As part of the application process, each candidate will be interviewed by the faculty of the program. Interviewees will also meet with several current interns. We have found that this important step in the selection process allows the applicant to be maximally informed about the internship and helps the selection committee choose interns who match well with the program. As an APPIC member internship, we agree to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.
All interviews this year are being conducted via videoconference. No in-person interviews will be conducted, even for those applicants who may live nearby and want to travel to campus. We will be using Zoom as our primary video platform.
Because we will be interviewing people from across time zones this year, we will be establishing some interview days that are conducted “later” in the east coast day than others. We will share this information at the time that interview invitations are emailed. We will still be conducting interviews in groups of approximately 10 applicants per day. If Saturday interview days are offered, they will have a larger capacity.
Each interview day will begin with a conversation with one of our Co-Directors, who will provide an overview of the internship’s goals and philosophies and some information about the Consortium.
As part of your virtual interview, you will videoconference individually with three faculty members. We will make every effort to arrange interviews with faculty members working in your interest area(s). In some cases, a particular faculty member that you would like to see may not be available on the day of your interview.
You will also have the opportunity to have videoconference conversations with our current interns. We plan to achieve this in two ways. First, there will be a scheduled time on your interview day to meet with a subset of interns. These virtual meetings will not include any faculty, and should provide you with an opportunity to get the intern perspective on our program and what it’s like to live in Charleston. There is not a guarantee, however, that the interns who are available on your interview day will have the exact interests in Tracks or rotations that you have. To help address this, we will also provide all applicants who are invited to interview with a) email contact information for all of our current interns to allow you to ask any specific questions you might have; and b) a schedule of group videoconference meetings with our interns. These meetings will be organized by Track (e.g., “Traumatic Stress and Substance Abuse”) and scheduled in late January. You are free to drop into the ones that match your interests the best.
On the day of your virtual interview, your final meeting will be with one of our Co-Directors, who will answer any remaining questions you have and explain how the Consortium will move forward with the evaluation process.
We hope this process will help inform you about the Charleston Consortium and give you the data you need to prioritize your goals regarding internship training. We look forward to meeting you.
