I don't know if there is any real data out there on percentage of people that go out into practice, decide they want to specialize, go back to do an internship to go down the specialty path, and are successful. I suspect all we have is our own anecdotes, and I also suspect it'll depend a bit on the particular specialty, how competitive it is, the programs you're looking at, how connected you stay during that time, etc etc. I know quite a few people in my field who went through a more winding path than what is standard, I've also worked with a couple rotating interns who were ER docs prior, and a few residents of various specialties who had been in practice before going back to do rotating --> residency. I also know several people who worked for a few years in practice and then came back to my alma mater for specialty internships or residencies after that without doing rotating internships (this might be something particular with that institution, I have no idea, but it has happened quite a few times!). But, that's all anecdotes and not real data!
I wouldn't personally put myself through a rotating internship if I wasn't sure I was going to need it, so in that way I'm a bit opposite of pp9 - rather than doing it if I think I might want to specialize eventually, I would only do it if I was sure. That decision I think depends on your overall tolerance for sunk costs vs risks and your personal life philosophies. And all of us are going to be a bit biased by our own life experiences - no one both does and does not do a rotating and gets to make that perfect outcome comparison! It is also still quite early in your fourth year, so there is time for you to get a better feel for where that meter sits for you while you're doing rotations - at this stage I would probably act as if you are going to enter the match so that you still can when the time comes if you want to. You can always (up until the withdrawal deadline) decide not to go through with it, but it's hard to get all your ducks in a row if you've been operating as if you're not going to and then change your mind after the application cycle opens.
As for the job search aspect, I would sit down and figure out what your own priorities are. Things like mentorship of course, but also location, type of medicine (small animal only? lots of surgery, a bit of surgery, no surgery? primarily wellness vs primarily sick cases vs a mix?), schedule, support staff, CE opportunities, etc. Having a sense of your own non-negotiables will help you filter through offers that might otherwise seem appealing on paper but aren’t the right fit for you. For the mentorship aspect, a lot of places will
say they provide good mentorship because that's the buzzword for drawing in new grads, without really having any concrete evidence of what that means or even knowledge of how to be a good mentor. A formal program is great in that regard, though they often come with their own drawbacks as pp9 mentioned. Not having a formal program doesn't mean they won't provide good mentorship, but I would spend some time thinking about what you are looking for in that context and formulate questions to ask from there.
Off the top of my head some of those questions might be:
- whether there is a designated individual who would be your primary mentor
- if there is time blocked off for reviewing cases
- what your schedule will look like as a new grad and when you would transition to a more "typical" schedule - this can be in regards to how long your appointments are, how many sick vs well appointments you're expected to see in a day, when or if you would be scheduled to work alone
- what surgery mentorship looks like - for example, are you expected to come in on your day off to scrub into surgeries with a mentor because you're seeing appointments when the other doctors are doing surgery? or is time for that kind of experience built into your schedule?
- how mistakes/complications/client complaints are handled
Of course there are many more things you could ask based on what is most important to you, or some of the things i've listed here might not really matter that much to you.
When you're getting further into the job search and evaluating places it is great to be able to talk to other associates. People who started there as new grads and have stayed for a few years are extra great to talk to if they exist. Beware of places that have a revolving door of new grads.
These are all things I wish I had been able to consider more heavily when I was looking for a GP job. Specific circumstances constrained my ability to be picky in that regard, but it's all stuff I thought about in the three years I worked in that setting!
I won't get into reviewing and negotiating contracts here because that is a whole other discussion and this post is already horrendously long
