You know I have been thinking about this oversupply issue and I think its not as lost a cause as we think. New residents coming into the field require two things. 1. Residency spots and 2. Med students interested in training. Obviously we have tried to address issue no.1 and its just not budging. However, we as residents have a powerful influence on No.2. By sharing our truthful difficult job search stories, and the stories of our colleagues with medical students who rotate through the dept, we can do these students and ourselves a favor by discouraging weak applicants who may be matching into lower tier programs from apply to rad onc. Furthermore, I encourage graduating PGY 5s to post their views on this website. Perhaps we can effect a grass roots change to limit the no. of entrants to our field.
"Discourage weak applicants who may be matching into lower tier programs." I LOL'd. Perhaps we should discourage the nerds who will match into higher tier programs since we know their personalities won't fit in private practice? As a potential employer in a highly desirable area, it's attitudes like this that have made me intentionally avoid applicants from higher tier programs.