 If you are a medical graduate and you are going to go to the U.S. for your observation and tilt rotation and eventually planning to do the residency there, then this video is for you. This video I have with me Pooja Madhavi who was my client and now a good friend and she is sharing her entire journey of right from overcoming the visa challenges to her experience of doing the observation and research in the U.S. to finally getting a match for a residency program. And Pooja is completely honest and detailed and candid and is tons and tons of useful information for you. So, let's start right here. So my name is Dr. Pooja Bhandari and I am an incoming neurology resident at University of Mississippi Medical Resident and so I am here to share my experience about my whole U.S. family journey and my process and everything that I have done so far. So I graduated from my medical college that is Shamshah Medical College, Riva in 2020 and after that I started preparing for U.S.M.D. Basically it has two steps that is step one and step two. Step one is an eight hour long exam, step two is a nine hour long exam. So you have to pass both these exams that is mandatory for you and after that you have one occupational English test that is OIT and so this combines like all these courses that get combined and your application is prepared. So I took like almost an year or so for the preparation of both the exams like one year for step one, one year for step two and one week for OIT. So after that life for, so during my time during COVID the B1, B2 results were not very easily available and I heard that if you have research in your CV so your CV gets a bit strong. Better than your other competitors. So that's why I thought to add research in my experience and for getting a research experience you have to go there on a J1 visa. So I applied at many places and I got an interview from University in Buffalo. They interviewed many people and one of them was me and after that I got selected and for per year they have two research fellow positions available. So after completing all of my exams I went there on J1 visa. People normally take very lightly are the person's statement as well as the interview preparation. People think that okay my vocabulary is good I'm confident enough and my interviews skills are good so they go unprepared and that is something which really makes a big difference because during the interview they don't ask you anything related to studies or medicine they don't ask you anything at all. They just try to know you personally they just try to see that does your personality match the specialty you're applying for and are you good as a person to work with. So that is the whole thing and for someone like normally any person expressing yourself completely in 15 to 20 minutes it should like you should gain some kind of professional advice like with you also. I went like bluntly right the first time for visa that everyone told me that J1 visa and girl and Indian and doctor no one rejects you but I got rejected so then I came to you I got your professional help and I got everything and next time my interview went on very smoothly. The first time you went what do you think went wrong or what do you think you missed? So first thing was my biggest mistake was that I took it very lightly okay but another thing what went wrong was my luck on that day because my friends towards three friends who were doing this research at the same position I discussed with both of them and exactly both of them had the same questions they gave just big answer that okay I'm going on a research and this and that and then come back and they were done with their interview so maybe my mistake was that I just you know relied on their experience I thought that okay everyone might be asking just this thing the reason with me was like my luck was bad that I had this Chinese officer there who I think you know too much about this whole process so he asked me that okay so will you be doing residency or not and this and that and why after the interview you're going to do residency so I was not prepared for those answers but after that like when I contacted you you prepared me so well for like every aspect that could have been possible like after getting prepared with you I was like I can prepare anyone for the interview now a third person's point of view that I wasn't able to convince that person that why am I doing research after M.A.B.S so like as you told I found that kind of position in AIMS and something like that and so that anyone will be convinced that okay I am too much religiously I'm involved into research and I am by what to dedicate my life for research like I have prepared so much after that interview that even I was thinking for a time that okay I have to do research only in my life. Repentance to yourself. Yeah I can wish myself that research is the only thing that I want to do in my life now but yeah you help me a lot like the questions and everything and how you saw my bank accounts and statements like okay we should like increase some by at least two to three times what they are asking for to me and like that first session of two hours and then half hour mock interview session like they were very helpful to me and now also like if Laman comes to me I tell them that you know just don't go bluntly contact Sachi and she will prepare you. What time did you end? Did you sleep? How was it? People started at 9.30 or 10 and it took me like around half an hour to reach my place so I woke up at 7.30 or 8. Then I got my bus at 9 a.m. I reached there at 9.30 and I was free from my research work at 4.15. 