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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
A year ago, I was awaiting interview calls from residency programs. The famous quote from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens resonates strongly in this scenario: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom…” As I went to bed each night, I caught myself saying a prayer for my speedy call to interview at some of top choices for radiology programs. I fondly remember how I stressed over minute details ranging from conducting in-depth research regarding the program to holding my fork correctly at the pre-interview dinners to the attire for interview to correctly phrasing thank you letters. Every step of the residency interview process seemed to be long, arduous and painstakingly analyzed, especially for the 15-day stretch in the first half of December.
After successfully completing my interviews at numerous programs, I matched into two Chicago-based residency spots: one for preliminary medicine and one for radiology. Walking out of the interviews, I remembered thinking how forthcoming the residents had been in answering any questions that I had at the time. Looking back on the residency application process, there were quite a few skills I learned along the way, but none as imperative as time management. As the USMLE ® Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS board exams were on the horizon, the growing pressures of learning new clinical knowledge amounted and interviews creeped closer, I found myself juggling various activities all at once. Creating a documented schedule helped to ease the frustration and confusion that arose during this process.
As a resident, I now put into practice the time management skill I had sharpened last year. Growing into the role of a resident physician is more demanding than I had imagined it to be; personal responsibilities do not relent and neither do professional ones. Additionally, the cases are even more real than they were during rotations; I hold the task of taking care of the patients and overseeing other medical students. Watching the medical students interact with the patients and other physicians brings back memories of being in medical school, even though it was less than a year ago. During recruitment season at my current residency program, I have the unique opportunity to interact with preliminary medicine applicants, who are undergoing the very same experiences that I had last year. Now that I have had the role of both interviewee and resident, I am better able to understand both perspectives and make a strong attempt to make the applicants feel at ease.
As the interview season progresses I wish you the very best. I hope that you grow and fine tune the one essential skill that is imperative in your personal growth and carry that forth. Good luck!
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