and know them and share experience: If you have reached this stage you are damn competitive, do not worry about your score, experience, research, etc. This will be an opportunity to meet interviewee who comes from different country and background and share story and experience. 

9. Leave the interview feeling positive and energized: After every interview it is normal to feel you could have done better. Good interviewers point out your strengths and make you feel better. Take a deep breath and feel positive. Interviews are great learning experiences.

10. Remember to send thank you email: Acknowledge interviewers for their time and opportunity to interview with them. You can tell them how your interview experience was. Tell them what you liked about the program, why do you think you will be the best fit for them and how strongly you are committed to joining them.

Finally, keep fingers crossed and hope for the best.

How to succeed in clinical research and scholarly activities?

1. You certainly need to have motivation and persistence despite challenges and failures. As you start working on your first paper, you will not know how to write, you will have difficulties completing your first paper, you will have difficulty finding a mentor who can help and frequently, your paper will not be accepted by journals in the beginning. You will have to be patient and persistent. Also, you should start your research career early in your medical school e.g. when you are in your first or second year of medical school. 

2. You should improve your skills. You can use Google and Youtube videos to learn how to write a paper. There are opportunities to participate in online training or workshop. National Health Research Council provides training too. You can perhaps request your medical college or a faculty member to teach. You can learn from instructions provided in a journal on how to write various sections. Reviewing published papers can help. If you develop your skills, other people including your mentors will have interest to work with you.

 
3. Ideally, you should find a mentor who will guide you. This is difficult because mentors are busy. Working with a skillful resident in Nepal or in US may be helpful.

4. Often the first thing to work on is a case report or an abstract for a meeting. Abstract is one-page summary of a case report or a research. Before you work on a case report, carefully search the literature to determine whether the case is rare and interesting. You could also help a resident or a faculty with data collection in their project.

5. Once you have learned how to write papers, it would help you to learn how to search literature in pubmed or elsewhere, and how to use reference management software such as endnote or others. These skills will make you more efficient. 

6. You could select a target journal by looking at their impact factor and quality of published papers. For your initial papers, you should not aim high and perhaps submit to a Nepali journal or new journals. An abstract of a good case report or a research study can be submitting to a meeting including a meeting in US such as local or national American College of Physician meeting.

 
7. You should look out for opportunities to write a paper. If your medical school sends you for a field research, you may be able to publish the field work in a Nepali journal. If you know of someone working on a paper, you should approach them and offer help once you have acquired skills. 

8. Collaborating with your peers can help publish more than one paper and maintain enthusiasm despite initial failures. 


9. Once you are skillful, you may be able to obtain grants from different organizations. 

Physicians who want to have successful career in US should really learn skills to write papers and conduct research. These skills improve with time and practice but self-motivation and persistence are key.