Jazzing Up Virtual Interview Season With a Residency Program Information Portal for Interviewees
Abstract
Learning Objectives: To asynchronously connect interviewees to our residency program through a digital platform designed to recreate personalized knowledge-sharing.
Background: Emergency medicine residency recruitment has continued in the virtual environment in 2021. Remote interviews limit the personalized exchange that occurs between program and applicant. Virtual interviews, while more equitable and financially feasible, result in applicants feeling less familiar with the program. To compensate, an emphasis on digital presence is needed. A well-curated website can provide foundational information about the program but typically lacks the personalized quality of an in-person on-site interview.
Objectives: To asynchronously connect interviewees to our residency program through a digital platform designed to recreate personalized knowledge-sharing.
Design: We created a website to convey personalized program information to 2021-2022 interviewees called the “Stanford Applicant Access Zone (SAAZ).” Through this private interviewee-only platform, we recreated many of the discussions and presentations that otherwise occur during an in-person interview. SAAZ contains interview logistics for the interview day, future engagement opportunities, videos highlighting unique features of the program, and a tour. We tracked the number of visits and page views to gauge use.
Impact/Effectiveness: As of 11/23/21, there were 184 users of 210 invitees who account for 1506 page views. The peak usage was in the first week of November after invites were sent, with spikes in usage on a weekly basis thereafter, consistent with interview days. The average engagement time was 248 seconds. Apart from the welcome page, the most commonly viewed page was “Interviews” at 337 views (2.36/user), followed by “Engage” at 279 (2.18/user), “Meet the Team” at 207 (1.92/user), and “ACCEL” at 152(1.54/user). The interview day length decreased from 5 to 3 hours by relocating content to the website. SAAZ is a novel means to provide asynchronous program details while preserving personalized information sharing and shortening the virtual interview day.