Yes I have seen a few negative post about podiatry becoming over saturated or not what people “expected it to be”. I will be weary of certain instances for sure. I’ve been lingering on these forums for about 2 years now seeing everyone’s perspective.
My goal would ultimately be more surgery focused but definitely have some clinic time as well. The pods I work with now are private practice (separate from each other), but still get block schedules in surgery and knock out about 4-5 cases a day. They mentioned making their own schedules and enjoying work/life balance. I’m pushing 30 and don’t have kids yet and will be a while so I would one day like to enjoy something like that even if I wasn’t the best paid.
And wow that’s wild that students would party and just barely get by. I seriously assumed everyone was focused on school and kinda had no life, especially during the first 2 years. But I guess you gotta have fun somewhere. Did they ever learn to overcome their testing problems? Do you know what made you successful in certain classes that you could share?
No they largely did not overcome their testing problems. It was not that many....maybe half a dozen at most failed out. The ones that had problems had them very early on....like the first anatomy test early on and the problems continued for them often being at the bottom of the curve in the difficult classes. You can only remediate so many classes. There were a couple also that remediated a class or two and finished. Everyone's class is different, but in mine the one's that flunked out were not lazy. Very, very few in the bottom 25 percent of most classes ever became board certified in surgery also.
95 percent of podiatry students initially want to be surgically focused. There are limited good employed jobs, so many eventually start and build their own private practice and their surgical volume along with it. Podiatry is saturated compared to other specialties in that with many other healthcare professions good jobs are plentiful with recruitment and signing bonuses etc. Podiatry has always been this way so it is not like this is anything new with the profession.
The promoted positives of podiatry and what you were told from other podiatrists can be true when it all works out, but it is not like that lifestyle, income and surgical volume are waiting for you just because you finish a residency like in other medical specialties.
Opening your own practice can work out, but it is another huge risk after all those years of hard work, debt and sacrifice. It is not impossible to land a good job (some exist and some obviously get them), but it is certainly not guaranteed either.
What sums up podiatry the most is that the average salaries are probably fairly accurate you read about. It is just unlike many other professions few are making the average salary. Many are making a good deal above it and many are making below it. The benefits are not great on average either in private practice. So you have a large percent of podiatrists that things eventually work out well for with a nice income and lifestyle even if getting there was tough in the early years out. You also unfortunately have a high percentage that never did well enough to make this profession worth it. You will hear a lot of both sides on the forums.…..it is because there are a lot in both groups in this profession. There are not a lot on these forums not doing well, but many had tough early years out and have friends and acquaintances not doing well. Those doing well are not outliers and those not doing so well are not outliers either.
There will not be increased demand due to aging and diabetes that will open up great jobs for all. Everyone has the same training now also (some residencies are still better than others). You can still be an outlier with training with a better residency and potentially one of the better fellowships. Applicants being down for now might help a little for residency and jobs.
Those doing well have one or more of the following: stand out with their training (one of the better residencies and some even have a fellowship), have connections, try twice as hard during the job search and are geographically open, or they open their own practice or buy in somewhere and are an entrepreneur (or get into shady things).
There are many doing surgery that are not board certified in surgery. You should look up the pass rate for surgical boards in this profession both foot and rearfoot and realize that some that never end up doing much surgery and never even sign up to take those exams which are not in those statistics.Those not passing those type exams are often not good test takers. Those low pass rates are a problem in our profession, and again one can almost always do surgery, get on hospitals and insurances in most areas without being board certified in surgery. You can be board certified in medicine and usually get privilleges.
You are early in your career to worry about all this, just be aware the job search can be more difficult than most healthcare professions and many eventually open their own office or buy in as an owner. There are also plenty of private practices that either do not offer partnership or it is overpriced. These are first jobs for many and many do move on after a couple years for either a slightly better or much, much better job or open their own practice. You will learn all this in time if you enter the profession. Even though you should be aware of all this at least a little before you enroll, once you have decided on podiatry….for the first two years your next exam should be your largest concern and do not focus on all these other concerns on these forums....it might distract and depress you. For most there is no going back once you decide on podiatry.
. And I understand that.
