Doctor GrubHub

Every morning, I wake up, make coffee, and forage through the great thicket of the internet in search of residency vacancies. The internet or 'web,' as you know, expands continuously just as the universe, and with it arise visions of alternate realties somewhere pleasantly distant and unmoored in the daily rut of routine. Navigating it requires skill and experience and I admit to possessing neither. However, I've built a steady habit of scouring specific websites in my search for residencies. When I come upon a position I like, I deploy the residency application algorithm now updated into my brain's latest software - it's an app - and switch the 'application mode' tab to 'on.' Hereafter the process is automatic - CV, diploma, dean's letter, transcript, and USMLE files are sent, along with a specifically crafted statement of interest. An e-mail is fashioned for each program director or coordinator with the attachment of aforementioned files, and o...

 Out of sheer luck, I have had a few interviews over the past couple of months ranging from video calls to the formality of on-site visits. I apply broadly within the large domain of surgery and its subspecialties, as "beggars can't be choosers," an oft-repeated phrase I utter like a mantra in times of insecurity about my current station in life. The most recent of interviews took place on-site at a University medical center. Six of us were selected to vie for a PGY-1 vacancy for a subspecialty surgical position, wherein the previously matched applicant had decided that surgery was not right for him. (This was a wise choice, as Surgery demands everything, will take your blood and soul, and if you harbor any doubts, then consider all your questions answered. Perhaps I'm being overly dramatic, but I've heard this said by other surgeons throughout my education and training and am merely repeating the gist of what they said.) I drove 5 hours on a cold gray morn...