USMLE, the five letter abbreviation enough to make any medical student loose his/her sleep in an instant. Jeez, another medical exam? Great. Just great. This three component exam is the main licensing exam standing between a medical student and the dream of a US residency and American board medical qualification. Grueling throughout medical school, barely making it, a medical student finds out that his future is pretty much decided on this. You thought getting through medical school was tough right? That all those nights of studying would end once you graduate? Well, sorry to burst your bubble but welcome to reality.
As an international medical graduate you are not only competing among your peers but with medical students and graduates from all over the world. In this pursuit a myriad of graduates opt for research after graduation before applying for residency. But, how does an IMG get a research spot after medical school and what aspects should one keep in mind? Well, I’m no expert but after numerous emails and personal messages I finally decided that it would be easier to just put it all out there for everyone. Henceforth I list the top 5 things you should do:
Know the what
From a research coordinator to a research fellow, medical research in essence encompasses multiple forms and multiple positions are available for different roles in a project. The first step begins by not applying for the position but doing the research at your end to see whether or not you would be a good fit to that position.
Yes, this is important. Internal medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, radiology… whatever it may be. Decide your niche or have a pretty general idea of what you wish to pursue. Why does it matter? Because at the end of the day you will need a recommendation from your PI/mentor and to be honest an internal med letter for a surgery prelim spot would not be the best way to play your cards. I do not wish to under-credit anyone but a surgeon’s letter would carry much more weight applying for a surgery spot and vice versa. Strong places to start which I would recommend are the following sites:
Know the Why
Remember that formality of adding a slide of objectives to your med school presentations? Well, the time has come to put all that into practice. If you were actually one of the few who actually made the effort to make your own slides the night before instead of asking from your friend to share theirs to “have an idea” you will definitely be at an advantage. (Disclaimer: A recent study in the New England Journal Of Memes states that in a randomized controlled trial of 4 year med students ,90% unashamedly admitted to use the “to get an idea” card during medical school, the remaining 10% lied that they didn’t ).
But why I am I mentioning objectives and what importance does it play? Objectives fulfill the role of observable and measurable outcomes which you wish to gain from the position you are applying to. No matter if you are you doing it just for experience, boosting your CV, to eventually tread the path of a physician scientist, or just to fill the gap in your CV pen it down and take the plunge. The key aspect here is to be clear, concise and declarative.
Get done with your exams and construct a proper CV
Try to get done with your USMLE exams before you apply. Although it very much depends on your mentor, his expectations and basically the amount of work he has set out for you, focusing purely on your research will help you not only to excel in your research but will also prevent any clashes with your lab/clinical work and you can purely focus on getting the best done as possible. Doing so you will not indirectly tell your mentor you are focused on his research projects but also allows you to spread your horizon; collaborations with other faculty members, travelling to conferences, doing outpatient clinics and morning rounds when your mentor is on service etc. are just the few. You get the point.
Another big problem that a friend of mine at Duke highlighted was the fact that students in general have improper formatting of their CV and majority of the times students embellish their CV too much. Adding unnecessary things or fluffing your CV to make it look good does more harm than good as seasoned faculty can easily look through the sea of words and hyped up accomplishments. Keep your CV simple, concise and to the point. Remember it’s always about the quality, not the quantity. A great reference that you can use can be found here.
Strong cover letter/email
This is one of the most important aspects in your application, but unfortunately the one that is the least valued by students. A great cover letter will make people ACTUALLY read your letter. You think just because you are emailing from your institution’s email address it will work? Think again. A strong cover letter like your personal interest is read by everyone. Usually all cover letters are good but an exceptional one can open doors for you. However I say this with a grain of salt as even though a great cover letter increases the probability that your letter gets read, there is no guarantee that you will get a positive reply — or in fact any reply at all. Just remember the 3 p’s: Patience, persistence and perseverance.
Having said that, a poor cover letter will flag your email for the trash and you will be surprised how many people actually don’t bother in making an effort on their cover letter. From mistakes like addressing a female doctor by sir and vice versa, mixing up/forgetting to change last names while using a template draft, and finally contacting too many people and trying to convince each one that you are especially interested in his or her research. These subtle errors indirectly tell them you are just fishing for anything you can get which at the end of the day leads to very negative impressions. Just play your cards well and remember to give it all you got.
Prior research experience and commitment
As with any job application, individuals with prior experience in that particular field you wish to apply will always be given the advantage. The point I want to make is that for e.g. if you have never done PCR before and you are applying for a research fellow job which will require you to do PCR, make sure you let your mentor/supervisor know in advance that even though you have never done this before you would wish to learn this skill and mean that. Be sure to read up on as much as you can before joining so that the transition is easier. Your supervisor will expect you to get the work done and so if you don’t understand or have never used particular software/lab equipment before be sure to humbly accept the fact that you don’t know. It’s perfectly ok to say you don’t know something and to strive to learn how to do it instead of being all oh-that’s easy-I-can-easily-do-it. You don’t want to end up on your first day as a post doc working on a million dollar research grant project using an ELISA kit for the second time in your life which you just used once in medical school.
To conclude I just wish to say that always be ready to help others who are striving for the same goal that you desire. As Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets“.
Good luck and “May the odds be forever in your favor”.