Category Archives: Intern Applicant

Mastering the Internship Application Timeline

The process to make your application most competitive for an internship starts long before your senior year. Each step along the way is important, and poor decisions can make it progressively harder to be an excellent candidate. Here is a timeline to help you be the best internship applicant you can be.

First Year – Get involved in at least one vet school club. Work hard so you are a shoo-in for an officer position next year.

First Summer – Participate in a summer research scholars program or equivalent professional experience. This does not mean going back to the clinic you worked at growing up. That does not add to your CV.

Second Year – Be a leader in your club(s). Now that you have the hang of vet school, make sure you have at least one extracurricular activity you could put on your CV in addition to the club responsibility.

Second Summer – If you didn’t do a summer research program last year, do one this year. If you already did one, try to get some professional-adjacent experience, ideally overseas or with under-served and/or marginalized and/or low SES populations.

Choosing Rotations – This may happen in your second or third year. See the post on maximizing your senior year for internship success when choosing rotations.

Third Year – Study study, pay attention, show up, and do the work. These classes are often the most clinically applicable. If you can get a handle on the material now, you will be a more competent senior student. If possible, wrap up any lingering projects from earlier in vet school- you may not have time during senior year.

Fourth Year – At the start of each rotation, let the faculty know you are interested in an internship. If you did well, at the end of the rotation, ask if they would be willing to write a good letter of recommendation for you.

September – Begin working on your letter of intent and CV. You want lots of input from mentors and friends on this- give them time to give it to you. Begin to research prospective programs.
October – You should have most of your letters of recommendation requested by now. If you have a rotation in November, you may wait for one of them. If you didn’t ask your potential letter writer at the end of the rotation, ask them now. Do not wait. Your letter of intent and CV should be in near final form.
November – Make the last tweaks on your letter of intent and CV. All of your letters of recommendation should have been requested by now. Narrow down your list of programs to which you want to apply and rank.
December – Match applications are due. After submission, some programs may want to do phone or video or even in-person interviews.
January – Your rank order is due and the programs submit their rank order later in the month.
February – Match results come out! The Scramble happens in the event you didn’t match. Hopefully, you have a position now and can cruise until graduation.

If you aren’t sure if you want to do an internship, that is just fine. I advise any students who are on the fence to proceed as if they will apply for an internship. If they decide not to, no worries. But if they did not prepare and decide they do want to apply later, it can be an uphill battle. Start early and be prepared. Have any questions about how to prepare? Post in the comments!

Making the Most of your Internship Interview

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The Vetducator - pawn chess piece left standing when all others have fallen around it. — Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash

Internship applicants have it rough. You are one of a faceless horde trying to get the best position. Your letter of intent and CV help, and your letters of recommendation are crucial. Some programs may require an interview, some may allow for one, and others are only irritated if you try to ‘interview’. In addition to basic interview etiquette, let’s unpack the internship interview.

Scenario 1) They don’t want you to interview. Many programs receive so many applications that they really don’t want the hassle of trying to interview any of them. These programs may allow visitation days, but make no mistake- those days are opportunities for you to see if the program is a good fit for you, not for the program to determine if you are a good candidate. Programs like this want to evaluate every applicant de novo. Spending time at these institutions only helps you know what you are getting in to, it does not help your candidacy.

How do you know if a program doesn’t want you to interview? You can always ask something like, “Does an externship at your facility factor into your internship selection?” If doing an externship does not affect their decision-making, an interview certainly won’t. If they do an intern visitation day, you can ask how important that is for their selection process. Many academic internships do not consider your presence on their campus in any way. At UGA, we actively discouraged intern applicants from coming to visit- otherwise we would have been overrun and expended a huge amount of time for little benefit.

Scenario 2) You may interview, but it is not required. This probably includes many private practice programs and some academic ones. The smaller the program, the more important an interview is in their decision making. If you do an externship or visit and spend time with the program directors, it may positively influence your application. If this is the case, follow the guidelines on how to act on an externship.

