Help with Job hunting

[ziggyhope]

Hi SDN,

I am starting my fourth year of residency, and starting to think about jobs. What are some of the things you wish someone told you when you started this process?

Any of you have experience with contract lawyers? If so was it worth the effort/money?

What are the pitfalls I should be looking for, and to screen out bad offers?

Anyone work with a recruitment agency like Merrit Hawkins?

Thanks in advance!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Contract attorneys are very helpful.

The best jobs I’ve always found by word of mouth. If they have to recruit, it generally isn’t that great or there is a catch.

 

[dl2dp2]

I underestimated the importance of psychological push and pull in finding a job. The most important thing in my mind is do a survey of different jobs to get a sense of what the market is like. I find that the variations of facilities in terms of their expectation is HUUUGE. Once you've seen and evaluated a handful of jobs, the common "pitfalls" as it were will be very obvious.

Depending on style, there are some tricks. For example, negotiation is a lot easier when you can emotionally persuade the other party that you really want to work with them, but always always always have backups. The flip side is that you never trust anyone who says they really want you.

IMHO contract lawyers are only useful if you are signing on to a facility you don't know well. Typically at large facilities, standard formulaic contracts are not negotiable on an individual clause level except for very large item things such as salary and hours. But this is not to say that you shouldn't ask if you really like the job. Contract lawyers is a must if you are working with an unfamiliar practice or a facility that's less than at least 50-100M in revenue, or if there are uncommon features (i.e. profit sharing, etc). Contrary to common beliefs, you don't need a lawyer to understand the content of the contract and request removal of things like non-compete. In some markets, reasonably good employment lawyers are not expensive ($100 an hour), in that case I'd say why the heck not, but in some other markets it's less valuable when the lawyers charge $600+ an hour.

Recruitment agencies can be very helpful because they can act as intermediaries during contract negotiation. In my experience what's happening in psychiatry right now is that you typically can name your price prior to in person interview. If you think of yourself as a house seller, it's a seller's market and there are lots of bidding wars, and people are often willing to purchase sight unseen. I would also argue that if you are not looking to settle down, think very seriously about doing contract work and starting a practice vs. taking a full time job. Some posters on SDN are talking about making 500k-1M a year working locum/practice--surely not a common occurrence but something to think about.

Academic jobs obviously are a different animal, but you could argue that it's basically a different market.

 

[AD04]

@sluox

Your answers regarding business has a lot of wisdom. May I ask what you do?

 

[dl2dp2]

I ran a very small solo cash practice in a major market, did a round of job search, and had a few offers, but was generally unhappy with the offers—the ones I liked are in the wrong place. So I took a risk moving to a mid market city with no job in hand and started a solo cash while doing some supplemental at a facility and it’s been going better than I expected—quit the facility job about 2 months in though the practice didn’t get completely full until about a year and half in. That’s about 4 year ago. I don’t make nearly as much as some of posters here—don’t work all that hard and my spouse is also full time so don’t need to at all...thinking of going back to academia actually since high marginal tax low cost of living...make between a surgeon and a rad onc most years but work more like a derm hour—3-4 days a week, 30-35 hours, though a lot of evening after work hours as you can imagine...no call, some weekend but I often take Monday off..Thinking about expanding my 4 week vacation to 8 weeks like some analysts here...

 

[Shufflin]

To the poster's question, I wish someone had told me in residency not to stress. The community is in desperate need for good psychiatrists, and you can sculpt your own future however way you envision it and not go hungry. If you have a pound of initiative, you'll be fine. Also remember that the ease of discovery and visibility of a job opportunity seems inversely proportional to its payoff and reward level. So jobs you find, say, on job search boards won't have nearly the benefits and perks as the invisible ones so keep that in mind when dealing with hunters who do the job search for you.

Don't be afraid to knock on doors. I hold 2 very decent positions, and one came from sheer trial and error going to places in my region and introducing myself. Kinda felt like a door-to-door salesman, but, in fact, I came across as a self-starter which they really liked.

 

[ziggyhope]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply. I am certainly not worried about finding a job, as I am literally getting multiple recruitment calls per day, it is much harder to find the "right " job. From what I've gathered, perhaps reaching out to institutions that I want to work for even if they don't have "openings" maybe a good start.
In general, did anyone find it helpful to have other skills? I understand that that most jobs are clinical, but I am fortunate enough to have some QI knowledge, and recently started working in a resident leadership position on the institutional level. How hard would it be to find a "leadership" position out of residency?