by Samir P. Desai, M.D.,
and Rajani Katta, M.D.
Authors of The Successful Match: 200 Rules to Succeed in the Residency Match and 250 Biggest Mistakes 3rd Year Medical Students Make And How To Avoid Them
“I saw his drunk photos on MySpace, and he just strikes me as immature. Do you think that matters?” “I don’t know, but we have 30 other great applicants here to choose from.”
“She’s a member of the Facebook group, ‘Medical Students Behaving Badly.’ I don’t think that’s someone we should bring in as a resident.”
Applying for residency, as every applicant knows, is a long, complex process, and understandably so. Residency selection committees use every tool at their disposal to compare applicants. Would programs use internet search engines and social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, to screen applicants?
No studies examining this issue as it pertains to the residency application process have been published. However, there is data available from other fields. In the business world, employers are increasingly using social networking sites to learn more about potential hires:
- In a recent CareerBuilder.com survey of 3,169 hiring managers, 22% used social networking profiles to screen potential hires.1
- Α Vault.com survey found that 44% of employers reported looking up potential hires on social networking sites.2
- According to the executive search firm ExecuNet, 77% of recruiters surveyed used the Web to screen applicants.3
How did the information discovered affect hiring decisions? In the CareerBuilder.com survey, 34% of managers who used these sites in the screening process reported dropping candidates from consideration based on the content found. Most concerning for these hiring managers were candidates posting information about alcohol or drug use, followed closely by posting of inappropriate photographs or information. Less commonly cited, but still areas of concern, were poor communication skills and discriminatory comments related to race, religion, or gender. Even an unprofessional screen name, while seemingly much more innocuous, raised concern for some managers.
In a recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers at a major medical school in the Southeastern U.S. evaluated the Facebook profiles of all students at their institution.4 Of the 501 medical student participants in the study, 64.3% had Facebook accounts. In an analysis of these profiles, the authors found the following:
• Forty percent joined online groups. While most groups were benign in nature, some groups raised concern, including those with the names “Party of important male physicians,” “Keep your f***ing hand down in lecture and shut the f*** up,” and “I should have gone to a blacker college.”
• When a random subset of students was examined more closely, 70% were found to have photographs with alcohol, with a substantial number showing excessive drinking.
• Some profiles contained unprofessional comments, involving foul language, overt sexuality, and patient privacy violations.
While students maintain that their personal profiles were never meant to be viewed by anyone other than their friends, the reality is that anything placed in a publicly available profile may be viewed by programs and used in the selection process. As stated by the Student Affairs Office at the Drexel University College of Medicine, “programs/employers are increasingly gaining access to social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to see what they can learn about candidates…”5
Social networking sites often allow users to restrict access to their profiles. While students often realize this, many users fail to activate these privacy features. In the aforementioned study of medical students, 62.7% kept their Facebook account public. Even when a profile is restricted, however, there are ways around privacy guards. For example, a member of the residency selection committee who is a graduate of your college or medical school, can create a profile using an alumni email address. In doing so, he can acquire access to current students at that institution. In this way, he can circumvent the privacy guards in place at social networking sites such as Facebook.
Some students argue that their online personality is different from their professional personality. Therefore, no conclusions or assumptions should be drawn from the content posted. It is currently true that research examining the predictive value of posted content on social networking sites as it relates to on-the-job behavior or performance is not available. However, that’s not likely to stop a program director from making judgments about you based on your personal profile.
In selecting candidates, programs are searching for those who will succeed as residents and, later, as practicing physicians. They also seek to avoid problem residents, defined as “trainees who demonstrate a significant enough problem that requires intervention by someone of authority, usually the program director or chief resident.”6 When Yao looked at reasons why certain residents were considered “problem residents,” among the deficiencies reported were inappropriate interaction with colleagues or staff, unsatisfactory humanistic behavior with patients, and unacceptable moral or unethical behaviors.7
Studies have shown that behavioral and noncognitive traits and skills have significant value in predicting resident performance. However, programs are limited in how they can assess these skills. The use of social networking sites may provide additional information about potential residents not found in traditional application components (i.e., curriculum vitae, letters of recommendation, MSPE, personal statement, transcript, interview).
