Questions to Ask in a Fellowship Interview
Questions to ask in a fellowship interview, for residents applying to a medical subspecialty fellowship and meeting the program director, faculty and current fellows on interview day. They are grouped by who is answering: the director on structure, call and where graduates go, faculty on clinical volume and procedures, research mentors on protected time and funding, fellows on what the schedule and the city are really like, and the coordinator on pay and leave, with a few to close on. Each has a note on what a good or a worrying answer sounds like, written with the US match in mind, and where something depends on the country, the hospital or the subspecialty the note says to ask how it works there.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Program director
How is the fellowship structured from year to year?
Why ask it
Ask for it in months: how many on the consult service, the inpatient service, clinic, procedures and research in each year. A director who can give the split from memory is running a planned program. If the answer is that it depends on the fellow, ask what last year's class actually did.
How is call arranged, and is it taken from home or in the hospital?
Why ask it
Get the frequency as a number for each year, which hospitals one fellow covers at once, and whether the day after a night up is lighter. In many programs call eases as fellows become senior. If the final year carries the same load as the first, the service may depend on fellows to run, so put the question to the fellows as well.
Where have your graduates gone in the last five years: academic posts, private practice or further training?
Why ask it
Ask for every graduate and not the highlights, then look for the job you want on the list. A program that sends nearly everyone down one path is good at that path. If yours is the other one, ask who last took it and who helped them.
What are the strengths of this fellowship, and what would you fix first if you could?
Why ask it
The strengths will match the slides, so listen to the second half. A named weakness with a plan attached, such as thin volume in one procedure and an away rotation to cover it, is a good sign. 'Nothing comes to mind' from the person who reads every fellow's evaluation is not.
What are you looking for in a fellow?
Why ask it
Whatever comes first is what the program is built around: someone to carry a busy consult service, a future investigator, a proceduralist, a teacher. Compare it honestly with what you want from these years, because a mismatch is hard to correct once you have started. It also tells you what to bring up in the rest of that day's interviews.
How have your fellows done on the subspecialty boards at the first attempt?
Why ask it
With only a few fellows in a class, one failed exam swings a percentage, so ask for the count over several years. What the program does to prepare people matters as much: a review series, an in-training exam that is gone over with each fellow, time to study. Which exam applies and when it is taken depends on the subspecialty and the country, so ask how it works for this one.
Does the division hire its own fellows onto the faculty, and when did it last do so?
Why ask it
If you would like to stay, this is the question, and it is fair to ask it plainly. A division that keeps a fellow most years needs clinicians and likes what it trains. If nobody has stayed in a long while, find out whether there was no position or no offer, since those are different stories about the place.
Does each fellow have a mentor for their career as well as one for their research?
Why ask it
A research supervisor has a stake in the project, so a second person is the one who can tell you to change it, or to take the job across the country. Listen for meetings that are on a calendar and not left to chance. In a small division the director often fills the role, and that can work if the fellows say the meetings really happen.
How do you get a new fellow ready for the first night on call?
Why ask it
The first month asks a new fellow to give specialist advice in a field they have only just entered. Good answers have parts: an orientation block, a few shadowed calls, a senior fellow or attending who expects the phone to ring. A pager handed over in week one with a list of numbers is something to ask the first-years about.
How many fellows are in each year, and did every position fill this cycle?
Why ask it
The call schedule divides by the number of fellows, so an empty position is extra nights for everyone else. If the program is about to grow, ask whether the clinical volume and the procedure lists are growing with it. More fellows sharing the same cases means fewer for each.
Is there a clinical track and a research track, and when does a fellow have to choose?
Why ask it
Some programs decide at the interview, some at the end of the first year, and some have no formal tracks at all. Ask what each track changes in practice: months of research, clinic load, funding, length of training. If switching is allowed, ask whether anyone has and whether it added months to their training.
How much elective time is there, and what have fellows done with it recently?
Why ask it
A count of weeks tells you less than what the last few fellows did with them. A rotation at another hospital, time in a niche clinic or a month in a related specialty shows the time is the fellow's to plan. If electives are the first thing cancelled when the service is short, the fellows will say so.
