Unbelievable!

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Times must be desperate. Here I am, 4PM, doing a soduku and the phone rings-my home phone ( in-state call but not from my area code.) Guy asks for me by name and I ask him who is calling. He says his name and that he is a pathologist. I have never heard of him. Assuming it has something to do with an old case, I tell him I have been retired for about one year. He apologizes and says he is looking for a job! That's just sad!
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The sad thing is in many other specialties it's the reverse of pathology and instead you would be getting a home call from a recruiter asking if you wanted to come work again...
 
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Who the hell calls a pathologist they don't even know on their home phone number soliciting a job? What did they expect would happen? Wouldn't it be more prudent to just send a letter with a CV attached to the OFFICE? Or at least get a colleague to introduce you that knows both parties? That stinks of desperation.
 
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gbwillner said:
Who the hell calls a pathologist they don't even know on their home phone number soliciting a job? What did they expect would happen? Wouldn't it be more prudent to just send a letter with a CV attached to the OFFICE? Or at least get a colleague to introduce you that knows both parties? That stinks of desperation.
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Yes, it bespeaks of existence of quite a few under and un-employed pathologists. It is not the guy's fault to reach for straws in his desperate hours. You guys in the Academia have had your heads stuck in the sand for too long. Shame and pox on &%$$$ Academic dons!!!
 
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Very believable in pathology. You do what you must in order to put food on the table. I did cold calls to try and find work (i like to eat). Followed by sorry we aren't looking, we are struggling to maintain our contracts, and its tight out there, so good luck....click. My group gets random CVs mailed and faxed to us...you see where (some quite impressive) and how many fellowships they are doing out of curiousity (2+ easy) and then throw it in the trash. Academics blame the pathologist and continue the huge oversupply....followed by the same old crap "good jobs for good pathologists". Programs/cap/ascp...etc don't care if you find work or put found on your table.

The oversupply strikes again....and just months away from the start of the MASSIVE shortage...haha.

Once again med students....stay the hell away from pathology.
 
Med students already stay far away from pathology. That's why the AMG match rate is less than 50%. Yet all the spots seem to fill regardless. This is because pathology, as a field, has lower standards than most other specialty fields.
 
Yep, we get the random cold calls/CV's from hungry pathologists on occasion. Can't blame 'em though, just trying to put food on the table as you said. I gotta tell my secretary to do a better job screening. One of them got through a few months ago to my lab manager somehow saying he's "Dr. so-and-so" whom I never heard of being on staff, so I took the call thinking it might be some new guy or a doctor that got one of our path reports at a different institution. Anyway, it turned out to be a fellow who was finishing up cytopath and then going on to do heme or something else. So I said thanks, but no thanks. But I should've put him on the spot and said if we were hiring right now for 120K with partnership after five years would you give up your heme fellowship...?
 
atnag said:
Yep, we get the random cold calls/CV's from hungry pathologists on occasion. Can't blame 'em though, just trying to put food on the table as you said. I gotta tell my secretary to do a better job screening. One of them got through a few months ago to my lab manager somehow saying he's "Dr. so-and-so" whom I never heard of being on staff, so I took the call thinking it might be some new guy or a doctor that got one of our path reports at a different institution. Anyway, it turned out to be a fellow who was finishing up cytopath and then going on to do heme or something else. So I said thanks, but no thanks. But I should've put him on the spot and said if we were hiring right now for 120K with partnership after five years would you give up your heme fellowship...?
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Just to put a historical perspective on this: this crappy oversupply situation has been going on for most of last three decades! Yea, you heard it right. Unless, you have very specific goals and right temperament, I would strongly advise any MS with other options to avoid pathology.
 
atnag said:
Yep, we get the random cold calls/CV's from hungry pathologists on occasion. Can't blame 'em though, just trying to put food on the table as you said. I gotta tell my secretary to do a better job screening. One of them got through a few months ago to my lab manager somehow saying he's "Dr. so-and-so" whom I never heard of being on staff, so I took the call thinking it might be some new guy or a doctor that got one of our path reports at a different institution. Anyway, it turned out to be a fellow who was finishing up cytopath and then going on to do heme or something else. So I said thanks, but no thanks. But I should've put him on the spot and said if we were hiring right now for 120K with partnership after five years would you give up your heme fellowship...?
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We get many cold calls and emails too. I am thinking about offering 25K with partnership after 20 years or whenever I decide to retire (whichever comes later) unless I sell the business to someone else. I will put them in the front so they can transcribe my reports, file slides, take pictures for tumor board, and handle send outs. I might even let them gross if I feel lazy that day. Thats about all they do at residency anyway. Pathology is an utter disaster right now for any new trainee. When the government stops sending training programs free money, there will be a slew of academic pathologists flooding the market as bloated academic staffs have to downsize. A significant correction in the artificially inflated equity and bond market could also potentially open the floodgates.
 