Scenario 3) Formal interview. Many private practices will do a phone or video interview as a standard part of the intern selection process. These range from highly technical- “you are presented with an ADR 12-year-old GSD with anemia”- to more behavioral- “describe a situation when you had to demonstrate leadership.” If possible, establish how long the interview is scheduled for and what you should prepare ahead of time. Follow the suggestions for in-person, video, or phone interviews as appropriate.

Internship interviews are rarely a make-or-break step. Those programs that do interviews obviously factor them into the decision making. Don’t worry if they don’t do an interview and don’t spend too much of your valuable senior year clinic time trying to do externships at places to impress them. Particularly for academic internships, they probably won’t look at you any differently than other applicants. Use your time wisely.

How To Avoid Making a Damn Fool of Yourself on Externship

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I don’t want to write this blog post. I don’t feel like I should have to. It’s common sense, isn’t it? It’s a waste of data to send this through the interwebs. Unfortunately, I have experienced veterinary externs who made a damn fool of themselves. They besmirched the reputation of their home institution, irritated colleagues and faculty, and sank any hope of getting a letter of recommendation or being ranked at the institution. So, since I have seen it, I am here to help. If you are an RFHB, you may go to the next post. If not, here’s how to avoid making a damn fool of yourself on externship.

1) You are a guest. Would you go to someone’s house and denigrate the way they load their dishwasher? “Man, they’ll never get clean if you do it like that!” Don’t insult your host school in any way. Don’t talk down about their students or their faculty or their processes. You may make a polite remark like, “Oh, how come you do it like that?” or “Oh, why do you do that” or “Oh, what was your rationale for deciding to do it that way?” if it reflects a genuine interest to learn. But just because they do things differently doesn’t mean they’re bad. Try to see the good in the differences. Heck, I learned how to place coccygeal art lines at CSU during a 3-week externship which I would have never learned otherwise. Be open-minded.

2) Learn the system. There is always a painful learning curve the first week, but pay attention and try hard to figure it out. If you work at it, you will be more effective by the second week. You may not know where the Q-tips are, but at least you can fill out a medical record and find ICU.

3) Show up. Set two alarm clocks if you have to. A student at their home institution may get a one-off if they miss a day or show up late. You don’t have a whole year to impress these people, you have 2-4 weeks. A single day of a bad showing represents up to 10% of the experience these people will have with you. Make sure you know the route to the hospital and budget plenty of time in the event of an accident or road closure.

4) Work hard. Come in early, stay late, don’t complain. You are representing your home school as well as yourself. You don’t want anyone to have the slightest inkling that your home school trains slackers. Represent your home school with honor.

5) Smile. Be pleasant. Be engaged. Ask polite questions. Be helpful. Be positive. It’s only for 2-4 weeks. Even if you are not by nature a particularly outgoing person, you can still appear happy to be there. Because you SHOULD be happy to be there. You’re in god-damned-vet-school, how amazing is THAT?!? And this place had the good grace to accept you in as a guest! That is pretty amazing.

6) Treat everyone with respect, especially the technicians. Obviously, this is true at your home school, but is even more important when you are an extern. Technicians are amazing; be sure to treat them with the utmost esteem.

7) Be appreciative. Make sure to thank your colleagues and mentors for the experience. If you had a particularly good connection or may be interested in a letter of recommendation, a follow-up thank you card may not come amiss. In particular, thank the technicians.

That’s it. It seems simple, doesn’t it? It seems like it shouldn’t need to be said. But believe me when I say this: it DOES need to be said. And YOU may be the one to whom it needs to be said.

Please Use Commas

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I was reading some residency application letters and my head was almost exploding. Everyone has their “thing”, and maybe I have more than most, but I am passionate about appropriate comma placement. I wouldn’t sink an application for poor comma use, but it just grates on me, and why would you want to irritate the people who may make your professional dreams come true? I am not a grammar nut and this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of rules- those you can find elsewhere.

The most common error I see in letters of application is not using the comma as a pause. The most bothersome absent comma is the one needed to create an appropriate rhythm to the sentence. Here are some examples. Say the one without the comma out loud. When you say that sentence, isn’t there a natural pause? That pause is where a comma goes.