In justifying their actions for use of this information, programs may maintain that unprofessionalism displayed at social networking sites may be a harbinger of future unprofessionalism during or after residency. In a retrospective study done by Dr. Papadakis, associate dean of student affairs at the UCSF School of Medicine, researchers searched for warning signs during medical school associated with an increased risk for disciplinary action later as a physician.8 They found that “disciplinary action by a medical board was strongly associated with prior unprofessional behavior in medical school.”
Since programs are free to use whatever tools are at their disposal for the evaluation of residency applicants, we recommend that you view social networking sites as yet another tool. Even with privacy guards in place, there are ways to circumvent restrictions. Therefore, we recommend a preemptive stance or approach to keep your online persona clean. We recommend the following:
• Google yourself regularly to ensure that troublesome or offensive material does not appear online.
• Employ whatever privacy guards or blocking tools are offered by your social networking site.
• Closely review your posted materials (i.e., comments, photos, membership in groups) to ensure you are displaying the professionalism expected in a future resident and doctor.
• As you examine your online persona, consider your audience. You and your friends may feel that the content is relatively normal or harmless, but faculty members and program directors may have a completely different viewpoint.
• Remove any material, including photographs and text, that may be considered inappropriate.
• If you cannot remove the information, politely contact the company or person who owns the site and request its removal.
• If the information cannot be removed, be prepared to discuss it should the issue be raised during an interview.
• Consider creating profiles at professional networking sites such as LinkedIn. Such sites tend to be ranked highly by internet search engines and profiles placed at these sites may be displayed first on an internet search of your name.
Finally, we agree with the recommendations of Brittany Warwick, in her SDN article “Keep Your Online Persona Clean.”9 She recommends using “your online presence to advertise your good qualities. You can post information about your leadership, maturity, growth, and potential.” An online persona conveying a professional image may solidify a program’s decision to interview or even rank you favorably.
References
- Available at www.CareerBuilder.com
- Available at www.Vault.com
- Available at www.ExecuNet.com
- Thompson, LA, Dawson K, Ferdig R, Black EW, Boyer J, CouttsJ, Black NP. The intersection of online social networking with medical professionalism. J Gen Intern Med 2008; 23 (7): 954 – 957.
- http://webcampus.drexelmed.edu/osa/careeradvising/interview.asp
- American Board of Internal Medicine. In: Materials from Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM)’s Chief Residents’ Workshop on Problem Residents; April 19, 1999; New Orleans, LA.
- Yao DC, Wright SM. National survey of internal medicine residency program directors regarding problem residents. JAMA 2000; 284 (9): 1099 – 1104.
- Papadakis MA, Hodgson CS, Teherani A, Kohatsu ND. Unprofessional behavior in medical school is associated with subsequent disciplinary action by a state medical board. Teach Learn Med 2007; 79 (3): 244 – 249.
- Warwick, B. Keep your online persona clean. Available at www.studentdoctor.net.
LOL, people should block their accounts and make sure their profile picture is appropriate.
In my opinion…. if you make your site public and/or add a medical school or hospital as a friend AND have inappropriate stuff up… you may be too immature to be selected. If you can’t use basic common sense I don’t want you treating me.
You can have a good time in college, but make sure you are smart about it. Keep your information blocked and know who can access your information with a limited setting. Those simple tools/tips can make the difference. Don’t stop your life, just be smart about what people can see.
A nearly identicle article was posted here just months ago.
Do that many people really use their legal names on these sites?
You’d be surprised how many do!
This is a really good article. To keep our online persona clean we have to apply a simple principle: THERE IS NO PRIVACY ON INTERNET. If you have a good behavior in real life you do not have to worry about bad things that could appear online about you.
In my opinion this is ridiculous. We are all human beings. Who the heck cares if you are not a ROBOT 24 hours a day. The public no longer wants to reward physicians as special, prestigous etc. It goes both ways. Why are physicians expected to treat it like anything else besides a job
and to Victor…what exactly defines “good behavior”??? Why is having a little fun sometimes or being humerous a bad thing?