gbwillner said:
Who the hell calls a pathologist they don't even know on their home phone number soliciting a job? What did they expect would happen? Wouldn't it be more prudent to just send a letter with a CV attached to the OFFICE? Or at least get a colleague to introduce you that knows both parties? That stinks of desperation.
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I have yet to get a call like this at home, but these types of cold calls are depressingly common at the office. They aren't coming from hacks either for the most part. These are good experienced pathologists who have had their hospital contracts cut out from under them for a variety of reasons or who have been discarded from a group after failing to secure a partnership.
 
turtle1966 said:
Yes, it bespeaks of existence of quite a few under and un-employed pathologists. It is not the guy's fault to reach for straws in his desperate hours. You guys in the Academia have had your heads stuck in the sand for too long. Shame and pox on &%$$$ Academic dons!!!
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Yep. Not to mention the corruption and incompetence along with everything else that I don't want any part in as a doctor which are not in keeping with expectations of physicians/ pathologists/ doctors by the patients. Then again, it seems as though most of that was related to Mount Sinai Hospital or Mount Sinai Medical Center, which is a terrible terrible backwards hateful organization, as it is apparently infamous for being so by many people already… who knew…
 
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path24 said:
Very believable in pathology. You do what you must in order to put food on the table. I did cold calls to try and find work (i like to eat). Followed by sorry we aren't looking, we are struggling to maintain our contracts, and its tight out there, so good luck....click. My group gets random CVs mailed and faxed to us...you see where (some quite impressive) and how many fellowships they are doing out of curiousity (2+ easy) and then throw it in the trash. Academics blame the pathologist and continue the huge oversupply....followed by the same old crap "good jobs for good pathologists". Programs/cap/ascp...etc don't care if you find work or put found on your table.

The oversupply strikes again....and just months away from the start of the MASSIVE shortage...haha.

Once again med students....stay the hell away from pathology.
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Even from good programs?
 
DermViser said:
Even from good programs?
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Presumably far less for those residents/fellows graduating from "top" programs.

However, job insecurity exits in all levels of pathology. Effect of "top programs" wears off in a few years. There are many used to making more than 500 - 750k laid off or in the process of. Hospital are being consolidated, staff model is changing, service is being outsourced or because large commercial labs are cutting cost by letting top, best and highest paid pathologists in their mid 40 and 50's go.

Pathology employment is mostly binary, i.e., "all" or "none", because pathologists are a one trick pony. Psychological distress for those who even sense a slight threat of job loss can be significant. Many will suffer "deer in headlights" syndrome unable to plan for anything. The image of "a quiet, safe, civilized" pathology is a mirage.

We should mandate a clinical year in order to make pathologists "a real doctor with more than one trick", be more selective and cut residency spots. Do I think that Academic dons will do it? Nope. They are like "whitewashed tombs" dead.
 
 
turtle1966 said:
Presumably far less for those residents/fellows graduating from "top" programs.

However, job insecurity exits in all levels of pathology. Effect of "top programs" wears off in a few years. There are many used to making more than 500 - 750k laid off or in the process of. Hospital are being consolidated, staff model is changing, service is being outsourced or because large commercial labs are cutting cost by letting top, best and highest paid pathologists in their mid 40 and 50's go.

Pathology employment is mostly binary, i.e., "all" or "none", because pathologists are a one trick pony. Psychological distress for those who even sense a slight threat of job loss can be significant. Many will suffer "deer in headlights" syndrome unable to plan for anything. The image of "a quiet, safe, civilized" pathology is a mirage.

We should mandate a clinical year in order to make pathologists "a real doctor with more than one trick", be more selective and cut residency spots. Do I think that Academic dons will do it? Nope. They are like "whitewashed tombs" dead.
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So then which fellowship after AP/CP path gets you a job? http://www.certificationmatters.org/abms-member-boards/pathology.aspx
 
DermViser said:
So then which fellowship after AP/CP path gets you a job? http://www.certificationmatters.org/abms-member-boards/pathology.aspx
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Fellowship is akin to ships circling an overloaded seaport till there is an empty dock. For a vast majority, it is not for love of learning. Those saying so, ignore that till there is a well paying, secure private job as an alternative, Fellowship is a default and not a choice. Go learn it from cold real world!

I presume no or any Fellowship can land you a job, as long as you are at the right place at right time, however, chances are getting slimmer in all sub-specialties.
 
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