How do fellows get feedback, and who sits down with them to go through it?
Why ask it
Twice-yearly forms alone are slow when the whole fellowship may be over in a year or two. Listen for attendings who say something at the end of a service week and a director who meets each fellow on a schedule. Ask how a fellow who was behind on a skill last found out.
Has any fellow left before finishing, or been asked to extend?
Why ask it
Fellowships are small enough that the director will remember each case. People leave for a partner's job, a change of field or a research post elsewhere, and a calm account of what happened is reassuring. Vagueness, or several departures in a few years, is something to raise with the fellows.
Is this an accredited fellowship, and does finishing it make me eligible for the subspecialty board?
Why ask it
Look up the status beforehand where a public listing exists, and spend the question on what the listing leaves out, such as what the last review raised. Some advanced or newer fellowships are not accredited at all, which can be fine, but ask what that means for board eligibility and hospital privileges afterwards. The rules differ by subspecialty and country.
Can fellows stay for an advanced year, and how are those positions filled and paid?
Why ask it
If you may want a further year in a narrower field, find out whether it exists here, how many apply and whether internal fellows have an edge. Ask too whether the advanced fellow takes cases from the general fellows. If there is no such year, ask where graduates have gone to get one.
What changes are coming to the division or the hospital during the years I would be here?
Why ask it
A new division chief, a faculty member leaving with their clinic, a hospital opening or a service moving across town can change the training inside one fellowship. A director who tells you about it, and how fellows will be protected, is dealing straight. Hearing of it first from the fellows is a different signal.
Faculty
How busy is the consult service, and what is the balance of common and rare cases?
Why ask it
Ask for the new consults on an ordinary day and how many fellows share them. Too many, and a fellow writes notes all evening with no time to read. Too few, or a referral center that sees mostly the rare, and you can finish short of what fills a practice, so ask where fellows see the everyday cases.
How many procedures does a fellow finish with, and how does that compare with what they need to practice alone?
Why ask it
Ask for the logged numbers of the last graduating class, procedure by procedure, lowest fellow as well as highest. An average hides the one who finished short. Where a board or specialty society sets a number, ask what it is for this field and in which month fellows usually pass it.
Who else is learning these procedures: residents, other fellowships, advanced practice staff?
Why ask it
Every extra learner in the room divides the cases. A clear rule, such as first refusal for the fellow on the service, is what you hope to hear. 'We work it out on the day' tends to favor whoever has been there longest.
By the final year, what does a fellow do without an attending in the room?
Why ask it
You are listening for graded independence: staffing consults by phone, running a clinic session, acting as first operator from start to finish. A fellow who still presents every plan for approval in the last month has not practiced being the attending. One left alone from the second month has a supervision problem of the opposite kind.
How much teaching do fellows do, and is there coaching for those who want to be educators?
Why ask it
Teaching at the bedside comes with the job nearly everywhere, so ask what goes beyond it: lectures, a resident clinic to supervise, someone who watches and says how it went. If you are aiming at a clinician educator post, ask what a past fellow built here, such as a course or an education project. If you are not, ask how many talks a year are expected, because each one is prepared in your evenings.
Do fellows have their own continuity clinic, and how do patients get onto their list?
Why ask it
A panel you follow for the length of training teaches what a consult month cannot: how a treatment decision looks a year later. Ask how many half-days a week it runs and whether it continues during inpatient months. A clinic made of other doctors' overflow, with a stranger at every visit, teaches much less.
Which conditions or procedures do fellows see little of here, and how is the gap filled?
Why ask it
Every program has one: no transplant service, few children, a procedure done across town by another group. It only counts against the program if it is the thing you want to do. A scheduled rotation elsewhere, with the fellows who went named, is a real fix, and 'fellows can arrange something' is not one yet.
Which hospitals do fellows cover, and at which one do they get to run the service?
Why ask it
Sites differ in more than their patients. At one hospital the fellow may be one voice among several attendings, and at another the fellow may be the person making the plan. Ask how the months divide between them and what the travel between sites does to a call night.
What are the regular conferences, and which do the faculty attend?
