Assessing Your Career Path
Not long after beginning medical school, students begin the process of exploring and eventually deciding upon the area of medicine in which they would like to practice. The Medical Student Counseling Center (MSCC) can help guide students through this process with individual career assessment and counseling.
As early as the first year, counseling can help students begin examining and prioritizing their values, and start recognizing skills and interests.
MSCC counselors can provide students with self-assessment tools and/or personality inventories that can help to identify or clarify characteristics for a good fit in a specific area of medicine.
Finding a Career
Counselors can connect students with material on the Careers in Medicine (CiM) program developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). This program not only provides students with further self-assessment tools, but also describes the different areas of medicine in great detail on their web site.
Counselors can also provide students with specific names and contact information for clinical faculty advisors within each department of the hospital. These professionals have agreed to offer career guidance to medical students and prove to be invaluable resources for students throughout their clinical years as they train, prepare for residency and move toward a career/specialty choice.
Attend a Career Workshop
In addition to working with students individually, counselors at the MSCC offer career related workshops throughout each of the four years. Late in the first year, programs aimed at assisting students in identifying and prioritizing career values and interests are offered. Visit MSCC's Programs and Workshops for a listing of the many programs scheduled thus far.
Residency Preparation
The MSCC staff is available to help fourth-year students prepare for the residency application and interview process. Early in the fall semester a program describing the entire process (from travel, dress and financing, to preparing personal statements, curriculum vitae, and interviewing) is offered to all students applying for residency. OSAC's Writing and Humanities Program offers individual student conferences and group workshops on preparing personal statements and curriculum vitae. All students are invited to meet with counselors individually to discuss the content of vitae, personal statements, and go through a mock interview.
Getting Started on Residency Search
Interviews
- AMA Interviewing for Residency
Residency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdfResidency Interview Questions.pdf
- UCLA's Smart Strategies for Successful Residency Interviews
Recommended Reading
- First Aid for the Match
- Iserson's Getting into a Residency
- The Residency Interview - How to Make the Best Possible Impression
Resident Resources
Special Situations
- AMSA - Action Committees
- AMSA - Gender and Sexuality Committee
- AMSA - Race, Ethnicity and Culture in Health (REACH)
- Questions from Women Students
- Job Applicants and the Americans with Disabilities Act
Specialties & Program Research Resources
- ACGME - Accredited Dermatology Residency Programs
- ACGME - Accredited Family Medicine Residency Programs
- AAN - Step by Step Guide for Applying to a Neurology Residency Program
- ACGME Accredited Programs and Institutional Listings
- ACR - American College of Radiology
- AMA FREIDA Interactive Database
- American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecologists
- American Psychiatric Association - Careers in Psychology
- American Society of Anesthesiologists Resident Component
- American Urological Association Residency Page
- American Pediatric Surgical Association
- Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology
- AAMC - Navigate Your Journey from Pre-Med through Residency
- ASA - Guide to a Career in Anesthesiology
- AANS Neurosurgery Residency Information
- Ophthalmology Residency
- Orthopedic Surgery Residency Programs
- Pathology: A Career in Medicine
- Society of Academic Emergency Medicine: List of Emergency Medicine Residencies
- American College of Surgeons: So, You Want to Be a Surgeon
- Society of General Internal Medicine
- Doctors in Training: Figuring out Transitional, Prelim Years
The Match
- American Urological Association - Residency Match Timeline
- American Academy of Family Physicians - Strolling Through The Match
- AAMC's Match Timeline
- ERAS Programs
- NRMP - The Match Process
- San Francisco Match