3.45 or 4.15 something like that. So that's a continuous shift? Is it like continuous? Yeah also mostly like we look for patients that we can involve in clinical trials so we had the access to the electronic well medical records the EMRs so most of the days we used to like spend most of our time searching for patients then we had to call them we had to introduce them to a study that okay we are doing so such and such clinical trial are you interested in that if they say yes and we schedule a day for them then they came there we took their consent explained in the study and then like different studies had different requirements and the good part was that we always knew that okay four months later this person will be coming at this time so it was not something very random like the clinical environment is going to it was not something like that we ourselves scheduled the patient that okay this person will be coming two weeks later at this time so it was kind of that thing it was not very hectic but as I said the work at all the research places are completely different like you cannot say that okay at UB I'm doing this so at other places I will be given the same work everywhere the things are getting very different yeah so what time 4 p.m you finish your research and then I finish my research starting one or two months I started studying for step three but I like I wasn't in the mood of studying anymore like honestly if I wanted even my step three very easily because when I went there in May so May June July August I studied very nicely and I was in the position of giving step three at least in September but in August when the application process and rotations and step three everything got combined so I chose my rotations and getting concentrated application because step three was just an additional point step three is something that the programs want you to complete before completing your residency it's not something mandatory that you have to give before applying but if you apply then they are happier because then they know that okay you won't be taking holidays during your residency to give step three so just that is one big point and I also like you will be free before residency for step three so I started studying I was in a good position but when I gave a pause to step three and I like invested most of my time for applications and rotations and everything after that I could not start again so like I used to procrastinate with myself that okay I'm just opening the laptop I'm just doing 10 or 15 questions a day but then like after one or two months I will like okay just leave it let's just I'm very stressed out right now for my results I cannot study so yeah if I wanted I would have given step three otherwise like because after like nine to four is done after that most of the time I used to spend with my friends if I would have wanted I would have given step three but somehow it just did not happen I also saw you traveled quite a bit so where did you go in US? So in US like I almost searched, explored all the parts of Buffalo so we had Niagara Falls just one and a half hour away from my place so there we went two three times there were also like many places to eat and everything like that and so yeah Buffalo completely I explored and Tennessee I went one or two times I have friends there so yeah Tennessee I went and like around Tennessee also most of the places I visited and I wanted to visit 10 by C but I was waiting for my results that okay I haven't done something right until now that I think that was a kind of reward for me so like like my friends there were like very supportive all the friends and while I was giving my interviews there so like all those all were engineering friends they were all doing their masters they had their graduation just yesterday so while like if I was giving my interviews they were like okay we'll be getting our jobs somewhere in New Jersey or NYC and we'll be getting matched so before you go to India you spend three days with us we'll go and when I was like please don't make plans I may win my result is without it so they were like no no we know you will get matched so like all this support is kind of pretty very much important for you in this journey because this is something which is very long hard expensive and too much uncertain journey like most of the people that were with me in this medical thing in this USM journey they were applying this time for the second time so this was very uncertain for me that okay will I be able to get married in the first time or not and as I told you I had no plan B because if I did not match either I had to continue there on my same visa or like same thing but affording one year more without getting paid it would it would have been like very difficult and if I did not continue my J1 research thing then I would have to come back to my country for two years so like it was just toward like kind of situation like I had to get matched anyhow so yeah so after I got matched I was like okay now I'll be coming to NYC we'll spend three days and I've been following all your travel stories in US so yeah I saw that application process starts around June July like from that time you can look at the programs you can look at the profile and everything you like you can select the programs and September like 28th September is the last date we have one month of window and from 1st to 28th September you can like upload everything and your application gets completed and last date is 28th September people do like like the best thing last date last date of application means that from 28th September the programs will start to review your application there are people who upload it even later than 28th September but that is like kind of negative point because maximum programs have started looking at the applications and if you upload it after that they might not even just look at your profile okay so like that after you apply to multiple programs and you apply based on what speciality you want for IMGs that is international medical graduates basically what we have are internal medicine, neurology, pediatrics and family medicine like I'm not saying that and psychiatry like I'm not saying that we cannot apply to other specialities but surgical specialities are too much competitive for international students so basically these things are something like most of the IMGs who apply for