Residency application tip of the week: September 16th

I’m going to try something new this year: a weekly tip on applying to residency, during the interview season. I will be builidng on my post on 5 tips for interview season. These tips will be targeted at OB/GYN, but many of the will be applicable to other specialties. Let me know what you think! And, without further ado, this week’s tip!

Tip #6: Stay on top of your email

When interview offers start to go out, it’s not uncommon for programs to email 15 or 20 applicants at a time. If you email them back 8 hours later when you get home, it’s entirely possible that all of the spots will be filled, or at least all of the spots that you could go to. How do you get around that? It’s not like you can possibly be checking your email all the time, right? Well, there are a couple of options.

Option #1: Get help

I set up a separate email address that I used on my ERAS applications, and my husband (who works from home) got those emails pushed to his phone. I also gave him access to my calendar on Google calendar, and he scheduled most of my interviews for me. Single classmates had their mothers do something similar. If there was any question, he texted or called me. I have him his own text message tone on my phone, and I knew that if I got a message from him while I was at work, I needed to respond to it right away. It worked for me.

Option #2: Change your phone’s email settings

Another option would be to again set up a separate email account for your ERAS applications, and set your phone to get messages pushed from this email address only. Change your other email accounts to checking infrequently (like, every 4-8 hours) or only when you open the app. Then set up a new email alert tone that you won’t miss. That way, if your phone pings that it’s an email at that address, you know it’s related to ERAS. It doesn’t help a whole lot when you’re in the middle of a surgery on an AI, but most people will understand if you need to take a few minutes between patients in the clinic or during a lecture to respond to an interview request.