Why ask it
Expect a weekly list: core lectures, a case conference, journal club, perhaps a joint meeting with surgery, radiology or pathology. Faculty who turn up and argue are the mark of a session worth going to. Ask who builds the first-year curriculum, since a series that relies on whichever attending is free tends to lapse.
How do fellows and residents share the work on the consult and inpatient services?
Why ask it
Find out who sees the new consult first, who writes the note and who phones the primary team. A fellow who reviews a resident's consult and teaches from it is practicing the attending's job. A fellow who sees every patient alone because residents rarely rotate through is supplying the labor, so ask how many months have a resident at all.
How many faculty have joined or left the division in the last couple of years, and why?
Why ask it
In a small division one departure can take a clinic, a procedure or your intended mentor with it. Retirements and promotions elsewhere are ordinary. Several people leaving for the hospital down the road is a pattern, and the faculty member in front of you will usually say why if asked plainly.
Which specialized clinics or programs can a fellow spend time in, and how do they get a place?
Why ask it
Clinics devoted to one disease are where a fellow builds a niche and often finds a mentor. Ask whether time there is scheduled or squeezed into a free afternoon, and whether two fellows wanting the same clinic have had to share it. If your interest is specific, ask who runs that clinic and whether you could speak to them.
Research mentors
How much protected research time do fellows get, and what continues during it?
Why ask it
Protected should mean months with no consult pager. Clinic and some call often carry on, so ask how many half-days and how many nights a research fellow still works. Ask too whether the time comes as one block or as scattered months, because a project is hard to keep moving in pieces.
How do fellows find a research mentor, and by when are they expected to have one?
Why ask it
Assigned pairings, a round of meetings in the first year, or leaving it to the fellow: each can work, but you should know which. A program that introduces fellows to mentors before the research block begins saves them months. Ask whether mentors outside the division, in basic science, public health or another department, are allowed.
What did the last few classes have to show for their research time by graduation?
Why ask it
Ask about the typical fellow and not the star: a first-author paper, an abstract at the national meeting, a quality project that changed a protocol. A list of titles is better than adjectives. If most projects ended as a poster and nothing more, the time or the mentoring was thin.
Who pays for a fellow's research: a training grant, the mentor's own funding or the division?
Why ask it
Funding routes differ by country and institution, so ask what exists here, how many places there are and whether fellows compete with each other for them. Some grants carry conditions on citizenship or on what you do afterwards. Find out what accepting one commits you to before you plan around it.
Is every year of the fellowship funded from the start, or does a later year depend on winning a grant?
Why ask it
In some programs the research years are paid from grants that have to be applied for, and in others the hospital pays throughout. Neither is wrong. What you need to know is what happened to the last fellow whose application did not succeed: a year paid by the division, more clinical work, or a shorter fellowship.
Is there help with statistics, study design and the ethics board paperwork?
Why ask it
A fellow with a year of research time can lose months of it waiting on approvals and data requests. A named statistician, a research coordinator and someone who has filed the forms before are the practical signs. If the mentor's own group supplies all of that, your choice of mentor decides your support.
Can fellows take a master's degree or formal research courses, and who pays the tuition?
Why ask it
Some programs fold a degree in epidemiology, clinical research or medical education into the research years. Ask how many fellows have done it, whether the class schedule clashes with clinic, and whether tuition is covered or only discounted. If nobody has, ask whether the director would back the first.
What is expected of a fellow who wants a clinical career and not a research one?
Why ask it
Most programs still ask for some scholarly work, and the useful part is what counts: a quality improvement project, a case series, a curriculum. You also want to hear that clinically minded fellows can trade laboratory months for extra procedure or clinic time. A program that sees them as second-tier will show it in this answer.
Which of your projects could a fellow join in the first six months and finish before leaving?
Why ask it
One for a faculty member whose work interests you. A dataset already collected, or a study that is enrolling now, can be finished inside a fellowship. A trial due to open next year may still be recruiting when you graduate, so ask what the last fellow on the team got done and how long it took.
What does the program do for a fellow applying for a career development award or a first faculty post?
