How to find a job after residency?

[Fitpoddoc]

Hi everyone,

First of all, this forum has been very useful throughout my journey to become a Podiatrist. Now it's getting closer to finding something after residency. I need your expertise and experience in how to or where to start for job hunting.
1) Is there a guide or suggestions as to what to provide to potential employers (resume vs CV, cover letter)?
2) How does one figure out the amount for salary or obtaining an income (salary + incentives), when working as an associate in a Podiatry group or with a MD group (includes endocrinology or internal medicine)?
3) What are some examples of incentives?
4) If one wants to start a practice, what is the big deal regarding getting on insurance panel and not being paid? Can someone clarify the process of getting on insurance panels?

I'm probably all over the place with my questions but it would be really helpful to obtain information. My residency is new and the director doesn't help much when it comes to job hunting. I appreciate your help.

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[AttackNME]

http://www.acr.org/~/media/ACR/Documents/PDF/Career Center/Jobseeker Resources/YourResidencyAsJobInterview.pdf
Amazon product

2nd year resident here. reading the pdf file and the book made me feel more at ease, but still nervous about next year.. :/

 

[Fitpoddoc]

Yep I'm a 2nd year resident becoming a 3rd year...the PDF file is helpful and definitely buying the book you suggested. Thank you.

 

[DJ Quik]

Well, here is my 2 cents, for what it is worth, I borrowed some from the ortho guys, but I think it works for us as well.

There are 3 things to consider, Location, practice type and salary.

You should be able to get 2 out of 3. If you get 3 of 3, you struck the lottery.

For example, you might find a hospital where you want to live that pays you good money. But you are working for a hospital, someone else runs your life and schedule.
OR you may find a private practice were you like to live, but you won't START at the same level of pay as the hospital, but you will have more freedom from 'the man'
etc, etc.

My piece of advice, is to CALL the podiatrists in the area you want to live and talk to them on the phone. It is a lot easier to ignore a letter with a resume, etc, and it gets the ball moving a lot sooner. The guys in the class before me graduated last year, none of them had a job buy late fall, and 2 started a practice and 1 joined a practice with a verbal contract (which CAN be a good thing, then again, it may not be)

Salary runs a huge amount of variation. I got low balled pretty hard at first, and I countered with a number much higher. I was bummed because I didn't expect a number that low, and I had been talking for a while. But we worked some things out, and my bonus kicks in a LOT lower than a lot of the other places I have seen. The standard formula is:

Base wage
Bonus kicks in once you hit 3x your base wage (collected, or gross receipts)

Bonus should be 30% or more, and may graduate higher as you bring in more money.

Areas where you can get better terms:

Bonus kicks in at 2x your base,
Bonus starts at 35% or higher,
Or higher base. A LOT of people get hung up on the base, not realizing how much money you can make on your bonuses. Although bonuses are withheld at a higher tax %, at the end of the year, you get taxed on them the same as regular income. (so you may get a big tax return).

Intensives:
Health insurance is a big one, vaca, CME time and money, mileage to outlying clinics, malpractice (don't forget tail coverage), no non-compete( this one gets overlooked a lot), you name it.

Insurance panels: you have to apply. If they have their quota of DPMs, you may not get on. Medicare is easier to get on, make sure to apply to it as well so you can have some steady work if you are just starting up.

Starting your own practice is a ton of work, and hopefully you have a bunch of capital laying around, or no family, or whatever, because a lot of banks are hesitant to loan to a new doc. Bof A (I hate them generally, but that is another story) does have a practice solutions branch you can contact to get funding. I met some of their people, and they are pretty good with getting you set up as well. They want you to succeed.

Anyway, I hope that is helpful.

