Dr. Gina Badalato
Appearances
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Hi, my name is Gina Bottolato. I am a urologist at Columbia University in New York, normally the host of this podcast with Lindsay, but happy to surrender the reins to Yash today. Great to see everybody.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, some of these questions have to do with like situational awareness or ability to function in the team or ability to multitask or triage. These are all like essential skills in residency, organizational skills. You know, not every program is going to ask these type of questions. You may have a clear track.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
This is why Lindsay was talking about understanding the why, understanding the challenges, because that clearly is more of a testament to your ability to master these skills in any one of these fields. these situational questions. But I would really listen to the question, take a minute to think about it.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
And then most of them are going to deal with overcoming challenges, either interpersonal challenges or challenges involving organization, a lot of urgent things or challenges with maybe many times in surgical residencies, there's a hierarchy. How do you escalate something in an appropriate way? So think about those questions.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Think about experiences during your clinical experiences or during any prior careers you've had. How did you navigate that? A lot of common things are, you know, talking to people, communicating, expressing your concerns, going through normal channels, figuring out how you're going to develop a structure and how to prioritize things that are urgent.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
You could just talk through your thought process and how you would try to do this as diplomatically and as... kind of logically as possible. You know, you don't have to just pop in an answer. This is what I would do, but talk through your thought process and reflect on your prior experiences. You could even flip the question on its head.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Actually, what you're asking about reminds me of a time and then talk about something you're comfortable with and how it relates to that. So you're in control of the question. So I think remember that and reflect on your prior experiences and see how they come to play in those
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, well said. I have nothing to add to that. I've seen people develop very fancy spreadsheets, Excel files with all of these parameters. But in the end, it's your gut and your feeling about where you want to train. And as Lindsay said, the support that you'll have along the way.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Understand what your why is and what makes you happy and why you're doing this and where you're going to thrive and where you're going to get to your fullest potential. Because there's many ways to get there. There's many wonderful training programs. It's where you're going to do well.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, I think so. The Society of Academic Urology has some clear rules about post-interview communication. The program really can't initiate any of that communication after the interview. You could send a thank you note. That's courteous. That's nice. I always tell my advisees that really, that's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
For a given program, you may be interviewing like five or six different interviews with multiple people in a room. I don't really think it's expected and it's very time consuming. So I wouldn't worry too much about that.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
If there's something personal that, you know, a personal connection you had with somebody certainly can do that, but it's definitely not expected and then people shouldn't feel like they have that responsibility. And so, yeah, officially the program can't really initiate a lot of the contact after the interviews are over.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Students will, close to the time of after they've submitted their rank list, they can reach out to programs to say, you're my top choice or something like that. But the program really shouldn't really respond to those types of outreach, at least according to the rules of the match. I don't know if anybody else wants to roll in on that.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, I would encourage potential applicants applying this year to go to the Society of Academic Urology website and just read through, familiarize yourself with all of the rules. This is just one of them, but understand some of the rules that apply to the match this year. As Yash mentioned, there were some changes. There's a lot of great information there and it's great to kind of
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
have those ground rules in place as you go through the process and clearly read through them. It's a great resource and the website has just been updated so I highly encourage. There's actually a section for students and some facts and commonly asked questions and it's a valuable resource.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, I agree. I think the best interviews, as we were saying earlier, are conversational. So realize that these are urologists taking time out of their day to chat with you. They're not professional interviewers. So they may say, well, what questions do you have for me? Be curious about that person. Ask them questions about their life, their training, what they like about that program.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Don't let that opportunity go by. You're going to be asked, what questions do you have for me? Always have some good questions in your pocket. And don't be afraid to ask about that person because people like it should be bi-directional. So be prepared for that and be curious.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, I agree with Mahir that it's very similar to in-person in terms of the content and the principles of interviewing. In fact, some programs are doing hybrid where some candidates are being interviewed virtually and others in person. And every effort should be made to kind of standardize that process in terms of the actual questions and evaluation process.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
But I do think in-person lens, you know, kind of a different flavor. Your kind of collisions with your peers in the hallway or in a waiting area or on a tour are different. And I think, you know, you should really capitalize on those casual interactions with other residents and your other colleagues who are interviewing.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
coordinators anyone else kind of making the day possible so some of those intangibles that arguably are part of program culture are more palpable during the in-person interview enjoy the culture of the city that you're visiting appreciate the setting of the hospital so it really is a is an opportunity for you to gather more data and you can ask specific questions about that obviously they're asking you there for a reason maybe to show you a little bit more about
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
the culture of their department in person or the city itself. So ask questions about that and be observant about that. Great. Yeah.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, that's a great question. I think that, you know, when we review applications initially, you're looking for someone's qualifications. And then by the time you get to the interview, you're beyond that. Everybody interviewing is qualified. They're going to make excellent urologists. But it's really, would they be happy training at this particular program?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Do they have kind of the skills to thrive in this particular program? Would they bring something different? Would they complement or enhance the residency in some way? So you're really looking for how they would fit in that program. and whether it would be a mutual fit. So I think that's what you're looking for.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
And a lot of the questions are geared towards kind of values that the program might have sometimes, you know, towards, is it community service? Is it certain skills that they have, multitasking or communication skills? So you're really looking beyond the qualifications and looking at who they are as people, and if this is a place that they could thrive. And your ability to click with somebody.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
This is somebody that you're going to spend five to six years with, who's going to be calling you in the middle of the night, you know, and maybe working with you under incredibly stressful circumstances as a resident, as an attending in the OR. And you want to be able to trust that person, look that person in the eye and say, you know what, I really...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
would like to work with you and feel that mutual kind of relationship with somebody.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Yeah, I think that that's a great question. I just want to reiterate some of what Lindsay said about anticipating common questions. You know, like you're going to be asked, tell us about yourself or to summarize your application in a couple of lines. That should be like an elevator pitch that should not last for more than one or two minutes.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
And common pitfall is just to get bogged down with that question and spend too much time on that so you don't get to some of these other more program specific questions that's meant to be an icebreaker. So really kind of mastering those quicker turnaround questions about summarizing your questions. You know, your path to urology, all the other stuff that should really be at your fingertips.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
So then when you're looking at a specific program, I think websites are helpful. Social media X tends to be a little bit more updated on a day to day basis than the website sometimes are not as updated since they're more cumbersome to do that.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
If you have any faculty alumni among your mentorship or mentor circles or home institutions or visiting institutions from that place, you can touch base with them. That could be a resident, a medical student or faculty alumni. You could do a PubMed search of some of the prominent faculty in that department. So those are all potential sources of information. And, you know, if there's any...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
Anything like unique that that program has, unique to that city, a particular program, a research year, you should really be prepared to ask questions about how someone spends time during their research year, support during their research year, anything unique about that program to know those kind of details. And then you should also just know your application code.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
So preparing is not just knowing the place, but also to know your application. Anything is fair game on your application, including... You know, a paper that you worked on a couple years ago, you might get asked about it. So you want to know, you want to like review some everything that you put on there. If you put a hobby, think about the last time you did that hobby or any insights you have.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
If you write that you like to read as your hobby, what was the last thing that you read? Because you could be asked about those things. And so those are some general tips to prepare, but also just to be yourself. That's why I think preparing for those intro questions are helpful because they're icebreakers. And if you can get through that, you just get calmer.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 195 BackTable Resident Edition: Tips for Virtual and In-Person Urology Residency Interviews with Dr. Mihir Shah, Dr. Lindsay Hampson, Dr. Gina Badalato, and Yash Shah
You'd like an easy kind of pitch and then you can answer some of the more challenging questions that might come up later with more confidence.