Friday, November 28, 2008

Dr. Goatee

In searching the internet for possible residency interview questions, I stumbled upon some other 'tips' about interviewing. Most notably, one site from Rush University offers the following prescription for a successful personal presentation:
Dress should always be conservative, tasteful, neat—and comfortable.
Have the appearance of a successful, mature physician, not a medical student.
MEN should wear a suit, not sport coat or khakis.
  • Navy or gray, solid or pinstripe.
  • White or pale-blue shirt.
  • Conservative tie: solid, stripes, or small pattern (red or navy).
  • Keep jewelry to a minimum.
  • Short hair, preferably no goatees.
It's not just the Chicagoans at Rush that offer this advice. I found websites penned by schools from LA to Boston arguing for a clean shaven face. But there are other things I noticed about these suggestions:

Dress should always be conservative, tasteful, neat—and comfortable.
Okay, I buy this. Comfortable helps when you're running to catch your next flight, too.

Have the appearance of a successful, mature physician, not a medical student.
I think I have this down, what with being older than most of the residents at some programs; in five interviews (three schools, so far), I've received the follow-up question, "How old are you?"

Men should wear a suit, not sport coat or khakis.
Okay, I'll give here. Although when I interviewed at UW for the MD/PhD program, I wore khakis and a tie - no jacket. Look where that got me!

Navy or gray, solid or pinstripe.
Evidently black is out?

White or pale-blue shirt.
Whoops again. I don't own white or pale blue.

Conservative tie: solid, stripes, or small pattern (red or navy).
My real goal here is: not ugly.

Keep jewelry to a minimum.
Nickle allergy keeps this in check for me.

Short hair, preferably no goatees.
Does a shaved head count for short hair? Maybe shaving up there will cancel out the apparent transgression I make with this:



I did end up shaving, but it was the top of my head...

4 comments:

Drugmonkey said...

isn't asking your age illegal?

thomas robey said...

As a matter of fact, I believe it is. I seem to remember it to be on par with, "Do you plan to have kids?" Hmmm... Interesting...

Drugmonkey said...

brandish the phd did you?

thomas robey said...

Yes, indeed.

But not too much, as emergency medicine is not yet in the mindset that basic science research is part of their academic repertoire. (I think this will change eventually, as more academic emergency physicians want to investigate causes and potential treatments for the commonest diseases seen in the ED - like addiction, MI & stroke.) Very often I get the caveat, "You know, we don't have very many opportunities in basic science research here - as if alluding to the fact that maybe I wouldn't be a good fit. Usually then, I gently remind them that basic science is not on my agenda for the next 5 years and that training to be a resident is... I'm happy that most folks get it.