Volunteer Stories: My journey in the interviews team so far...

Hi there...

I’m Aarush and I am a second-year medical student at Queens University Belfast. This is my first year with Medics&Me having joined in August 2025 and it has been quite the experience!

Background

Last Summer I had a lot of free time on my hands, so I was applying to several random organisations and maxing out my LinkedIn profile (as one does !). One of my goals was to apply to a national organisation that helped students get into medicine. I had supported a few students with med school applications and interview prep during my first year of medical school and that was an extremely rewarding experience... especially when they all received offers! I wanted to continue doing this but on a bigger scale and Medics&Me was the perfect organisation to do so. It is a well-known charity in the UK that supports widening participation students get into medicine and this was exactly what I was looking for.

Mentoring

I gathered some confidence to apply as a mentor and was delighted to get in. As a mentor I was assigned to a student, and we scheduled in five 1:1 sessions. This definitely strengthened my communication skills through giving structured feedback to my student as well as explaining hot topics, ethical scenarios etc. I also appreciated how mentors are given freedom on how they want to structure the sessions, offered lots of resources to use, as well as mentees being able to direct what they wanted the lesson to be focused on... whether that be personal statement writing, university choices or interview prep.  

New Opportunities

I knew I could take on more, and having got a lot out of my time mentoring, I applied to be on the Interviews Team. To my surprise I got in, and little did I know of all the amazing opportunities that would come with this role, which I never thought I would get a chance to do so early on. Looking back after the end of the interview season, this has been my favourite part of Medics&Me so far and pushed me out of my comfort zone!

Interview Team

Initially, being on the Interviews Team was a steep learning curve and quite overwhelming, as with any new experience but everyone in the Interviews Team was friendly, patient, and supportive... especially when I would ask so many questions. I had training and was part of a team of 6, which helped me transition into the role. Fortunately, I quickly got the hang of creating zoom meetings, WhatsApp groups, editing information packages, emailing them to students and interviewers, learning how to work Zoom breakout rooms. I learned how to manage my time effectively between balancing Medics&Me and being a full-time medical student. I also became super organised but also adaptable to last-minute changes in my general day-to-day life through Medics&Me from making sure I had completed the checklist before each session and dealing with unforeseen tech issues or cancellations. I am very proud to say we supported over 100 students in having mock interviews, for free, this interview season.

Next Steps

A few months ago, I was proud to be invited to represent the charity and be part of the Medics&Me 5th birthday celebrations, which was super fun as I had never done anything with social media before. The most exciting recent opportunity has been taking part in a research project that the Interviews Team are conducting and writing up. I am really looking forward to learning more about research and how to carry it out as I know it will also help me in the future to stand out as a doctor when applying to specialties! Even now I am pinching myself writing this blog post as I never thought I could do something like this and put myself out there! An aspect of charity I love is that there are lots of opportunities you can choose to take part in, with lots of support and encouragement.

In Summary

I never imagined that I would get such amazing opportunities from this role and learn so many skills in such a short space of time, but I am so grateful to this community.

If anyone is thinking of applying for any position in Medics&Me, JUST DO IT because there is room for everyone. The Medics&Me community is so wonderful and supportive as well... you never know if something amazing will come out of it!