… because being a physician is way more than just a job. With an attitude like that you’ll never make it through the interview process. Being a physician is something you dedicate your entire life too. We are expected to be a cut above the rest and role models to society. Going to slutty sorority parties and posting disgusting pictures of stuff nobody wants to see is not a good way to portray yourself. People who do that deserve to be retail managers at places like wal*mart.
Quite informative article……surely there are no two ways when it comes to INTERNET. But definitely the aliases about the person using aliases? what happens then??
Josh
Someone being in a sorority or fraternity having a good time does not mean they cannot be smarter, kinder and better workers. I know you might try to convince yourself of that if you feel like they have something over you, but let’s all be honest with ourselves about this. Someone’s personal life should NOT matter for ANYTHING if it is NOT ILLEGAL.
What other people can find on internet about us is just a reflection of who we really are. This reflection can be exact or not. But we have to be aware of this. Every time we use the internet we leave our “fingerprints”. The new administration in the U.S. government is aware of this, why not us?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10097448-38.html
Believe me they have nothing over me. I have a perfect 4.0 science gpa and a 3.9 psychology GPA. I wouldnt want one of those people treating me though, i do know that.
But yeah, like said.. go ahead and do what you want and see what happens. Just ask yourself if its worth throwing away a potential career. You could always go the P.A. route i guess.
Josh, I just love the way you trash Walmart managers and PA’s. As a future doc, I hope I never work with you unless you change your ego.
funny josh
I am already in med school so there! Also, just because people do things that you don’t does not in any way, shape or form mean they are “beneath” you. Oh, btw I am top of my MED school class (so take your 3.9/4.0 premed GPA and you know what!)
I agree with you Paul. Apparently this guy is the master/god of who is fit to treat people and who is trash.
Back to topic, I agree with Jan (that you need to be careful). I do feel that people should be able to have private lives (including fun/out of the box things) and their careers without backlash. Perhaps I am too idealistic in that sense (I would never judge someone based on their past or what they do in their free time as long as it is not harming others)
I was a huge party goer / drinker in college. Sometimes I think I was drunk more than I was sober. I ended up graduating in the top 5% of my medical school class, scored a 255 on Step 1, and just landed a top orthopaedic surgery residency. If someone had judged me based on what I did in undergrad, there would be one less future great ortho surgeon around here. I let loose in college – it was my last chance to do so. Doesn’t mean I was immature or incapable of being a great medical student or future doctor.
I’m not trashing wal mart managers and definitely not PA’s. I do think a wal mart manager is a job where you can do what you want in your private life and nobody cares. I do, however, think its a lot different for physicians. There’s nothing wrong with going out and having a good time. I do it all the time. I dont post pictures of myself up on the internet though. That’s just plain retarded. We all know that girls on facebook who have 2000+ pictures wearing next to nothing, passed out on the floor. If i were looking at residency applicants, i know id screen those people out right away. All i’m saying is that you are embarking on one of the most prestigious careers possible, so own it. Residency programs want people who are going to put medicine first before everything else and that means making sacrifices.
In comparison to the physicians-turned-terrorists at Glasgow a while back, what you are worried about is silly. Screening based on activities in someone’s personal life is ridiculous. So long as the activities are not harmful to others or involve a drug addiction (including alcohol) who the hell cares. I’d be happy to know that my colleagues can enjoy their free time to the fullest.
This idea that physicians are in some way morally and socially superior to others is disgusting.
However, how clean is too clean? When I look for potential future coworkers/peers, I certainly don’t want anyone who is too “square”. I want to find someone I can relate to. Now that doesn’t mean going out every night and doing keg stands…
Medicine is one of the most prestigious careers POSSIBLE? Oh PLEASE. Josh, please pull your head out of your ass. Believe it or not, residencies want people that have lives outside of medicine. Every residency interview I have been to has asked me what hobbies I have outside of medicine. They want workers that are able to maintain some modicum of happiness, not miserable sycophants who claim to prefer to live in the hospital 24/7.
yeah but theyre looking for hobbies like playing a musical instrument or art… not doing kegstands and wearing a size small shirt when your nasty slut beer gut is showing. haha holla
It seems the easiest way to avoid the problem is to avoid the sites. Right??
