Hospitalist vs. Chief Year if one doesn’t match fellowship?

[Redpancreas]

If I were to apply GI/Cards and not match, would the chief year really make one more competitive for a re-application than a hospitalist job with 7 days off every other week for more research as opposed to a chief year? I’m asking this because a major thing for me is one year of attending salary deferment if I have to reapply (not to mention additional years of deferment if I choose to do a super fellowship).

Also, a lot of people refer to a chief year as being a back up but a lot of my older colleagues say they are offered chief year positions after second year which is before they even apply so what do people who haven’t taken chief years do?

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[mvenus929]

So, my program chooses residents for chief resident mid-way through second year. The reason we choose so early is so that people can plan to defer a year for fellowship interviews if they are chosen. So it's really something you have to know before you apply for fellowship, not after you match.

If you don't match, then a hospitalist position will likely suit you fine. My program has a good 3-4 residents every year that take a year or two as an attending before going back to fellowship. Next year (i.e. the class that graduated today), we have about 4-5 of them.