No comma	Appropriate comma
As a student I worked with a faculty on a special project.	As a student, I worked with a faculty on a special project
No I didn’t realize that trip would change my life.	No, I didn’t realize that trip would change my life.
I did some research and did a RAVS trip.	I did some research, and did a RAVS trip.
When I did an externship in Costa Rica I experienced the connection between people animals and the environment.	When I did an externship in Costa Rica, I experienced the connection between people, animals, and the environment.
When I saw my first case a 5-year-old GSD I realized this was real.	When I saw my first case, a 5-year-old GSD, I realized this was real.
Fortunately I was able to work with great mentors.	Fortunately, I was able to work with great mentors.

I could go on. My point is you should pay attention to this. It doesn’t mean you’re a monster, but it does make me question your attention to detail. If your letter of intent has these kinds of simple flaws, will you have the attention to detail needed for good records or research? Be detail-oriented in your written materials. And please, PLEASE have other people read and edit your letters!

Six Steps to Win the Scramble

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You applied through the match for an internship or residency- great job! Now, 8am on match day has come… and gone, and you are without a matched position. You still want to do an internship or residency, and there are programs which did not fill all their positions. What do you do now? Now you Scramble.

The Scramble is the informal term for the process following 8am on match day. All unmatched applicants scramble to find good positions while programs with unmatched positions scramble to find good applicants. It is an absolute mess and a travesty of a system. Pharmacy has a two-step matching process to avoid the chaos of a scramble, but veterinary medicine, as always, lags behind.

It can be an emotional blow to not get matched, but realize that not matching does not mean you are a bad applicant. The vagaries of the match mean that good programs and good candidates go unmatched every year. Scrambling to pick up an open position is a normal part of the process. Heck, I scrambled after I didn’t match for a surgery residency and ended up having a terrific career. If you decide to scramble, you can maximize your success with six steps.

Step One: Be Prepared. I’m sure your application packet is superb because you have followed the advice on this blog. Nonetheless, the match is capricious, and even the best candidates may find themselves unmatched if they didn’t find a good fit or were too restrictive in their selections. Be ready for not successfully matching by answering these questions:

Do you still want to do an internship/residency? If you are disheartened by not matching where you wanted to go, are you still excited at the prospect of going SOMEWHERE? Decide this beforehand- don’t be wishy-washy in the middle of the Scramble.
Are your materials ready and updated? Is your CV and letter fully up-to-date? Can you send them off today with a high degree of confidence they reflect your current state of mind, ideas, and experiences? If not, get them ready.
Have you looked at all the programs to which you didn’t apply but would consider? If there’s a position unfilled somewhere, do you have to do research to find out about that position or are you poised and ready to go?
How do you feel about going into a program that is not quite what you wanted? If you wanted to do a surgery residency, would you ever consider something else for a year which may position you better to apply next year?

If you are prepared mentally and practically, then you may be successful with the Scramble.

Step Two: Don’t wait. Email programs with open positions at 8:10am on match day. You can get this list from your institution’s VIRMP administrator. If you wait a day or, god forbid, a week, most open positions will be filled.

Step Three: Be decisive. Contact programs with open positions and attach your letter and CV in that initial email. Tell them why you are reaching out to them. Not just because they have an open position, what you would be excited about if you got to work there? If you get an offer, you need to be prepared to accept or decline it on the spot. Programs won’t wait for you to decide, because their second choice may be gone by the time you decide to decline.

Step Four: Cast a broad net. Don’t just send your materials to the top 2-3 places you want to go. They may fill up with someone else, and by the time you look around, your top 4-6 places may be already filled, too. Send a message to every open position where you would be happy immediately after the match results come out. Realize that, at this point in the process, there is no more official ‘ranking’. Just as with the match, though, you need to be prepared to accept any program which gives you an offer. If you get an offer from a place you’re willing to go, but not excited to go, go back to planning in #1.

Step Five: Be attentive. Don’t send an email and fail to follow up. If you don’t hear back, a polite follow-up the next day is appropriate. Most positions get filled in the first few days after the match results come out. If they reply with, “Thank you, we will be in touch in the next 2 days”, send a follow-up on the second day. You need to be present without being pushy.