Why ask it
The step from fellow to funded junior faculty is a hard one to make alone. Listen for specifics: internal review of grant drafts, a bridging year as an instructor, protected time written into a first contract. Ask how many recent fellows tried for an award and how many got one, here or elsewhere.
Fellows
What did your last day on the consult service look like, from the first page to going home?
Why ask it
A real day beats a typical one. Listen for when the first call came, how many new consults they saw, when they went over them with the attending and what time the notes were done. Ask a first-year and a senior separately, since the two days should not sound the same.
How often does home call bring you back into the hospital at night?
Why ask it
Ask for last week's count and not an impression. Home call that brings a fellow in most nights is in-house call without the call room, and it matters whether the next morning starts later. Find out which emergencies in this specialty need the fellow at the bedside, because that list decides how the nights go.
On call at night, how easy is it to reach your attending, and do they ever come in?
Why ask it
After hours the fellow is often the first specialist the hospital reaches. A recent, ordinary story about phoning an attending at 3 a.m. means the backup is real. If fellows hesitate to call certain people, ask how often those people are on.
What are the attendings like to be on service with, and how much does it change from one to the next?
Why ask it
In a small division you may spend weeks at a time with each attending, so one difficult person is a real share of your year. Listen for names offered warmly and for what those people do: stay to teach after rounds, let the fellow speak first, pick up the phone at night without a sigh. A careful silence about someone is worth noticing, and you can ask how many weeks a year that person is on.
When the procedure list runs late or the case gets difficult, do you keep the procedure?
Why ask it
Numbers in a log do not show who was holding the instrument at the hard part. Fellows can tell you which attendings talk them through it and which take over when the room falls behind. Some of both is normal, so ask about the proportion and whether it shifts as fellows get more senior.
Who holds the pager while you are in conference?
Why ask it
This is the working test of protected teaching time. An attending, an advanced practice colleague or one rotating fellow covering the phone means the hour is real. If everyone steps out to answer pages, count the conferences as optional.
Does research time stay research time, or do you get pulled back to cover the service?
Why ask it
The director has given you the policy, and this is the practice. Ask a fellow who is in a research block now how many clinical days they worked last month beyond their own clinic. Occasional cover for a sick colleague is normal, and a standing expectation is not.
In your own clinic, who deals with the phone calls, refills and insurance forms between visits?
Why ask it
A panel of patients produces work on the days you are not in clinic. With a nurse or a medical assistant assigned to the fellows' clinic, that work is shared. Without one it follows the fellow onto the consult service and into the research months, so ask how much time it takes in an ordinary week.
When a co-fellow is ill or on parental leave, who picks up their call?
Why ask it
With only a handful of fellows, one absence can double someone's nights. A plan that involves faculty or paid cover means leave can be taken without resentment. Where the answer is 'we just split it', ask how the last long absence went for the people left behind.
Do fellows moonlight here, and where do the shifts come from?
Why ask it
Whether it is allowed depends on the program, your license and, for some fellows, a visa, so ask what applies here and from which year. Shifts inside the same hospital are the simplest to arrange. If most fellows moonlight to cover rent, that is a fact about the salary in this city, and it is worth asking whether the hours eat into research time.
What does the salary cover in this city, and where do fellows with families live?
Why ask it
The pay scale is usually on the website, and what it buys here is not. Ask what people pay near the hospital, how long the drive is from the places they can afford, and what childcare costs. Home call may also come with a rule about how quickly you must be able to reach the hospital, which narrows the map.
What has living here been like for you, and for your partner if you have one?
Why ask it
You will spend years here, often with someone whose career or family is tied to the move as well. Specific answers, a neighborhood, a school, a partner who found work, mean people have built a life. If everyone plans to leave the day training ends, ask why.
Knowing what you know now, would you rank this program first again?
Why ask it
Speed counts as much as content. A quick yes with a reason is the best thing you will hear all day, and a careful 'it depends what you want' deserves a follow-up about what the program is not good for. Ask more than one fellow, away from faculty if you can.
What do fellows keep asking the program to change, and has it?
Why ask it
Every fellowship has a standing complaint: a clinic with no support staff, a weekend pattern, one site everyone dreads. A single known issue that leadership has heard is normal. The same complaint going back several classes with no response tells you how far a fellow's voice carries.
