Interviewing the job

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Anonymous M4

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Hey Y'all

I am graduating and on the job hunt (whoooooo!) When it comes to that "what questions do you have about us" I am a little lost.

What should I want to know about a job? I am mostly looking at community-academic hybrids.

Also, in a first interview, salary is taboo right? Anything else NOT to ask?

Thanks for your input

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Why would you not ask about salary? That's the most important thing, followed by what they want you to do to earn it.
 
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Why would you not ask about salary? That's the most important thing, followed by what they want you to do to earn it.

I thought that was a second onterview thing? Or is negotiating?
 
Pay should absolutely be discussed. If the pay is based on production getting an idea of median top quartile and bottom quartile is helpful.

Ask to look at a couple months worth of schedules. Pick at least five names on the list and for each one pretend it is your schedule. I wish I had done that. Schedule is by far the crummiest part of my current job.

Try to get an idea of admission rate and transfer rate. How easy is it to transfer patients?

Is there an obs unit you are responsible for?

Any ancillary duties you are responsible for like following up on blood culture results or radiology over reads?

What EMR is used?
Thanks!
 
 
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Definitely discuss the pay up front. In fact, I always ask for the hourly rate before deciding whether to even go for an interview.
 
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Yeah, it's a seller's market, and you're selling goods.
If they're giving you an interview, you have the upper hand almost always.

You can still **** it up, but you can ask whatever you want.
 
All of these questions need to be answered at some point in the process. If that's in the interview, then great. If you have other means to obtain the information, fine. Bear in mind that the questions you ask say more about you than anything because it reveals what you care about. So it's part of the interview like anything else.

1) What are the people here like? Have they been here a long time? Does anyone ever leave? Is this their first and only job, or is it a bunch of people who jump around job to job? What about the nurses? Have they all been there 10 or 20 years? Do they care about each other? What is it like to sign people out and get a shift switched? Are they chronically short and trying to get people to work more shifts? What have they done to promote longevity?

2) What is the work like? What is the patient mix like? Peds? Trauma? Lots of nursing home patients?

3) What is the help like? That includes nursing staff, consultants, placing psych patients, administration, cafeteria, lab, radiology, IT etc.

4) How is the group set up? Is it a straight employee job? CMG? Partnership? Are there senior partners? What does it take to make partner? How is pay divided once you are a partner? What are the differences between a partner and a pre-partner aside from pay? How are shifts assigned as a partner and pre-partner? How is the holiday scheduled determined? Who does the administrative work and how are they compensated? What will my medical staff responsibilities be as a pre-partner and partner?

5) How will I get feedback on my performance? What metrics does the group/administration track and care about?

6) What EMR is it? How do you like it? What is the corporate culture like?

7) Any teaching or research responsibilities?

8) What are you looking for in a potential partner?

9) How are night and weekend shifts distributed/compensated? Can I make more in this group as a nocturnist?

10) Which services fight you on admissions?

11) Is there a CSD in this state? Is it easy to use? What is the medicopolitical and medicolegal climate like?

12) What do the other docs do on their days off?
 
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I do recruitment for our group.

Ask for shadow time in the ED rather than just a walk through. It will give you a real look at what the place has to offer. We have a 130k/yr shop, and after our interviews, the candidates come down to the emergency department for 2 to 3 hours and hang out with one of the docs that are on at the time. The candidates get to see how the docs interact with the staff, however patient flow works, how we interact with our consultants, and how the day-to-day life looks in the emergency department. You can't get that kind of information out of an interview, because they can sugarcoat anything.

The other thing to know is what equality there is between the younger guys and the older guys.at most places, there's going to be some kind of thing where the younger guys shoulder the burden of nights or whatever, but in some places like mine, everybody is equal from day one. See what the shift requirements are, the staffing patterns are, how many patients per hour you're expected to see you, and what the worklife balance is.

The more equal the place is, the better your work life balance is going to be. In my place, we have a dedicated night staff of 10 docs, so I don't work overnights. I'm also not expected to work more weekends or evenings or anything that anybody else. And little things like that make a big difference.
 
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Hey Y'all

I am graduating and on the job hunt (whoooooo!) When it comes to that "what questions do you have about us" I am a little lost.

What should I want to know about a job? I am mostly looking at community-academic hybrids.

Also, in a first interview, salary is taboo right? Anything else NOT to ask?

Thanks for your input
Dollars per hour
Patients per hour
Hours per month
Hours per shift
1099 vs w2 (if the latter, do they payroll deduct for your benefits and if so how much)
Use locums? (red flag)
Any bad demographic features of the nearby area...meat packing plants, international border, Indian reservations?
Local ems - where do they go...your door, elsewhere, or it depends? What capabilities do they have?
Which and how many hospitals punt to you?
Which hospital do you punt to and what do you send?
How does it get there? If a helo, where is the helo based?
Are the hospitalists salaried or rvu based?
What speciality/subspeciality backup do you have?
Where do 20 week and above pregnant patients go? How about sick kids?
What if any code / ICU duties do you have?
Where is the nearest cath lab? Diagnostic or interventional? 24/7 or not?
Where is the nearest interventional stroke team?
 
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Whatever you do, make sure you have a 3 month out. Don't sign for over a year. a 90 day out for both sides makes sense for you. If things are not what you were told, you can leave in 3 months for another job. It will take you atleast 3 mo anyways to get credentialed.

Many jobs sounds too good and ends up short on the promises.
 
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