State of residency training and later employment

Sulfinator · Dec 24, 2009

This is in response to a post that TX515 made in another thread:

TX515 said:
Likewise, is it more difficult to get a job outside of the state you do your residency in compared to other specialties?

I actually contacted some local pathology groups (private practice) to ask them about this. The response that I got from 3 different individuals was that, if I was interested in joining their groups in the future, the geography of my residency training program did not matter to them (i.e. they indicated I would not be at any advantage simply by going to an in-state residency program). They told me that the most important thing was to go to "the best program I could get into," and that the quality of my training (based on the perceived quality of the residency program?) was more important than the geography.

That being said, I know that you are statistically more likely to work within 350 miles of where you do your residency training. This is a general statistic for medical specialities across the board, and I think there is some data to suggest that this trend is even stronger for the specialty of pathology than for the average medical specialty.

lipomas · Dec 24, 2009

It would say it doesn't matter to groups so much where you did your training (as in, what specific state anyway. The quality of the program you trained at certainly matters). But it does matter whether you want to stay there permanently. Groups really hate to invest time and effort and money in recruiting a new hire only to see them bail after 3 years because they got an offer in california or texas where they were from and always wanted to end up practicing. Thus, if your group is in Georgia and you get an applicant from Oregon, it may or may not have relevance depending on why the applicant is applying to your group.

Where I did my residency training, at least half of the residents had some connection to the state - either through college or med school. Some were just people who wanted to come to the program because it was good, and they planned to go back to where they came from afterwards. Most people seem to stay in the same general region of the country for school + residency.

Sulfinator · Dec 24, 2009

lipomas said:
It would say it doesn't matter to groups so much where you did your training (as in, what specific state anyway. The quality of the program you trained at certainly matters). But it does matter whether you want to stay there permanently. Groups really hate to invest time and effort and money in recruiting a new hire only to see them bail after 3 years because they got an offer in california or texas where they were from and always wanted to end up practicing. Thus, if your group is in Georgia and you get an applicant from Oregon, it may or may not have relevance depending on why the applicant is applying to your group.

Yes, one of the people I talked to specifically addressed this. He said that, when considering new hires, they first consider the quality of the person's training, and then they consider how much that person desires to be in the city/area in which the group practices.

yaah · Dec 25, 2009

Agreed - most groups (unless they are exploiters who only want a short term person to grind out cases) do not want to hire someone if they don't think they want to settle in the area permanently.

TX515 · Dec 25, 2009

Thanks so much for the info.

green mantis · Dec 26, 2009

lipomas said:
Some were just people who wanted to come to the program because it was good, and they planned to go back to where they came from afterwards.

I've noticed that people who come out to CA for residency don't go back where they came from. There were very few people from my residency program that wanted to leave, granted we were in SoCal. It's just easier to stay because you've established connections & you've found a place to settle for the past 4 years. It's also the reason why so many people stay on at their program for fellowship.

----- Antony

cozmopak · Dec 26, 2009

green mantis said:
I've noticed that people who come out to CA for residency don't go back where they came from. There were very few people from my residency program that wanted to leave, granted we were in SoCal. It's just easier to stay because you've established connections & you've found a place to settle for the past 4 years. It's also the reason why so many people stay on at their program for fellowship.

----- Antony

What are the better programs in California?

yaah · Dec 26, 2009

green mantis said:
I've noticed that people who come out to CA for residency don't go back where they came from. There were very few people from my residency program that wanted to leave, granted we were in SoCal. It's just easier to stay because you've established connections & you've found a place to settle for the past 4 years. It's also the reason why so many people stay on at their program for fellowship.

----- Antony

I tend to wonder if that's because they were from Socal, and then left for med school before coming back for residency (because places like SoCal and the NY/NJ area have way more people who want to go to med school than the local schools can support). But a lot of people also decide to pick a residency program in the area of the country where they want to live, even if they aren't from there.

green mantis · Dec 28, 2009

yaah said:
I tend to wonder if that's because they were from Socal, and then left for med school before coming back for residency (because places like SoCal and the NY/NJ area have way more people who want to go to med school than the local schools can support). But a lot of people also decide to pick a residency program in the area of the country where they want to live, even if they aren't from there.

It's not just SoCal, it's the entire state. There aren't enough medical school openings (both MD & DO) to support the number of students who are qualified. If you went to a private medical school outside of CA, I'm sure there were plenty of CA students in your class.

I know this isn't a fair comparison, but let's use LA as an example. LA is the 2nd largest city in the country by population. There are 2 medical schools in the area (UCLA & USC). I'm not counting UCI, Loma Linda or Western because they're technically not in LA. If you look at some of the large cities on the East Coast, they have many more medical schools in the city.

----- Antony

yaah · Dec 28, 2009

NY doesn't have enough either, despite having about two dozen med schools. I knew someone who went to Tufts for med school, and I think half of the class was from either Southern Cal or the NY/NJ area. And another huge percentage from Chicagoland.

green mantis · Dec 29, 2009

yaah said:
NY doesn't have enough either, despite having about two dozen med schools. I knew someone who went to Tufts for med school, and I think half of the class was from either Southern Cal or the NY/NJ area. And another huge percentage from Chicagoland.

It's kind of strange that you mention Chicago. A good friend of mine went to Chicago Med (CMS). She told me that about 1/3 of her class was from CA. I think one of the nicknames for that school is CA medical school. One of my co-residents went to Albany. I think 1/4 of her class was from CA. Are these schools just not taking people from their own state? I know that they're private, but I'm sure they still receive some state funding.

----- Antony

yaah · Dec 29, 2009

I don't know the answer to that - maybe some of the chicago private schools have de-facto quotas about how many locals they accept. In the case of california I think it's just sheer numbers of students.

State of residency training and later employment

Sulfinator

Pathology

lipomas

Full Member

Sulfinator

Pathology

yaah

Boring

TX515

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green mantis

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cozmopak

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yaah

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green mantis

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yaah

Boring

green mantis

Full Member

yaah

Boring

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