A Conversation about Candidate Recruitment: How Enticing Ethnic Cuisine Can Change Your Institute

Preface: In many ways, New York University (NYU) Psychoanalytic Institute's current recruitment strategies are very much in keeping with the spirit in which the psychoanalytic institute came to be at the NYU School of Medicine.

Chairman emeritus of the NYU School of Medicine and professor of psychiatry Robert Cancro was instrumental in getting a psychoanalytic institute to the school. “I had trained in my residency with many of the analysts who were at the psychoanalytic institute at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn and appreciated very much the contributions of analytic thinking to my education. Around 1977, these analysts were thinking of relocating their institute to Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. But I was thinking otherwise,” Cancro said.

Already on faculty at the NYU School of Medicine, Cancro felt that having a psychoanalytic institute at the school was paramount to a comprehensive curriculum for the Department of Psychiatry. “I thought it very important in a biologically oriented department of psychiatry to get an understanding of the dynamic mental functioning beyond the synapse. I wanted our residents well prepared for their practices by giving them knowledge that went beyond the chemistry of the human being. The presence of a psychoanalytic institute would facilitate exactly that,” Cancro recently remarked in an interview with TAP.

“So over dinner at a Chinese restaurant I courted the institute and convinced them that a home in Manhattan at the NYU School of Medicine would provide a mutually beneficial location.”

Today, the NYU Psychoanalytic Institute is vibrant with change. And we're not just talking about NYU's well-designed course catalog. We're talking about candidate recruitment. The number of applicants has risen significantly, candidate morale is healthy, and open houses are well attended.

Interview with Institute Admission Chair

We recently interviewed Sylvia Welsh, chair of NYU's Admissions Committee. The institute now has 20 applicants. Since Welsh took over as chair of admissions three years ago, NYU has had somewhere around the same number of applicants (about 20) each year and from that pool of applicants NYU now has 10 candidates in the second year class and 12 in the third. Most likely, there will be about 13-15 in the new first year class for the fall of 2005.

The number of applicants has risen significantly, candidate morale is healthy, and open houses are well attended.

DJ: How did it happen that you became admissions chair?

SW: I'm a big proponent of psychoanalytic training and psychoanalytic practice as a career path. Knowing this, a recent director of the institute (Bob Fischel) asked me what I wanted to do at the institute. I said I would be interested in chairing the Admissions Committee and he gave me the chance to do it. I came to the position with several things in mind: One, I would be proactive; two, I would address the lengthy interview process, which I believe hindered more than helped; and three, I would market the career opportunity at hand.

DJ: Where did you begin with your new recruitment endeavors?

SW: As you may know, the NYU Psychoanalytic Institute has a close relationship with the Department of Psychiatry at the NYU Medical Center. We were aware, however, that many of the residents thought the institute was filled with cold, stodgy people. The residents were actually scared of some of the analysts. Sensing an opportunity to alter this perception, I met with the director of residency training, Carol Bernstein, and told her I had an idea of doing monthly dinners at my home for residents where we might discuss any topic of their choice.

I thought these events would be more successful if we held them in a loose environment in which the residents would feel free to talk about clinical or other issues they felt were important to their experience as psychiatric residents. These dinners, at which the director of the institute and two or three other faculty members would also be present, would be open to all residents. Furthermore, I made it clear to the residents from the very first dinner that I did not want them to feel obligated to come every month. They could come to as few or as many as they wished and would always be welcome.

As it turned out, there were few opportunities for the residents to gather informally, so these dinners held great appeal to them.

Attendance ranged from 10-20 persons. The atmosphere became quite collegial rather than one dominated by figures of authority. It goes without saying that a lot of humor and good cuisine (especially a variety of ethnic menus) go a long way towards creating a successful gathering!

I would tell the residents: “Even if you want to write prescriptions all day, analytic training will make you a better psychiatrist. It's going to help you regardless of what you decide to do.” I am very clear psychoanalytic training is indispensable to their “career tool kits.”

We also needed to assess the admission interviews. While there is a need to assess the applicant's analyzability, I nonetheless felt that the interviews were being conducted too much like consultations for analysis rather than for admissions to a training program. And, in the current “buyer's market,” I felt our interviewers should be aware that the applicants were evaluating us as much as we them.

And another change. I made it part of my job to shepherd the applicants through the entire application process. If they felt uncomfortable, for whatever reason, with a particular interviewer, I wanted to know about it so that I could address their concerns. I wanted them to know from their first contact with our institute that this was a place sensitive to their needs and interested in what they had to say.

Now the process of applying to our institute is a user-friendly, positive experience. As a result, most of the applicants we accept decide to train with us and we have found that satisfied candidates themselves are the sources for new referrals.

1. The psychiatry department rightly insisted we do supervision on site. As a result, residents saw us on “campus” more often and this provided us the opportunity to forge better relationships with them.

2. NYU's psychotherapy program has been a tremendous success. Among our applicants each year are several who have completed this program.

3. NYU's Fellowship Program is also a resounding success. Invariably, applicants come from this audience.

4. Many of our faculty also teach and supervise at other residency training programs and in clinical settings around the city and Long Island.

5. NYU's open house—this is another program that has undergone change, thanks to the initiative of Deborah Huntington, the institute's administrative director. She suggested we expand the number of open houses from two annually to three. Wine and cheese events are held on a weekday evening; all qualified mental health professionals are invited. We use a nice room at the new medical center. And we make sure that the analysts on hand like such socializing and can relate well to other people in this type of venue.

We've had people leave the open houses with applications in hand. You can't ask for much more.

Our approach to candidate recruitment is an institute-wide team effort. I encourage and deeply value independence of thought and expression to facilitate a progressive environment. I'm forward looking. And I count myself lucky to be at an institute in which I am given the freedom to promote change.