#residencyinterview

Spend the night in the hotel after the interview. This is makes the exhausting interview less tiring when you know you can sip wine at the hotel pool, explore the area, or sleep early after such an intense day. Plus, you can leave your crap in your room, eliminating another awkward step of packing up in the morning and lugging your suitcase around all day in your suit.

Get a credit card to use during interview season. To be clear, I don’t mean “get a credit card so you can spend even more money you don’t have.” What I mean is “you can get a sh*t ton of travel points, so take advantage of the rewards.” I got a Chase Sapphire preferred rewards card. I buy all the airline tickets, hotels, and rental cars with it, but I pay it off each week (granted, I pay it off with loan money, but it’s better than accumulating the 25% interest rate this card has per month). I picked this card because a bunch of articles suggested it was the best one for “beginning travelers.” You get 2x the points on travel, with no annual fee for the first year (then it’s $95 a year). SO far, I have like 10,000 points. Pretty cool.

Rent the car. It’s so much easier and less stressful than hoping the Uber picks you up, that there even is an Uber (one place I went to had zero card available one Friday night). You might have to pay for parking at a hotel, but I made reservations on Expedia in advance, paid at the counter, and ended up paying about $30-$50 a day for unlimited renal car miles. Also, my personal car insurance AND my travel credit card cover rental insurance, so I didn’t need to pay extra for that.

Don’t stay somewhere shitty. Yeah, the Hilton is more expensive than La Quinta, but at the end of you student loan days, another 1,000 you added because of stepping up to nicer hotel accommodations or SUV instead of economy rentals in New Hampshire in December will be worth it. I’m a thrifty and neurotic person, but I’d rather have a clean hotel than a questionable comforter with weird stains on it.

Underpack. I really struggled with this at first, I swore I would need 2-3 additional outfits for travel and exploring. But I really needed 1 pair of pants, a shirt, and a sweater. You don’t care if you wear the same thing 2 days in a row because you don’t know anyone, and even though airplanes are kinda gross, you’re not getting sweaty or actually dirty. So save the luggage space and pack light.

But I brought my own steamer. Is this weird? Yes. But I like it better than ironing and I use one everyday at home. I got this one from Target years ago and it still works great. Plus you can use it on interview social dinner outfits that may not be amenable to ironing, but can be steamed.

Also: roll your clothes into ridiculously small burritos to make room. This will really ensure you need a steamer (but will leave room for one!).

Pack 2 extra panty hoses if you are wearing them. You need one extra in your purse or portfolio (the worse thing is a giant run in your panty hose). Also, I’m not a fan of uber conservative dress, but pantyhose is nice because you don’t have to shave your legs at all. #easy

Only carry-on your bag. I had all clothes and shoes in a roller bag that easily fit into the overhead compartment. Then a backpack with my laptop, books, my portfolio (a purse was way too cumbersome to carry during the actual interview), and toiletries that went under the seat in front of me. Never check a bag, not worth the risk of losing your things. And never volunteer to check your bag no matter how many perks the airline offers you. 

Eat breakfast before the interview day. Enough places either had no breakfast or just not enough food. I would get up early, drive to the Starbucks in the town and get the spinach egg-white wrap they have (and coffee) and then get ready at the hotel. If the hotel had breakfast, I would eat there instead. Do not start the day off without food. If you aren’t a breakfast person, at least have a cliff bar with you at all times. I always had two in my portfolio. Sometimes lunch is hours after you have a skimpy breakfast and all you can do is think about your hunger. Just avoid this whole problem: eat BEFORE the day starts and bring a snack.

Just be early. I say this as a person who is almost always late. But for interview season just find a way to be early. I hung out in several parking garages because I was oddly early, but a few times I could not find the right building or made a wrong exit on a highway system and got seriously lost. Get to the hospital 45 minutes before you are supposed to meet. Just do it.

yes, this post is outrageously overdue. But now I have time to actually think about life. Fourth year is definitely the best year of med school, but it’s still med school. I think it’s overly hyped up so M1-M3 have something to hope for, but that post is for another day!

So after meticulously planning interview season, I have some golden advice for managing interview requests that I wish someone had shared with me.