G surg subspecialties

Actually I think we've talked about it a fair bit; there are several threads in this forum about the different subspecialties and even a subforum for Plastics which can answer your questions.

Many recruiters/employers use MGMA data for salaries for private practice, but the full table is not available on-line (and the document itself is $200 or so). You can also check http://www.cejkasearch.com for salary surveys as well.

Lifestyle will depend on whether or not you:

take general surgery call
take trauma call (ie, obviously you will for Trauma, but a Level 1 center will get more than a Level 3; plastics may have to take hand or face trauma call)
have residents to "help"
number of partners to split specialty call schedule
do elective vs emergency cases
turf issues (mostly a problem for endocrine - between general surgery, ENT and endocrine)

IN HOUSE CALL
Trauma - although in smaller centers, you can live 5 minutes away

LOTS of CALL
Peds - generally more unexpected calls than otherspecialties
Plastics - if you work at a trauma center

BAD HOURS
Trauma
Transplant - no one ever donates organs in the middle of the day

BETTER LIFESTYLE
Colorectal - as long as you don't take general surgery call; cases mostly elective
Surg Onc - as above; patients can be pretty sick unless you stick with breast, melanoma

 

Conventional wisdom has it that people who don't match right out of 4th year, do worse...but that includes everyone, including some who didn't match the first time. If you are doing research, in a medically relevant field, it shouldn't hurt you at all.

However, you might consider taking a year off during residency, although this can sometimes be problematic at community hospitals without active research labs who might be required to find someone to fill your spot while gone. At any rate, immunology research is a reall boon to someone considering transplant.

I don't know much frankly about the job market for transplant surgeons and even if I did, we're talking about something that is at least 7 years away for you, so the market may very well change. If you want to do livers, pancs, small bowel - the market is considerably tighter because you often have to be at a major med center with good transplant program. Kidneys are done in community settings much more often than the above and there are more options if you limit your practice to renal transplants.