Tea Session

Everyone had been talking about all these residency "tea sessions" to which they had been cordially invited to, described as an interactive session to meet the faculty and clarify doubts. The more unassuming candidates were often surprised with having to participate in awkwardly disguised group interviews or in your face one-on-one discussions revolving around the candidate's curriculum vitae.

So when I signed up for the NHG Internal Medicine open house a few weeks back, I had some impression that it might end up as such, and made a mental note to prepare for an interview beforehand. At the same time, I also knew at the back of my head that it was very unlike Prof K to send out an invitation for something which was not. It was just not...her style. Nonetheless, it was something that I knew I needed to anticipate and prepare for.

Procrastination got the better of me until last night when I realized that I hadn't thought through it at all! In light of my sleepiness and the allure of my warm bed, I decided to trust my instincts, and put my faith in the integrity of Prof K. If she says its an open house, it must be just an open house. I went to bed, and headed out for the open house this morning - completely unprepared.

When I reached TTSH in the morning, I was once again bombarded by horror stories of how tea sessions morphed into grilling sessions and scrutiny of research papers. When my friend started grilling me mock interview questions which I hadn't prepared for, I felt completely unprepared and defeated. I didn't even bring a copy of my CV!

2pm came. It was slightly awkward in the beginning, when everyone was standing around having lunch while waiting for the program to begin. Everyone was expecting some sort of breaking into groups, waiting areas, and interview panels. Then...Prof K made an announcement.

Hi everyone! The program will begin shortly! Will you kindly make your way into the conference room? You should have been given a table number already, please sit accordingly.

Doom. Table numbers? Interview groups? I thought that was the end. Going for an interview unprepared is a terrible terrible thing to do.

We all settled into our tables. And as my mind was running through how I would answer standard interview questions, Prof K came up again to make an announcement.

Ok everyone, thank you for joining us today! Today's session will be completely informal and is purely for you to ask questions and clarify any doubts. Please make yourself as comfortable as possible, and if there are any questions, the faculty will be around to answer your queries. Please go ahead!

Really?

And the session went on as described in the email. A meet-the-people session, to meet the program directors and core faculty members. No frills, no loaded questions, no empty promises, no contrived answers and a very cute Dr L. It was an honest discussion on the limitations of the residency matching system, and how best to improve one's chances without violating MOHH regulations. Dr L made everyone feel very comfortable and it really reminded me of the feeling I had when during one of Prof Low's MBBS revision lectures and someone had arrived late midway and walked in midway into the lecture hall. He was greated by Prof Low's very warm "Welcome home!" Such love.

Just some thoughts for today. (: