Monday, October 26, 2009

Interview Madness!!!

And so it begins...

This Wednesday night, Adam and I will go to a "get-to-know-you-dinner" at one of the Memphis OB/GYN resident's  house to meet (officially) and mingle with the residents, physicians, and their spouses.  We'll eat dinner, they'll size us up, we'll be pleasant, chatty, the happy couple you know that we are ;) and the next day Adam will have his first of many interviews for residency.  The interesting thing is that we're beginning with the program that we want to end up at (at least as of right now) and I hope that the next two and a half months of road trips are all just to serve as part of the crazy rite of passage into the world of being a Doctor of Medicine...

Here's our schedule so far...I sort of hope that there aren't many other interview offers, because I see no physical way of fitting many more interviews in!

This week's  interview in Memphis Adam has been told to use as a practice interview since he knows the program and they know him.  So we have Memphis on the 29th, then the following Sunday (after a fantastic Halloween party at some friends' house) he'll fly to Atlanta to interview in Macon, GA.  He'll come home Tues 11/3 and then the following Friday, we'll drive to Maryville (!) for a cousin's wedding reception and then drive onto Greenville, SC to interview on 11/9 at East Carolina University.  However, don't forget the customary "Get-to-size-you-up" dinner the night before!  Why do we go to the dinners, you ask?  Well, it just so happens that the residents, NOT the physicians of the program, have the majority of the choice in who's ranked to come to the program after the initial interviewees are chosen from the pile of applications.  The official choice comes from the Physicians, but we've been told that if you miss the dinner the night before, you might as well not even interview the next day because the residents won't know you...that's how important they are.

"No pressure, you know, its just fun...casual dress...here, have some complementary alcohol , you're our guests and we want to show you a good time!"

{note to self: DO.NOT.GET.DRUNK}

East Carolina University rounds out November, for the time being, but then comes the doozie of a trip we have planned for December.  You ready for this? Here goes...

Dec 3, drive to Knoxville for lovely dinner, Dec 4 interview in Knoxville

{weekend at home, deep breath}

Dec 6 drive to ETSU for dinner, Dec 7 interview at ETSU - haul ass to Chattanooga for dinner, Dec 8 interview in Chattanooga, drive to Atlanta

{Hello there, lovely Kevin!  Sure is nice to be in a city we're not having to interview and be sized-up, we already know that you love us}

Dec 10 drive to Savannah for dinner, Dec 11 interview in Savannah

{Weekend, PARTY IN SAVANNAH!!! You can drink on the street there, you know...}

Dec 12 hangover (just kidding - maybe), Dec 13 drive to Columbia, SC for dinner, Dec 14 interview in Columbia and LONG, TERRIBLE 12 hour drive back to Memphis.  If all goes well, we'll get in about 3am and then we both have to work the next day!

{Yay...}

Add in a dinner and  interview scheduled for Jan 5-6 in Dayton, Ohio,

{Hello, Memaw!}

then one last dinner and interview at Tulane University (New Orleans) for Jan 14-15,

{Party in NOLA!}

and you've got the gist of our next two months or so.

Oh yeah...then ranking the programs...we'll think about that later...gotta get through the interviews first! The amazing thing is that through all this traveling, it works out that I'll only have to take 6 days of vacation.  Unfortunately, I'm on call for Thanksgiving so we won't go home then, but we'll still manage to go home for two days before Christmas and I'll even have some vacation time left over.  Its too difficult to completely explain how all this is working out, but lets just say that if I'm at work for even an hour, I don't take vacation time.  In addition, I have two personal days to use aside from my regular vacation and I was able to find a conference to go to the day we're in Atlanta and thus was able to take three of the days during that trip as "Travel time" and not count against vacation.  This is where being in a salaried position REALLY pays off!!

So, that's all for now.  I think we're going to go purchase some luggage tonight so Adam has something to fly with (we've been borrowing up to this point and really need our own).  I'll be chronicling these events as we go...I'm sure they'll be interesting and Lord knows I'll have the time while Adam is in his all-day interviews!  There will probably be some interesting road stories, as well as interview freak-outs.  Don't be surprised if you start to see tons a few alcohol photos (all aesthetic, of course!).  We plan on stopping (as much as possible) at brew pubs along the way to sample the local fare.  Hey...we've got to have something pleasant to keep us going from city to city or we might never make it!!!  Interviewing just might drive us to alcoholism!

{just kidding, maybe}