Thalamus Schedules for In Person Interviews?

[Jennifer Duane]

Hi Friends

This is our first year back to in-person interviews. We used Thalamus for virtual interviews for the past several years, but the last time we did in-person interviews we managed the daily interview schedules in Excel.

Wondering if people find it very helpful to manage the daily interview schedules in Thalamus for in-person interviews?

Or is that just extra data entry, and better off sticking with my old-school Excel?

For context – we will have 32 candidates each day for 2 days in January. Each candidate goes through about 8 rooms of interviews.  Our Excel schedules are like a family heirloom… they’ve served 2-3 administrations spanning 20+ years. They work, but I’m happy to try things that make things easier and more streamlined also!

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Jen

[Kathleen Derrig]

Hi Jennifer, it’s Kathy Derrig from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

We have been using Thalamus for a couple of years and this will be our 3rd year using it for in-person interviews.   We interview 72 applicants over 3 days, 24 applicants a day, 8 rooms, and a pre-interview dinner.

Thalamus allows me to set-up each days’ schedule, which is shared with the applicants, and I am able to pull the schedule for the interviewers.  I’m fortunate that my PD is very hands on and uses the program for rating the applicants.  The interviewers are able to log on and rate the applicant immediately after the interview.

It is a bit tedious to create the 1st schedule, but you can copy it to the next interview day.  There is some duplication but it’s worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Amy Kraus]

I agree with Kathleen. We use our spreadsheets but also build the schedules in Thalamus to offer the ease of viewing schedules (applicants & residents) and for reviewing applications (faculty & interview teams).  It saved us last year when we had an ice storm and had to move to virtual at the last minute. I called Thalamus the moment we cancelled in person. All I had to do is associate the virtual option in place of location.

It takes some work to build the first day but easy to copy the schedule over for additional days, adding the applicants later to the built schedules.

I choose to build manually – just wish we could carry over the schedules from year to year and make small adjustments.

If anyone has figured out how to load previous year schedules, please let me know.

We start with breakfast and PD / Chair Overview – split out to two groups (one interviewing and the other touring the area & hospital / time with residents’ overview). We run 7-8 interview rooms with build in breaks. Switch groups. End the day with lunch.

Interview 25 applicants a day (two days)

Start the morning at 6:15 am Breakfast / 7:00 am Interviews / 1:00 pm Lunch / 2:25 pm transport applicants (as needed) to the airport

Applicants are able to access their schedules through Thalamus – we can send them the downloaded format for interview preparation.

I will say, having the schedules built in Thalamus has really helped – especially the ease of opening applications for review. Previously we had a few applications printouts, in notebook form, ready and transferred all applications (as PDFs) for interviewers.  Many of our faculty were accustomed to paper. Thalamus helped us transition to electronic reviews.

Amy

 

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