What Are the Lessons Learned From the Virtual Interview Process for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Programs Affected by COVID-19?

PURPOSE: With the outbreak of COVID-19, residency programs for the 2020 to 2021 OMS interview cycle were forced to quickly adapt to a new method of assessing candidates—virtual interviewing—for the first time. The purpose of this study is to describe applicants’ perspectives regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the virtual interview process through an online descriptive survey. METHODS: This cross-sectional study utilizes a descriptive survey sent to the 2020 to 2021 interview cycle applicants of the University of Illinois at Chicago Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (UIC OMS) residency program. The survey consisted of questions employing both scaled and open-ended designs. The questions were fabricated to extrapolate applicants’ perceived advantages and disadvantages of virtual interviewing compared to their expectations of in-person interviewing by focusing on interactions, number of interviews received/attended, and overall applicant satisfaction. Descriptive statistics were computed for each variable for data analysis. RESULTS: In the 2020 to 2021 UIC OMS residency cycle, there were 288 applications. A total of 102 surveys were collected (response rate = 35.4%). Respondents attended more interviews during the virtual format due to accessibility (64.7%), and cost savings (63.7%). 42.2% of applicants felt they did not present themselves as well during the virtual interview as they would have in person and 46.1% felt they did not have a good understanding of the culture of the program after the interview. 49.0% of all participants do not feel that virtual interviews should continue in the future. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual formats would allow access to a greater number of interviews; however, they lack the ability to promote effective interaction between applicants, residents, and faculty members. The results of the study show that although applicants agreed that interviews were more accessible this year, they felt that the “personal” interaction was lacking and they could not present themselves effectively with the virtual format. Ultimately, almost half (49%) of the respondents do not wish for virtual interviews to continue in the future.