practicing where you want....

[Suedehead]

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As we all limp toward the end of residency, we start to ask ourselves where we want to practice.

I can see now why it would be so much easier to just stay and practice where we've all trained - we know the terrain, we know what jobs are available, we know our colleagues, etc.

My question is this: let's say I want to move to ONE specific place - what practical experience/advice do you good folks have for moving COLD to a new city/state? How does one research/find a job practicing psychiatry in a place they did not train, in a job market they don't know? seems daunting.

 

[Manicsleep]

Its tough. Use the APA, especially the district branch of the new location.
Try locums. Try a recruiter. Try doing a fellowship there.

 

[whopper]

One of the downers of practicing where you trained is some people will always see you as a resident so long as they were there longer than you. This could become problematic if you are good at what you do and you can think of plenty in the program that were not that good. They will always see you as their junior despite your performance and skill being superior to theirs.

If you want to work somewhere other than where you trained, the specific locality will have varying dynamics that no book, guide, or Newsweek top 10 guide is going to be able to guide you on. Each place will be different in terms of the scarcity of psychiatrists, the niches that need to be filled etc.

Starting at a new place will have you rebooting your rep. If you've established yourself well where you are, you may need to spend another 1-2 years getting yourself up again.

From personal experience, I can tell you that while many things stay the same, many things are also different depending on the locality.