Fellowship interviews are virtual this year, and that means candidates won’t have the opportunity to meet their potential colleagues face-to-face. Additionally, unless they already live locally, many of them will be unable to visit to get a sense of Indianapolis or the facilities where they might be working.
This is a major challenge, but in the Department of Medicine, several programs have come up with a creative solution: producing high-quality, engaging videos that showcase each program’s strengths, introduce viewers to faculty and current fellows, and give them a brief but effective glimpse into what it might be like to join the program.
The hope is that the videos will spark candidates’ interest, which will lead to further questions that can be answered during virtual interviews, said Saira Butt, MD, director of the Infectious Diseases fellowship program.
With this strategy in mind, the Cardiology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases, Nephrology, Pulmonary and Rheumatology fellowship programs all produced videos this year. (Ahead of the game is the Hematology/Oncology program, which produced a video several years ago.)
It may be impossible to replicate the experience of visiting in-person, but Deepak Bhakta, MD, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program, was impressed by how the videographer at D. Scott Media “took the time to learn about our program, its history and personnel, and elegantly wove this into our video, generating a fantastic result,” he said.
Participating in the video was a positive experience, too.
Nabil F. Fayad, MD, FACG, who directs the Gastroenterology fellowship program, said that producing their video was fun and enjoyable, thanks to the program’s outstanding faculty, fellows and alumni. (They also worked with D. Scott Media.)
“We are confident that applicants will appreciate the energy of our team, and hope that they will get more excited to apply and join us as they learn about all the talents and resources they will benefit from while training in our program,” he said.
The recruitment videos can be found on each program’s website (linked above), or on IU School of Medicine’s Youtube channel.