 

[Creflo]

DJ Quik, thanks for the reply, very informative. Great to see this on SDN. I don't know if you saw my thread inquiring about different pay rates for podiatrists in different areas of the country. I would be curious to hear your take. The bureau of labor statistics shows widely different salaries and hourly wage rates for podiatrists in different parts of the country. For example, Savannah GA and Jacksonville FL are as low as about half of the rates of other areas, even much lower than heavily saturated areas. I don't understand this, any ideas?

 

[DJ Quik]

DJ Quik, thanks for the reply, very informative. Great to see this on SDN. I don't know if you saw my thread inquiring about different pay rates for podiatrists in different areas of the country. I would be curious to hear your take. The bureau of labor statistics shows widely different salaries and hourly wage rates for podiatrists in different parts of the country. For example, Savannah GA and Jacksonville FL are as low as about half of the rates of other areas, even much lower than heavily saturated areas. I don't understand this, any ideas?

Mostly comes down to style of practice and the particular insurance Mix in that area of the country. There is a ton of variety in rates nationwide. Small numbers of podiatrists can skew salary averages by a ton. If you have a couple old timer c&c type practices that might be part time in a area, the numbers for that area will be much lower. Bigger metro areas tend to have higher numbers because there are more full time pods that need to pay larger rental fees, so they work more and get paid more.

 

[Fitpoddoc]

Well, here is my 2 cents, for what it is worth, I borrowed some from the ortho guys, but I think it works for us as well.

There are 3 things to consider, Location, practice type and salary.

You should be able to get 2 out of 3. If you get 3 of 3, you struck the lottery.

For example, you might find a hospital where you want to live that pays you good money. But you are working for a hospital, someone else runs your life and schedule.
OR you may find a private practice were you like to live, but you won't START at the same level of pay as the hospital, but you will have more freedom from 'the man'
etc, etc.

My piece of advice, is to CALL the podiatrists in the area you want to live and talk to them on the phone. It is a lot easier to ignore a letter with a resume, etc, and it gets the ball moving a lot sooner. The guys in the class before me graduated last year, none of them had a job buy late fall, and 2 started a practice and 1 joined a practice with a verbal contract (which CAN be a good thing, then again, it may not be)

Salary runs a huge amount of variation. I got low balled pretty hard at first, and I countered with a number much higher. I was bummed because I didn't expect a number that low, and I had been talking for a while. But we worked some things out, and my bonus kicks in a LOT lower than a lot of the other places I have seen. The standard formula is:

Base wage
Bonus kicks in once you hit 3x your base wage (collected, or gross receipts)

Bonus should be 30% or more, and may graduate higher as you bring in more money.

Areas where you can get better terms:

Bonus kicks in at 2x your base,
Bonus starts at 35% or higher,
Or higher base. A LOT of people get hung up on the base, not realizing how much money you can make on your bonuses. Although bonuses are withheld at a higher tax %, at the end of the year, you get taxed on them the same as regular income. (so you may get a big tax return).

Intensives:
Health insurance is a big one, vaca, CME time and money, mileage to outlying clinics, malpractice (don't forget tail coverage), no non-compete( this one gets overlooked a lot), you name it.

Insurance panels: you have to apply. If they have their quota of DPMs, you may not get on. Medicare is easier to get on, make sure to apply to it as well so you can have some steady work if you are just starting up.

Starting your own practice is a ton of work, and hopefully you have a bunch of capital laying around, or no family, or whatever, because a lot of banks are hesitant to loan to a new doc. Bof A (I hate them generally, but that is another story) does have a practice solutions branch you can contact to get funding. I met some of their people, and they are pretty good with getting you set up as well. They want you to succeed.

Anyway, I hope that is helpful.

DJ Quik,

Thank you for your reply. This has been very helpful!

 

[CHOPSTIX]

I'm currently a 3rd yr resident on the job hunt. I have received a few offers, some with straight percentages (40%) and some with low to medium base (45-80) with incentives. I wanted to know from those of you that are at least a few years into practice, how much can a first year associate realistically make from just a percentage base compensation?

