Making Connections Work For You: Following Up On Your Referral

Sometimes, you are referred to a program for observership or even residency position.  The referral is a "good potential" applicant for residency position from our colleagues.  Our relations can also vouch for our strengths. If our contact makes a referral, you need to follow it up by personal correspondence.  This shows your interest in the program.

One  big mistake folks often do is not follow through. The recommendation is advocating on your behalf.  if you do not finish the procedure with a follow up email, the process stalls. This can leave us wondering what ever came of that process.

Follow up correspondence is within week  or two after the contact has vouched for you. This will allow for a little time between at the same time not may you seem impatient. The email itself need not be lengthy or wordy.  Every correspondence is a chance to make a  positive impression on the recipient. This should reflect in your  writing as well. The emails should be well thought out and have a structure which  suggests a beginning and a definite end. This is pretty much applicable to all  the correspondence you have with the programs.

An example of a sample email you can use in this situation is given below. Be careful to not use the email verbatim as search engines index pages and web content. It would look very poorly if you copy paste the email and used it for your own as is. Appearing lazy and uncreative is the last thing you want to do for residency interview. You can change things around and use the template below to construct  an email that uniquely reflects you and the program under consideration.

Dear Dr. _____,
I write to you about the residency/observership position at University of ___.
Mr./Mrs./Dr. __ (person recommending you) has known me for __ years. As a __ (friend, coworker, relation, mentor), they are in a good position to comment on me as a person.

I recognize that a personal word from a person who knows the applicant is useful. Besides the recommendation, I invite you to review at my complete application profile.  You will  find me to be good fit for the position.
Thank you for your time and attention,
Name and last name
AAMC ID

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