Hey friends!!

If you are new here, I am an international medical graduate who has had a long journey and now making a transition from being an Attending back to Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) fellow.

A common question in the medical field is-  Does social media negatively or positively impact your trainee applications and should you delete your account during the application cycle?

I know this probably sounds stressful and confusing to a lot of applicants, especially to medical students.

Most people tell you to delete or lock your social media accounts during applications and interview season. While this might be advisable if your social media account depicts a totally different person than who you are  or who you are trying to become. If your social media accounts shows the real you, by all means leave it open and let them see you.

Here’s my story:

I joined Instagram and tiktok because I am passionate about health education, especially pediatric health and safety. I am also an international medical graduate and doctor mom so you will see a few snippets of my life as a mom.

I had an active Instagram account for about 9 months and tiktok for about 3 months when I applied and interviewed for PEM fellowship the first time. Even though I was showing who I really was on social media, most people advised not to talk about that part of me.

“Focus on clinical and research work and QI’.

To me, that sounded like, do what everyone is doing so you can match and so I did. I always minimized my work on social media. 

I blended in, followed the crowd. I didn’t have a lot of publications too.

For that and many other reasons, I didn’t match.

I was traumatized and for the first few weeks to months, struggled to decide which way to go

I knew I wanted to re-apply again and knew I had a short time to get my acts together before another round of application came by. So I buckled up and made a plan:

• I decided to nurture my creative side and use the blessings I had suppressed
• I rebranded myself on social media and took my medical education seriously. I didn’t make content just to make it, I wanted people to learn and trust me as an expert
• I made my content easier to understand and visual enough not to be forgotten
• I joined the social media elective faculty at my hospital and taught trainees (medical students, fellows and even attendings), how to use social media (esp Ig and tiktok). I developed a research project around it
• Through my posts, a lot of media opportunities came and I did a lot within this past year including Huffpost & more.
• I wasn’t in it for the money, I had a plan- I wanted people to know social media can be used in academic setting.

I re-applied for fellowship and I not only highlighted my clinical and research work but all the media and social media education I did

Guess what most people where curious about: my social media presence and elective teaching, That was the opening question on 90% of my IVs. One of my interviewers signed up for my blog  just before he interviewed me. And a lot of places wanted me because of that to help bring on a new concept.

Creativity and use of social media was my own way to stand out, I went against the crowd and even though my application was more comprehensive this time, I am happy a lot of people will remember be when they think of social media use in medicine.

And I hope a lot of people will consider social media use in medicine as part of academic medicine

I dare you to find a way to stand out; go against the crowd.

Bring the real you into your application.