Amjad Pm Match 2019

I guess I have been a beneficiary of all the USMLE groups for the last 3 years, I am trying to give back something. Thanks to everyone who helped on all the forums. Information became easily accessible to every IMG all over the world

I matched! ✌️
I am just sharing my credentials because people like to know it analyze it lol.
Step 1 26X
Step 2 26X
Step 2cs 👍
Step 3 Awaiting result( finished it after match)
Visa needed
Three, 4th author pubs from India
3 US LORS, two of them were really personalized I think.
1 Indian LOR
One year working exp in the dept of Internal medicine, in India
2016 graduate.

I already know that there have been too many posts about most of the necessary informations, and there is nothing that I can tell that the book ‘Successful Match’ doesn’t have. I thought of just giving a retrospective analysis. I think this would particularly help the high achievers, people who don’t like to settle for anything lesser.

Things I feel I could have done if I could go back do it all over again.

⭕️ I would have taken step 3 immediately after step 2ck( I took it almost a year after, I have Observered that the earlier you take it after 2ck the better the score is, also it makes your application stronger. I have heard programs tend to rank you higher sometimes.)

⭕️ I would have done research at a top notch place. I somewhere took it for granted as I had good scores and thought like why would I spend all this money staying for one more year. But thinking back and meeting people who have had that in their CV and seeing the number of invites as well as the number of quality programs in their list, I genuinely think the research from Mayo, MD Anderson, Hopkins, Harvard and all can take you long way. After all it is a comparative analysis and whatever makes you stand out from the rest will help you. (Don’t get it affect the way you see others, wish success for all).

⭕️ LOR- even though I feel like I might have had great content in my LORs, I feel like the power factor of the LOR totally changes when it is written by a PD, chair or a APD. It makes you very impressive and I found that it really influence ranking as well. I did lack that as well. Even though I got two good letters from Cleveland clinic main campus.

⭕️ I personally found that the places you get calls without recommendation value you more. There is always that courtesy factor at places you get interviews through your contacts.

⭕️ I would have been a better seller of my skill set, I feel like there is a thin line between that and being annoying, most often I held back. I focused mainly to have a fun conversation during all my interviews and all went well. But there should be strategical mixture of selling your skillset amidst your talk. It is not as easy as it sounds. But being conscious about that would definitely help.

⭕️ I never understood how to answer the “what is your weakness question?”. So find a good answer for that. I was on uber yesterday and an answer came to my mind, I was like damn now what, my interviews are over, who will I tell this, lol.

My Tips

📌Try to build good conversations, cultivate that habit, your colleagues, uber drivers, people you daily meet. Try to spread happiness and try to make people around you happy. If you develop that you can just do that during your interview as well. Being pleasant shouldn’t be something you need to fake, make it part of you.

📌 Be passionate about your ambitions and try to transcend that during your interview. I feel it is one of the crucial aspect. It is very easy to sound stereotypical and use the cliche words. But I would recommend telling things with your perspective while expressing your passion for the thing you say.

I don’t what else to tell to everyone who is applying in the coming match. But would like to know if you guys have any more questions, I would try to reply as much as I can in the comment section(but no guarantee, if time permits)

PS: Kindly avoid sending inbox messages and ask your questions in the comment section