Does where you went to residency matter for job opportunities?

[tyrabanks]

Does the prestige of your residency program afford you more job opportunities? I would like to stay closer to family, which means I might rank "less prestigious" residency programs over some other more "prestigious" programs. Does it matter?

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[Redpancreas]

Does the prestige of your residency program afford you more job opportunities? I would like to stay closer to family, which means I might rank "less prestigious" residency programs over some other more "prestigious" programs. Does it matter?

I think this is a good question that I don't think is discussed enough on Allo!

If you plan to stay within academia/training to attain a fellowship, the residency program you trained at is one of the most important factors, but that's not what you're asking.

If you plan to go from residency directly into the job market I have heard residency reputation does somewhat matter but not nearly to the extent it does if you plan to go into non-academic/community work. Recruiters have some idea of which residencies yielded good physicians, but there's not really anything objective they know or can measure measure that translates to a good physician in general.

If you're looking instead to break into academics of whatever field you're interested in, residency reputation definitely matters as does your research pedigree.

I think @sunshinefl may have some more/better insight into this.

 

[Vivid_Quail]

There are like a bazillion factors at play here. What specialty, what type of job (suburban community, academic, rural), what geographic region, what specific city ("desirability"), etc.

 

[popopopop]

Good question, am curious too. I would believe the networking alone within a health system might help you secure a job locally. I'm struggling with this a tad since I have some good choices out of state, but ultimately would like to stay local.

 

[Redpancreas]

There are like a bazillion factors at play here. What specialty, what type of job (suburban community, academic, rural), what geographic region, what specific city ("desirability"), etc.

Agreed there's a lot of factors at play but there are still many factors at play for surgical subspecialties/fellowships yet people have dissected that out. Hopefully some people who went residency -> practice can chime in and provide some general principles/insight into this. I don't think it's talked about enough on here.

 

[softball2344]

Specialty?

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

If you plan to go from residency directly into the job market I have heard residency reputation does somewhat matter but not nearly to the extent it does if you plan to go into non-academic/community work. Recruiters have some idea of which residencies yielded good physicians, but there's not really anything objective they know or can measure measure that translates to a good physician in general.

In my experience the private groups tend to recruit from the programs they are familiar with regionally, and any people they know personally.

 

[Redpancreas]

Specialty?

My presumption based on past questions is OP is either just starting medical school or is pre-med. Could be wrong.

 

[Redpancreas]

In my experience the private groups tend to recruit from the programs they are familiar with regionally, and any people they know personally.

I could see that. Yeah, like @Vivid_Quail said, lot of factors (private partnership vs. hospital-contracted) etc. Just hope the topic gets explored more.

 

[tyrabanks]

Specialty?

My presumption based on past questions is OP is either just starting medical school or is pre-med. Could be wrong.

I graduate medical school in like two months lol

 

[Tenk]

Academics at an ivory tower magical Disney land school: yes.

Most everything else: no.

 

[Lawpy]

Does the prestige of your residency program afford you more job opportunities? I would like to stay closer to family, which means I might rank "less prestigious" residency programs over some other more "prestigious" programs. Does it matter?

It probably matters for academic jobs. Private practice is more mixed

 

[sunshinefl]

I think this is a good question that I don't think is discussed enough on Allo!

If you plan to stay within academia/training to attain a fellowship, the residency program you trained at is one of the most important factors, but that's not what you're asking.

If you plan to go from residency directly into the job market I have heard residency reputation does somewhat matter but not nearly to the extent it does if you plan to go into non-academic/community work. Recruiters have some idea of which residencies yielded good physicians, but there's not really anything objective they know or can measure measure that translates to a good physician in general.

If you're looking instead to break into academics of whatever field you're interested in, residency reputation definitely matters as does your research pedigree.

I think @sunshinefl may have some more/better insight into this.

thanks for the tag but since I'm just graduating not sure I can be much help. OP still hasn't said what specialty. I'll be doing IM--> community primary care so I had the freedom to not care about grooming/prestige for fellowships or academic jobs.

Good question, am curious too. I would believe the networking alone within a health system might help you secure a job locally. I'm struggling with this a tad since I have some good choices out of state, but ultimately would like to stay local.

In my experience the private groups tend to recruit from the programs they are familiar with regionally, and any people they know personally.

I would imagine this. I too have some good OOS choices but am in the process of shifting my ROL to favor IS. Ugh. Hopefully I match my #1 and can just be happy with my local community program and curriculum I prefer.

 

[thatchemguy]

If I'm interested in an IM subspecialty like Cards, but have no interest in doing academics/research in my career, does residency still matter? Or I guess it would still matter just for getting the fellowship?

 

[Vivid_Quail]

If I'm interested in an IM subspecialty like Cards, but have no interest in doing academics/research in my career, does residency still matter? Or I guess it would still matter just for getting the fellowship?

There aren't great stats to back this up, but IM residency prestige is huge for fellowships. Some community IM programs might not even have a cards fellowship, and a lot don't have great research opportunities. I would be interested to hear from an IM resident at a community program that matched GI, cards, etc and what it was like. I am mainly making an educated guess.

 

[Redpancreas]

There aren't great stats to back this up, but IM residency prestige is huge for fellowships. Some community IM programs might not even have a cards fellowship, and a lot don't have great research opportunities. I would be interested to hear from an IM resident at a community program that matched GI, cards, etc and what it was like. I am mainly making an educated guess.

I know several who matched from university affiliated (think Metrohealth, Northshore). You're going to want to know what you want on day 1 and have a significant scholarly work in the field by the end of two years. Sure your mid-upper tier university colleagues are going to need much less (think Baylor, Emory, Case, etc.), but this is the price you pay for whatever you did that precluded you from those places. I see less of a difference between university affiliated and low tier university programs. Anyone with match lists can dissect this or disagree further but this has been my anecdotal experienced coupled with looking at match lists.

The most important thing for those reading this who think they're going to be at affiliated programs is you're going to have to identify a mentor early (as in first half of intern year, not first week). Find that person and follow through with whatever they give you. At bigger places, there are many of these mentors. Also, a chief year is really not the end of the world as SDN makes it seem. If you really want to do a specialty as opposed to hospitalist/IM PCP and it's really about what you like, one year is nothing to practice 30-40 years in the field of your choice.

All that said, this has been discussed ad nauseum in IM forums. Hopefully, more people can chime in on OP's original question.

 

[Redpancreas]

I graduate medical school in like two months lol

My apologies.

 

[tyrabanks]

My apologies.

Haha no it’s my own fault

 

[Phloston]

Does the prestige of your residency program afford you more job opportunities? I would like to stay closer to family, which means I might rank "less prestigious" residency programs over some other more "prestigious" programs. Does it matter?

If you would like to stay closer to family, then that is what you should do. Don't fall into a fear mindset of what-ifs. Do what you want.