Step Six: Be at peace. The Scramble is frustrating, intense, and emotional. Be prepared for the possibility of not finding anything. Be prepared to commit to a program and have them back out at the last second. Have contingency plans laid out so you are ready whatever the outcome.

It’s always frustrating to fail to match. I failed to match for a surgery residency and scrambled. I even applied for transfusion medicine fellowships and similar programs. Ultimately I thought, “I can go do anesthesia for a couple of years (residencies were 2 years then) and then go into surgery!” Here I am 20 years later, perfectly content in anesthesia. As always, the key is to be honest with yourself.

Why You Need an Elevator Speech and How to Make a Great One

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How do you sum up everything that you are and do professionally in a short span of time? This is the premise of the elevator speech- a few lines of dialogue which encapsulate your professional experience, approach, and future. We don’t use them often in veterinary medicine, but I think it’s useful to have one ready. Let’s look at who the elevator speech is for, some uses for the elevator speech, and how to make a great one.

Use #1 – Talking with non-veterinary types. Although most of the people you engage with during an interview are in the veterinary field, you may encounter some who are not. Maybe you have a meeting with a Senior VP (for higher-level positions), maybe you have time with a basic sciences researcher or someone from a different college. These people need a purchase to stand on and enter a conversation. Your elevator speech gives them a starting point.

Use #2 – You may get asked regardless. Particularly in larger group interviews, you may get asked to give a quick summary of what you do. Hopefully, everyone has read your CV and letter, but those don’t necessarily answer this question. If you don’t have an answer prepared, you can flail around looking for an answer. This question may come up as, “Do tell us about yourself” or “I’ve read your CV- give me some insight into your overall approach.”

Use #3 – Priming your brain. Similar to a mission statement, having an elevator speech helps to crystalize what you do and why you do it. This can inform any professional interaction you have, even if you don’t actually say your elevator speech. You can refer back to it and ask, “Is this still true? Do I want it to be?” You can even ask, “How would this project fit into my image of myself, given my elevator speech?”

Now that we’ve decided it’s useful, let’s work on crafting one. Here are the few short, sweet suggestions:

1) The most important rule is to keep it short. One to three sentences- what you could say to someone as you ride an elevator to the next floor.

2) Give some context for who you are now and what you do.

3) Provide an example.

4) Make a conclusion. Or not. I like to leave the ending opening for a question. You can see that in my elevator speech:

“I’m The Vetducator, I’m a Professor of Veterinary Anesthesia at the University of Wherever. I look for improvements in systems- teaching, research, service, policies- using an evidence-based approach. For example, I measured how students performed on quizzes of varying length over the years to arrive at the best amount of time to balance efficiency with student performance.”

Let’s look at how it hits the four points above:

1. It’s short- 3 sentences. It takes about 18 seconds to verbalize. 2. The context is I work at this place in this role. Since people may not know what a professor of anesthesia does, I expanded on what I do on a fundamental level. Saying “I anesthetize pets and research animals” doesn’t add much to “I’m a veterinary anesthesiologist.” Also, it doesn’t really encapsulate my whole professional approach and philosophy. 3. There’s an example of my research. 4. I don’t give a conclusion because I want to leave them with something to ask. Hopefully, this gives the other person an easy next step in the conversation: “What did you find in your study?”

My wife’s is: “I’m The Pharmducator; I’m a PharmD and PhD at the University of Wherever. I teach pharmacy and other healthcare topics and I research natural products. The project most people are most interested in is my research on the phenolic and antioxidant content of craft beer and its ability to inhibit some of the processes by which diabetic complications arise.”

Let’s look at how it hits the four points above:

1. It’s short- 3 sentences. It takes about 16 seconds to verbalize. 2. The context includes her degrees, which is important- she can do both clinical and basic sciences work. She specifies what exactly in pharmacy she does. 3. She gives an interesting publication. 4. She doesn’t include a conclusion, but beer and science are always intriguing to people, so giving them an example, which will make them curious, leads them to asking about it.

The elevator speech is not often found in veterinary medicine, but I think it’s a good tool to have ready, just in case. I believe it also helps to cement what you are interested in professionally, which can affect your global thinking.

Should I Send a Thank You Note?

