I just keep going back to the "golden handcuffs" thing. I think a lot of people would agree $400k for a 4/day a week, 10-15 on beam, 8 weeks of vacation a year job is pretty attractive. But once you get this job, is that "it"? Meaning, what if the job is 2,000 miles from your family, and your parents get sick and you want to be closer to home to help take care of them, but there's not any jobs within 300 square miles of your family? What if it starts as 3-4 days a week, 10 on beam, and a few years later it's 5 days a week with 40 on beam?
Job A: $400k, 4 days a week, 10-15 on beam, 8 weeks vacation is an attractive job. You're not making as much as you COULD, and there may not be much room for salary growth, but it's hard to look at that and say you're not appropriately compensated for your work with an excellent lifestyle.
Job B: 5 days a week, 40 on beam, making $400k is objectively a bad job and I think even admin would realize that.
The issue is that people don't realize how bad the jobs in between these two extremes are. Every 5 patients on beam amounts to about $100k-150k in professional billing.
If you look at the job you described, we can all say that's a solid gig. Let's say a few years down the line you're treating 15-20 instead of 10-15 and nothing else has changed. That's still a really easy number on treat, but now you're underpaid by $100-150k. 20-25 on treat? Still a pretty easy job, can still do it in 4 days a week, but should be making 600-700k in professional fees.
It's easy for us to look at Job A and say it's a good deal and Job B and say it's a bad deal, but people don't realize how terrible the permutations between these two jobs are.
If I were a new grad being offered $400k to treat 20-25, I'd say I have it made! That's a pretty easy number on treat and that's a really good starting salary, but it's almost 100% more work than what you had proposed in Job A!
For some real world correlate, prestigious local megacorp is currently offering new grads $350k for ~18 on treatment working 5 days a week, 4-5 weeks vacation. It's hard to look at that job and say it's a bad one, but consider how different it is to job A!
