Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see the list of vacancies even if I am not in a residency program?
Yes. You will be able to see the vacancies, and even take advantage of "Together Anywhere" mode. However, you will not be able to participate in any swap positions.
Where do you get information about vacancies? How do you ensure that these vacancies are current?
Notices of openings are posted directly by the residency programs and website visitors. Members are given a financial incentive for reporting any known openings that are not yet listed. Additionally, information about new openings is collected hourly from a large number of public websites, as well as from email lists, forums, and telephone lists. Whenever possible, new posts are verified by contacting the residency program in question. All vacancy posts automatically expire in 3 months or are removed earlier when requested by the residency program. To further ensure that vacancy posts are removed as soon as they are filled, a "flagging" system was implemented that allows users to easily report any post that is discovered to be filled.
Why am I not getting email alerts?
Some email systems (especially hotmail) can mistakenly route the alerts into your SPAM folder. Add the alert sender, "auto-reply@residentswap.org" to your contacts to ensure that the messages get through.
Why am I not getting mobile phone alerts?
Be sure to enter a country code before the telephone number.
I forgot my password or username.
I reset my password, but I did not receive the email with my new password.
- Some email systems (especially hotmail) can mistakenly route the email containing your password into your SPAM folder. Add the alert sender, "auto-reply@residentswap.org" to your contacts to ensure that the messages get through.
- If you have created multiple Resident Swap accounts, you might be resetting the password for the 2nd account; check all email addresses that might be associated with your resident swap account.
What are the @residentswap.org address? Why do all the residency programs have an @residentswap.org email address?
Resident Swap contains a database of essentially all residency programs. The @residentswap.org email addresses are a measure to protect programs' emails from spam. Instead of publishing the programs' or residents' email addresses and exposing these email addresses to being potentially collected from our website and subsequently abused by spam-sending computer programs, Resident Swap website automatically hides all real email addresses and instead only publishes the automatically-generated "@residentswap.org" versions of email addresses. These are not real email accounts, but rather automated email forwarders. All messages sent to these @residentswap.org addresses are automatically forwarded to either the residency program's real email on file, or resident's email in case of swap posts, but only after the sender of the message verifies himself as a human being by typing-in a word from an image that contains distorted letters (something that computer programs, such as automated spam-senders cannot do). This process is 100% automated and the messages relayed by this system are never read by anyone but the intended recipient.
I sent an email to an @residentswap.org address, but it was not received by the recipient.
All @residentswap.org addresses are protected from spam, and all messages sent to @residentswap.org require verification. You should have gotten a notice in your email requesting that you type in a code from an image to verify yourself as a human being as opposed to an automated spam source. If you did not receive this notice, it is likely that it is in your SPAM folder. Add the alert sender, "auto-reply@residentswap.org" to your contacts to ensure that the alert messages get through. Please note that messages which are not verified within 72 hours are automatically removed from our system and must be re-sent.
I want to see all openings, and not filter by location / state. How do I do this?
Simply log in, go to "My Filter" page, and type in any city and state (e.g. New York + New York) and enter 25000 miles under radius. This will display all openings, regardless of location.
I cannot save my search filter.
Please see the Screen-shot of the Search Filter page. Do you see everything that's in this picture when you log in? I.e: Drop-down list of specialties, "Locate" button that turns red if you type anything under the city, and a drop-down list of locations? If any of these features are missing, your browser has JavaScript turned off.
- Your browser must have javascript turned on ( click here for help ).
- To save your search filter, you must do all of the following:
- Enter at least one specialty + year
- Enter at least one State + City + Radius. You must then click the "Locate" button and select a location from the drop-down list.
- Click "Submit" button at the bottom of the "My Filter" page.
I activated my account, but I am still seeing the "Account Not Activated" message.
- If you just activated your account (within 60 minutes), depending on your web-browser, you may have to Log out, and sign back in.
- Occasionally users create multiple Resident Swap accounts, successfully activate one of these, and then try to log into an account that is not active. Please be sure that you are logging into the account that you activated.
I received "Account Expired Email" despite recently activating my account.
You have most likely created multiple Resident Swap accounts with different usernames, and activated different accounts on different dates. One of these expired, while the most recently activated one may still be active. Please be sure that you are logging into the account that you most recently activated. If you forgot which of your Resident Swap usernames corresponds to which of your email accounts, resetting your password will also email your username to you.
"My Matches" page doesn't show all of the swap positions that are listed on the "Summary of Currently Posted Openings" page.
A potential match exists only if:
- The other person's position matches your search filter.
- Your current position matches the other person's search filter.
How do I use the Resident Swap Online Folder?
You can use the Online Folder to store your CV and scanned copies of your supporting documents. You can then send a link to this folder when applying to residency programs. Here is how you can upload files:
- Log In and click on the "My Matches" link or button.
- Click the "Email Tool" link.
- Click "Create a New Folder".
- Type in a name for your folder.
- Click "Save" button.
- The new folder will appear. Click on the "Edit" button next to it.
- Click "Browse" button to locate the file which you want to upload. Click "Upload" and repeat this step for all files that you would like to share.
Can you email the openings in my specialty to me?
To view the openings, please sign up and enter the specialties & geographical locations in which you are interested in. The website will automatically display matching vacancies and send you alerts of future openings.
New User? Register