How did last year's graduates find their jobs, and did the faculty make calls for them?
Why ask it
Much of the hiring in a small specialty runs on who knows whom. Fellows know whether attendings picked up the phone, read over a contract or mentioned an opening before it was posted. Ask when the search began and whether anyone told them to start sooner.
Coordinator
What is the salary in each year, and is it set by training level?
Why ask it
Many hospitals publish a pay scale by postgraduate year, but ask where you would sit on it, especially after a chief year, another fellowship or time in practice. Ask whether fellows on research funding are paid the same as the others. Policies differ by institution, so get the answer in writing.
How many weeks of vacation do fellows get, and which rotations can they be taken from?
Why ask it
The number is in the benefits summary, and the rule about where it can fall often is not. If time off may only come out of research or elective months, the research year is shorter than it looks. Ask the fellows whether their requests were granted and how far ahead they had to make them.
Are fellows appointed as trainees or as junior faculty, and what does that change in the contract?
Why ask it
In some fellowships, often the advanced or non-accredited ones, the fellow is hired as an instructor who also works some shifts as an attending. That can alter the salary, the benefits, the malpractice cover and the terms on which either side can end the year. Ask which applies here, and for a copy of the contract to read before you rank.
How does parental or medical leave work for fellows, and can it lengthen training?
Why ask it
Two sets of rules apply: the hospital's on how long you may be away, and the board's or the program's on how much time away still counts toward finishing. Ask about both, and whether anyone has had to make up time at the end. In a short fellowship a few weeks can decide whether you finish on time.
Is there an education fund, and does it cover meetings, board fees and society dues?
Why ask it
Ask for the yearly figure and the rules: whether it pays for a meeting only when you present, whether unspent money carries over, and who covers the board exam at the end. A second meeting in the same year may fall to a mentor's funds, so ask. A fellow can tell you how long reimbursement takes.
Which visas has the program sponsored for fellows in recent years?
Why ask it
Ask this before the interview if your status depends on it, because a program that cannot sponsor your category cannot go on your list. Recent examples matter more than a statement of policy. Research funding can carry its own eligibility rules, so ask whether your visa would limit the research years.
What has to be done before the start date, and is there a gap in pay or insurance after residency ends?
Why ask it
A new state or hospital can mean a license, credentialing and health screening, each with its own deadline. Residency and fellowship dates do not always meet, and a few weeks without a paycheck or coverage is easier to plan for than to discover. The coordinator knows which step held someone up last year.
Closing
If I told you the career I am aiming for, how would you shape my fellowship around it?
Why ask it
Name the job plainly, a clinician educator, a proceduralist in a community group, a funded investigator, and let them build the years aloud. A specific answer with mentors and rotations in it shows the program has done this before. A general one about flexibility means you would be designing it yourself.
What should I work on in my last year of residency to arrive ready?
Why ask it
The answer names what new fellows here tend to lack: a procedure they have barely done, a statistics course, a project already under way so the research block does not start from nothing. It also tells the interviewer you are picturing the first month and not only the match. If two programs give opposite advice, that is a clue to what each one values.
Could I speak with a recent graduate who is doing the kind of job I want?
Why ask it
Current fellows are still inside the program, and a graduate can judge how well it prepared them. A director who offers a name and an email on the spot is confident of what that person will say. Ask the graduate what the first year of practice demanded that fellowship had not taught.
Do you want to hear from applicants after today, and is there a second look?
Why ask it
Programs set their own rules, and where a match is used it has rules of its own about what either side may ask or promise, so find out what this program prefers. Some welcome questions by email and others ask for silence. After a virtual day a visit may be the only way to see the hospital and the city, so ask what you would be shown.
How to use your questions on a fellowship interview day
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the day
Find out who you will meet
The schedule usually names a program director, a few faculty and a session with current fellows. Sort your questions by who can answer them: the director for structure and outcomes, faculty for the clinical work, fellows for what the weeks are like. If one of your faculty interviewers does the research you care about, move the Research mentors group into that slot.
