How To Stand Out In A Crowd Of Medical Students

Ever wonder how to stand out of the hundreds of people in your year group? Here are 5 tips that can help you stand out in your teaching group, year group and medical school. These tips are not just limited to life in medical school, but can applied to most situations.

1. Be yourself. No one can be better than you at being you. There are particular attributes about your person that makes you special, pretending to be someone else hides your potential from yourself and others around you. Knowing who you are and appreciating your strengths and weaknesses is a great start to getting yourself noticed.
2. Don’t be afraid to try new things. A new club, hobby, extra curricular activity in an unfamiliar medical specialty or medical unrelated venture. Try it (as long as its safe), as you try new things you may notice a natural talent hiding somewhere. Getting involved in group activities will also give you the opportunity to meet new people who can help you along your journey.

3. Continue to do whatever you find yourself doing to your best ability.  Every written assignment, verbal presentation, etc. try your very best whether or not it may contribute to your grade or assessment. This attitude develops a sound character that will ultimately be rewarded (eventually!).
4. Be open to constructive criticism. Especially from clinical fellows, peers, family members, and members of multidisciplinary team. These people may not conduct a formal assessments on your behaviour or skills but they make observations on a day to day basis. Taking on constructive comments from such people can help you perform better in formal situations.
5. Never be afraid to ask for help. Asking for help is not a weakness or sign of inadequacy, it is a strength. It shows you have good evaluation skills, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses, make a judgement on these and seek help for the areas you are coming up short in. Asking for help can also open doors of opportunity. Develop this habit, it will save you a lot of headache, heartache, time, resits, money and so much more in the future.

These are our top 5 tips, we know there are so much more! So give us one of your tips in the comment box!