How to be competitive for competitive jobs?

[crashandburn]

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I'm a PGY-3 on the East Coast but I hoping for an academic or private practice job in the West Coast, preferably a big city in California, closer to my family.

I understand that these markets are very tough to break into - other than networking early and getting your name out, that is, finding opportunities especially secret ones, what are ways to put yourself in a competitive advantage compared to either other recent graduates or even more experienced attending who want to move to the same area you do? What can you leverage (other than maybe a fellowship)? Certainly for academic positions, having special research training and strong track record of grants and publications is a must. What about private practice jobs...

 

[subatomicdoc]

I would say you've hit on most of them. There is something that's important that I see more often than I'd expect: typos in your CV. It sounds obvious but you'd be surprised how common it can be.

Particularly when attention to detail is an important aspect of good medicine, typos in your CV is a red flag to me as a potential recruiter.