Decide what you want the fellowship for
A fellowship can train a community subspecialist, a proceduralist, an investigator or an educator, and few programs are equally good at all four. Settle which you are aiming at before the first interview. Someone heading for practice should weigh procedure numbers, autonomy and the continuity clinic most heavily. Someone heading for a research career should weigh protected time, mentors and how the research years are paid for.
Read what is already published
The website usually has the rotation outline, the salary scale, the current fellows and sometimes a list of alumni. Asking for any of that spends a turn on nothing. Build on it: 'I saw the second year is mostly research. What clinical work continues during it?' shows you have read the page and gets you the part that is not on it.
Pick three or four for each conversation
Faculty interviews tend to be short, with a few minutes at the end for you. Choose the question from each group that could move a program up or down your list and ask it first. Keep the rest as spares for an interviewer who hands you more time than you expected.
On the day
Ask the director for the design and the fellows for the practice
Several subjects appear twice on this page on purpose: call, protected research time, conference, procedures. The director can tell you how each is meant to work. The fellows can tell you how it went last month. Ask both and write down both answers.
Ask for numbers and for the last time it happened
'Is the consult service busy?' gets an adjective. 'How many new consults came in yesterday?' gets something you can set beside another program. The same goes for nights worked last month, procedures logged by the last graduating class and the last time a research month was taken back.
Use the session with the fellows
It is usually the least formal part of the day: a lunch, a dinner the night before, or a video room with no faculty in it. Save the blunt questions for it, and ask a first-year and a senior where you can, since they are living different schedules. Fellows may be asked what they thought of you afterwards, so be curious and friendly, and do not cross-examine.
On a virtual day, ask about what you cannot see
A video interview hides the workroom, the procedure suite, the drive between hospitals and the neighborhood. Ask the fellows to describe them, and ask the coordinator whether a visit is possible and what it would include. Check the program's rules on visits and contact first.
Keep pay and paperwork for the coordinator
Salary, vacation, the contract, leave, visas and start dates have exact answers, and the coordinator is the person who has them. An email before or after the day works as well as asking in person, and it leaves your time with faculty for what only they know.
Comparing programs afterwards
Write it down the same evening
After several interviews the programs run together. Keep one page for each under the same headings: how often call falls, procedure numbers, months of research and what continues during them, where graduates went, and how you felt among the fellows. Fill it in before you sleep.
Set the two accounts side by side
Where the director's answer and the fellows' answer agree, you can rely on it. Small differences are normal, because a policy and a busy month never match exactly. A wide gap, such as protected time that fellows say is routinely interrupted, is the most useful thing the day can tell you.
Check each program against the career you named
Go back to what you decided you wanted the fellowship for and look for evidence that each program has produced it: a graduate in that kind of job, a mentor in that area, numbers in that procedure. A program can be excellent and still be built for someone else.
Fill the gaps before you rank
If something important went unasked, a coordinator or a fellow who offered an email address can usually answer it. Ask for the contract and benefits summary if you have not seen them. Follow the program's stated policy on contact after the interview, and do not read anything into a slow reply.
Mistakes to avoid
Saying you have no questions
By the fourth interview of a day you may feel everything has been covered. Asking a faculty member something already answered by the director is still worthwhile, because the second view is information. Keep one question about that person's own clinic, research or fellows ready for exactly this moment.
Spending faculty time on salary and vacation
They matter, and they have written answers. A faculty interviewer may not know the figures and may wonder why you asked them. Put those questions to the coordinator or the fellows.
Taking adjectives for answers
'Great autonomy', 'very supportive' and 'plenty of procedures' are said at nearly every program. Each can be turned into something checkable with one follow-up: what a senior fellow did alone last week, who covered the last fellow on leave, how many of a procedure the last class logged.
Asking only about research, or only about lifestyle
An interviewer builds a picture of you from what you ask. A page of questions about time off suggests one thing and a page about grants suggests another. Ask across the groups, even if one matters most to you, and lead with the clinical training.
Judging a program by its name
A well-known division can still be the wrong place if its fellows share cases with too many other learners or the mentor you want is not taking anyone on. The questions about numbers, mentors and where graduates went apply to the famous programs as much as to the small ones.