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What are somethings you can do to stand out in medical school?
As a medical student are there any remote opportunities, professional development, or career advice to help students differentiate from others in securing a job?
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Catherine’s Answer
To stand out from other applicants you want to be a well rounded applicant. You want to have interests outside of medicine that make you happy. You want to show interest in your chosen speciality. Have a mentor in that speciality, join the interest group at the medical school or form one, do research in the field, shadow in the field. You need to be able to show that you have invested some time and energy to figure out that this is the right specialty for you. Some people are undecided on what specialty they would like and that's okay. Pick a few clubs to join and get involved. You can use the experience to explain how you ended up with the speciality you end up picking.
Thanks for the advice.
Alexandria
Updated
Suzanne’s Answer
In medical school, Alexandria, you are mostly looking ahead to the next step of your medical education which is residency. Residency programs vary a bit in their specifics of what type of resident candidates they prefer...but in general what will help you stand out are good grades, good comments from those who supervised you on your clinical rotations and excellent scores on your STEP 1 and STEP 2 exams, including the Clinical Skills exam. You mentioned a possible interest in going into surgery. Surgery traditionally does look for people who have experience in research so finding a research opportunity which really excites you and putting in some time doing that also will help you stand out.
Residency programs interview their candidates. You will want to come across as friendly, calm, competent, flexible and a team player in your interviews which are typically done in the fall or winter of your fourth year of medical school. Surgical programs (and those which include surgical skills such as OBGYN) may include some practical skill assessments, as well. Other programs which emphasize, for instance, care to the underserved will want to see evidence of that as a longtime goal of yours, as well, perhaps demonstrated by volunteer clinical work.
If you have a specific program you really hope to match at for residency, you may want to try to do an "audition" rotation at that program as soon as you are allowed to do electives (this may be an "away elective" if the program you want to match at is not associated with your medical school.) This allows you to check out the program and they get to work with you also on a daily basis. This helps both parties decide if this is a good fit.
Residency programs interview their candidates. You will want to come across as friendly, calm, competent, flexible and a team player in your interviews which are typically done in the fall or winter of your fourth year of medical school. Surgical programs (and those which include surgical skills such as OBGYN) may include some practical skill assessments, as well. Other programs which emphasize, for instance, care to the underserved will want to see evidence of that as a longtime goal of yours, as well, perhaps demonstrated by volunteer clinical work.
If you have a specific program you really hope to match at for residency, you may want to try to do an "audition" rotation at that program as soon as you are allowed to do electives (this may be an "away elective" if the program you want to match at is not associated with your medical school.) This allows you to check out the program and they get to work with you also on a daily basis. This helps both parties decide if this is a good fit.
Thank You so Much! I will definitely apply these as go throughout my medical education.
Alexandria
Updated
Robyn’s Answer
In my opinion, if you want to stand out, have some basic knowledge. Take a summer job working as a scribe. Take CNA classes or work as a patient care tech in hospital in the area of interest. Or float around to different departments. The best medical professionals (nurses, doctors, and everything in between) that stand out the most are the ones that started at that entry level. It gives you knowledge in the field and appreciate for everyone on the team.
As I have always told students- you get what you look for. If you hear someone is going to do a wound change, a procedure, anything you haven’t seen - ask if you can watch or help. You will learn so much more!!!!
As I have always told students- you get what you look for. If you hear someone is going to do a wound change, a procedure, anything you haven’t seen - ask if you can watch or help. You will learn so much more!!!!
Thank you so much!
Alexandria
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