and amongst those internal medicine is the most applied speciality by IMGs especially okay so after that you whenever you apply to the programs then you wait for your interviews so around like mid-October something like that you get start to get your interviews and until December or January you get your interviews like but I got my last intake I got my all the interview that I received whatever in October like after October I did not get any new interview and then you start giving your interviews mainly in the months of November December and January and then in the month of March in the month of February before the result you have this rank order list preparation so for example if I have interviewed at six programs so I will rank them accordingly to my choice like where where I want to get matched and the rank order this is something that you should be very careful about if you have like for example interviewed at Harvard but you know if your profile is not so much strong so then it's stupidity to rank it at first position where you think that you want to match and also where you gave a good interview like you feel your interviews were very strong and they will also rank you higher so like there are multiple and number of criteria that you should keep in mind while you know ranking preparing preparing your rank order list so that way you prepare your rank order list and one program if they have for example 10 positions and they have interviewed 50 candidates so they will rank it 1 to 50 and there is a software which matches you to the program and in that software the applicant's priorities like much more important than the program's priority so that way and then mid-March first you get the result of either you have matched or not and after a week you get to know where you have matched so that one week is for the people who did not match like for example I got my visit on 13th March that I matched people who did not match they can apply to there is a complete new set of application process that is called SOAP that is supplemental something something I don't remember like full form so that that's kind of a supplemental application the programs that are that have the seats unfilled like if a program has 10 seats and 3 seats are unfilled so that program enters into SOAP so the people who have not matched they can see like which program has unfilled seats and they again apply they again enter again give their interview so people like some time after being unmatched in the first time in that one week's meantime they can get matched through SOAP and then on the Friday of that week like that like for me it was 17th March so you come to know that exactly where you have matched so this will be whole process for getting a residency that is the post graduation thing in US what are the things you did while you were in US which ensured that you know you at least had a good profile to begin with yeah like after I completed my these step one and step two so I went to university at Buffalo and I was working on three or four clinical trials that time normally we just study about them so those clinical trials were something like related to heart failure medicines which are not right now in the market but they will be released in some of the coming years so I had a lot to speak about those those research at that time and like since I applied to neurology like my main name was neurology so maximum of the rotations I did were in neurology if it would have been like one neurology or two neurology and two internal medicine so neurology people never give you interview if they feel that you are using neurology this is a backup option just because it you know it is a branch where IMG is applied but mainly if they see that if you if your application is directed towards medicine and you have applied to neurology too so then you won't get an interview so your application should be like directly directed towards the specialty that you want so my profile had like since I wanted neurology so I had four letter of recommendations of neurology I had a few publications four rotations yeah yeah rotations four rotations in neurology yeah yeah I did that so simultaneously along with my research before my research work started in a day sometime around 9 30 or 10 I used to go to the doctors that I rotated with sometime around 7 30 or 8 in the morning and three or four hours I spent with them and if in the afternoon I got free a bit earlier so then I again went there so that way I completed one one month of time period with each of the faculties and then they gave me letter of recommendations so this way with your research program you are also doing four rotations so simultaneously I was like managing both I was actually running between the department that okay something came up here I was here something came up there a good thing was that the people there were really understanding especially the people whom I was rotating with because like this primarily I went there for research right so whenever my research people want me I have to be there doesn't matter whatever case I was involved with during my rotations right so the people with whom I rotated they were very understanding that even in the middle of a case presentation or patient examination if I was called that they were like supportive enough for me to let me go so that's why things like went down very smoothly I don't know that at other places this thing is allowed or not and like most of the place most of the places they do allow but most of the places they they want that okay you get done with your rotations first and then you can you know you do your research for something like that or either people divide their days at okay half of the week they are doing research half of the week they are doing this rotations and if you're trying to just one specialty then you then you should have at least four rotations of that same specialty but even if not four but at least three should be there so like you said they're checking nearly