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The Vetducator thank you note for interviews.

Interviews are tiring events for everyone. The interviewee has to be ‘on’ all the time. But the interviewers are taking time out of their busy schedule to meet with you. Academics always feel overwhelmed and time-stressed. Staff are often underappreciated. Thank you notes acknowledge the time and energy dedicated to your interview.

Should I Send Thank You Notes? Yes. You won’t be cut from the shortlist for not sending a thank you. But you DO appreciate people’s time, don’t you? Why not show it? This reflects a level of class and professionalism. Who wouldn’t want to hire the classiest, most professional applicant?

Should I Send a Thank You Note to Staff? Yes. I always send a thank you note to the staff who helped arrange the interview. I have gotten reports from my admin during faculty interviews ranging from, “She seemed really nice. She asked me questions and was interested in the area” to “We drove in silence the whole way.” Staff can subtly alter the perception of your visit- let them know their hard work is appreciated.

Should I Send a Thank You Note to Faculty? Maybe. I recommend sending one to anyone you spent a significant amount of time with. These will be the individuals who directly interviewed you. If you had a large session with 20 faculty for an hour, I wouldn’t send a note to all of them. But if you had lunch with 2 faculty, a note to each is suggested.

Should I Send a Thank You Note to the Hiring Managers/Committee? Yes. If applying for an internship/residency/faculty position, you should send thank you notes to the decision-makers. For faculty positions, this is the search committee and the department chair, possibly to include the Dean. For internship/residency positions, this is whomever is in charge of those programs, assuming you met with them (Intern Training Committee, group of specialists for residencies, etc.).

What Should I Say? I recommend personalizing each note as much as possible. If you can remember a specific topic discussed with that person, mention it in the note. If not, you can make it generic. It does not need to be long- 3 sentences are plenty. Begin with “Dear Title Lastname,” and end with “Salutation, Yourfirstname Yourlastname”. Do not use your title in your salutation. Respectfully, sincerely, with thanks, and regards are all good salutations.

What Form Should the Note Take? This is up to personal opinion so I will not be prohibitive here. Your options are email and a physical thank you card. I personally prefer to send a physical thank you card, but an email in this day and age is acceptable. I feel a physical thank you card is a little classier and more consistent with my professional image- I am a little bit old school and a little bit formal. It can also be hard to find email addresses for some individuals. If you are concerned about a physical card arriving after the decision-making group meets, an email may be preferable. Decisions are rarely made less than a week after an interview, though, giving plenty of time for a physical note to arrive.

What Happens if I Don’t Send a Thank You Note? Probably nothing. For vet school, those who interview you may not be on the selection committee. In this case, after the interview is over, they have no say in your selection. For internships, residencies, and faculty positions, those who participate in interviews will probably have varying levels of influence on any hiring decisions. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Well, that person didn’t send a thank you note, so I think we should put them lower.”

Does a thank you letter change them from a “no” vote to a “yes” vote? Unlikely. In the event of two equally qualified candidates, does getting a thank you letter cause them to vote slightly higher for that candidate? Possibly. It is a very low-cost action to take which may ever so slightly improve your chances of success. Why not send a thank you note?

How to Address People in an Interview

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Earlier this week I posted a general guide for how to address future colleagues during an interview. Here is a helpful flowchart for you to determine what forms of address to use during an interview. I tend to err on the side of formality, because no one will be even a little irritated to be called “Mr.”, “Ms.”, or “Dr.”, but there are some people who may be irked at being called “Chuck”.

The Vetducator - forms of address flowchart for interviews.

How to Not Mess Up When Addressing Future Colleagues

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The Vetducator - What do I call you people image text.

You would think that rules of formality as laid down by Society would be well-known. Indeed, this is an assumption of social rules- they are generated in the aggregate. Nonetheless, we do have experts who weigh in on these topics, like Miss Manners and Emily Post. Our rules in medicine for interviews and applicants are slightly different than the social sciences, so I wanted to take a brief minute to go over them.

These rules are fairly consistent regardless of the form of communication. You can apply them to any professional academic veterinary interaction- email, phone interview, video interview, or in-person interview. You are unlikely to be corrected by anyone, and opinions on these may differ.

