Virtual Interviews for Doctoral Psychology Internships: Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Interviews are central to the application process for health service psychology (HSP) internships, the capstone of doctoral clinical training. Historically conducted primarily in-person, interviews involved considerable financial and time costs to applicants. Restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift from in-person interviews to largely untested virtual interviews during the 2021 and 2022 Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) Matches. We drew on multiple sources of data from the APPIC Directory, National Matching Services, and APPIC post-Match surveys of applicants and internship training directors to learn about the magnitude of this shift; the influence of various considerations related to selecting virtual interview formats; and applicants' and sites' perceptions of the costs, benefits, and effectiveness of virtual interviews. Results suggest a seismic shift toward the use of virtual interviews, from similar to 20% of programs in 2016-2018 to 89% in 2022. Sites reported limited concern (29%) over loss of information during virtual interviews to assess applicant fit and substantial concern (85%) over equity regarding applicant costs associated with in-person interviewing. Sites found the virtual format effective for ranking applicants (89%). Across 2021 and 2022, applicants reported high satisfaction with the Match (79%, vs. 82% for 2016-2018) and virtual interviews (76%). Consistent with reports from other health service professions, applicants endorsed postpandemic use of virtual interviews, expressed concern over missing out if choosing virtual interviews when programs offer both types and strongly endorsed mandating virtual-only interviews. We discuss implications and recommendations for the adoption of virtual interview formats for HSP internship training.