Any updates on the EP job market?

[Rocher]

For those of you recently looking for jobs, have things opened up compared to a few years ago?

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[TheNextLevel]

For those of you recently looking for jobs, have things opened up compared to a few years ago?

My sense is that it isn't fantastic. General Cardiology is much better.

I know of several programs where the senior EP fellow has not yet found a job. Don't expect these folks to come on SDN and spill their guts to you.

I am not looking for job yet but my perspective is that if you train at a very well reputed place (Michigan, Penn, UCSF, CCF, etc.), you can get a good job just maybe not in the location you'd prefer and maybe doing a significant amount of general cardiology including call.

If you train at a place without strong reputation or strong connections to local community practices, you may be looking at jobs in very undesirable locations.

If you love EP don't let this dissuade you. Things change. Many general cardiologists that currently implant devices will be retiring in 5-10 years.

However, if you are making a financially driven decision because of EP salaries being marginally higher, or on the fence, consider the opportunity cost of a 2 year super fellowship.

 

[residentk3]

My sense is that it isn't fantastic. General Cardiology is much better.

I know of several programs where the senior EP fellow has not yet found a job. Don't expect these folks to come on SDN and spill their guts to you.

I am not looking for job yet but my perspective is that if you train at a very well reputed place (Michigan, Penn, UCSF, CCF, etc.), you can get a good job just maybe not in the location you'd prefer and maybe doing a significant amount of general cardiology including call.

If you train at a place without strong reputation or strong connections to local community practices, you may be looking at jobs in very undesirable locations.

If you love EP don't let this dissuade you. Things change. Many general cardiologists that currently implant devices will be retiring in 5-10 years.

However, if you are making a financially driven decision because of EP salaries being marginally higher, or on the fence, consider the opportunity cost of a 2 year super fellowship.

This is very true. The job market is not as nice as I thought it would be. The general cardiology market is pretty much open. Every group I spoke to was looking for a general cardiologist, and very few were looking for an EP. It takes 8-10 gen cards to support an EP. I think EP will open up tremendously in the next 5-10 years when the older generation retires and not as many graduate due to the 2 year requirement

 

[TheNextLevel]

This is very true. The job market is not as nice as I thought it would be. The general cardiology market is pretty much open. Every group I spoke to was looking for a general cardiologist, and very few were looking for an EP. It takes 8-10 gen cards to support an EP. I think EP will open up tremendously in the next 5-10 years when the older generation retires and not as many graduate due to the 2 year requirement

Agreed. The two years of additional fellowship training has more than "priced in" any increase in salary one might receive from pursuing EP compared to general cardiology. The opportunity cost of these years at least $1,000,000-$1,500,000. The steep opportunity cost is going to result in a field consisting of die-hard EPs. That's great!

The bigger issue that some people may not realize right now is saturation of desirable areas. Desirable areas are full of well trained, established, hard working EPs in their late 40s and early 50s. These individuals are seeking to aggressively ramp up their ablation and device volumes, not slow down. It is hard to train to PGY8 only to find out you can't find a job with good local schools, or within 2 hours of an international airport.