Questions to Ask Programs on Interviews

Written by Andrew Woods, DO

One of the few questions that truly has a wrong answer that you will encounter on the interview trail is one of the easiest in my opinion. “Do you have any questions for me?” is an easy way to stimulate conversation and soothe any concerns you may have about the program, while also seeing how much due diligence you have done about the program. “No, I’m good” is the wrong answer, but there are so many right answers that can give you crucial insight into whether the program is the right fit for you. Remember, while you are interviewing for a residency spot, programs are interviewing for you as well, so don’t be afraid to ask tough questions. Here are some of my favorite questions to ask your interviewer!

For Program Leadership (Program Director, Associate Program Director, Chairs, Program Coordinators):

1. “Are there any issues within the program that you plan on addressing and how do you plan on addressing them?” OR “Are there any changes on the horizon that would impact me while training in your program?”

Much like the “describe your weaknesses and how you are working on it” question that you may receive, this question is a harmless way of probing whether the program is dedicated to self-improvement. Out of all my interviews, I had one program that said “not really, we have been doing this for years now and have a good formula.” To me, this was a red flag because there is no perfect program, and an inability to self-identify program weaknesses is just as concerning as an applicant who doesn’t think they have any weaknesses. Another way to approach this would be to inquire about any changes that may occur during your time in the program, an important thing to know about as this could entirely change your outlook on the program.

2. “Have you ever had a resident experience a major, life-changing event (i.e. sudden family death, divorce, illness, etc.) and how did the program react to support them?”

Want to know if a program really has that family atmosphere that most will brag about? Ask this question! Residency is full of stressors and while they may not have had any residents experience these major events, they should be able to address how they can support their residents outside of wellness events. The most thoughtful response that I received from asking this question described how the program's leadership sat down with the resident and first discussed how they personally supported the resident during a messy divorce before detailing the professional options that they helped to create to keep their career on track. As discussed above, a bad answer or no answer at all should raise major red flags about whether you will have the support you need to thrive in residency.

For Residents (Meet and Greets, Chief Residents, etc.):

1. If you removed all the residents from the program, do you think the department could manage?

Truthfully, no program would survive without residents because they are structured to utilize the resident workforce, but some function better than others. My larger objective in asking this question was to gauge how vacation requests, sick days, and personal days would be viewed by the program and other faculty. One of the worst responses I had, but I appreciated the honesty, was along the lines of “there are days that the services struggle to function with us here, I can’t imagine what would happen if the attendings had to respond to pages and write notes as well.” Major red flag about learning versus work balance! Conversely, one of the best responses I got was “we definitely make their lives easier, but we have protected didactic time where they literally take our pagers from us and write our notes for that day.”

2. What are some examples of what teaching looks like on the various services?

Every program structures its teaching differently, but I was always curious to ask this question because it helped me gain insight into how much teaching outside of the regular didactics was provided. Responses ranged from bedside teaching and table rounds to full whiteboard lectures after morning rounds were over. This depends on how important learning from others versus learning on your own is, but a quality education structure is essential to your growth as a resident.

Questions for Faculty (Associate Professors, etc.):

1. What extracurricular activities does the residency participate in?

I used this question to gauge how engaged the faculty actually is in the extracurricular activities. Part of creating a tight-knit program is seeing your colleagues outside of work, and often times that occurs during sideline coverage, skills labs, research, community service, and a host of other activities. Don’t put too much credence into this response as faculty have lives outside of the hospital and might just have outside factors that make it difficult to become fully immersed, but a lack of an answer should be a red flag because they should at least know what is going on within the program.

2. Did you graduate from this residency program? If so, what about the program that has kept you here? If not, what about the program enticed you to come here?

Most of the time the responses to this centered around the location and the people, but to me, that mattered! I very much valued location and environment more than any program perks or unique initiatives, and so this question gave me great insight into what people loved the most about the program. At the end of the day, this is more of a personal values question than anything else, but it did wonders for me and is an easy way to create small talk if you run out of other stuff.