Does away rotation during fellowship increase your chance of finding faculty position?

[donaldtang]

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I will start my fellowship this year and want to make myself competitive for faculty position by the time of graduation. Should I schedule away rotation during fellowship in an institution where I would like to join the faculty? If so, when will be the best time to do rotation?

 

[gutonc]

Not really. What you need to make yourself competitive for an academic faculty position is a strong research portfolio (clinical or basic) and a clinical niche, +/- some sort of administrative or community interest/experience. That's how you increase your chances of finding an academic faculty position.

The issue with away rotations during fellowship is that, unless it's something that your institution doesn't do (TAVR for cards, interventional pulm, BMT, etc), they're unlikely to approve you doing a month away that they have to pay for without getting something out of it.

 

[Call Me Dr.]

Absolutely not. When you do an away rotation, you're generally working in a clinical capacity. Clinical skills are easy to hire. Academic departments are looking for non-clinical expertise, a developed niche like Gutonc mentions. I think away rotations can do little to improve your chances, a lot to harm them. Much better to spend that month working on research or whatever your particular area of expertise will be.