Job after Surgpath fellowship

[TJMAXX]

In general, how will the job market look like for a person who only did one surgpath fellwoship (independent sign out)?

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[KeratinPearls]

In general, how will the job market look like for a person who only did one surgpath fellwoship (independent sign out)?

Really sad to see ppl ask this. I guess it is the state of our field. Surgpath is prob the main thing pathologists are known for.

I am sure you can get a job depending on how you comfortable you feel at signing out independently. You have to start looking for a job in advance I guess.

 

[yaah]

Mostly depends on you as a person and as a pathologist. People get hired all the time for good jobs with "just" a surgpath fellowship.

People doing hiring don't hire the fellowships, they hire the person. Having the right fellowships can match you up with certain jobs, but it never guarantees anything.

 

[mlw03]

Mostly depends on you as a person and as a pathologist. People get hired all the time for good jobs with "just" a surgpath fellowship.

People doing hiring don't hire the fellowships, they hire the person. Having the right fellowships can match you up with certain jobs, but it never guarantees anything.

For the students who read this forum, I'll point out that in yaah's statement above he's referring to general diagnostic pathology. For the niche areas (think blood banking, medical renal, forensic), you are in fact hired because you've done the right fellowship. While it may have been possible to get hired doing forensic path 20 years ago without fellowship training, it's now pretty much unheard of.

 

[yaah]

For the students who read this forum, I'll point out that in yaah's statement above he's referring to general diagnostic pathology. For the niche areas (think blood banking, medical renal, forensic), you are in fact hired because you've done the right fellowship. While it may have been possible to get hired doing forensic path 20 years ago without fellowship training, it's now pretty much unheard of.

Well I kind of mentioned that - certain jobs need certain types of fellowship training. But even with that, they are still hiring the person more than they are hiring the fellowships. The fellowship is a prerequisite for lots of positions. One of our recent hires required cytopath (which means either fellowship or practice experience). Of course, a sizeable percentage of the applications we got were from people right out of training with no cytopath experience.

 

[Unty]

Well I kind of mentioned that - certain jobs need certain types of fellowship training. But even with that, they are still hiring the person more than they are hiring the fellowships. The fellowship is a prerequisite for lots of positions. One of our recent hires required cytopath (which means either fellowship or practice experience). Of course, a sizeable percentage of the applications we got were from people right out of training with no cytopath experience.

If you dont mind me asking how many applications did you get for that position? Was it the 50-100 applications that we usually hear about? Just wondering what I hear on SDN is a universal thing.

 

[2121115]

People doing hiring don't hire the fellowships, they hire the person.

Not only this, but many times the people doing the hiring haven't done any fellowships themselves (trained before there were "fellowships") so they don't really care about them that much anyway.

 

[yaah]

If you dont mind me asking how many applications did you get for that position? Was it the 50-100 applications that we usually hear about? Just wondering what I hear on SDN is a universal thing.

Don't remember, maybe around 50-70. But the thing was is that around 90% were essentially unqualified for the position. Not just that they were a "bad fit." They were unqualified. And many that were technically qualified were bad candidates (poor language skills, already had a lousy reputation, etc). I suspect that a lot of these individuals basically spam anyone with a job offer around the country. I think only about 4-5 applicants were people who were clearly applying for our job because they knew a lot about it and it was one of their targeted spots. Of these, a couple were out of fellowship and the others were in estiablished practice. Needless to say, these were the 4 people we interviewed. So it's not like the 50 people applying for path jobs in 3 different states are 150 unique individuals.

I don't think you guys should focus so much on the number of applicants - bear in mind that there is a population of people out there who apply to everything. And as I said, other specialties at my hospital can have the same number of applications if not more, particularly for hospital based positions like radiology or anesthesia.

 

[cjw0918]

My group routinely receives unsolicited CVs. We have never advertised an open position. We pick pathologists based on what subspecs we need and if the person is a right fit. To get a job in my group, a personal connection through one of us is pretty much required. We don't interview anyone we don't know through some connection.

 

[Ruination]

My group routinely receives unsolicited CVs. We have never advertised an open position. We pick pathologists based on what subspecs we need and if the person is a right fit. To get a job in my group, a personal connection through one of us is pretty much required. We don't interview anyone we don't know through some connection.

^^^ This. Of the 4 community practices I have/will interview at, all of them by word of mouth
-- no ads posted. Two jobs were looking for my subspecialty (heme), the others were looking for a general surgical pathologist. At least (3) of these would be considered "desirable" by most (good $, short partnership track, ample vacation). Overall, the process hasn't been as bad as I feared that it would.

 

[Unty]

^^^ This. Of the 4 community practices I have/will interview at, all of them by word of mouth
-- no ads posted. Two jobs were looking for my subspecialty (heme), the others were looking for a general surgical pathologist. At least (3) of these would be considered "desirable" by most (good $, short partnership track, ample vacation). Overall, the process hasn't been as bad as I feared that it would.

Heme seems to be in demand. Is that the feel you got while on the job search?

 

[Ruination]

Heme seems to be in demand. Is that the feel you got while on the job search?

Its a mix. With respect to private practice jobs, some wanted someone with heme, some didn't care. I applied to a bunch of academic jobs as well and probably about 75% of those were heme + doing something else, with the remaining 25% general surg path.