Jobs: pit doc or professor?

[EskimoFriend13]

I'm still in the job hunt (yes I know, it's late). I've got interviews at both academic and non academic places. I'm not sure which is a better fit for me. I did a lot of research but I hate it. I really enjoy teaching, but haven't gotten to spend as much time as I would like doing it.

Ultimately, I want to find a job where I can just work without a ton of outside responsibilities. Feeling like I have control over my time is very important. I feel like community is appealing because I see it as more laid back people, less hierarchy, less pissed off services I create work for. But I may just be ignorant about it. I'm also a little burned out by some of the clicky politics by attendings at my residency, but maybe that's everywhere.

I want a place where my staff and colleagues are happy. Unicorn?

And if I do community will I miss teaching?

Any advice?

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[bravotwozero]

Do community. At least until you are financially independent with a big fat nest egg. It’ll be a lot more fun teaching residents from a position of financial independence.


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[Angry Birds]

My advice is to take the academic job, and then moonlight in the community. If you love the community gig, then you can leave academics even after a year.

It's often much harder to get back into academics after working in the community. Therefore, I think you should grab the academic job if offered it, especially if it's a core faculty position.

Just my opinion.

 

[RPedigo]

Different academic positions have varying expectations on what is required for your position as well as for academic promotion. I would make sure to see what the requirements are in these domains and see if that lines up with your career goals. For instance, at my current academic institution there's a track for individuals who focus on teaching with less research focus. Those individuals need scholarly activity of course, but that could be in the form of book chapters, review articles, etc. rather than primary original research. You will likely have to do "some" research in an academic position, but that may not necessarily mean doing double blind randomized controlled trials. From a work/life balance standpoint, the academic jobs typically have much fewer clinical hours than a community job but a lot more non-clinical hours depending on the responsibilities of the core faculty member. For instance, I work 20 hours a week clinically at my main site and, depending on the week, 20-30 hours per week non-clinically. I also work 1 shift/week in the community as I feel it is important to still do your own procedures and understand how to function outside of an academic environment. I am very happy with my position, but it certainly isn't for everyone!

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I'm with angry birds. Very easy to move in one direction.

 

[deleted109597]

Allow me to be the voice of semi-reason here.
I've worked at 2 different academic jobs. Yes, I have a niche, but neither of them used it or even advertised it, so it wasn't why. There are lots of academic jobs out there. The CMGs are drastically increasing residencies, so there will be even more in the future.
If you want to academics, do academics. If you want to make money, there are some "intermediate" academic jobs out there that pay better, but you'll still make more in the community.

 

[EskimoFriend13]

The thing is I don't know if I want to do academics. I really like the idea of just doing my shift and then going home. I feel like now, even when I'm off, I'm bombarded by emails and all these things I have to do. I love my job, but I love not being at my job even more. I know part of this is being a resident, but I guess what I want to know is: how much of this will exist in the real world? Is community better for this?

 

[bravotwozero]

you sound more and more like you want to do community medicine....

 

[gamerEMdoc]

What about clinical faculty in a residency? No academic responsibilities except teaching on shift. No research. No conference. Just your shift, but with the benefit of working with residents and getting to teach clinically.

 

[GeneralVeers]

You have to really love academics to make that your career, which includes teaching, research, committees, and resident/student supervision. If you don't love most of those things then do community medicine. The pay, better schedule, and more time off are what I love about community medicine. In Academics you are often working at home on your research, and spending a lot of time both at home and in hospital doing un-compensated extra tasks.

 

[carbonizedeyesockets]

As gamerEMdoc noted, there are often purely clinical positions within academic institutions. I interviewed with a department for an ivy league school and they offered this - no obligation for research, publication, or lectures. I currently have a "clinical faculty" position and I'm required to give 1 lecture per year, and other than that I can do as little or as much as I'd like. Hours are fine (~1500/year), pay is mediocre (<300K), but the benefits surpass most. Many of the physician practices at academic hospitals are multi-specialty, which seems to offer a degree of stability that private/democratic groups and CMGs do not. Pay isn't as important to me, I've worked 48-72 hours per week week for just over 40K/year before medical school. Relative to what I made before, I'm doing really really good. Will I want to pursue a better paying job in the future? Maybe. But for now, I'm fine.

 

[Angry Birds]

So I think we would need to know what type of academic job you’ve been offered. There is a major difference between a full academic medicine gig (tenure track assistant professorship) vs. an “intermediate” teaching only clinical assistant professorship. The former are generally very hard to secure, so if you are offered this, I would jump on it, do it for a year and bounce if you hate it and like community practice better. But, if you go to the community, getting this sort of offer again will be hard, compared to the “intermediate” position which are generally a bit easier to get.

Realize that there is a pecking order here. Many people here would be offended by this and disagree with it, and also hate academics. But know that it exists. This means going in reverse order from community to academic medicine is much harder.

I say this as someone currently in the community. Just the way it is. If I ever go into academic medicine, I’d want the full academic gig, with assistant professor before my name, not with the pesky “clinical” descriptor.

 

[EskimoFriend13]

Well just reading terms like "tenure track assistant professorship" kind of made me gag a little, so I may have answered my own question. I don't like politics or titles. In fact the teaching only sounds way more appealing. Maybe I'll want to be a "real prof" once I get some distance from residency, and then have to deal with however hard that transition is.

 

[Angry Birds]

Well just reading terms like "tenure track assistant professorship" kind of made me gag a little, so I may have answered my own question. I don't like politics or titles. In fact the teaching only sounds way more appealing. Maybe I'll want to be a "real prof" once I get some distance from residency, and then have to deal with however hard that transition is.

Cool. Then you know your decision!

And just to be clear, I don't personally endorse the "pecking order."