The Facebook Dilemma

The whole process of applying to fellowship programs has been many things: expensive, stressful and tiring, exciting, humbling, just to name a few. But it is also far more intimate than the residency application process. A few hundred people apply each year to ophthalmology residency programs, and what program would have the time to thoroughly investigate each applicant?

Fellowship is different. In a given match cycle for an ASOPRS oculoplastics fellowship, there are typically between 20 and 25 positions available across the country. These will be applied for by between 40 to 60 or more people. If I haven't mentioned it before, those are the odds I am up against - pretty steep. At any rate, the point is, it's a much more intimate. There are few applicants that can be eliminated early and easily - those who try to "see what will happen" but aren't competitive on paper.

So suppose you've been able to knock your applicant pool down to around 30 to 40 candidates. That's still a lot of people to try to interview for only one position, and you simply don't have the time - your clinic and OR are still booked after all. So how do you further screen these people quickly, without making them pay a bunch of money to come out and talk with you only to find out they don't belong with you? A couple programs have chosen to do Skype interviews - two of which I have done. (I will discuss the pros and cons of a Skype interview later.) 

The other option is Facebook. Let me first point out that I am vehemently against employers using Facebook as an additional source to screen potential employees or candidates. There remains, for most people, a sharp distinction between one's professional life and one's concurrent (or especially past) social life. Let's not forget that Facebook is a social network, not a professional network. There are separate networks for the professional side of things. But still, people do this.

While I used to have my Facebook profile open to viewing by people not listed as "friends," I recently restricted viewing to only my friends. Not that there is anything too incriminating on there - no pictures of me drunk and stupid, barely half dressed (except for some beach photos of my pale bod),  or overly direct, opinionated statements. Nonetheless, some people would think to form opinions of how I would function in a fellowship based on all that stuff.

Well now they can't.