 

[apollofx]

How are some residents finding positions within a hospital/hospital system? To me these positions seem far and few in between. Are these people approaching the hospital and making a case for their employment or are they scouring the web for want ads?

 

[SteakandPODtatoez]

How are some residents finding positions within a hospital/hospital system? To me these positions seem far and few in between. Are these people approaching the hospital and making a case for their employment or are they scouring the web for want ads?

Great question and great topic. Can we get some more residents to chime in on this topic. I did a search on indeed today and only stumbled on about 7 podiatrist job openings in various parts of the country. It just makes me sit back and wonder how the couple hundred that graduate from residencies go about landing these positions since they don't seem to be so well advertised. Would you say most of the jobs are out there already? Or would you say that you are mostly responsible for creating those opportunities for yourself?

 

[newfeet]

Great question and great topic. Can we get some more residents to chime in on this topic. I did a search on indeed today and only stumbled on about 7 podiatrist job openings in various parts of the country. It just makes me sit back and wonder how the couple hundred that graduate from residencies go about landing these positions since they don't seem to be so well advertised. Would you say most of the jobs are out there already? Or would you say that you are mostly responsible for creating those opportunities for yourself?

When I was looking I used a lot of different sites. podiatryexchange.org has a lot of positions. doccafe.com is another good one. My residency director used to get letters from podiatrists looking for new associates. Word of mouth is another way people found jobs. Some residents even sent out letters to all the podiatrist, md groups in the area they wanted to practice asking if they were looking for associates.

 

[newfeet]

How are some residents finding positions within a hospital/hospital system? To me these positions seem far and few in between. Are these people approaching the hospital and making a case for their employment or are they scouring the web for want ads?

I basically scoured the internet, contacted recruiters internal and external and looked at every physician job site. Sometimes hospital system jobs don't show up on indeed.

 

[SteakandPODtatoez]

Awesome tips! I definitely appreciate it.

 

[Creflo]

According to americanstaffing.net, podiatrist was hardest job to fill in fourth quarter of 2015.

 

[dyk343]

According to americanstaffing.net, podiatrist was hardest job to fill in fourth quarter of 2015.

Is that because there are plenty of jobs... not not plenty of good jobs?
Everyone has heard "podiatry eats their young". Is anyone finding this true?

 

[SteakandPODtatoez]

Is that because there are plenty of jobs... not not plenty of good jobs?
Everyone has heard "podiatry eats their young". Is anyone finding this true?

Definitely some things to consider. I wouldn't say the job offers are in excess...but they do seem to be available. And while they are available, many of them involve working in particular locations that may not be ideal for a lot of podiatrists. Also, our profession seems to not make it a common practice to offer sign on bonuses or relocation assistance or loan payback opportunities for practicing POD's. So while we have some driven individuals who create amazing opportunities and other POD's who are blessed to work in great practices....the rest must decide to take a chance with the offers that are not so attractive. I'm assuming that might have a lot to do with those unfilled positions.

 

[air bud]

I will have multiple posts in the coming days about this topic, but here is a start....
Realistically, you are looking for places that are relatively close to a hospital. Thus you need to know where hospitals are located. Each state has a state hospital association with a website, some are really great and have maps with links, while others just have lists that you then just need to copy and paste into google. Look up podiatry at each hospital. See if they are are employed there or elsewhere to start. I will comment on how to call/approach places in another post. Regardless, figure out who has privileges there - ortho group/MSG/pods/hospital group. Call the pod office, call the ortho group, call the MSG (more on this later) If the hospital employs pods, call and ask if they need more. If it is a health system, search the system directory to see if they have pods at other locations - this tells you the system is pod friendly. If not, call and ask if they have thought about adding a pod. The worst they can say is no. This is all I have for now, battery dying. But I will leave you with this - I have interviews set up/soon to be set up with 3 MSG and 2 ortho groups. I cold-called 3.5/5 You make your own luck.