your foot and your foot yeah so there are like a list of questions that you can get like online anywhere I cannot like disclose exactly like this program asked me this question but me what they ask is the first question at any interview is tell me about yourself okay so that should have such an impact that okay in the first question itself they should get interested in you it should not be just like a very vague and generic answer that okay I'm from here I graduated from here and something like that that it should have something that you know like so that they can just raise their head and try to connect with you in some way or the questions right right and so tell me about yourself is one thing that everyone asked then they asked that why this specialty and like why are you especially applying to this specialty not to anything else and how to connect with this specialty and why our program okay so we just like we are beggars in front of them right please give us a seat but we do not have to show it like that you have to go through like thoroughly through that program that will you be able to survive three or four years of your life at that place everything matters from the environment to the climate to the faculties people their cost of living everything you should take in mind and for that before any interview like one night before the interview in the evening we have a kind of meet and greet session in that session all the current residents of that program and all the applicants are there in a zone call and that time you can ask like any informal question that you should you want to know about the program like what is the availability of food in your city or like how do you transport anything like 800 anything like that so all all these things like whatever you find that okay we broadly apply everywhere they also know that everyone applies broadly everywhere but in every interview one or the like at least four or five people take your interview separately right so at least one person will ask you that why our program so you should target specific points for that program before every interview you should know that what is something about this university or community program that is very different from other places so so that they know that okay before giving interview this person has actually spent time on our website this person knows something which not everyone knows something these things like impress them other than that they ask like like whenever you give them your CV right so you have publications so they ask you to tell about explain about any case that you have written there or the clinical rotations that you did there so they ask you like okay when you were rotating at such and such place did you come across any interesting case that you would like to tell us about and the other part of questions is like personalized behavioral questions that okay what would you do in a situation if you and your senior are not getting along nicely or if you have an argument with your senior or your junior or if you are getting too much stressed out or burnt out at your workplace so how will you handle that how will you deal with a difficult patient and like think like that so they know that okay what is your answer in these things very plain and blunt answer does not impress them much but you have to prepare something in a way that is a little bit different from them you should not bluntly like say very big big things that anyone knows that okay she is lying but yeah have honesty as well as a sense of you know professional touch in your answers so that are things and like any interview which is going just in a question answer way that okay he is asking I am replying just you know just question answer question so that is not considered to be a good interview they should be like laughing with you smiling with you getting involved with you it should be kind of conversation rather than an interview so that is called to be like a good interview if you're like you know we are here discussing things with you they're getting interested in your life trying to get you know more so that is like after that you can okay say that okay this interview was pretty good rather than just question and answer that okay what do you do and I do this something like that people who are deciding between observation and between a G1 like a research program right yeah if you ever consider observation or how does one decide because both ultimately you okay if the aims to get into you know a residency program where you know that okay I have to do rotations I have to get a recommendation like that so what is a better path does somebody go for observation and just do that or like what you did plan a longer stay and do both see I cannot give one exact answer for this thing but I can like tell what happens with both the things okay if you go for research there will be just one thing in which you will be in a negative point that is funding yourself for one year that's it and this J1 visa thing which I told you but it's not something that okay you like yeah if you are on a J1 this research visa for like while you are applying so that time this is something like I explained that if you don't get matched you can just continue your visa at the same position and maximum people who go on a research and they don't match either they continue on the same place or they get their DS 2019 transferred they get their visa extended and they change their place but like I don't know any person who was doing the research and if he or she did not get matched so he had to come back two years for us for India okay so this like I am not available of any such person if somebody who is in research and did not get matched they just continue there for one more year and 95% if you are continuing at the same place they will pay you because already you are working there for one year and they know that okay this person will pay with us for another year so 95% chances are there that they will pay you so even you