Medical Student Council Chair’s Message: How to Become an Expert in Marketing Just in Time for Application and Interview Season

MEDICAL STUDENT COUNCIL

CHAIR’S MESSAGE How to Become an Expert in Marketing Just in Time for Application and Interview Season

Ashley Iannantone, MA

September marks a special, incredibly stressful milestone in the journey of fourth year medical students. This month we will submit our ERAS applications to be reviewed by residency programs across the country. For the past three years, we have tackled both pre-clinical and clinical training in medical school—first becoming experts in studying anatomy and pathophysiology and later becoming experts in patient care. Now, however, we must become experts in a completely new field: Marketing. Application and interview season is all about finding your target audience and marketing yourself to it. Dr. Miko Rose (an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Michigan State University) has a great webinar called “Getting into the Residency of Your Dreams,” in which she talks about this exact topic. She uses a metaphor comparing medical students applying to residency as different items that one might be trying to sell—her example is a “pair of bright red patent leather shoes.” She notes that not everyone in the world is going to want this pair of shoes, but there are definitely people out there who will. The same holds true for medical students in search of residency programs—some programs are looking for exactly the type of applicant that you are. The question then becomes: How do I find these specific residency programs (my target audience) and how do I then market myself to them?

FIRST, DO YOUR RESEARCH

This is where you really get to know your target audience. You should know the culture of the programs you’re applying to and what is most important to them: Is it research? Or compassionate care for underserved populations? Or advances and innovations in medical technology? You should also know the people who make up the program: the program director, assistant program directors, program coordinator, etc. Knowing these details will help you show how you’re a good fit for that specific program. Which brings us to the second point:

ESTABLISH YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

Many fields, but especially emergency medicine, have experienced a significant increase in the number of applicants and subsequent increase in competitiveness over the past few years. It can be very easy for applications to blend together when everyone has similar board scores, participates in largely the same activities, and receives comparable clerkship grades. Identifying your own personal signature strength and bringing that to the forefront of your application helps you remain unique and memorable. Some examples are bravery, kindness, loyalty, creativity, curiosity, humor, leadership, spirituality, and hope; but regardless of which applies to you, make it the theme of your application. Highlight that strength in the stories you tell in your personal statement, let your experiences show how this strength changed or grown throughout medical school, and let it shine through in your hobbies/activities section. If you build your application on this foundation, you will set yourself up for a meaningful interview season. Then there’s just one last thing to remember:

ABOVE ALL ELSE, BE AUTHENTIC TO YOURSELF

Go through your application line by line and ensure you can genuinely and passionately speak about each item, whether it be an experience, hobby, or award. Before each interview, take a deep breath and remind yourself that you are where you are for a reason. Then walk into the room with your best foot forward and just be yourself. This is how you can guarantee you’ll end up at a program that will best serve you. Good luck to all my fellow EM applicants—my future colleagues—in the upcoming application and interview cycle. I wish you all the best of luck!