Careers & Residency Advising
The Career and Residency Advising Team offers services, tools, and resources tailored to medical students' career development needs throughout their time at the UC Riverside School of Medicine.
The team will be continuing to develop new content in the near future.
For more information, please contact Residency Development Specialist Ally Barajas.
Resources & Tools
Linked below are commonly-used resources and tools for your career and residency advising needs.
Careers in Medicine Roadmap
Our Career and Residency Advising Roadmap provides a comprehensive overview of the signature activities for every year in medical school.
Drawing on the AAMC’s Careers in Medicine template, it articulates the progression of:
- Understand yourself
- Explore options
- Choose your specialty
- Prepare for residency
Using this progression, UCR SOM has developed comprehensive career advising for each year with required signature advising activities that are tailored to their career development needs as they progress through medical school. The signature advising activities are detailed below.
Items denoted with (O) are optional, those denoted with (R) are required.
Year 1
Understand Yourself
Download a PDF of the MS1 checklist
- Introduction to Careers in Medicine at M1 orientation: Overview of career advising system (R)
- One-on-one career advising to review checklist and AAMC self-assessment results (R)
- Career Workshops: CV, Residency 101, summer externships & other opportunities (O)
- M1 check-in form: Asks about current interests in specialties, why, and completion of AAMC’s CiM self-assessments to be discussed at one-on-one career advising session (R)
- Alumni connect: Mentoring network and connection with alumni in students' specialty interests (O)
- Specialty round tables (O)
- Speed mentoring (O)
- Meet the chair (O)
- Career advising office hours with the deans (O)
- Specialty-based student interest groups activities (O)
Year 2
Explore Options
Download a PDF of the MS2 checklist
- One-on-one career advising to review checklist and check-in with Step 1 preparation (R)
- Career workshops: Residency 101, Preparing for Step 1 and Impact on Specialty Selection (O)
- M2 tailored check-in form: Exploring specialty interests, extramural and intramural electives, and preparation for Step 1 (R)
- Alumni connect: Mentoring network and connection with alumni in students' specialty interests (O)
- Specialty round tables (O)
- Speed mentoring (O)
- Meet the chair (O)
- Career advising office hours with the deans (O)
- Specialty-based student interest groups activities (O)
Year 3
Choose Your Specialty
Download a PDF of the MS3 checklist
- Careers in Medicine Orientation: Resources and tools and research on residency programs (R)
- Careers in Medicine in Spring: Roadmap to Residency and ERAS user orientation (R)
- M3 tailored check-in: Top 3 specialties and draft fourth-year schedule (R)
- Confirm specialties to pair with clinical faculty career advisors (R)
- Students matched and meet with clinical faculty career advisors (R)
- M3 career advising: Specialty interests & Step 1 (O)
- Fourth-year schedule review with residency specialist (O)
- Career workshops: CVs, personal statements, LORs & MSPE overview (O)
- Alumni connect: Mentoring network and connection with alumni in students' specialty interests (O)
- Meet the chair (O)
- Career advising office hours with the deans (O)
- Specialty-based student interest groups activities (O)
Year 4
Prepare for Residency
Download a PDF of the MS4 checklist
- One-on-one residency planning and MSPE review (R)
- Advisor meetings: Review of CV, PS, interviews, rank order list (O)
- Career workshops: Troubleshooting ERAS submissions and technical support, mock interviews, SOAP Q&A, and strategies for ranking programs (O)
- Mock interviews (O)
- Post-match survey (R)
- Alumni connect: Mentoring network and connection with alumni in students' specialty interests (O)
- Meet the chair (O)
- Career advising office hours with the deans (O)
- Specialty-based student interest groups activities (O)
Careers in Medicine Checklists
Students should download these checklists, save them on their computers, and reference them when working with the Career & Residency Development team. They are interactive and contain links to useful resources.