think you get like whatever payment you get at least you can spend your life there like at your own expenses so just the thing is the expense that you like one year you have to be the US I was lucky in the matter of fact that Buffalo is a very cheap city it's not very expensive like NYC or Chicago something like that the rental rates and everything are like pretty cheap because it's like the main thing there is university at Buffalo so 90-80% population there is a students only okay so if I would have been at a very much expensive place then it would have been a bigger problem but if you really want to target the university programs then you should have a research because while I was giving my interviews maximum of the people had a research experience most of them were in the US most of them were doing research I was also like too much afraid during that those interviews because I was doing my research in medicine and I was giving my interviews for neurology so people were doing like so complicated neurology research is I was like oh my god why will they even consider me who is doing a heart failure research and applying for neurology but I had my answer prepared all the interviews I got were university interviews mostly people like get like if someone bought eight interviews so at least five will be of community programs three will be of university or something like that someone who did not do research but if you have a research experience US based research experience so university programs prefer you a lot these are some things that we can talk about J1 thing just the negative point is the expense and the two-year thing which you have to like play around yourself and you have more flexibility you can go back on a B1 you have more flexibility essentially you can do the back go again exactly so it's like if you go for a month for a play or to a place for this rotation thing so you have to pay some something between one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars to that doctor whom we are rotating that is their piece like an average based on thousand to fifteen hundred so if you are lucky enough to get three or four rotations at the same place then it's good that okay at one hospital you found four different doctors that you're rotating or attending so that you're rotating under so that is good but people do not find that very easily so one time they like for one month they are in a city then they have to move to city B then they have to move to city C so that is kind of like headache on its own that you know you have to like after every single month you have to change your place and no one gives you a room on rent for one month right so they have to be there in Airbnb they like it's not a kind of settlement that you find for those three or four months until unless you don't find that like four rotations in the same city or at least nearby so that is one thing and then obviously you don't have that research experience I think to make the most out of B1 B2 visa is like whenever you are rotating at a place you should target that I should publish at least one case report for rotation so that way your interview can become interesting by you know you have some stuff to talk about and also in your application you can see maximum publications like they look at you like how many publications you have how much research you have done like what you have done other than studies it's kind of a different concept from India in India people like like people who are you know too much into studies but they don't like people who are just into studies they want you to be good in extracurricular thing they want you good to be like your personality wise or communication wise and the co-curricular activities like publishing your research and all those things they don't want you that you are just sitting at your home and just studying first step one step two so that is something people should take into consideration that if you are going on B1 B2 visa at least try to make sure that first thing is build as much connections that you can if you are rotating at three or four different hospitals build such good relations with the attendings that you can make sure that okay this attending will get me an interview I have made such good relations with him or her in one month's time and another thing is that try to friendship with the current residents there even the residents have a say whom they want to be recommended for getting an interview and the same way you can talk to the attendings or residents that you know I want to publish a case report in this speciality so if you ever come across a very rare case or something like that please get me involved in it and like every case report has four or five authors so you can at least do the work which they are not free to do so thank you so much thanks a lot enjoy the history so I really hope that you found all the content in this video really useful and this has given you clarity on how to approach and do this for yourself just like Pooja if you want to work with me for your US visa process then do get in touch we can do a one-to-one session to frame your answers to prepare your for an interview and clear your doubts you can take a mock session with me to get a feel of the actual visa interview and you can also look at our packages so we have something on the board package which covers a DS160 review a one-to-one session and a mock the details for all of this is right below in the description box we also have free resources so you'll also find a question ban for all the observational interviews and a document checklist as well so do give this a look and I really hope that you enjoy this video please do comment below and let me know what you think if you have more questions for Pooja then you can also put it below in the comment section and I can probably get her to answer them for you so that's all for this video thank you so much for watching and stay tuned more useful content coming your way signing off and now