Are these general peds offers legit?

[Socrates25]

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I keep getting emails from headhunters about rural general peds positions paying between 150-200k on "guaranteed" salary positions. I cant help but be skeptical about these. I'm assuming that the only way you are going to be making 200k guaranteed salary in general peds is if you are on call 5-7 days out of the week or something ridiculous like that. I'm also skeptical of headhunters in general. They all seem like liars and BS con artists to me. They sound like the kind of scum that advertise 180k salary and then when you sign the contract they pull a bait and switch on you and it turns out you are only getting 120k or something like that. So tell me, are any of these "guaranteed" salary positions legit? Especially the ones that advertise > 150k.

 

[Stitch]

I have a couple of classmates from residency who went into rural pediatrics, however they didn't use head hunters to get there. In general they make a pretty good living and had a starting income a good deal higher than mine. A couple even had very generous loan payback. The numbers you are quoting seem a bit high, but I guess it would depend on the region.

It's probably fair to be skeptical, but there is something to that kind of thing, if you're truly interested in it. For me, I wouldn't be interested in living in such an area, and my friends who do say it's pretty hard work. There aren't any subspecialists around, so they learn to manage things on their own. Call, as you say, is often more frequent than elsewhere, but they tell me that they are rarely called. Another up side is that they are THE community pediatrician and the local expert on kids.

These offers might be worth looking into IF you are interested in that role. If you are more interested in making money (and I'm not suggesting you are), then it's probably not worth it.

 

[umass rower]

One thing to keep in mind is that often a place will offer a very attractive "first-year salary", which will include signing bonuses and moving costs that don't carry over to future years. I'd recommend getting a professional to look over any contract you get offered.