My general approach and advice is to be more conservative. No one is going to look at you strangely if you address the Dean as Dean Smith. But if you call him Chuck, it will be noticed. Maybe not enough to keep you from the short list, but when competition for a position is fierce, why not make yourself the most outstanding candidate you can?

These are in generally increasing order of conservatism:

Do you know this person personally? Have you worked with them extensively, preferably as a peer? If you were an intern and this person was a faculty member, unless you had a close relationship with them, go to the next level. If you know this person and have worked with them as a peer, you may use their first name.

Is this person the Dean? If so, they are addressed as Dean Lastname. An exception may be made if you are interviewing for a Dean position or higher.

Otherwise, use Title Lastname. This even goes for administrative staff. Addressing an email to Ms. Lawrence is a nice, respectful touch. Staff are people, too, and they appreciate being addressed by a stranger in a socially-acknowledged way. Those with doctorates should be addressed as Dr. Lastname.

Can you be more informal than these rules dictate? Sure. But you will never go wrong adhering to these rules in the application/interview phase of an academic position. Once you get the position, the rules may vary depending on your position and institution. But while you are a candidate, err on the side of formality.

How to Ask for a Letter of Recommendation

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You would think this would be simple. You need a letter of recommendation. You contact someone you think could write one for you. You ask them to do so. Job done, right? For some reason, I continue to encounter students who do not do a good job with this step. Those students need help, and I am here to give it to you.

The academic career system is predicated on other academics vouching for you. This process ensures that someone familiar with the position’s demands and your abilities can evaluate your preparedness for the position. They then write an analysis of your preparedness in a letter of recommendation. Letters are ubiquitous and are variably important, depending on the position to which you are applying. We will cover elsewhere who you approach to write for you. Here we will discuss how to approach a potential letter writer.

Once you have identified who you want to contact, you have three options: email, phone call, in person. In all cases, the specific phrase you need to use is, “Would you be willing to write me a GOOD letter of recommendation?” The good is important. It is often implied, but you need to make it explicit. Otherwise, you may end up with someone writing you a letter of recommendation which is not good. It is possible even if you ask them to write a good letter that they will not. But most academics are professionals, and if they feel they cannot write you a good letter when asked explicitly, they will tell you. You have three options for initiating this request:

Email. This is the easiest, lowest-stakes, and generally preferred method. You have time to compose your message and consider how you want to phrase your request. In general, you should open with the position to which you want to apply. If you have not been in contact with the person for a year or two, you may mention your current position or your interest in the new position. The only reason not to use email is when you have an individual whom you know who does not rapidly (or ever) respond to email. Then you may need to resort to other means.

Phone Call. This requires some preparation and timing can be problematic. You need to reach them when they are available to listen to your spiel and are not distracted. After the usual opening pleasantries, you can ask, “Is now a good time to chat?” If not, you may ask about a time to schedule a call. You should have a plan for what you want to say. If it has been a while since you have been in contact, you should chit-chat about your current status and ask how things have been for them. You can then make your request.

In Person. This is usually done with individuals you see regularly and it is just as easy to ask in person as it is in email. Usually you won’t need much of a lead-up, but asking, “Can I ask you something?” is a decent opener. As with other steps, explain what you are applying for and then make your ask.

For phone calls and in person asks, ALWAYS FOLLOW UP WITH EMAIL. Send them an email reminder of your request. After you receive a “yes”, regardless of contact, make sure to send a follow up reminder a couple of weeks before the due date. Reasonable people will find this helpful and not irritating.

What if you get a “no” response? That’s fine, it’s better to know before they send off an unflattering letter! Thank them and, if appropriate, you may ask their advice for whom else you could ask. Hopefully they will give you some constructive advice and, if not, you haven’t lost anything.

Most professionals who are willing to write letters of recommendation are not scary. It should not be an anxiety-inducing experience to ask for a letter from someone with whom you have worked. Most professionals will be flattered. Try to be realistic about it. What’s the worst they can say? “No”, and then you know they would not be a good writer! It’s a win-win. Be bold and respectful and everything will be fine.