The Gunner Applicant: At one program's pre-interview dinner, one applicant sat down next to one of the chief residents, and proceeded to tell him all about his CV, while the rest of us tried to interject the typical questions about living in the area and attending/resident relationships. Then, halfway through the dinner, he stood up, took his dish and without so much as an adieu, moved to the other table where the other chief resident was sitting - and per the grapevine - he then proceeded to repeat his entire resumé to that table.
The Sexual Harassment Suit Waiting To Happen: While we were going on a tour of a particular program's amazing facilities, we walked by what our tour guide fondly referred to as the Bariatric ICU, since that's where all the CPAP patients go after surgery due to their "impressive girth," she said. This particular applicant then nudged me and whispered, "I have impressive girth. I can show you later tonight." I was so flabbergasted I didn't know what to say, so I just replied, "Erm, you don't look that overweight to me." To which he said, "Oh I was referring to something else..." I chalked that up to him just being awkward - he was from a rather impressive and prestigious East Coast medical school after all, and we all know that the more prestigious the program, the more awkward the students - but then he continued to make comments laced with sexual innuendo. One conference room didn't have enough chairs, so he made the offer, "The pretty ones can sit on my lap...it's nice and hard." Also, he winked. A lot.
The Possible Serial Killer: She was super quiet throughout the entire interview day, choosing to merely observe the conversation instead of being part of it. Which would be fine, except there were only four of us, and her silence and lack of smiling was uncomfortably obvious. At the end of the day, she finally said the first words of the day to me, when I mentioned that I was taking a cab back into the city. Could she share a cab with me? Of course. So we got into the taxi together, where she proceeded to mouth off on everyone we had met that day - from residents' perceived dirty looks, to subtle insults the program director had apparently directed towards her. It was all the stranger because she had seemed like such a quiet plain Jane, and her taxicab rant was filled with f-bombs and see you next Tuesdays.
The One Who Personally Needs Ritalin: So I feel a little bad posting about this applicant, because he's actually quite nice. Very pleasant and easy to talk to, and I wouldn't mind being his co-resident. But when we went on a tour of the psych hospital - full of locked doors and doubly locked units - he would wander off and get distracted by random things, so that our tour ended up being a huge game of hide and seek. He got lost not once, not twice, but THREE times on our hour-long tour.
And of course, at the interviews where there's no one outwardly weird, I start worrying that I might be the token strange applicant. Because there's always gotta be one. And if you can't identify that person, it's probably you, right?