If you can’t find anything better to do than sit on the computer telling people what you had for breakfast or what your mood is you need to get a new set of priorities.
There problem solved.
I don’t approve of them using that as information to make decisions about you. Then again are they not doing what any stranger would do when they look at your site? Make assumptions based on the content?
None for me thanks.
I think it’s a matter of how you want people to see you, not about whether you have a life or not. I can take a beer bong in four seconds, but I wouldn’t brag about that to an interviewer. If you post pictures of yourself drinking, carousing, etc. on public networking sites, that’s basically what you’re doing. You are saying that that’s how you live your life and you’re proud of it, at least proud enough to show the world.
Appearances do matter, and you have to admit that you are not showing your best self when there are pictures of you getting wasted or being a participant in a wet T-shirt contest. Put pictures up of you volunteering, or acting in a play, or something that is constructive instead of destructive to your image. You can have a life, but leave the drinking at the parties, don’t show the proof of them on a public forum.
Agreed- be cautious about what you put up on the internet. you can party like hell but why do you need to show it off?
Why do people have to make life so complicated for. If one posts a picture of yourself drunk, what do you think people will think. If you make incoherent comments on the wall of friends, what do you think people will think? If you join certain groups that bring about a negative tone, what do you think people will think? Shesssh, people.
this was a great article. For those that posted things such as “just dont do bad things”, congratulations on living a perfect life. I wish I could have hung out with you and been the same, as I am sure you were as “perfect” as you claim.
I can see that this is a never-ending debate. My personal opinion is that for all people currently in or going into medicine, there’s always a general social perception of pre-meds, medical students, interns, and doctors. Even for those of us who love to party, when we hear the word Doctor, we don’t normally form images of drunkards, partiers, slutty-outfit/half-naked girls, and provocative/revealing photos…So, I’m not saying that by doing all of these things should strictly influence your application or image at your medical school, but rather that it merely reflects how you choose to present yourself privately and socially, in which case, no one is right or wrong…
I think this was a very timely and helpful article. Whether or not you disagree with the use of facebook, etc. as a professional resource, I think the point is that the internet is not private and one must be cognizant of one’s image, because sometimes, all we get is the first impression. As medical professionls, we taken on a lot more responsibility than most of us wagered (see above Lin’s post), even though our personal and professional lives may be very different, or we change over time (i.e., ortho guy). The most important thing to remember is that your patients are probably googling you as well – how do you want them to perceive you?? As the cool party-goer who could be hungover on call or as a put-together, controlled physician?
BTW, most residencies and other jobs have parties hosted by the program director, CEO, etc. involving alcohol…
A big thank you to all the idiots who demonstrated their immaturity on these sites, you made getting my top residency easier!
Darwin is proud of you!
The statement in this article about someone on the committee being an alum of your udergrad school and making their own account w/ their old undergrad email address so that they may view your profile is inaccurate. On facebook, you can make your profile private to EVERYONE except your friends. This is why you should never accept people you don’t know as friends. You should also not respond to messages from people you don’t know, because that grants them limited access to your profile for a month or something.
The only people who can see my account are the people on my friends list, regardless of where they go to school. And if you’re not on my friends list, all you can see is a little thumbnail of my profile picture, my name, my network(s), and my friend list.
You can have an honest profile as long as you educate yourself about how to protect yourself!
You can also keep your friends list private. I don’t even use my Wall! If anyone wants to message me on Facebook, they have to do via private message.
Just don’t use facebook. Plug in to the real world.
I never had one ever.
It’s kinda stupid. I don’t even have an SDN account.
Then again, I get bored online. I’m not very computer savvy. I never heard of youtube until I was 22.
Plug in to the real world. There’s so much more out there than on the internet.